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It only happens in movies. Long Beach State was trailing 2-0 in the match, and 11-8 in the third set, on the verge of their season ending in the NCAA Final Four against Grand Canyon. But the Beach battled back with a big run, and after a massive solo block from Nathan Harlan, the crowd of nearly 4,000 fans in the Walter Pyramid went absolutely insane, giving the Beach a boost. They rode that momentum into a changed script, coming back to win an instant classic 24-26, 26-28, 25-18, 25-23, 15-10.
“I have to thank that amazing LB nation crowd,” said LBSU coach Alan Knipe. “You could feel the crowd, not just hear them. That helped push them through when maybe other teams would have heard the bus running. We’ll appreciate what just happened and then try to get ready for a national championship with UCLA.”
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The Beach will face the Bruins back in the Pyramid Saturday at 2pm in a meeting of the nation’s two top teams all season long. The duo met earlier this year and split a pair of matches, with the Beach winning at home and UCLA winning in their gym.
None of that was on anyone’s mind on Thursday evening, though, as players, coaches and fans tried to process a truly unbelievable comeback on the floor of the Pyramid.
The Beach trailed 2-0 after two sets despite slightly outhitting the Lopes, thanks in part to service errors in the first set, but also to late-game execution. The Beach fought off four set points in the first set to come back from down 24-20, but lost it on a kill by a GCU middle and an error. The second set saw the Beach trail 24-22, deuce it, fight of another couple of set points, and ultimately fall 28-26.
Setter Aidan Knipe said there was no panic in his team’s huddle.
“This team has been through this before, there wasn’t much said just guys carrying themselves with confidence,” he said. “It was more just finding our stride.”
Coach Knipe felt the same.
“I know how this game works, as hard as it is to be down 0-2, it is still 0-0,” he said. “If you can focus in on that and take it point for point, the pressure really is on them to close. We were playing pretty well. There’s not a lot to it, there’s no magic in those situations. If there is such a thing, the magic happens in the Gold Mine in the Fall.”
Still, the Beach trailed 11-8 in the third set and the season was in danger of slipping away. Knipe subbed in Nathan Harlan for Clarke Godbold—making what could be considered a risky move in benching an All-American.
“He came in and made plays instantly,” said Knipe. “We were doing good when Clarke was out there…but Nathan came in scored points right away, scored from the end line and gave us that little bit of energy.”
The Beach ended up on a 5-0 run that changed the whole course of the night, as Sotiris Siapanis ripped an ace, Knipe and middle Simon Torwie had a block, Harlan had a kill, and then Harlan had his massive solo block of Jackson Hickman to cap a long rally and bring the noise level to a place it’s rarely been in the Pyramid.
“When I got the block I couldn’t hear anything, I couldn’t even hear my own thoughts,” said Harlan. “I looked around to see why and I saw thousands of fans screaming. I tried to turn and I got goosebumps and I kind of couldn’t move for a minute, I was just soaking in the environment.”
Harlan raised a hand to his ear, which Hickman took exception to and barked back. The refs saw that interaction and gave Hickman a yellow card, bringing the fever pitch crowd in the Pyramid to deafening levels.
“It’s so loud that you heard nothing,” said Aidan Knipe. “You can’t hear the crowd, you can’t really think either. It’s just being in the moment for those seconds.” Knipe said that a GCU player told him later that the point and the crowd’s reaction was “unbelievable.”
GCU coach Matt Werle had no problem with the interaction between Harlan and Hickman.
“Usually a yellow card helps us actually,” he said. “I’m an ice hockey fan. The retaliation is always the guy who gets thrown in the box. Unfortunate for us that Jackson Hickman has to wear that card. It’s part of the game, emotions got the best of us. It was nothing out of character, just an emotional part of the game. That’s just boys being boys.”
From that moment on it almost felt predetermined that the Beach would come back. Torwie ripped a pair of aces and the Beach easily went on to win the third, 25-18. Both coaches admitted after that they felt the fourth set was for all the marbles. The Beach took a 23-20 lead and looked set to cruise, but a service error and a net call imperiled the lead. They ended up winning 25-23 on a service error. The fifth set was all Long Beach as they jumped out to a 10-6 lead, saw that dwindle to a point, then closed on a 4-0 run, with kill by Siapanis ending it, bringing the Beach onto the court and sending the crowd into a frenzy.
“You have to feed off the crowd’s energy sometimes,” said Siapanis. “Our fans are amazing, without them we wouldn’t have made it this far.”
The Beach hit .326 to GCU’s .267, as Knipe piled up 52 assists. Skyler Varga had 20 kills, eight digs, five blocks and an ace; Siapanis had 16 kills and five digs; Mason Briggs had 10 digs; and Torwie had three aces, five kills, and nine blocks.
