Long Beach State was playing well. Really well. Well enough to beat Stanford in three and UCI in a five set marathon. Well enough to make it to the MPSF Conference Tournament final and to hang with BYU for three sets even with all the Cougar hitters firing on all cylinders. Though they lost in three, two of those sets could have easily ended differently. Because they didn't, Long Beach will not compete in the Final Four.


UCI will make the trip to LA and join Loyola-Chicago and Penn State for a chance at another title.

Is it fair? Not really. But that's men's volleyball and the at-large bid.

Not that UCI didn't deserve this chance. They put together a very good season in which they beat Long Beach three out of four times. Their only loss to the 49ers was by the narrowest of margins. UCI just barely came in ahead of Long Beach in some of the other categories the selection committee looks at like overall record, home and away results and results against other qualified teams.

Though Long Beach actually beat BYU once this year and UCI did not, it wasn't enough to put the 49ers over the top when UCI led in several of the other categories. Had they taken BYU to five sets, the committee might have had to choose the 49ers over UCI. But while it can be argued that Long Beach was playing better volleyball than the Anteaters at season's end, it can't quite be argued that Long Beach had a better overall season than UCI.

Therefore, I have no problem with UCI receiving the at-large bid this year. I'll never be a fan of this system, I'd love to see a small but authentic playoff system for men's volleyball. But seeing as this is how it works for now, I think the committee made the right decision. UCI is absolutely capable of beating BYU or at least giving us a great match to watch on Saturday should both teams survive the semis. BYU is the better team, but as we know from experience, that means nothing when everything is on the line and it's win or go home.

Ah, how I love the playoffs.