📷 United Volleyball Network
Some postseason matches arrive screaming. Others arrive like accounting.
Long Beach State chose accounting.
NCAA.com pairs No. 3 Long Beach State against Loyola Chicago in the May 2 regional final window — winners punch a May 9 semifinal ticket at Pauley.
(LBSU's own release sometimes uses No. 2 seed language for ordering — NCAA.com's national bracket is UVN's tiebreaker for national seed lines.)
Long Beach State 3, Loyola Chicago 0 — 25-21, 25-21, 25-19
That's what coaches mean when they say serve-pass tilt never let the underdog borrow momentum.
LBSU's release highlights Skyler Varga delivering match-high kills and Jackson Cryst ripping back-to-back aces in set two — the kind of mini-runs that turn 25-21 scorelines from coincidence into design.
Loyola Chicago didn't ghost quietly: Josh Schellinger and Aleksandar Sosa combined for 28 kills — respectable violence — but the Beach's structural depth answered every surge.
Because in the 12-team format, this round is literally "win or NCAA vacation" with four tickets left — psychologically identical to what fans label quarterfinals in other bracket dialects.
United Volleyball Network — May 3, 2026.
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