Long Beach State and Ohio State won play-in matches this evening to advance to the NCAA men’s volleyball national semifinals.

In the first match-up, Long Beach lined up across the net from Conference Carolinas’ champion Erskine. The Flying Fleet of Due West, South Carolina, struggled to match the 49ers level of play in the first set and let it slip away 25-14.

The second and third sets were much more closely contested, however. Erskine led in the second 8-7, 11-10, 12-11, 17-16, 18-17 and 19-18, and the Fleet pushed the set to 27-25 before Long Beach could gain a two-point lead and secure the win.

Erskine retained that momentum as the third set commenced, leading the match until 10-9. As Long Beach began to pull away, however, the Fleet seems to lose their energy and were overtaken by the strong offense and aggressive serving of Long Beach.

Long Beach’s T.J. DeFalco and Erskine’s Michael Michelau led the match with 14 kills each, while Kyle Ensing of Long Beach collected a match-high eight digs. The 49ers outhit the Flying Fleet .528 to .183.

Long Beach will face familiar MPSF foe BYU in the first semifinal at 6 p.m. ET Thursday night. It will be the 49ers first appearance in the national semifinals since 2008.

The second play-in pitted Ohio State against George Mason. The GMU Patriots stunned the Buckeyes in the first set, taking advantage of Ohio State’s shaky serve and pass game and lower-than-normal production from offensive weapon Miles Johnson. For their part, the Patriots played a tight set, earning the win 25-22.  

Throughout the remaining three sets, on the other hand, Ohio State had control, claiming games two, three and four by scores of 25-21, 25-20, 25-21. Nicolas Szerszen led the Buckeyes with 20 kills and 16 digs, while Johnson added 17.

Ohio State plays tournament No. 2 seed UCLA in the second semifinal Thursday night at 8 p.m. ET.

We correctly predicted the play-in results in our bracket. Check out the rest of our projections here.