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State College, Pa. • Michael Hatch, the only senior who plays regularly on BYU's No. 1-ranked men's volleyball team, had been in this situation before.

In 2014, the Cougars had a 2-1 lead over Stanford in an NCAA Tournament semifinal match, but eventually fell 3-2 to the Cardinal.

In Thursday's national semifinal against Long Beach State at Penn State's Rec Hall, after the Cougars took a 2-1 lead, they put the hammer down. Hatch, junior Jake Langlois and sophomores Ben Patch, Brenden Sander and Leo Durkin played brilliantly and took the fourth set 25-18 to win 3-1 and advance to Saturday night's national championship game.

The Cougars will face Ohio State, which beat UCLA in the other semifinal, at 6 p.m. MDT on Saturday.

"I know that no lead is good enough," said Hatch, a middle blocker who had four blocks, including several in key moments that neutralized LBSU all-everything freshman TJ DeFalco. "I just wanted to maintain that focus and energy we had and not give up anything at all to Long Beach."

The Cougars (27-3) won the first set rather easily, 25-21, and seemed on the verge of a sweep before LBSU rallied late in the second set and won it, 25-23. Some sloppy play by the Cougars, and DeFalco's stinging kills — he finished with 23 after getting 14 in the first two sets — pulled the 49ers even. Bjarne Huus had the final putaway after a bad BYU pass cleared the net.

The Cougars jumped to a quick lead in the third set and were really never threatened, taking a 25-19 win thanks to the emergence of Langlois, who finished it with an ace.

That's when Hatch remembered 2014, and teamed with Price Jarman to shut down DeFalco and company. Back-to-back aces by Langlois — the second one hit the net and crawled over — gave the Cougars a 12-7 lead, and LBSU (24-8) never got closer than four. Patch's 13th kill ended it.

"We anticipated a great match, and I thought it was," said BYU coach Shawn Olmstead. "I thought we saw some pretty good volleyball. They pushed our guys, and we expected that. They have a lot of great players and a great coach. It was a fun match to be a part of. I was really happy with our boys' composure after losing that second set and going into the third. I felt they stayed very composed and made some good decisions."

Sander led BYU with 14 kills, and hit a sparkling .583 as the Cougars hit .337 as a team.

"It wasn't just me," said the sophomore. "... We served the ball really well and our [hitters] and middles attacked really well."

Long Beach State, the only team to sweep BYU in the regular season, hit .244 and committed 19 service errors. The Cougars had 10 service errors, and got a lift from Patch from the service line, a place from which he's been up and down this season.

"Ben knows what's he is doing," Olmstead said. "He's a confident boy. Look what he did: he played very confidently. He knows what he needs to do with serving, and it is just a matter of getting more reps, getting more and more comfortable."

Senior Robbie Sutton gave the Cougars a lift off the bench, and made an ace in relief of Patch in the first set that proved crucial.

Langlois added eight kills and Jarman nine, and libero Erik Sikes came up with eight digs.

"These guys believe in each other, and I felt like I didn't need to do anything [drastic] as any time in that match," Olmstead said. "I think the guys would agree on that."

It will be BYU's fifth appearance in the NCAA championship match. They are 2-2 in such games, winning in 1999 and 2004 and losing in 2003 and 2013 — Hatch's freshman season.

Twitter: @drewjay —

Storylines

R The No. 1-ranked Cougars advance to their fifth NCAA Tournament championship match.

• Ben Patch and Brenden Sander combine for 27 kills.

• The Cougars (27-3) hit .337 for the match.