Unheralded Concordia stunned Grand Canyon in the MPSF, Hawai’i won for fun against a ranked foe on the mainland and BYU captured a marathon nail-biter over Pepperdine in a match of top-10 teams on Friday in Division I-II NCAA men’s volleyball.
Also, efficient Long Beach State bounced back from a loss last weekend at Hawaii with a victory over a ranked SoCal rival, Ohio State kept its big week rolling and Daemen remained undefeated in the NEC.
A full slate of men’s volleyball is scheduled for Saturday.
Hawai’i visits CSUN in a Big West encounter. The MPSF sees rematches of Pepperdine at BYU and Concordia at Grand Canyon. Long Beach State plays at USC in a crossover.
The MIVA has three matches: Quincy at Ohio State, Lindenwood at Ball State and Purdue Fort Wayne at Lewis. In an EIVA-MIVA neutral site crossover, Princeton faces Loyola Chicago at George Mason.
In Conference Carolinas, North Greenville is at Barton, Lees-McRae is at Erskine and Belmont Abbey is at Mount Olive.
The NEC has a full slate: Saint Francis (Pa.) at Daemen, Fairleigh Dickinson at D’Youville, St. Francis Brooklyn at Merrimack and LIU at Sacred Heart.
In the SIAC, Benedict is at Edward Waters and Kentucky State is at Central State. In an independent tussle, Limestone visits Lincoln Memorial.
On Sunday two nonconference matches are scheduled: Lincoln Memorial at Emmanuel (Ga.) and Loyola Chicago at George Mason. Also in the SIAC, Edward Waters hosts Fort Valley State.
No. 5 Grand Canyon (20-2, 5-2 MPSF) suffered a momentum-sapping 25-23, 25-23, 25-27, 12-25, 15-9 loss in Phoenix to Concordia Irvine (7-12, 1-4). The visiting Eagles seemed to have been grounded after dropping a lopsided fourth, but a five-point surge gave them a 10-6 advantage in the deciding set. Concordia, which hit .714 in the fifth, then ran off the last four points of the match, with Gage Doble and Uriel Batista each notching two kills. Doble finished with 22 kills on .600 hitting, Batista had 17 kills and Makai Lipson dished 44 assists in setting an attack that hit .396. Camden Gianni’s 20 kills led the Lopes, who lost for the first time at home in 16 matches.
Hawai’i (19-2, 2-1 Big West) had its potent offense in high gear, hitting .478 as No. 14 CSUN (12-8, 1-2) was blitzed on its home floor in three non-threatening sets (25-22, 25-14, 25-18). The No. 2-ranked Rainbow Warriors committed just seven attacking errors and pounded five aces against 12 serving miscues. Chaz Galloway’s 12 kills led Hawai’i.
Serving specialist John Stanley’s match-point ace in the fifth set put an exclamation point on a 21-25, 25-22, 19-25, 25-20, 15-11 MPSF victory by No. 8 BYU (13-6, 3-4) over No. 7 Pepperdine (14-9, 4-3). Before a crowd of 4,156 at Smith Fieldhouse in Provo, Utah, the Cougars gained traction as the match progressed, hitting .455 in the fourth and .467 in the fifth. Sophomores Miks Ramanis (18 kills) and Luke Benson (16) provided enough production at the pins to offset a 37-kill night by the Waves’ Jasper Jaylen, who ranks second nationally in kills per set.
No. 4 Long Beach State (13-3) of the Big West recorded an extraordinary ace-to-service-errors ratio of 7-to-8 in a calculated sweep (25-17, 25-15, 25-23) of No. 11 USC (8-10) of the MPSF before 2,814 at the Pyramid. The Beach also had 12 attacking errors to 26 for the visiting Trojans, who hit .065. Soriris Siapanis logged 12 kills for Long Beach State, which split matches last weekend with Hawaii in Honolulu.
No. 15 Ohio State built on its upset of top-ranked Penn State earlier in the week by evening the score with Lindenwood in the MIVA. The host Buckeyes (14-9, 6-3) had lost at Lindenwood, but turned the tables on the Lions (9-8, 6-3) in a four-set triumph (25-21, 25-21, 20-25, 25-13) in Columbus. Ohio State hit .778 (14 kills on an errorless 18 attempts) in the fourth. Jacob Pasteur again was the Buckeyes’ most potent weapon, ringing up 24 kills on .645 hitting with three aces.
Ball State (13-8, 6-3) stayed square with the Buckeyes in second place in the MIVA with a 25-13, 20-25, 25-19, 25-21 home-court triumph over cellar-dwelling Quincy (7-14, 0-9). The 12th-ranked Cardinals got 16 kills from Kaleb Jeness, the reigning MIVA Player of the Year, and Felix Egharevba chipped in 10 kills on .750 hitting with seven block assists.
Nyherowo Omene ripped 12 kills on .500 hitting with three aces and eight digs during a 25-21, 21-25, 25-20, 25-17 EIVA road victory by Princeton (10-10, 4-2) over George Mason (7-10, 1-4). Also, Harvard (7-11) of the EIVA outscored independent American International (2-18) 75-42 and hit .576 in a home-court sweep.
All eight teams in Conference Carolinas hit the hardwood. An air-tight five-set victory (25-23, 29-31, 25-20, 23-25, 16-14) by host Erskine (13-9, 8-3) over King (11-14, 6-5) gave the Flying Fleet some breathing room in first place. Edgerinn Austin was a difference-maker for Erskine with 23 kills on .429 hitting, two aces and 12 digs. Warren Davis had 23 kills and eight digs in defeat.
North Greenville (13-7, 6-3) lost some ground, losing in four sets to host Mount Olive (8-12, 4-6). The winning Trojans rode the hot arm of Tate Sandvig (22 kills, four aces). The other two Conference Carolinas matches went to five. Visiting Belmont Abbey (12-12, 5-4) topped Barton (3-14, 3-7), 15-13 in the fifth, and host Emmanuel (8-15, 3-8) defeated Lees-McRae (8-11, 4-4), also 15-13 in the deciding set.
NEC leader Daeman (13-3, 7-0) dispatched visiting Fairleigh Dickinson (4-13, 1-6) in a workmanlike 25-15, 25-13, 25-22 victory. The Wildcats cracked at a .478 pace and limited FDU to .087 hitting. Senior standout Zach Schneider ripped 14 kills on an errorless 19 swings, a .737 percentage.
LIU (12-8, 6-1) kept pace in the NEC with a 25-17, 20-25, 25-22, 25-18 road victory over Merrimack (8-10, 2-5), which did itself no favors with 44 errors, 28 from the service line. Livan Moreno logged 16 kills on .438 hitting for LIU. Thomas Leahy (eight kills, .700 hitting, five blocks, two solo) led visiting Saint Francis (8-11, 5-2 NEC) of Pennsylvania in a three-set triumph over struggling D’Youville (7-9, 0-7). After winning a marathon 33-31 opening set, host Sacred Heart (7-8, 4-3 NEC) allowed 32 points in the second and third against St. Francis Brooklyn (8-10, 3-4). The Pioneers’ Patrick Mucherino exploded for 20 kills, a .600 percentage, four aces and three blocks, one solo.
The national leader in kills per set, sophomore Ras Jesse Delancy, needed 83 swings to put down 36 kills as host Benedict (8-6, 4-3) pulled out a see-saw five-set victory (25-22, 25-22, 24-26, 14-25, 21-19) over Fort Valley State (5-15, 2-2) in the SIAC. The visiting Wildcats served for the match at 18-17 and 19-8 before a kill by the Tigers’ Zion Beckford, a solo block by Kendersley Marcellin on Jaxon Hicks and an attack error by Isaiah Fedd (30 kills) closed the show.
Also, NAIA member Webber International (8-5) of Florida tripped visiting Edward Waters (8-4) of the SIAC in a five-setter (15-12 in the fifth) that saw the second, third and fourth sets go to overtime, host Limestone (11-9) bounced fellow independent Tusculum (8-13) in four, Independent Maryville (10-14) defeated visiting NAIA program Thomas More (12-11) in four, host independent Missouri S&T (10-9) swept NAIA member Judson (18-6) and visiting independent Alderson Broaddus (9-13) posted two three-set victories over D-III Carlow (0-16).
NCAA men’s volleyball: CUI upsets GCU; Hawai’i, BYU, Long Beach, Ohio St. win Volleyballmag.com.
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