UC Irvine did it again. This time the No. 7 Anteaters won in five sets at No. 8 BYU a day after beating the Cougars in four.
Unranked LIU upset No. 12 Lewis on its home court.
Among the other winners Saturday in NCAA men’s volleyball were No. 3 Long Beach State, No. 13 Loyola Chicago and No. 18 CSUN. Independent Lincoln Memorial, ranked earlier this season, knocked off No. 19 Charleston. NJIT won a five-setter, 23-21 in the fith.
We also have a note about a Nebraska player who will fight on.
First a look at the schedule through Tuesday.
There are five matches on Sunday, including the rematch between top-ranked Ohio State of the MIVA and No. 9 Penn State of the EIVA, which won at Ohio State on Friday.
Fourth-ranked Hawai’i of the Big West continues its mainland trip at No. 15 Ball State of the MIVA, the MIVA’s Queens plays the NEC’s Saint Francis (PA), D’Youville of the NEC plays St. Thomas Aquinas and the MIVA’s Charleston faces independent Tusculum.
The lone match Monday shows Emmanuel of Conference Carolinas at the SIAC’s Edward Waters, while Tuesday the MIVA’s Quincy entertains Missouri S&T and the ECC’s Dominican is home for Yeshiva.
If a match is being shown, we have the viewing link in our VolleyballMag TV & Streaming Listings.
UC Irvine (5-1) of the Big West had a 17-8 blocks advantage and came away with a 23-25, 26-24, 25-18, 23-25, 15-13 victory at BYU (7-3) of the MPSF as Nolan Flexen had 18 kills and Hilir Henno and Maxim Gregoriev 15 each. Flexen hit .333 and had six blocks and a dig. Henno had two assists, two aces, five blocks and four digs, and Grigoriev hit .367 and had two assists, four blocks and nine digs. Connor Dahm had five kills, an ace and six blocks and Connor Campbell had three kills, an ace, five digs and eight blocks, one solo. UCI hit .308 and had four aces and 24 serving errors, while BYU hit a season-low .168 and had seven aces — five by Miks Ramanis — and 17 errors. BYU, playing its sixth match in eight days, got 21 kills from Luke Benson, who had no ace and six errors, a block and nine digs. Ramanis had 16 kills and two digs …
Long Beach State (7-0) of the Big West destroyed visiting Concordia Irvine (3-1) of the MPSF, hitting . 580 en route to a 25-15, 25-8. 25-9 blasting. Long Beach had 32 kills with three errors in 50 attacks as nine players had kills. Clarke Godbold led with eight and he had one error in 11 swings to go with five blocks and three digs. CUI had 19 kills and 26 errors to hit minus .93 …
The other Big West team in action, CSUN (5-3), swept visiting Central State (0-9) of the SIAC, which hit .038. Ten Matadors had kills, seven by Jalen Phillips …
LIU (2-5) of the NEC had a 15-5 blocks advantage and pulled off a 25-21, 25-23, 23-25, 25-22 upset at Lewis (5-3) of the MIVA. Third-year program LIU, swept the day before at Loyola Chicago, did not have a report on its victory, but we might assume it is the first time the Sharks have beaten a ranked team. LIU, which hit .255 and had seven aces and 20 errors, got 13 kills apiece from Livan Moreno and Kale Spencer and 12 from Gio Collazo. Moreno had an assist, two aces, seven digs and three blocks, one solo. Spencer had four assists, three aces, three blocks and nine digs, and Collazo had two assists, five blocks and 13 digs. Kasey Clouet had nine kills with one error in 18 attacks and three blocks, one solo, and Arther Sueur had six kills and nine blocks, one solo. Lewis, which hit .194 and had four aces and 13 errors, got 16 kills from Christian Payer. He added two aces and 12 digs. Max Roquet hd 11 kills, no aces and six errors, two blocks and nine digs, and Syver Drolsum had 10 kills, two aces, a block and five digs. Nico Paula had 14 digs …
Loyola (5-5) beat visiting No. 16 George Mason (3-5) of the EIVA 25-20, 25-18, 20-25, 25-19. The Ramblers, who hit .358 and had seven aces and 17 errors, got 17 kills from Parker Van Buren. He had an ace, four digs and three blocks, one solo. Daniel Fabikovic had 12 kills with one error in 27 attacks, an assist, an ace, three blocks and four digs. Jake Read had eight kills with one error in 16 attacks and Nicodemus Meyer had seven kills in 10 errorless attacks and seen blocks. Setter Ryan McElligot had five kills, 39 assists, an ace, six blocks and three digs …
Also in the MIVA, McKendree (2-3) won in four at Maryville (3-2) as Nikos Xydakis had 14 kills, hit .423, and had an assist, 15 digs and two blocks and Kein Schuele had 13 kills with one error in 26 attacks and two aces, 15 digs and two blocks … Lindenwood (2-4) hit .452 and swept visiting King (0-5) of Conference Carolinas as Ian Schuller had 11 kills and AJ Lewis and Clay Wieter 10 each … Queens (4-4) lost in a wild five at the EIVA’s NJIT (5-4) as the Highlanders survived 25-17, 22-25, 19-25, 25-17, 23-21. Queens led 21-20 in the fifth before a service error and back-to-back kills by NJIT’s Carson Williams. NJIT hit .405 and had four aces and 28 errors. Josh Gregg led NJIT with 19 kills and hit .424 to go with an assist, no aces and seven errors, a block and five digs. Alessandro Negri ahd 19 kills, hit .412, and had four assists and three digs. Williams had two errors in 19 swings to hit .526 and had an ace, two digs and four blocks, one solo. Setter Griffin Fieseler had 55 assists, no aces and five errors, and eight digs. Ron Tidhar had 14 digs. Queens, which hit .206 and had 11 aces and 22 errors, had five players with seven or more kills. Jack Brinkman had 11, four aces, four blocks and three digs. Chance Shampine had 10 kills, two aces and four digs …
Independent Lincoln Memorial (4-2) beat visiting Charleston (4-1) of the EIVA 25-22, 19-25, 25-16, 21-25, 15-12 as the Railsplitters hit .315 and had six aces and 24 errors. Justin Sharfenaker led with 13 kills, four digs and five blocks, one solo. Matthew Gentry had 11 kills, hit .444, no aces and five errors and four blocks. Griffin Wheatley had 11 kills, hit .381 and had three blocks and two digs. Shay Spadaro had 10 kills, four assist, two aces, a solo block and five digs. Ethan Morgan had seven kills in 10 errorless attacks, two aces, three blocks and two digs. Kohl Kutsch had a kill in his only try, 40 assists, an ace, a solo block and a match-high 10 digs. Charleston’s Ras Jesse Delancy had 19 kills, hit .452, and had an ace, nine digs and three blocks, one solo. Garret Schnitker had 111 kills, two aces and a dig. Charleston his .225 and had four aces and 20 errors …
Mount Olive of Conference Carolinas improved to 6-1 with sweeps of St. Andrews and Randolph Macon … League mate Barton (4-1) swept Eastern Mennonite and Virginia Wesleyan … The ECC’s Roberts Wesleyan is 3-4 after beating Geneva and losing to Redeeemer, both in four sets … independent Missouri S&T (3-2) swept Ottawa and beat Park in four.
Appreciate our men’s volleyball coverage? Help keep free volleyball journalism free by both becoming a VBM Sustaining Member and signing up for our newsletter.
BATENHORST TO USC: Ally Batenhorst, the 6-foot-5 outside hitter for Nebraska who said after the NCAA season she was going to transfer, is headed to USC, where she is expected to play both indoors and beach.
Batenhorst, a junior from Houston, was fourth for Nebraska this past season with 196 kills (2.25/set, hitting .189). She had 52 blocks and 54 digs in 87 sets. When Nebraska was swept by Texas in the NCAA championship match, Batenhorst had two kills, five errors, a block and a dig.
Batenhorst wrote on her social-media accounts: “Beyond excited to announce my commitment to continue my academic and volleyball career at the University of Southern California! Thank you to everyone for all of the endless support. Can’t wait for this new chapter of my life.”
Media in Nebraska reported that Batenhorst will stay in Lincoln this spring to graduate and play beach volleyball for the Huskers.
NCAA volleyball: UCI, LIU, Lincoln Memorial win; Batenhorst to fight on Volleyballmag.com.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login