BYU, CUI score upsets; busy Friday on tap in NCAA men’s volleyball

There were a couple of upsets Thursday and BYU and Concordia Irvine came away with big victories.

Friday is the busiest day yet in the 2023 NCAA Division I-II men’s season with some showcase matches.

That includes unbeaten No. 2 UCLA of the MPSF playing No. 13 Ohio State of the MIVA at Penn State, where the No. 4 Nittany Lions of the EIVA then play host to No. 10 USC of the MIVA.

BYU of the MPSF, ranked No. 11, is at No. 8 Ball State of the MIVA.

Three other MPSF teams are in action when No. 9 Grand Canyon plays No. 7 UC Irvine of the Big West, No. 5 Pepperdine goes to No. 15 UCA Santa Barbara and No. 6 Stanford plays at the Big West’s CSUN.  

The Big West’s Long Beach State, ranked No. 3, is home for No. 12 Loyola Chicago of the MIVA.

The EIVA schedule gets underway with Saint Francis at NJIT. The MIVA’s Lewis, ranked No. 14, goes to George Mason of the EIVA and the EIVA’s Harvard plays host to independent Daemen.

Among the other matches Friday, the MIVA’s Purdue Fort Wayne plays Mount Olive of Conference Carolinas at George Mason and the EIVA’s Pinceton plays host to the NEC’s Sacred Heart. 

There are four unbeatens left, including UCLA and Grand Canyon at 8-0, No. 1 Hawai’i at 7-0 and Long Beach at 5-0.

For links to all matches that are being shown, go to our VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings.

There were three matches Thursday, including an upset by No. 11 BYU (6-1) of the MPSF at No. 8 Ball State (4-3) of the MIVA. Three players had 13 or more kills for the Cougars in the 24-26, 25-23, 25-21, 27-25 victory. Miks Ramanis had 16 kills, hit .333, and had two aces, three blocks and 12 digs. Luke Benson had 15 kills, hit .429, and had a block and six digs. Kupono Browne had 13 kills, two aces, four blocks and 10 digs. BYU hit .287 and had nine aces and seven errors. 

Ball State lost despite hitting .353 and getting 24 kills from Tinaishe Ndavazocheva. The Cardinals had two aces and 16 errors. Ndavazocheva, a 6-foot-6 sophomore from Zimbabwe, hit .476 after having four errors in 42 attacks. He added an assist, an ace, two blocks and 10 digs. Kaleb Jenness had 19 kills, three assists, five blocks and seven digs, and Vanis Buckholz had nine kills in 14 errorless swings, an assist, an ace, six blocks and two digs. David Flores had three kills in four errorless tries, 53 assists, six digs and four blocks, one solo … 

Concordia Irvine (4-3) of the MPSF dealt Loyola (7-1) its first loss. Four players had nine or more kills in the 25-22, 25-16, 22-25, 25-21 victory, 15 by Uriel Batista and 14 by Johnny Anselmo, who hit .545. Scott Montez had 11 kills and 16 digs and Gil Herold had nine kills in 11 errorless attacks and two blocks, one solo. CUI hit .258 and had five aces and 10 serving errors.

Parker Van Buren led the Ramblers with 19 kills, two aces, three blocks and four digs. Cole Schlothauer had nine kills. Loyola hit .211 and had six aces and 18 errors. Setter Dan Mangun had an ace, four blocks and 14 digs … 

Also Thursday, Lees-McRae of Conference Carolinas swept Park of Arizona … 

There were five matches Wednesday, including CSUN of the Big West getting swept by Vanguard of the NAIA, which recorded its first win over a Division I opponent. Vanguard outhit CSUN .359-197 in the 25-22, 25-20, 25-17 victory. Will Anderson led with 14 kills as he hit .417 and added an assist, an ace and three digs. Kyle Anema had 11 kills, hit .364, an dhad three assists, three blocks and six digs. CSUN’s Kyle Hobus had 11 kills … 

Pepperdine swept UCSB, which dropped to 1-7. Pepperdine (8-1), which hit .364, got 17 kills from Jaylen Jasper, who had six digs and four blocks, one solo … GCU beat Lees-McRae in four as the Lopes hit .430. Jonah Gilbert had 15 kills, hit .387 and added an ace and three blocks, two solo. L-M’s Michael Marsans had 16 kills, hit .407 and had an ace …. 

Limestone beat North Greenville in five as James Chretien had 12 kills and Albert Warzocha had 20 while hitting .472 … Missouri A&T swept Maryville.

BYU, CUI score upsets; busy Friday on tap in NCAA men’s volleyball Volleyballmag.com.