UCLA made a statement in more ways than one Thursday night.
The Bruins, playing without the 2022 MPSF player of the year, hit .551 and blasted visiting and previously unbeaten Long Beach State, sweeping the 49ers in a battle of two of the top teams in NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball.
And they go at it again Friday when the fourth-ranked Bruins of the MPSF head to the Pyramid, home of No. 2 Long Beach State of the Big West.
The MIVA got underway Thursday and No. 11 Ohio State beat McKendree, while once-ranked Lewis upset No. 9 Ball State, and Charleston of the EIVA won twice to improve to 11-0.
The recaps follow, but first a look at Friday’s schedule.
In addtion to the UCLA-LBSU rematch, four other Big West teams are in action, including top-ranked Hawai’i, as the unbeaten Rainbow Warriors plays at No. 8 Stanford of the MPSF.
Seventh-ranked UC Irvine plays host to No. 6 Pepperdine of the MPSF, No. 14 UC Santa Barbara is at No. 10 BYU of the MPSF, and No. 15 CSUN is at NJIT, the lone EIVA team playing Friday.
Two other MPSF teams are in action when No. 5 Grand Canyon puts its 10-0 record up against Arizona Christian and Concordia Irvine plays host to The Master’s.
There are two MIVA matches when No. 13 Loyola Chicago is at Quincy and Purdue Fort Wayne is at Lindenwood.
Conference Carolinas has four league matches when Erskine plays Lees-McRae, Barton faces North Greenville, Mount Olive plays Belmont Abbey and Emmanuel takes on King.
There are the first NEC matches of the season when Saint Francis (PA) plays Fairleigh Dickinson and Daemen plays D’Youville.
Two SIAC teams are in action when Morehouse plays St. Andrews and and Central State plays Maryville (MO).
Among independents, Queens plays Lincoln Memorial, Alderson Broaddus plays Missouri S&T, King’s (PA) plays American International and Limestone plays Tusculum.
For links to all matches that are being shown, go to our VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings.
UCLA (10-1), playing its first match without setter Miles Partain, the 2022 MPSF player of the year who left the team this week, didn’t miss a beat in its 25-19, 25-21, 25-20 victory over Long Beach State (6-1). It could have been even more lopsided had the Bruins, who hit an incredible .551, not had 23 service errors against six aces. UCLA had 44 kills and six errors in 69 attacks.
Freshman setter Andrew Rowan not only had a kill in two errorless tries, he had 40 assists, six blocks and five blocks, four solo. David Ido had 17 kills with one error in 23 attacks and two aces, a block and two digs. Alex Knight had 12 kills with one error in 19 attacks, a block and three digs. Merrick McHenry had seven kills in 12 errorless swings and two blocks. Long Beach hit .190 and had three aces and nine errors. Sotiris Siapanis led with 13 kills, an ace and two digs …
The first two MIVA matches of the season were Thursday and Lewis (7-5) came away with a 25-22, 19-25, 25-23, 20-25, 18-16 victory at Ball State (5-4). The Ball State recap headline called it “heartbreaking,” which is a bit much, but the Cardinals led 13-11 in the fifth and fought off two match points before Lewis closed it out on an attack error. Lewis, which hit .254 and had three aces and 24 errors, got 16 kills from Christian Prayer and 14 from Max Roquet. Prayer had all three of his team’s ace, five digs and two blocks, one solo. Roquet had five assists, five blocks and three digs. Setters Tyler Morgan and Kevin Kauling had 22 assists and two blocks each. Ball State got 27 kills from Tinaishe Ndavazocheva, who hit .375 and had an assist, an ace, three digs and two blocks, one solo. Dyer Ball had 15 kills, hit .500, an dhad an ace, a block and eight digs. David Flores had a kill in two errorless tries, 47 assists, a block and nine digs. His team hit .237 and had four aces and 16 errors …
Ohio State (8-3) beat visiting McKendree (5-3) 25-23, 22-25, 25-18, 25-21. Ohio State, which hit .281 and had three aces and 14 errors, got 21 kills from Sam Clark and 14 from Jacob Pasteur. Noah Platfoot had two kills, 43 assists, an ace, a block and 14 digs. McKendree hit .221 and had two aces and 18 errors. Kyle Wilson had 15 kills, an assist, three blocks and six digs. Kevin Schuele, who had 14 digs, and Bryce Wetjen had 10 kills each …
Benedictine Mesa opened its season with a five-set win Concordia Irvine (4-4) of the MPSF. Landon Fuller and Dapre Rogers had 18 kills each and Tyler Watts 13 in the 25-16, 22-25, 25-18, 17-25, 15-11 victory. Benedictine hit .295 and had three aces and 21 errors. CUI, which hit .180 and had three aces and 13 errors, got 22 kills from Uriel Batista …
Charleston (11-0) had two sweeps over visitors from Ohio, the first over Wittenberg as it hit .410, and the next over Rio Grande … the SIAC’s Edward Waters (2-1) swept Webber International, which was playing its season opener. EWU’s Evens Edourd had 16 kills with one error in 22 attacks, three aces, a solo block and seven digs … and in a match of independents, Queens (3-7) swept Tusculum (3-8) by hitting .435.
Men’s volleyball: UCLA routs Long Beach, Lewis upsets Ball St., busy Friday ahead Volleyballmag.com.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login