NCAA men’s volleyball upsets for CSUN, Penn State, UCSB

The status quo was anything but the past two days in NCAA men’s volleyball.

Things got going Wednesday when No. 18 CSUN upset No. 11 USC.

Then Thursday, No. 9 Penn State, which had lost its last two, stunned top-ranked and previously unbeaten Ohio State before No. 17 UC Santa Barbara knocked off No. 2 UCLA.

The recaps and top performances follow, but first a look at Friday’s schedule that includes more key early season matches.

There are three MPSF-Big West matches as UCLA tries to bounce back at No. 20 UC San Diego, No. 10 Pepperdine goes to third-ranked Long Beach State and No. 8 BYU is home for No. 7 UC Irvine.

The Big West’s No. 4 Hawai’i is at Purdue Fort Wayne, one of four MIVA teams in action. No. 12 Lewis is home for No. 16 George Mason of the EIVA, No. 13 Loyola Chicago plays host to the NEC’s LIU and McKendree is home for King of Conference Carolinas.  

Also in the EIVA, Harvard goes to the NEC’s Sacred Heart and NJIT is at the NEC’s Saint Francis (PA). Three other NEC teams play ECC teams as FDU is home for St. Thomas Aquinas, D’Youville is at Dominican and Merrimack is home for American International

In Conference Carolinas, Mount Olive plays both Eastern Mennonite and Virginia Wesleyan, Emmanuel is at independent Lincoln Memorial and Erskine is at the SIAC’s Benedict.

If a match is being shown, we have the viewing link in our VolleyballMag TV & Streaming Listings.

Start with Wednesday’s 21-25, 27-25, 25-20, 17-25, 15-10 victory for CSUN (4-3) of the Big West at USC (5-2) of the MPSF. CSUN, which hit .345 and had nine aces and 33 serving errors, got 23 kills from Kyle Hobus. He hit .395 and had an assist, an ace, three blocks and five digs. Jalen Phillips had 14 kills, hit .379, and had an assist, two ces, two blocks and two digs. Donovan Constable had three kills, 43 assists, no aces and six errors, four blocks and five digs.  USC, which had seven aces and 22 errors, hit .272. Jack Deuchar and Dillon Klein had 17 kills each. Deuchar hit .333 and had two assists, an ace, a block and five digs. Klein hit .314 and had three blocks and six digs …

Also Wednesday, Concordia Irvine of the MPSF improved to 3-0 with a sweep of 0-7 Central State of the SIAC, hitting .471. Ties Conelissen lked CUI with eight kills in nine errorless attacks … Queens of the MIVA won in four at Belmont Abbey of Conference Carolinas as Jack Brinkman had 19 kills, three assists, four aces, 12 digs and a block … Erskine of Conference Carolinas swept visiting independent Tusculum as Edgerrin Austin had 16 kills, hit .500 and had two aces and six digs … D’Youville of the NEC swept visiting Roberts Wesleyan of the ECC, which had 22 kills and 22 errors …

Penn State (5-2) of the EIVA won 25-21, 21-25, 25-19, 31-29 at the MIVA’s Ohio State (6-1) as four Nittany Lions had 10 or more kills. Penn State, which hit .341 and had three aces and 18 errors, was led by Toby Ezeonu, who had 14 kills and one error in 26 swings to hit .500. He added three blocks, two solo. Michael Valenzi had 13 kills, hit .379, and had an assist, two aces, a block and six digs. John Kerr had 12 kills, three blocks and 12 digs, and Michal Kowal had 10 kills, an assist, an ace, seven digs and two blocks, one solo. Owen Rose had five kills in nine errorless attacks, no aces but eight errors, and four blocks. Ohio State, which hit .200, had three aces and 15 errors and played without star Jacob Pasteur. Ohio State reported that he has “a lower body injury that will keep him out of the Ohio State lineup indefinitely. ”

Daniel Hurley led the Buckeyes with 16 kills, hitting .303, and had two assists, no aces and five errors, a block and nine digs. Ben Putnam had 10 kills, four assists, a block and 11 digs. Michael Wright had five kills in as many tries, 39 assists, three aces, a block and 10 digs. The match drew 2,238, an Ohio State men’s volleyball regular-season attendance record. The same teams play Sunday at Penn State …

Geste Bianchi went off for 27 kills as UC Santa Barbara (3-5) of the Big West won 30-28, 23-25, 25-23, 23-25, 15-13 at UCLA (5-2). The Gauchos, who hit .293 and had nine aces and 17 errors, saw Bianchi, a junior from Laguna Beach who played in six matches in 2023, hit .333 and have two assists, an ace, 11 digs and three blocks, one solo. He had 30 kills in a match this season and has had 20 or more five times. Patrick Kane had 14 kills, an assist, an ace, six digs and two blocks, one solo. Owen Birg had 11 kills, two assists, three blocks and six digs. Jack Walmer had three kills in as many tries, 52 assists, three aces, a block and nine digs.

UCLA won despite hitting .331. The Bruins had six aces and 22 errors. Alex Knight had a career-high 16 kills, hitting .303 to go with three assists, four blocks and six digs. Merrick McHenry had 10 kills, hit .400, had no aces and five errors, four blocks and four digs. Guy Genis and Cooper Robinson had nine kills each. Genis hit .583 and had an ace, a dig and seven blocks, while Robinson hit .467 and had an ace and a dig. Andrew Rowan had three kills, 56 assists, three aces, seven blocks and nine digs … 

Hawai’i (4-1) won in four at Purdue Fort Wayne (4-2) as Spyros Chakas and Alaka’i Todd had 12 kills each. Todd had no errors in 18 attacks … 

USC (6-2) bounced back with a sweep of visiting Central State (0-8) of the SIAC. Deuchar led with 10 kills, hitting .400 … independent Maryville (3-1) knocked off visiting Lindenwood of the MIVA in four sets despite 23 kills by Clay Wieter … Daemen swept Warner.

NCAA men’s volleyball upsets for CSUN, Penn State, UCSB Volleyballmag.com.