Hawai’i swept at Barton on Saturday to finish its North Carolina trip 3-0 as the top-ranked Rainbow Warriors improved to 7-0. There were no upsets in NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball as most of the top teams were off and/or played lesser opponents.
That was pretty much the case Friday, but No. 12 BYU won in five at No. 6 UC Irvine despite 26 kills by UCI’s Francesco Sani.
There are four matches Sunday involving NCAA Division I-II teams, UC San Diego plays Grand Canyon, Central State is at Merrimack, Daemen plays St. John Fisher and Fort Valley State faces Campbellsville.
There were two more NCAA Division I coaching transactions this past week, including the end of a 20-year coaching career for Jaime Gordon at Morehead State.
MOREHEAD STATE: Jaime Gordon, who has doubled as the athletic director sine 2019, is the winning coach at the Kentucky school in any sport. He announced Friday that he’s stepping down after 20 years as the women’s volleyball coach to just be the A.D.
Morehead State finished 14-16 this past season, 10-8 in the Ohio Valley Conference. Gordon’s career record was 360-266. He took teams to the 2011, 2013 and 2020 NCAA Tournaments.
EASTERN MICHIGAN: Darcy Dorton resigned after four years in which her teams went 33-74,
5-25 this past season, which include 4-14 in the MAC. EMU has been to the NCAA Tournament just once, in 2018, and after that season coach Kimi Olson left to be an assistant at Michigan State.
SATURDAY NCAA: Hawai’i of the Big West out-hit Barton (0-5) of Conference Carolinas .429 to .023 and had a season-high nine blocks in the 25-11, 25-19, 25-14 victory. Alaka’i Todd led with 13 kills as he hit .455 and had three blocks and eight digs …
Fifth-ranked Pepperdine (7-1) of the MPSF hit .538 and swept at George Mason (0-8). Jaylen Jasper had 11 kills, hit .647, and had two aces, two digs and two solo blocks …
No. 6 Ball State (4-2) of the MIVA swept Sacred Heart (1-4) of the NEC as the Cardinals hit .456 and got 14 kills from Kaleb Jenness. He had two errors in 24 attacks, an ace, three digs and two blocks …
No. 7 Stanford (6-1) swept UC Santa Cruz (7-1). Alex Rottman led with 15 kills and had one error in 25 attacks to go with an ace, three digs and two blocks …
No. 11 Loyola Chicago of the MIVA is also 7-0 after it swept St. Francis Brooklyn (3-4) of the NEC. The Ramblers hit .423 and got 14 kills from Parker Van Buren and 12 from Cole Schlothauer. Van Buren had no errors in 24 attacks, two aces, five digs and a solo block. Schlothauer hit .429 and had an ace, eight digs and three blocks, two solo …
No. 15 Lewis (5-4) swept Maryville (1-5) …
North Greenville of Conference Carolinas improved to 4-1 when it beat 0-6 Saint Francis (PA) of the NEC in five despite 20 kills each by SFU’s Blake Liprando and Nathan Zini. North Greenville won with 20 fewer kills and a worse hitting percentage (.239-195) …
Purdue Fort Wayne of the MIVA is 6-1 after sweeping independent Queens (1-6) … McKendree (3-2) of the MIVA beat the EIVA’s Harvard (3-3) in five. Kevin Schuele had 15 kills, an assist, two aces, two digs and five blocks, and Bryce Wetjen had 14 kills, an assist, seven digs and four blocks …
Mount Olive (4-1) of Conference Carolinas swept the SIAC’s Fort Valley State (0-4) … Charleston of the EIVA is 7-0 after sweeping independent Tusculum (3-7). Charleston hit .43 and Lachlan Bray had 15 kills. He hit .545 and added an ace and eight digs …
UC San Diego (4-5) of the Big West swept Erskine (2-4) of Conference Carolinas by hitting .459 and getting 11 aces. Josh Schellinger had 12 kills and Josh Ewert had five aces …
Among the other results, Eastern Nazarene beat American International in four but AI finally broke through to improve to 1-7 by sweeping Emerson; Daemen swept Central State; Kentucky State beat Culver-Stockton in five; Edward Waters and Limestone both beat Cumberland; Thomas More beat Alderson Broaddus in five; and Lees-McRae swept St. Andrews.
FRIDAY NCAA: A day after getting swept by UC Irvine (7-1) of the Big West, the MPSF’s BYU (5-1) bounced back to win in five. Miks Ramanis had 20 kills for the Cougars in the 26-24, 21-25, 25-22, 19-25, 15-9 victory as he hit .324 and had an assist, two aces, five blocks and four digs. Trent Moser added 16 kills, an assist, three digs and nine blocks, one solo. And Teon Taylor had six kills with one error in 11 swings and came up with 13 blocks. UCI’s Francesco Sani had 26 of his team’s 58 kills, an assist, an ace, four digs and six blocks, two solo. Hilir Henno had 14 kills, five assists, five aces, a block and 12 digs …
No. 2 UCLA of the MPSF improved to 7-0 with a 25-18, 25-16, 26-24 sweep at the Big West’s CSUN (4-4). UCLA hit .507 and Ido David had 16 kills with two errors in 22 attacks to go with two aces, a block and a dig …
Pepperdine beat NJIT in four as Jasper had 19 kills, hit .353 and had an assist, an ace, six digs and four blocks … Ball State swept Queens … No. 9 Grand Canyon hit .412 and swept Erskine as Christian Janke had 12 kills with two errors in 21 attacks and five aces to go with an assist and six digs. Jonah Gilbert had 14 kills with three errors in 23 swings … No. 13 Ohio State had to go five to beat Princeton as Jacob Pasteur had 20 kills, hit .410 and had two assists, two aces, four digs and six blocks …
The match with the line of the weekend: King of Conference Carolinas won in five at Fort Valley State of the SIAC as Fort Valley’s Isaiah Fedd had 33 kills with only three errors in 55 attacks to go with four assists, two aces, two digs and two blocks.
Also Friday, Loyola beat Maryville, Lewis swept St. Francis Brooklyn, PFW swept Sacred Heart, McKendree beat Saint Francis (PA) in four, Mount Olive swept Morehouse, D’Youville beat Central State in four, Charleston swept Thomas More, Harvard swept North Greenville, Tusculum beat Alderson Broaddus in four, Limestone swept Edward Waters, and Quincy beat Missouri S&T.
NCAA volleyball: Hawai’i, Pepperdine men win; Morehead’s Gordon steps away Volleyballmag.com.
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