UC Irvine got a big five-set win at Pepperdine and Conference Carolinas began league play with two five-set matches Wednesday.
There’s a showcase match in Westwood on Thursday night, but the No. 4 UCLA Bruins of the MPSF will have a different look when they take on No. 2 Long Beach State of the Big West.
That’s because UCLA setter Miles Partain, the 2022 MPSF player of the year, “has decided to leave the UCLA men’s volleyball team,” coach John Speraw confirmed.
Partain, a 6-foot-3 setter from Pacific Palisades, is also a star pro beach volleyball player despite being just 21 years old. In 2022, while partnered with Paul Lotman, Partain won AVP Atlanta and was voted both the AVP’s best offensive player and most improved. This season he is partnering with 6-9 Andy Benesh, a former indoor player at USC who has two 2022 AVP titles on his resume.
The setting responsibilities at UCLA will go to Andrew Rowan, a 6-6 freshman from Trabuco Canyon, California. In previously unbeaten UCLA’s most recent match, a four-set loss Saturday at Penn State, Rowan led the Bruins with 36 assists and played all four sets. Partain played in three sets and had five assists. For the season, Rowan has 181 assists (6.24/set) and Partain 151 (7/19/set).
The MIVA gets underway on Thursday when No. 9 Ball State plays host to Lewis and No. 11 Ohio State is home for McKendree.
Also on Thursday’s NCAA Division I-II men’s slate, Charleston of the MIVA, one of the last four unbeatens at 9-0, plays twice, against Wittenburg and Rio Grande of Ohio; Concordia Irvine of the MPSF is home for Benedictine Mesa; Edward Waters of the SIAC is home for Webber International; and two independents square off when Queens plays Tusculum.
There were six matches Wednesday, including a five-set win by No. 7 UC Irvine (8-3) of the Big West at No. 6 Pepperdine (8-3) of the MPSF. In a match that took 2 hours, 40 minutes, UCI came away with a 29-27, 20-25, 25-20, 27-29, 15-9 as the Anteaters held a 16-6 blocking advantage.
Francesco Sani led UCI with 17 kills, two aces, six blocks and four digs. Cole Gillis had 15 kills, hit .364, and had two assists, two aces, four blocks and three digs. Hilir Henno had eight kills, three assists, four aces and four digs. Connor Campbell had eight blocks, one solo, to go with three kills, and Doug Dahm had seven blocks, one solo, and two kills. Joe Karlous had two kills in four tries, 31 assists, three blocks and 13 digs. His team hit .267 and had nine aces and 24 serving errors. Pepperdine hit .244 and had six aces and 28 errors. Joe Deluzio led with 19 kills while hitting .471 to go with an ace but seven errors, a block and for digs. Jaylen Jasper had 16 kills but hit .054 to go with six digs and three blocks, one solo. Akin Akinwumi had 12 kills, hit .450, and had two aces and two blocks. Bryce Dvorak had a kill, 51 assists, three aces and three digs, and Brendan Read had 14 digs, an assist, and six kills …
Conference Carolinas began league play with two matches that both went five.
King (6-8) pulled off a reverse sweep against visiting North Greenville (5-3) and won 19-25, 23-25, 26-24, 25-23, 15-8. King, which hit .354, got 15 kills apiece from Carroll Jackson, Kellan Kennedy and Warren Davis, and 10 from AJ Drooker. Kennedy hit .619 and had seven blocks, one solo. Aaron Milstead had six kills in nine errorless swings and five blocks. King had two aces and 10 errors. North Greenville hit .320 and had five aces and 16 errors. Emanuel Adames led with 20 kills while hitting .581 and he had an ace and four blocks. Michael de la Cruz had 17 kills and also only two errors in 31 attacks to go with an assist, two aces, a dig and two blocks, one solo …
Erskine (4-5) rallied to beat visiting Belmont Abbey (1-7) 25-16, 20-25, 20-25, 25-20, 20-18 behind a career-high 19 kills from Kacper Rybarczyk. Rybarczyk added an assist, three aces, six digs and five blocks, four solo. Edgerrin Austin had 13 kills, two solo blocks and 11 digs. Jason Sall had 11 kills, an ace, 13 digs and three blocks, one solo. Erskine hit .184 and had five aces and 14 errors. Belmont Abbey got 25 kills from Matteo Miselli, who had two aces, eight digs and three blocks, one solo. Matthew Staskunas had nine kills, eight digs and four blocks, and Ethan Rehmann had five kills in 12 errorless attacks, two aces and seven blocks, two solo. Belmont Abbey hit .132 and had nine aces and 16 errors …
CSUN (6-5) of the Big West is in the East and won in five at Princeton (3-6) of the EIVA. Kyle Hobus had 21 kills in the 27-25, 17-25, 15-25, 32-30, 15-11 victory and Griffin Walters 19. Hobus had two assists, two aces, four blocks and four digs. Griffin had an assist, four blocks and six digs. The Matadors hit .226 and had three aces and 25 errors. Princeton hit .207 and had 12 aces and 19 errors. Ben Harrington led with 19 kills, an assist, five of those aces, three blocks and three digs. Nyherowo Omene had 12 kills, an ace, three blocks and six digs. Gavin Leising had six kills with one error in nine swings, five aces and five blocks …
The MIVA’s Purdue Fort Wayne (9-1) swept at Maryville (2-7) of Missouri … Harvard (4-4) of the EIVA swept visiting Merrimack (5-4) of the NEC.
UCI tops Pepperdine; Partain leaves UCLA men’s volleyball team Volleyballmag.com.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login