Top-ranked Hawai’i of the Big West lost the first set, then came back strong and beat No. 14 Stanford of the MPSF in four to conclude a weekend of NCAA men’s volleyball in Austin, Texas.
Second-ranked Pepperdine and No. 3 Long Beach State were off, but No. 4 UCLA of the MPSF had to go five to beat UC Irvine of the Big West, and No. 5 Penn State and Saint Francis (PA) are tied atop the EIVA at 2-0.
Two MIVA teams came up with big victories as No. 6 Lewis beat No. 8 Grand Canyon of the MPSF in five, and No. 10 Ball State beat No. 9 BYU of the MPSF in four.
The only match Sunday has independent Daemen playing host to St. John Fisher.
Hawai’i (7-2) beat Stanford (6-3) 19-25, 25-13, 25-19, 25-20 in the Austin Convention Center before a packed house. The First Point College Challenge, which also included Fairleigh Dickinson and Queens, was conducted as a large boys tournament and a girls qualifier were played in the same building, and the youngsters helped filled the seats. Also, new Texas assistant Jordan Larson, the star of the USA team that won the Tokyo Olympics gold medal last summer, was on hand and patiently took photos with fans.
Hawai’i hit .283 and had six aces and 10 serving errors. Greeks Dimitrios Mouchlias and Spyros Chakas led the Rainbow Warriors. Mouchlias had 18 kills, an ace, four digs, and four blocks, one solo. Chakas had 13 kills, an assist, three aces, two blocks, and six digs. Stanford, which hit .203 and had three aces and 17 errors, got 15 kills from Will Rottman and 13 from Ethan Hill. Nathan Lietzke, who grew up in Austin, had three kills in five errorless tries, 34 assists, an ace, two blocks, and five digs … Earlier Saturday, Queens (5-4) beat first-year program Fairleigh Dickinson (0-5) in four …
UCLA (6-1) hit .402 and beat UC Irvine 25-23, 23-25, 25-14, 16-25, 15-11. Ido David led the Bruins with 20 kills, hit .353, and had an assist, two aces, two digs, and a solo block. UCLA had eight aces — three by Miles Partrain — and 24 errors. UCI (3-7) hit .370 and had five aces and 12 errors. Francesco Sani had 19 kills …
Penn State (7-3, 2-0) swept visiting George Mason 25-16, 25-16, 25-23. Brett Wildman had 17 kills with three errors in 28 attacks to hit .500, and Cal Fisher had 15 kills and hit .407. Mason (3-4, 0-2) hit .119 and had an ace and 10 errors … Saint Francis (4-4, 2-0) beat Princeton 20-25, 25-16, 26-24, 25-22. Four players had eight or more kills, including Joshua Blair with 13. Blair had two errors in 23 attacks and six blocks. SFU hit .356 and had three aces and 26 errors. Princeton (1-7, 0-2) hit .181 and had three aces and 21 errors … Also in the EIVA, Charleston swept St. Francis Brooklyn … Purdue Fort Wayne of the MIVA beat Harvard in four, and NJIT swept independent LIU …
Lewis (6-2) beat visiting Grand Canyon 26-24, 19-25, 25-23, 20-25, 15-10. Four players had eight or more kills, including 16 from Tyler Mitchem, who hit .444 and had six blocks, and 14 from Jason Gibbs, who had 11 digs. Camden Gianni had a big match for GCU (6-3) with 25 kills, a .400 hitting percengtage, and an ace, four digs, and five blocks, two solo. The Lopes hit .279 and had seven aces and 22 errors …
Ball State (6-1) bounced back at BYU (5-3) after losing there the day before. Kaleb Jenness led with 19 kills and six blocks in the 23-25, 25-19, 33-31, 25-20 victory. Jenness also had two assists, an ace, and seven digs. Dyer Ball had 17 kills, hit .355, and added six blocks and four digs. Felix Egharevba had nine kills and seven blocks. Ball State hit .278 and had three aces and 12 errors. BYU, which hit .233, had two aces and 16 errors. Kupono Browne led with 19 kills, hit .441 and added three blocks and six digs … Also in the MIVA, Lindenwood swept Maryville …
In other action, Erskine of Conference Carolinas beat Tusculum in four … North Greenville of Conference Carolinas swept the SIAC’s Edward Waters … and independent Lincoln Memorial improved to 6-0 with a sweep of Emmanuel of Conference Carolinas; The Railsplitters hit .362 and have the best record in program history after their first six matches.