There were no upsets Friday in NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball, as ranked winners included USC and Stanford (MPSF), Long Beach State, Hawai’i and UC Irvine (Big West) and Penn State (EIVA).
And Saturday looms large in two conferences that will end their regular seasons with titles at stake.
In the MIVA, No. 7 Ball State (19-3, 11-2) and No. 11 Loyola Chicago (17-7, 11-2) are tied for first and have the top seed in next week’s MIVA Tournament at stake. Ball State plays at Purdue Fort Wayne, and Loyola plays at Ohio State. Loyola has won four in a row, including a sweep of Ball State on Thursday. Loyola also won their previous meeting.
Also in the MIVA, No. 13 Lewis is home for Lindenwood, and Quincy is at No. 15 McKendree.
Conference Carolinas also will end its regular season Saturday, and North Greenville (17-5, 11-2) and Mount Olive (14-5, 11-2) are tied for first. North Greenville goes to Emmanuel, and Mount Olive plays at King (16-11, 10-3). If Emmanuel upsets North Greenville and King wins, there would be a three-way tie. North Greenville beat Mount Olive in five sets in both their meetings this season. Mount Olive beat King in five in their previous meeting.
Also in Conference Carolinas, Belmont Abbey goes to Erskine, and Barton goes to Lees-McRae.
The MPSF has three matches — No. 1 UCLA home for No. 8 Pepperdine; No. 5 USC at Concordia; and No. 12 Stanford home for BYU.
In the Big West, No. 2 Long State goes to UCSD, No. 4 Hawai’i is home for UCSB, and No. 14 UC Irvine is home for CSUN.
In the EIVA, No. 3 Penn State, which has won 17 straight and has clinched the regular-season title, is home for NJIT, Saint Francis (PA) plays at St. Francis Brooklyn, George Mason is at Princeton, and Charleston is at Harvard. Sacred Heart plays Lancaster Bible.
In the SIAC, Fort Valley State plays at Central State, Morehouse is at Kentucky State, and Edward Waters is at Benedict.
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Friday’s results
MPSF — USC (18-6, 5-4) hit .432 and beat visiting Concordia 25-20, 25-23, 25-18. The Trojans, who had four aces and 18 errors, got 15 kills from Simon Gallas, who hit .414 and had a block and seven digs. Sam Kobrine had 11 kills, an assist, an ace, five blocks and six digs, and Lucas Frassran had nine kills in 12 errorless attacks, two digs and two blocks, one solo. Liam Schroeder had six kills in seven errorless swings, an ace and six blocks. CUI (10-13, 3-8) hit .173 and had four aces and eight errors. Owen Chun had 10 kills in the loss, and Jonathan Carlson had seven kills in 18 errorless attacks, two aces, two blocks and 10 digs …
Stanford (11-11, 3-6) hit .420 and swept visiting BYU (8-13, 3-6). Will Rottman had a big match with 18 kills in 25 swings with one error to hit .680. He added three of his team’s four aces, two blocks and four digs but also had four of the Cardinal’s 13 errors. Kevin Lamp had 11 kills, hit .304 and had three assists, no aces and four errors, a block and three digs. Nathaniel Gates had eight kills in nine errorless attacks, a dig and five blocks. BYU hit .299 and had four aces and 12 errors. Davide Gardine led the team with 16 kills as he hit .367 and had two assists, two blocks and four digs. Kupono Browne had 14 kills, hit .480 and had six blocks.
BIG WEST — Long Beach State (17-3, 6-1) got past the first set and then overpowered visiting UC San Diego 31-29, 25-18, 25-12. Long Beach, which hit .377, had seven aces — three by Calvin Sanborn — and 13 errors. Alex Nikolov led LBSU with 12 kills and hit .611 with one error in 18 attacks. He added an assist, an ace with five errors, four blocks and two digs. Spencer Olivier had 11 kills, hit .350 and had an assist, four blocks and four digs. Simon Torwie had eight kills, hit .545 and had an ace and six blocks. UCSD (12-9, 4-4) hit .243 and had one ace and 16 errors. Kyle McCauley had nine kills, an assist, the ace, two blocks and two digs …
Hawai’i (19-5, 4-3) beat visiting UCSB 25-16, 25-23, 28-26. Hawai’i, which hit .278 and had six aces and 10 errors, got 21 kills from the Greeks. Spyros Chakas had 11 kills, an assist, three aces, a block and seven digs, and Dimitrios Mouchlias had 10 kills with no errors in 20 attacks, an assist, a block and five digs. UCSB (16-7, 5-3) hit .242 and had four aces and 16 errors. Ryan Wilcox had 15 kills, an assist and six digs …
Francesco Sani had 21 kills as UC Irvine (9-13, 2-5) won at CSUN 25-23, 25-22, 23-25, 25-22. Sani hit .317 and had two aces, three digs and two blocks, one solo. Cole Gillis had 13 kills, hit .417 and had an assist, four aces, five digs and two blocks, one solo. UCI hit .364 and had seven aces and 19 errors. Kyle Hobus led CSUN (6-12, 1-6) with 23 kills, hit .405 and had an assist, a block and five digs. Daniel Westter had 13 kills with no errors in 19 attacks, plus two assists, a solo block and a dig. CSUN hit .336 and had two aces and 15 errors.
EIVA — Penn State (21-3, 14-0) hit .458 and swept visiting St. Francis Brooklyn 25-12, 25-21, 25-17. Brett Wildman led the Nittany Lions with 13 kills, hit .550 and had five digs. Cal Fisher had 10 kills, hit .320 and added four aces and nine digs. The Lions had nine aces and 12 errors. St. Francis (10-12, 4-8) hit .203 and had three aces and 10 errors. David Vorfi had eight kills, two aces, a block and a dig …
Saint Francis (PA) (14-11, 7-7) won in five over visiting NJIT (13-9, 8-5). Nathan Zini led SFU with 22 kills, hit .400 and had four aces, seven digs and two blocks … Charleston (7-13, 3-10) won 25-22, 24-26, 21-25 at Harvard (10-11, 8-5) … George Mason (12-11) swept visiting independent Fairleigh Dickinson for its fourth win in a row, and Sacred Heart (9-15) won in four at independent LIU.
CONFERENCE CAROLINAS — Mount Olive (13-5, 11-2) won in four at Lees-McRae (7-14, 3-10), and King (16-11, 10-3) swept winless Barton (0-18, 0-13).
SIAC — Fort Valley State (5-11, 3-1) swept Kentucky State (1-10, 1-6) and Central State (9-13, 7-1) swept Morehouse (0-15, 0-8).
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