NCAA volleyball: Ohio State men sweep SFU, UCSD, McKendree score upsets

A day after pulling off a big upset, Saint Francis got swept at Ohio State on a busy night in NCAA men’s volleyball. 

But there were two other upsets as UC San Diego knocked off visiting No. 11 Loyola in five — 16-14 in the fifth — and McKendree did the same to No. 13 CSUN — 19-17 in the fifth. 

Sixth-ranked Lewis won in five at No. 8 UC Irvine — 22-20 in the fifth — and Indiana Tech, which hadn’t lost since 1973 came up short against Belmont Abbey.

Friday’s men’s schedule is even busier.

The tournament continues at UC Santa Barbara when the home team plays Benedictine Mesa, CSUN plays Concordia and Long Beach State faces McKendree.

At Hawai’i, the Rainbow Warriors play Harvard, while Grand Canyon faces Emmanuel.

Around the nation non-conference action continues as BYU plays host to Penn State and USC plays George Mason.

Loyola is at UC Irvine, Quincy is home for Mount Olive, Purdue Fort Wayne is home for Queens, Ball State entertains Belmont Abbey, Lindenwood is home for Lincoln Memorial, St. Francis Brooklyn plays Sacred Heart, Princeton plays Charleston, and King is home for Urbana.

To watch those matches or any others that are being shown, go to the VolleyballMag.com TV listings page for direct links to the broadcasts.

Ohio State of the MIVA (3-0) made short work of visiting Saint Francis of the EIVA 25-18, 25-20, 25-19 a day after the Red Flash (1-1) had beaten No. 6 Stanford. Ohio State hit .254 and had just 30 kills, nine by Martin Lallemand and eight by Reese Devilbiss. The Buckeyes had five aces and 12 serving errors.

Lallemand had three digs and four blocks, two solo. Devilbiss had three digs and two blocks. Michael Wright had two kills in as many tries, 23 assists, an ace, five digs and three blocks.

Saint Francis, which hit .090, had four aces and 17 errors, Christian Graziano led with 10 kills, hit .533, and had a dig and two blocks, one solo … 

Kyle McCauley, a junior-college transfer playing his first match for the Tritons, had 20 kills as UC San Diego of the Big West opened its season with a 25-9, 20-25, 25-16, 23-25 and 16-14 victory over visiting Loyola of the MIVA (1-2).

McCauley, who had back-to-back kills to end the match, hit .361 and had an assist, two aces, two solo blocks and six digs. Wyatt Harrison added 18 kills and hit .382 and had an assist, two aces, a block and seven digs. Shane Benetz had 12 kills, hit .611 after having one error in 18 attacks, and had a dig and five blocks, one solo. Connor Walbrecht had a kill, 49 assists, three aces, four blocks and seven digs. UCSD hit .342 and had 10 aces and 19 errors.

“You start out the season, you play to win. To get the victory was a great job tonight by the boys,” UCSD coach Kevin Ring said.

“I’m a little biased about the Big West programs, but it’s been the top conference the last two years, and I think we’re going to show that again. Last year we were very young, one of the youngest teams I’ve had in a number of years. Last year’s returners didn’t have a lot of match experience, but these guys have been battle tested. And we’ve got a couple of incoming players, transfers, Kyle McCauley had a great match tonight. He gives us another big arm, great passing, it’s a great way to start the season.”

Cole Schlothauer led Loyola with 15 kills and had an assist, two aces, a block and seven digs. Luke Denton had seven kills, three aces, two digs and six blocks, two solo. His team hit .106 and had eight aces and 13 errors …

Lewis of the MIVA had to go overtime and then some as it improved to 2-1 with its 25-18, 21-25, 20-25, 25-20, 22-20 victory at UC Irvine (1-1). The Anteaters were up 11-8 in a fifth set that had 14 ties and three lead changes. UCI was up 20-19 but Lewis got a kill from Ryan Coenen, a block by Tyler Mitchem and Kyle Bugee, and then a kill by Mitchem to end it.

Coenen led with 19 kills, hit .341, and had two assists, three aces, two blocks and 11 digs. Bugee had 15 kills, four aces, three blocks and seven digs. TJ Murray had 12 kills with one error in 24 swings and hit .458 and had an ace and three blocks. Mitchem finished with nine kills, an ace, a dig and three blocks, one solo. Ryan Van Loo and Kevin Kauling combined for 56 assists. Their team hit .283 and had 11 aces and 23 errors.

UCI’s Joel Schneidmiller had 22 kills, hit .486, and had two assists, an ace, two blocks and four digs. Alexandre Nsakanda had 16 kills, an ace, nine digs and three blocks, one solo. Scott Stadick had three kills and nine blocks, three solo. The Anteaters hit .252 and had five aces and 15 errors …

At UCSB, the Gauchos of the Big West opened their season with a sweep of Concordia of the MPSF, Long Beach State of the Big West opened its season with a sweep of Benedictine Mesa, and McKendree of the MIVA opened its season with a five-set win over CSUN of the Big West despite 24 kills by Kyle Hobus.

UCSB beat Concordia 25-15, 25-16, 26-24 as Randy DeWeese led with 14 kills and hit .440. He had three aces, seven digs and a block. Roy McFarland and Keenan Sanders had seven kills each. McFarland hit .462 after having one error in 13 attacks, and had an ace, three digs and three blocks. Sanders had 10 errorless swings, an ace, a dig and three blocks. Their team hit .370 and had eight aces and 22 errors.

Concordia’s Raymond Barsemian had eight kills with one error in 17 attacks and hit .412. His team hit .194 and had two aces and 18 errors …

Long Beach State won 25-13, 25-21, 25-20 as it hit .292 and had four aces and 20 serving errors. Spencer Olivier led with 10 kills and had no errors in 20 attacks to hit .500. He added an assist, an ace, three blocks and four digs. Carlos Rivera had two kills, 29 assists, an ace, two blocks and five digs. Benedictine hit .013 …

McKendree beat CSUN 25-19, 27-25, 15-25, 16-25, 19-17 as it hit .229 and had five aces and 13 errors.

McKendree beat a Big West Team for the first time in its seven-year history, but it was not the highest-ranked team it has ever beaten. Last March, McKendree defeated No. 8 Brigham Young.

Zach Schnittker led with 13 kills, an assist, an ace, a solo block and three digs. Ethan Carroll had 10 kills, two assists, and two digs. Patrick Ross added nine kills, three assists, three ace, three blocks and seven digs. Ryan Serrano had four kills in 10 errorless attempts, 36 assists, an ace, three blocks and 11 digs.

Kyle Hobus got his 24 kills in 52 swings and hit .346. He had two assists, an ace but seven errors, a block and six digs. Maciej Ptaszynski had 13 kills, hit .333 and had two assists, two aces, a block and seven digs. Steve Rotter had 12 kills and Daniel Wetter 10. Taylor Ittner had two kills in as many tries, 46 assists, an ace, a block and 13 digs. His team hit .336 and had six aces and 21 errors … 

There were two matches at Hawai’i as the top-ranked Rainbow Warriors of the Big West (3-0) crushed visiting Emmanuel of Conference Carolinas (0-1) 25-13, 25-15, 25-15 and Harvard of the EIVA opened its season with a 25-18, 25-23, 25-23 sweep of Grand Canyon of the MPSF, which was also opening its season.

Thirteen different Hawai’i players had kills, six each by Colton Cowell and Chaz Galloway, who both had no errors in seven attacks. Max Rosenfeld had four kills and seven blocks. Their team hit .470 and had nine aces and eight errors. Emmanuel hit .107 and had one ace and 10 errors. Don Thompson led with nine kills … 

Harvard hit .344 and had four aces and 10 errors. Campbell Schoenfeld led with 14 kills, hit .429, and had an assist, an ace and eight digs. Eric Li had 11 kills, hit .417, and had three blocks and four digs. Camden Gianni led GCU with 13 kills and David Kisiel had 10. Their team hit .257 and had five aces and 14 errors … 

Mount Olive of Conference Carolinas evened its record at 1-1 with a sweep of the MIVA’s Lindenwood, which was opening its season. Jarrod Ferguson had 10 kills for Mount Olive and hit .413. Lindenwood hit .071 …

And Belmont Abbey of Conference Carolina won 25-21, 25-15, 25-12 at Indiana Tech in what was not only the season opener for both teams, but the first match for Indiana Tech since 1973. Liam Maxwell had 13 kills for Belmont Abbey, which hit .347.

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