NCAA men’s volleyball: USCB, USC score upsets; UCLA, BYU win five-setters
What a Friday in NCAA men’s volleyball.
AVCA No. 2 UCLA beat No. 11 Ohio State in five.
Unranked UC Santa Barbara knocked off No. 4 Pepperdine in five.
Tenth-ranked BYU beat No. 13 UC Irvine in five.
No. 12 USC got 30 kills from Simon Gallas and beat No. 3 Penn State in four sets in a match between previously unbeatens.
And No. 5 Long Beach State won in four at No. 7 Lewis.
The recaps follow. Saturday’s schedule includes Long Beach State at Loyola, Penn State at UCLA, UCI back at BYU, and Ohio State at USC.
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UCLA of the MPSF, which won its only previous match, beat visiting Ohio State (3-1) of the MIVA 25-18, 25-15, 23-25, 23-25, 15-8. Ido David led with 14 kills, two aces, two blocks, and four digs. Cole Ketrzynski had 11 kills, two assists, a block, and five digs. Ethan Champlin had 11 kills, four assists, three aces, two blocks, and six digs. Miles Partain had six kills in eight errorless tries, 47 assists, an ace, 11 digs, and thee blocks, one solo. His team hit .359.
Ohio State, which hit .202, got 16 kills from Jacob Pasteur, but he hit .091 and had no aces and seven errors, plus one block and five digs. Martin Lallemand and Samuel Clark had 12 kills each …
UC Santa Barbara (2-3) of the Big West, coming off a loss to Princeton, drove down the coast and upset Pepperdine (3-1) of the MPSF 24-26, 25-21, 25-22, 21-25, 15-7. Five Gauchos had five or more kills, including 15 by Haotia Xia, who had an ace, three digs, and seven blocks, one solo. Ryan Wilcox and Dayne Chalmers had eight kills each. Wilcox had two aces, two digs, and four blocks, one solo. UCSB hit .238. Pepperdine, which hit .201, had eight aces and 29 errors. Spencer Wickens led with 17 kills, three assists, three digs, and four blocks, one solo. Jaylen Jasper had 11 kills but no aces and seven errors to go with three blocks and seven digs. Bryce Dvorak had three kills, 50 assists, four aces, three blocks, and seven digs …
BYU (1-2) of the MPSF battled to a 25-23, 25-23, 17-25, 25-27, 15-12 victory over visiting UC Irvine (3-2) of the Big West. BYU, which hadn’t played in two weeks since opening its season with back-to-back losses at Penn State, got 18 kills from Davide Gardini and 15 from Alex Ah Sue. Gardini also had three assists, four aces, four digs, and five blocks, one solo, and Ah Sue had an ace, three digs, and six blocks. Gavin Julien had five kills and eight blocks, one solo. BYU hit .216; UCI hit .331. Francesco Sani led the Anteaters with 23 kills, hit .333 and had a dig and three blocks. Hilir Henno had 17 kills, hit .314, and had 15 digs and four blocks. UCI had two aces and 24 errors …
USC of the MPSF improved to 5-0 for its best start since 2015, handing the EIVA’s Penn State its first loss in five matches. Simon Gallas had 30 kills in the 25-22, 25-23, 23-25, 25-16 victory, the fourth most by a USC player in the rally-scoring era. Gallas had two errors in 48 attacks to hit .538 and added two blocks and six digs. He had no aces but five errors. Sam Kobrine had 11 kills, two assists, two aces, a block, and five digs. Chris Hall had two kills in four errorless tries, 47 assists, an ace, three blocks, and nine digs. His team hit .402. Penn State, which hit .278, got 20 kills from Cal Fisher, who hit .326 and had an ace, a block, and 10 digs. Brett Wildman had 11 kills, an ace, and six digs …
Long Beach State (3-0) of the Big West won 25-22, 25-22, 24-26, 25-20 at Lewis (3-1) of the MIVA. Alex Nikolov led a balanced attack with 16 kills, hit .364 and had an assist, an ace, two blocks, and a dig. Clarke Godbold had 14 kills, hit .300, and had four blocks and six digs, and Spencer Olivier had 12 kills, an assist, an ace, five blocks, and eight digs. Mason Briggs had 19 digs, and Aidan Knipe had a kill, 46 assists, six blocks, and five digs as Long Beach hit .309. Lewis, which hit .226, got 15 kills from Tyler Mitchem. He hit .462 and had five blocks and four digs. Michael Sack had nine kills, hit .429, and had an assist, an ace, a dig, and three blocks, one solo …
In Chicago, No. 9 Loyola (3-2) of the MIVA swept Belmont Abbey (3-1) of Conference Carolinas. The Ramblers, who hit .382, got 12 kills from Parker Van Buren, who hit .429, and 11 from Henry Payne, who had 11 no errors in 15 attacks. Belmont Abbey hit .097 …
Sixth-ranked Grand Canyon (3-2) of the MPSF won 25-21, 25-19, 24-26, 25-20 at No. 8 UC San Diego behind 17 kills by Camden Gianni. He hit .333 and had four aces, a block, and seven digs. Jackson Hickman had 10 kills, an assist, an ace, and eight digs. GCU hit .267, and UCSD hit .184. Kyle McCauley had 16 kills, hit .316, and had two aces, eight digs, and two blocks, one solo. Wyatt Harrison had 11 kills, an ace, a block, and six digs …
Ball State of the MIVA improved to 3-0 with a 25-11, 25-18, 25-10 blasting of visiting George Mason (2-2) of the EIVA. The Cardinals hit .457 with 46 kills and nine errors in 81 attacks. Angelos Mandilaris led with 16 kills and hit .538 after making just two errors in 26 swings. He added an assist, three aces, three blocks and three digs. Kaleb Jenness had 12 kills, hit .364, and had an ace, a block, and seven digs. Nick Martinski had eight kills in 18 errorless attacks and nine blocks, one solo, and Felix Egharevba had six kills, hit .500, and had eight blocks, one solo. Ball State had a 13-1 blocks advantage. GMU hit .014 …
No. 15 Stanford (4-2) of the MPSF overpowered Vanguard (0-1) 25-21, 25-20, 25-21 as the Cardinal hit .406 and had four players with seven or more kills. Will Rottman led with nine …
The EIVA’s Harvard swept Queens … Two MIVA teams swept as Quincy beat William Penn, and McKendree beat Central State of the SIAC.
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