NCAA men: Ohio St. tops USC; UCLA, Long Beach win; Edward Waters, Kentucky St. break through

The West Coast teams have dominated NCAA play this young men’s volleyball season, but Ohio State gave everyone else asome hope Saturday by defeating previously unbeaten USC. 

Men’s volleyball is new this year in the SIAC, a conference consisting of historically black colleges and universities, and Saturday two of those programs got victories as Edward Waters beat Erskine in five and Kentucky State swept Milligan. Evens Edouard of Edward Waters had 22 kills, hit .474, and had 10 aces.

There are two matche on Sunday’s schedule as the MIVA’s Purdue Fort Wayne plays at the EIVA’s NJIT and the EIVA’s Princeton, back from its West Coast road trip, plays host to independent Daemen. 

UCLA of the MPSF, the No. 2 team in the AVCA top 15, improved to 3-0 with a 17-25, 28-26, 25-22, 25-19 victory over visiting Penn State (4-2) of the MIVA. The Bruins, who hit .261, got 18 kills from Ethan Champlin, who hit .316 and had five digs and three blocks, one solo. Kevin Kobrine had 12 kills, hit .385, and had an assist, an ace, six digs, and five blocks, one solo. UCLA had two aces and 23 serving errors. 

Penn State lost to USC on Friday night. Against UCLA, the Nittany Lions got 16 kills from Cal Fisher, who had an assist, 11 digs, and four blocks, two solo. Brett Wildman had 10 kills but hit .037 and had nine digs and a block. Penn State hit .155 …

Earlier at UCLA, No. 11 Ohio State (4-1) of the MIVA gave No. 12 USC (5-1) of the MPSF its first defeat 26-24, 16-25, 25-18, 25-21. Ohio State, which hit .203, got 17 kills from Jacob Pasteur, who had an assist, an ace, four blocks, and nine digs. Martin Lallemand had 15 kills, two assists, an ace, three blocks, and 13 digs. Samuel Clark had nine kills, two assists, four blocks, and six digs. USC, which hit .183, got 12 kills from Brandon Browning, who ha two blocks and eight digs. Simon Gallas, who had 30 kills the day before against Penn State, had 11 kills and hit .088 to go with an assist, an ace, two blocks, and nine digs … 

Top-ranked Hawai’i and No. 4 Pepperdine were off, but No. 5 Long Beach State (4-0) of the Big West made it 2-0 on its Chicago-area trip by hitting .515 and sweeping at No. 9 Loyola Chicago (3-3) of the MIVA 25-17, 25-17, 25-22.

Long Beach had 41 kills with six erros in 68 attacks. In the first set alone, the Beach had 13 kills with no errors in 20 swings. Long Beach, which won in four at No. 7 Lewis on Friday, on Saturday got 12 kills from Alex Nikolov, who hit .429 and had an ace and five digs. Clarke Godbold had 11 kills, hit .474, and had four blocks and six digs. Spencer Olivier had nine kills with one error in 13 attacks, an assist, a block, and seven digs. Loyola, which hit .173, had four players with six or more kills … 

Lewis (4-1) of the MIVA swept visiting Belmont Abbey (3-2) of Conference Carolinas, which lost at Loyola on Friday. Lewis hit .406 in the 25-17, 25-15, 25-19 victory, as Jason Gibbs had 11 kills and Carter Burzlaff had 10. Gibbs hit .444 and had two aces, two blocks, and three digs. Burzlaff had one error in 14 attacks, a block and a dig. Tyler Morgan had two kills in three errorless swings, 31 assists, seven blocks, and three digs. Belmont Abbey hit .091 …

Sixth-ranked Grand Canyon of the MPSF, which lost at No. 8 UC San Diego of the MPSF on Friday, bounced back with a 25-21, 25-19, 24-26, 25-20 victory Saturday. It left GCU 3-2, while USCD is 2-1. Camden Gianni led the Lopes with 17 kills as he hit .333 and had four aces, a block, and seven digs. Jackson Hickman made the most of his first start and had 10 kills, an assist, an ace, and eight digs. Hugo Fisher had nine kills, a solo block, and two digs. GCU hit .267, while UCSD hit .184. Kyle McCauley led with 16 kills as he 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 … 

No. 10 BYU (2-2) of the MPSF went 2-0 against visiting UC Irvine (2-2) of the Big West, sweeping the Anteaters 25-22, 25-18, 25-21. BYU, which hit .395, got 13 kills from Davide Gardini, who had one error in 27 attacks to go with two aces, three blocks, and two digs. Alex Ah Sue had 11 kills, an ace, a block, and a dig. Miks Ramanis had nine kills with one error in 12 attacks, a solo block, and six digs. UCI, which lost in five at BYU on Friday, hit .187 on Saturday as four players had six or more kills. Francesco Sani led with nine, four blocks, and two digs …

Also in the MPSF on Saturday, No. 15 Stanford improved to 5-2 with a 25-11, 25-20, 23-25, 25-14 win over visiting UC Santa Cruz (0-6). Will Rottman led with 14 kills as he hit .300 and had a block and 11 digs. Stanford hit .272, while the Banana Slugs hit .096. Cinjun Coe had 14 kills, a block, and 14 digs for UCSC … Concordia (3-0) swept visiting The Master’s. The Master’s is a small Christian school located in Santa Claria, California … 

Also in the MIVA, Purdue Fort Wayne (3-2) swept at St. Francis Brooklyn on the EIVA, which finally got to open its season after two postponements. PFW’s Jon Diedrich had 16 kills and Bryce Walker 14 in the 25-11, 20-25, 25-12, 25-17 victory … Lindenwood (1-3) swept visiting Central State (0-5) of the SIAC as AJ Lewis had 11 kills, four aces, a block and four digs. Centra’s Yaron Afek had 10 kills … Quincy won twice, sweeping William Penn and beating Saint Xavier in five … 

In other EIVA matches, Harvard (2-3) hit .385 and swept King (1-3) of Conference Carolinas. Campbell Shoenfeld led with 13 kills as he hit .440 and had an ace, two blocks, and two digs … Saint Francis (PA) (2-3) swept visiting independent LIU (0-4) as Thomas Leahey had 11 kills with one error in 13 attacks to go with an ace and two blocks, one solo … Sacred Heart opened its season with a five-set win at indendent Daemen College (1-1), which got 22 kills from Zach Schneider. Schneider hit .415 and had an assist, three aces, four blocks, and five digs. Teammate Jake Couzens had five kills and nine blocks, one solo. Sacred Heart’s Patrick Mucherino had 11 kills and hit .529 and teammate Mark Berry and Ife Loverton had nine kills each. Loverton hit .400 and had six blocks, two solo … Morehouse of the SIAC at Charleston and Vassar at Sacred Heart were canceled … 

Also in Conference Carolinas on Saturday, Erskine fell to 0-7 as it gave Edward Waters (1-3) of the SIAC its first victory in program history. Evens Edouard led Edward Waters, from Jacksonville, Florida, with 22 kills and hit .474 after having four errors in 38 attacks. He had 10 aces, two blocks, and five digs. Kaelen Ingram had 15 kills, hit .357, and had an assist, an ace, a solo block, and six digs … King (1-2) went 0-2 for the day as it also lost to Queens (2-3) in five at Harvard. Jack Pflugner had 24 kills and hit .568 for Queens to go with six assists, three blocks, and nine digs. King’s Chance Hoffman had 23 kills, hit .450, and had an ace, three digs, and five blocks, one solo … 

Finally, and details are scant, but Kentucky State (1-3) got its first victory with a 25-10, 25-23, 25-15 sweep over Milligan at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee. Kentucky State then lost to the home team. Against Milligan, Jordan Howard led with 13 kills, three assists, two aces, five digs, and a block. Kade Andruski had seven kills with one error in 10 attacks, 20 assists, two aces and three digs. Things didn’t go as well against Cumberland when KSU hit negative .017. Earlier, Cumberland also swept Milligan and Carolina University.

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