NCAA men’s volleyball: Long Beach sweeps; UCLA, USC, GCU get MPSF wins; Penn State rolls on

Second-ranked Long Beach State of the Big West swept visiting No. 12 Stanford of the MPSF on Friday in NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball.

There also were three MPSF matches as No. 2 UCLA, No. 5 USC — behind 28 kills from Simon Gallas — and No. 9 Grand Canyon all won. 

Both ranked MIVA teams, No. 8 Ball State and No. 15 Ohio State, won, and No. 4 Penn State remained unbeaten and in command of the EIVA.

All three matches involving Conference Carolinas teams went five, and one featured a 29-kills performance by Michael Marsans of Lees-McRae.

The recaps follow, but first a look at Saturday’s schedule.

There are two matches involving MPSF teams — No. 9 Grand Canyon tries to win again at No. 13 BYU, and No. 12 Stanford is at CSUN of the Big West.

In the MIVA, the Chicago teams square off when No. 10 Lewis plays  at No. 14 Loyola. Also, McKendree is at Purdue Fort Wayne.

Fourth-ranked Penn State plays at NJIT in one of four EIVA matches. Also, Princeton goes to George Mason, Sacred Heart is at Charleston, and you can call them Francis as Saint Francis (PA) goes to St. Francis Brooklyn.

Conference Carolinas has four matches –Erskine at North Greenville, King at Barton, Belmont Abbey at Emmanuel, and Lees-McRae at Mount Olive.

Matches involving independents include Central State of the SIAC playing Daemen, and Fairleigh Dickinson playing Alderson Broaddus.

Want to watch a match? We have the viewing links in our VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings.

MPSF — UCLA (10-2, 2-0) hit .478 and won 25-13, 25-20, 25-15 at Concordia (5-4, 0-2). The Bruins had five ace and 15 errors, and Alex Knight and Ido David had 11 kills each. Knight hit .444 and added an assist, an ace, three blocks and eight digs. David had one error in 17 attacks to hit .588. CUI’s Uriel Batista had eight kills … 

USC (11-3, 1-1) hit .459, got 28 kills from Simon Gallas and beat visiting No. 7 Pepperdine 22-25, 25-23, 25-19, 25-20. Gallas had two kills in 45 attacks and hit .578 to go with an ace, six digs and four blocks, one solo. Sam Kobrine had 13 kills, hit .323, and had four assists, a dig and two blocks, one solo. Chris Hall had two kills in four errorless tries, 56 assists, a block and eight digs. The Trojans had one ace and 14 errors. Pepperdine (7-5, 2-2) hit .333 and had an ace and nine errors. Spencer Wickens led the team with 22 kills, hit .465 and added an assist, a block and 11 digs. Jacob Steele had 15 kills, an assist, a solo block and seven digs. Bryce Dvorak had 55 assists, a block and three digs … 

Grand Canyon (8-6 .2-1) hit .412 and won 21-25, 25-19, 25-19, 22-22 at BYU (5-8, 0-1). Christian Janke led the ‘Lopes with 21 kills and hit .606 after having one error in 33 attacks. He had an assist, a block and four digs. Camden Gianni had 16 kills, hit .444 and had an assist, two aces, three blocks and eight digs. Nicholas Slith had a kill, 51 assists, two blocks and eight digs. GCU had four aces and 16 errors. BYU, which hit .310 and had four aces and 16 errors, got 15 kills from Davide Gardini and 14 from Miks Ramanis. Gardini had no errors in 25 attacks, hit .600 and had four assists, an ace, two blocks and three digs. Ramanis had an ace, a block and four digs … 

Long Beach State (8-2) of the Big West overpowered visiting Stanford of the MPSF 25-19, 25-22, 25-18. Long Beach hit just .211 and had seven aces and 11 errors. Alex Nikolov led the way with nine kills, five aces, a solo block and three digs. Stanford (8-4) hit .170 and had one ace and 18 errors. Will Rottman had 12 kills, two blocks and four digs, and Justin Liu had 16 digs and an assist.

EIVA — Penn State (11-3, 6-0) hit .387 and won 25-17, 25-14, 27-25 at St. Francis Brooklyn (7-5, 3-4) to go to 18-0 in sets in conference play. The Nittany Lions, who had six aces and 16 errors, got 12 kills from Toby Ezeonu, who had no errors in 16 attacks to go with two blocks, one solo. Cal Fisher had 10 kills, hit .389 and had four aces, a block and five digs. St. Francis hit .229 and had an ace and 19 errors. David Vorfi and Jack Hershman had eight kills each …

NJIT (8-3, 4-1) stayed a game back in the loss column with a 25-19, 25-23, 25-21 win over visiting Saint Francis (PA). The Highlanders hit .329 and had two aces and 12 errors, and Jens Feldthus led them with 11 kills, an assist, an ace, a block and four digs. Griffin Fieseler had three kills in six errorless attempts, 25 assists, and seven digs. SFU (7-6, 4-2) hit .140 and had eight aces and 15 errors. Blake Liprando led with 12 kills, two aces, a block and six digs … 

Charleston (5-4, 2-3) hit .354 and beat visiting Sacred Heart 25-22, 16-25, 25-17, 28-26. Jake Vorburger led with 16 kills, hit .394 and had a block and a dig. Lachlan Bray had 12 kills, three aces, a block and three digs. Charleston had five aces and 14 errors. Sacred Heart (4-5, 0-5) hit .213 and had five aces and 15 errors. Patrick Mucherino led with 18 kills, two aces, a solo block and five digs. Mark Berry had 15 kills …

George Mason (5-6) won a wild fourth set and beat visiting independent Fairleigh Dickinson 25-16, 22-25, 25-18, 31-29. Mason, which hit .289 and had eight aces and 20 errors, got 19 kills from Omar Hoyos. He hit .533 and had an assist, three aces and eight digs. Zach Talamoa had a kill, 50 assists, two aces, four blocks and four digs. FDU (2-7) hit .159 and had two aces and 14 errors. Jack Lydon and Artem Vetrov had 11 kills each.

MIVA — Ball State (11-2, 5-1) beat visiting Quincy 25-22, 25-17, 25-19. Ball State hit .240 and had seven aces and eight errors. Bryce Behrendt had 10 kills and hit .368, and Nick Martinski had nine kills, three aces, 10 digs and three blocks, one solo. Quincy (3-9, 0-6) hit .115 and had an ace and eight errors. Nathan Lawton led with 10 kills, the ace, two blocks and eight digs … 

Ohio State (7-6, 3-3) swept visiting Lindenwood 25-16, 25-20, 25-19. The Buckeyes hit .493 with 44 kills and seven errors in 75 attacks to go with three aces and 14 errors. Jacob Pasteur had 15 kills with no errors in 21 attacks, four assists, a dig and three blocks. Samuel Clark had 15 kills, two aces, eight digs and two blocks. Lindenwood (3-8, 1-5) hit .148 and had an ace and seven errors, and AJ Lewis had 10 kills.

CONFERENCE CAROLINAS — Lees-McRae (5-5, 2-4) tied its conference wins total from last season with a 25-23, 27-29, 25-19, 21-25, 27-25 victory over visiting Barton (0-7, 0-4). Michael Marsans had 29 kills, the most by an L-M player since 2015, and added two assists, two aces, a solo block and seven digs. Max Kuntz had seven kills, three assists, three aces and 10 digs, and Bradley Peters had four kills, 45 assists, two aces, four blocks and 14 digs. Steven Nalls added 13 digs and five assists. Lees-McRae hit .194 and had nine aces and 20 errors. Barton, which hit .211 and had eight aces and 27 errors, got 21 kills from Brandon Johnston, who also had two assists, two aces, a block and eight digs. Zach Reider had 17 kills, hit .500, and had an ace, three blocks and a dig. Seth Deppe had three kills, 55 assists, two aces, four blocks and nine digs … 

Mount Olive (5-3, 3-1) beat visiting King 25-17, 23-25, 30-28, 23-25, 16-14 behind 21 kills from Dominic Hagerty. He hit .326 and had a block and 10 digs. Tobi Azeez had 17 kills, an assist, three aces, a block and six digs. Trevor Tresor had 15 digs and four assists, and Jarrod Fergsuon had a kill, 57 assists, two blocks and 11 digs.  Mount Olive hit .305 and had four aces and 18 errors. King (4-9, 3-2) hit .250 and had three aces and 22 errors. Suetonius Harris led with 19 kills, two aces, a block and 15 digs. JT Deppe had 17 kills, two assists, six blocks and 16 digs. Jack Sarnowski had three kills in as many attempts, an ace and three digs … 

Independent Queens (8-7) beat visiting Belmont Abbey 18-25, 25-14, 25-16, 22-25, 15-11. Daniel Leitao led with 17 kills, two blocks and 15 digs. Queens hit .291 and had 10 aces — four each by Stirling Sims and Ananias Hayes — and 19 errors. Belmont Abbey (10-5) hit .168 and had seven aces and 14 errors. Matteo Miselli had 15 kills, hit .370 and added an assist, an ace, three blocks and eight digs in the loss.

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