NCAA men: CUI upsets Pepperdine; UCLA wins MPSF; Ball St. tops Loyola

Concordia Irvine took down No. 8 Pepperdine in the MPSF, second-ranked UCLA swept No. 12 USC to clinch the MPSF’s top seed in the postseason tournament, and No. 11 Ball State swept No. 10 Loyola Chicago to tighten the top of the MIVA on Thursday in NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball. 

There is another relatively light schedule Friday but it includes some key conference battles. Top-ranked Hawai’i is at No. 5 UC Irvine and No. 4 Long Beach State is at No. 15 CSUN in the Big West and No. 6 Grand Canyon is at No. 9 Stanford in the MPSF. Third-ranked Penn State plays an EIVA match at George Mason. The other ranked team in action is No. 14 Charleston, which plays host to Princeton in the EIVA.

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Concordia Irvine (8-15, 2-7) beat visiting Pepperdine (15-11, 4-5) for the first time in program history after 10 previous meetings. Uriel Batista had 22 kills in the 18-25, 25-17, 25-17, 26-24 victory, CUI’s third over a ranked team this season. He hit .326 and had an assist, six digs and five blocks, two solo. Gage Doble had 12 kill with one error in 20 attacks to hit .550 and had two aces, a dig and three blocks, one solo. Gil Herold had seven kills in nine errorless swings, four digs an four blocks, two solo, and Cole Vigo had four kills in nine errorless attacks and eight blocks, three solo. CUI hit .376 and had three aces and 11 serving errors and held 15-5 blocks advantage. 

Jaylen Jasper had 22 kills for Pepperdine to go with an ace, five digs and two blocksm obe solo. Jacob Steel and Akin Akinwumi had 12 kills each. The Waves hit .252 and had two aces and 13 errors … 

UCLA (24-2, 9-0) overpowered visiting USC (8-14, 1-8) to earn a first-round MPSF tournament bye. The Bruins won 25-22, 25-17, 25-22, their 17th sweep of the season. They are 27-1 in MPSF sets this season.

Alex Knight led UCLA with 12 kills and hit .500 after having one error in 22 attacks. He had four blocks and six digs. Merrick McHenry had 10 kills, hit .467, and had an assist, a solo block and three digs. Andrew Rowan had two kills in three errorless tries, 31 assists, two aces, three blocks and two digs. His team hit .263 and had seven aces and 15 serving errors. USC hit .208 and had two aces and 17 errors. Dillon Klein and Lucas Frassrand had seven kills each … 

Loyola (21-5, 11-2) still leads the MIVA, but Ball State (17-8, 10-3) and Ohio State (18-9, 10-3) are now a game back after Thursday. 

Ball State’s 25-21, 25-18, 27-25 victory was its first over Loyola since 2020. Tinaishe Ndavazocheva led the Cardinals with 15 kills and hit .429 to go with three digs and two blocks, one solo. Kaleb Jeness added 11 kills, an assist, two blocks and five digs. Ball State hit .375 and had two aces and just six errors. Loyola, which hit .283 and had two aces and 16 errors, got 14 kills from Parker Van Buren and 11 from Cole Schlothauer, who had seven digs … 

Ohio State swept Purdue Fort Wayne (16-11, 7-6) as Jacob Pasteur had 14 kills and five aces in the 25-14, 25-19, 25-15 victory. Shane Wetzel had 12 kills and Jack Stevens 11. Ohio State hit .365 and had eight aces and 12 errors. The Mastodons hit .085 …

Also in the MIVA the bottom four teams squared off as Lewis (15-12, 6-7) swept at Lindenwood (9-12, 6-7) and Quincy (8-17, 1-12) got its first conference victory by beating visiting McKendree (6-14, 1-12) in five. Raje Alleyne had 25 kill for Quincy to go with two aces, four digs and six blocks, four solo … 

Kentucky State (3-23, 2-5 SIAC) broke its long losing streak and extended Morehouse’s (0-16, 0-6) with a four-set victory. Trent Findley led the Thoroughbreds with 10 kills, while Morehouse got its first set victory over the season in the 25-20, 25-19, 22-25, 25-20 defeat … Also in the SIAC, Central State (13-14, 5-1) won in five at Fort Valley State (7-17, 4-4) as Cameron Lee had 16 kills and nine digs. Ljubisa Novakovic had 14 kills, two aces a block and nine digs and D’Aaron McCraney had 12 kills, hit .429, and had four aces, a block and three digs. Fort Valley’s Isaiah Fedd had 16 kills, an assist, two aces, 10 digs and three blocks, one solo. Jaxon Hicks added 11 kills, an assist, three aces, two blocks and 11 digs … 

In a match of independents, Queens (14-12) swept at Limestone (14-11).

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