Pivotal NCAA men’s volleyball Saturday on tap in Big West, MPSF, MIVA, EIVA

After a Friday in which Hawai’i beat UC Irvine, Clarke Godbold had 32 kills as Long Beach State had to pull off a reverse sweep to beat CSUN, Stanford upset Grand Canyon and Princeton knocked off Charleston, Saturday sets up as the most pivotal day of the NCAA Division I-II season with key matches in the Big West, MPSF, MIVA and EIVA.

Conference titles, tournament seeding and possible NCAA at-large berths are all at stake as the regular season winds down.

A day after top-ranked Hawai’i beat visiting No. 5 UC Irvine to create a three-way tie for first-place in the Big West, the same teams go at it again in Honolulu. Also Saturday, No. 4 Long Beach, tied now with UH and UCI at 6-1, plays host to No. 15 CSUN, five games back.

In the MPSF, No. 2 UCLA, which has already won the league’s regular-season title, goes across town to No. 12 USC. Concordia Irvine goes to Pepperdine two days after upsetting the No. 8 Waves. And No. 6 Grand Canyon is at No. 9 Stanford. Stanford (5-4) trails idle and second-place BYU by a game in the win column and GCU (6-5) and Pepperdine (4-5) are right behind.

In the MIVA, where No. 10 Loyola Chicago (11-2) holds a one-game lead over No. 12 Ball State and No. 13 Ohio State, Saturday is big. Loyola goes to Ohio State, while Ball State plays host to fourth-place Purdue Fort Wayne.

Third-ranked Penn State, which now holds a two-game lead over No. 14 Charleston in the EIVA, is back at George Mason. Charleston, swept at home Friday by Princeton, plays host to the Tigers again. Princeton trails Charleston by a game in the loss column.

Also on the schedule are four NEC matches, including first-place Daemen home for Merrimack. Daemen holds a one-game lead over LIU and Saint Francis (PA), and those teams play each other at SFU.

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Hawai’i (23-2, 6-1 Big West) hit .451 and held a 10-3 blocks advantage to came away with a 25-16, 17-25, 25-23, 25-22 victory over visiting UC Irvine (16-7, 6-1). Dimitrios Mouchlias went off for 23 kills as the the Rainbow Warriors beat UCI for the 12th time in a row. He hit .452 after having four errors in 42 attacks and added three digs and six blocks, three solo.

Spyros Chakas had 14 kills with one error in 31 attacks to hit .419 and had an assist, three aces, three blocks and three digs. Cole Hogland had six kills in eight errorless attacks and Guilherme Voss had six kills with one error in eight swings and four blocks. Jakob Thelle had two kills, 49 assists, an ace, a block and seven digs. UCI, which lost despite hitting .396, had four players with 10 or more kills, 19 by Francesco Sani. He hit .455 and had an ace and four digs …

Long Beach State (17-3, 6-1) won 25-27, 22-25, 25-17, 25-21, 15-9 at CSUN (12-12, 1-6). Godbold’s 32 kills are the most by a Long Beach player since 2010. He hit .571 after having four errors in 49 attacks and added a block and seven digs. Spencer Oliver had 14 kills, an assist, an ace, 12 digs and two blocks, one solo. Shane Holdaway had 14 kills with one error in 18 attacks and three blocks, and Sotiris Siapanis had 13 kills, four assists and 10 digs. Aidan Knipe had two kills in his only tries and a career-high 66 assists to go with three blocks and 10 digs. Kyle Hobus, who had an assist, two aces, seven digs and seven blocks, one solo, led CSUN with 14 kills. Griffin Walters had 13 kills, three digs an three blocks … Also in the Big West, UC San Diego (8-14, 2-6) Ryan Ka had 28 kills as the Tritons beat visiting UC Santa Barbara (5-16, 1-7) 25-20, 20-25, 19-25, 25-14, 15-13. Ka had an assist, an ace, six digs and two blocks, one solo, His teammates combined for 30 kills, nine by Josh Schellinger, who had three assists, two aces a block and 10 digs. Berkeley Miesfeld had three kills, two assists, an ace, four blocks and a match-high 14 digs. UCSB’s Nick Amoruso had 21 kills, an assist, an ace, two digs and four blocks, one solo. Ryan Wilcox had 17 kills, three assists, two aces, nine digs and two blocks, one solo … 

Stanford (12-10, 5-4 MPSF) overpowered visiting GCU (21-5, 6-5) 25-17, 25-17, 25-20. The Cardinal, which hit .397, got 11 kills from Kevin Lamp, who hit .381 and had an assist, three aces, a block and five digs. Will Rottman added nine kills, two assists, an ace, five blocks and a dig. GCU hit .122 … 

Penn State (21-7, 7-0 EIVA) made short work of George Mason (10-13, 2-5), needing only 30 kills for the 25-20, 25-20, 25-15 victory. Cal Fisher had 13 kills for the Nittany Lions, hitting ,385 to go with an assist, two aces, four blocks and two digs. Ryan Merk had 12 digs … 

Princeton (11-11, 5-3) kept itself in the chase with a 25-22, 25-19, 25-20 victory at Charleston (22-3, 5-2). Ben Harrington had 13 kills and hit .4-9 to go with an ace, a block and five digs. Brady Wedbush had 10 kills, an assist, an ace, a block and six digs … Also in the EIVA, Harvard   (8-13, 1-6) won the first two sets and then came away with a five-set victory at NJIT (8-14, 2-6). Kade McGovern had 17 kills, an assist, six digs and seven blocks, two solo. NJIT’s Alessandro Negri had 26 kills to go with three assists, a block and three digs … 

There were four NEC matches as Daeman kept its lead with a four-set win over visiting Sacred Heart, LIU kept pace with a four-set win at Fairleigh Dickinson, Saint Francis (PA) did the same with a sweep of St. Francis Brooklyn, and D’Youville beat visiting Merrimack in four. The NEC line of the night went to FDU’s Jamal Ellis Carballo, who had 30 kills, four digs and two blocks … 

In the only SIAC match of the day, Central State (14-14, 6-1) swept at Morehouse (0-16, 0-9) as Cameron Lee had 10 kills in 15 errorless attacks to go with five assists, an ace, four digs and two blocks, one solo …

Conference Carolinas teams split their matches with independents. Barton (15-17)  beat Tusculum (9-16)  in five, while Mount Olive (9-16) lost in four to Lincoln Memorial (19-4). Colby Landry had 26 kills for Tusculum, while Cole Campisano had 23 kill kills for Lincoln Memorial.

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