Eighth-ranked BYU had to go five to hold off visiting Princeton, while No. 2 Hawai’i stayed unbeaten with a sweep of McKendree in NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball Thursday. Also, the two ranked MIVA teams from Chicago, No. 7 Lewis and No. 10 Loyola, won league matches.
It was a prelude to a busy Friday both in men’s indoor and women’s beach volleyball around the country.
For the men, the Big West’s Hawai’i is back at the BYU Invitational and plays Princeton of the EIVA, while BYU of the MPSF takes on McKendree of the MIVA.
There is an MPSF match when Concordia goes to Grand Canyon.
The MIVA slate shows Ohio State home for Lindenwood, while in Conference Carolinas there are four league matches as Erskine goes to King, Emmanuel plays at Lees-McRae, Limestone goes to Mount Olive and North Greenville is at Barton. Barton is 9-1 in the conference, a game ahead of King.
On the beach, fourth-ranked LSU is home for North Florida, Tulane, No. 19 Georgia State and Southern Miss on Friday and Saturday.
Second-ranked USC goes to Arizona State and plays the home team and then No. 5 Pepperdine on Friday before taking on No. 6 Hawai’i on Saturday. Hawai’i started its trip to the mainland with a 3-2 win at No. 17 Grand Canyon on Thursday, breaking the Lopes’ nine-match winning streak.
Florida State, ranked No. 3, is home for No. 14 Arizona, Austin Peay and No. 10 Stetson.
Also Friday, No. 9 Long Beach State is home for Washington and Nebraska in a gathering that also includes Colorado Mesa, CSU Bakersfield, and No. 14 Stanford.
BYU Invitational: Gabi Garcia Fernandez had seven of his 22 kills in the fifth set as the Cougars (12-6) beat Princeton (10-10) 19-25, 25-14, 22-25, 25-21, 15-10.
Garcia Fernandez hit .439 and added an assist, seven digs and four blocks but went zero for six from the serving line.
His teammates combined for just 20 more kills as Princeton had 58 kills to BYU’s 42. What’s more, the Tigers held a .298 to .284 hitting advantage and both teams had six aces.
George Huhmann led Princeton with 22 kills and hit .333 to go with an assist, two aces, six digs and four blocks. Parker Dixon had 21 kills, hit .366, and had four digs and two blocks. Jeron Nelsen had three kills and four aces to go with six digs and two blocks one solo.
Hawai’i (18-0) crushed McKendree (9-9) 25-10, 25-19, 25-18 as the Rainbow Warriors recorded their 18th sweep of the season. Stijn van Tilburg led with 18 kills with no errors in 24 swings to hit .750 to go with two digs and two blocks. Rado Parapunov, who hit .417, had 14 kills, three of his team’s four aces, and five digs and five blocks, two solo.
Lewis, Loyola win: Lewis (18-4, 9-0) held its lead atop the MIVA with a 25-23, 25-19, 15-25, 23-25, 15-12 win at No. 13 Purdue Fort Wayne (13-8, 5-3).
Ryan Coenen led Lewis with 15 kills but hit .149. He had two of his team’s six aces, nine digs and two blocks. TJ Murray added 10 kills and hit .333 and had a dig and four blocks. Lewis hit .165.
PFW’s Pelegrin Vargas had 22 kills, eight digs and seven blocks. Tony Price had 12 kills, seven digs and two blocks to go with one of the Mastodons’ four aces, and Alex Dickmann had 11 kills and hit .391.
Loyola (14-7, 7-2) won at No. 15 Ball State (12-11, 3-5) 25-19, 25-22, 25-21.
The Ramblers, who hit .369, got 10 kills each from Dane LeClair and Will Tischler. LeClair hit .375 and had six digs and six blocks. Tischler hit .304 and had a dig and six blocks. Kyle Piekarski, who had seven kills and hit .636 with no errors in 11 swings, also had six blocks, and so did Paul Narup, one of them a solo.
Matt Szews led Ball State with 14 kills but hit .119. He had an assist, seven digs, a block and an ace. David Siebum had 10 kills.
