Score two big victories for the little guys.
In NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball in Provo, McKendree of the MIVA stunned No. 8 BYU of the MPSF on its home court, while in a MIVA match Lindenwood knocked off Ohio State in Columbus.
Things don’t get any easier for BYU when the Cougars play host to No. 2 Hawai’i of the Big West on Saturday.
Also in Provo, top-ranked Long Beach State of the Big West faces No. 11 USC of the MPSF, and the EIVA’s Princeton plays McKendree.
Sixth-ranked UC Irvine goes to No. 4 Pepperdine of the MPSF. The MPSF’s Concordia plays two non-conference matches in Arizona against Ottawa University and Benedictine.
The MIVA shows league-leader No. 7 Lewis at No. 15 Ball State, No. 10 Loyola at No. 13 Purdue Fort Wayne and Quincy at Ohio State.
In the Conference Carolinas, Barton is home for Limestone and King entertains Emmanuel. There are two other league matches as North Greenville goes to Mount Olive and Erskine goes to Lees-McRae, while Belmont Abbey is home for Lincoln Memorial.
There’s also plenty of NCAA beach action Saturday, including the tournament at No. 4 LSU continues with the Tigers playing No. 19 Georgia State and Southern Mississippi.Â
At Arizona State, the matches include No. 2 USC facing No. 6 Hawai’i. Third-ranked Florida State’s home tournament includes the Seminoles facing No. 10 Stetson.
BYU Invitational: McKendree (10-9) scored a big victory at BYU (12-7), beating the Cougars 25-19, 23-25, 23-25, 22-25 despite 23 kills by freshman Alex Ah Sue.
It was the highest-ranked team ever beaten by McKendree, which hit .239 to BYU’s .305.
Brendon Dunn led with 13 kills but hit .176. He had an assist, three of his team’s five aces, eight digs and four blocks. Ethan Carroll had 11 kills, two assists, a dig and an ace, and Zach Schnittker had 10 kills, two aces, five digs and three blocks.
McKendree is a private school in Lebanon, Ill., with an enrollment of less than 3,000.
Sue hit .364 and had six digs and a block. Zach Eschenberg had 12 kills and hit .300 to go with an assist, two of his team’s six aces, nine digs and two blocks.Â
Hawai’i (19-0) routed Princeton (10-11) 25-17, 25-18, 25-22 as the Rainbow Warriors won their 57th consecutive set of the season.Â
Stijn van Tilburg had 11 kills and hit .333 for Hawai’i, which hit .382. Colton Cowell had 10 kills and hit .368 to go with an assist, two aces and three blocks. Rado Parapunov had eight kills, three digs and four blocks, one solo.
Princeton’s Parker Dixon had 11 kills, five digs and three blocks, and Kendall Ratter added nine kills and hit .375.
Lindenwood tops Buckeyes: The Lions (8-15, 4-6 MIVA) won at Ohio State (7-15, 2-7) 25-21, 30-28, 17-25, 25-20. Lindenwood hit .404, led by Phil Swartz, who had 14 kills and hit .462. He had three of his team’s four aces, an assist and three digs. Diego Negron had 13 kills and hit .391 to go with five digs and three blocks.Â
Ohio State lost despite hitting .412, which included 17 kills by Jake Hanes, who hit .294; 15 kills from Blake Leeson, who had one error in 19 swings to hit .737; and 14 kills from Reese Devilbiss, who hit .320 and had two aces, five digs and a block.
Lindenwood, a private school in St. Charles, Mo., has an undergraduate enrollment of less than 6,000 and swept Ohio State when the Buckeyes visited last month.
GCU wins, Conference Carolinas update: Grand Canyon (12-12, 2-6) broke a tie for last place in the MPSF with a 25-18, 25-23, 25-23 over visiting Concordia (10-15, 1-7). David Kisiel led GCU with 16 kills, hit .364, and had four digs, an ace and three blocks …Â
Barton (16-3, 10-1) held onto its lead atop Conference Carolinas with a sweep of third-place North Greenville (15-8, 8-4), while King (13-9, 9-2) kept pace with a sweep of Erskine (5-17, 3-10).
Angelos Mandilaris led Barton with 14 kills, hit .522, and had six digs and a block. Brother Vasilis had 10 kills, four digs and six blocks, and Justice Lord had 10 kills in 12 errorless swings to hit .833.
Sean Kohlhase had 15 kills for King and added an assist, three aces, four digs and a block. Also in ConfCarolinas, Mount Olive (8-12, 7-4) beat Limestone (10-8, 6-5) in five and Emmanuel (9-16, 4-9) swept Lees-McRae (2-16, 0-12). Luke Visgitis had 18 kills and hit .500 for Mount Olive.
LSU sweeps UNF, Tulane: The Tigers (11-4) lost one set to UNF (12-8) and went 2-0 in all five matches against the Green Wave (12-8). That included sweeps by All-Americans Claire Coppola and Kristen Nuss at No. 1, Olivia Powers and Ashley Allmer at No. 2, Toni Rodriguez and Ashlyn Rasnick-Pope at No. 3, and Taryn Kloth and Kelli Agnew at No. 4.Â
Also at LSU, Georgia State swept Southern Miss and Spring Hill.
USC wins twice: The Trojans beat host Arizona State 4-1 and then Pepperdine 3-2.
In both matches, the No. 1 pair of Abril Bustamante and Tina Graudina, No. 3 Haley Hallgren and Alexandra Poletto, and No. 5 Mollie Ebertin and Maja Kaiser scored victories.
USC is 15-2.
Pepperdine (13-6) earlier beat Hawai’i 3-2.Â
The Waves’ Nos. 2 and 4 teams, Deahna Kraft and Gigi Hernandez and Nikki Lyons and Maddie Dilfer, won both their matches.
Florida State goes 2-0: The Seminoles (13-4) beat No. 15 Arizona 4-1 and Austin Peay 5-0. It was a tough day for Arizona (10-4), which also lost to Stetson 3-2. Stetson is 14-3.
Also Friday, No. 9 Long Beach State (8-4) beat Washington and Nebraska and faces No. 14 Stanford on Saturday.
