Top-ranked Long Beach State improved to 2-0 as the defending NCAA champion registered its second sweep of the young season Friday, beating Concordia Irvine 25-19, 25-22, 28-26.
The showcase match of Friday, however, was UC Irvine’s up-and down five-set victory at Loyola.
And the showcase performance of the night was by UCI’s Joel Schneidmiller, who had 28 kills, 10 digs, three blocks, three assists and two aces.
The Anteaters continue their Chicago swing at Lewis on Saturday.
Penn State gets underway on Saturday as the Nittany Lions of the EIVA open their season at Ohio State of the MIVA.
For links to Saturday’s matches that are being broadcast or streamed, go to the daily VolleyballMag.com TV listings.
Big West: It was a good day for the league, as not only Long Beach and UCI won, but CSUN beat Harvard of the EIVA and UC Santa Barbara beat Grand Canyon of the MPSF. The other Big West team in action, UC San Diego, lost to Pepperdine of the MPSF.
Long Beach State won in a match played at UCSB. TJ DeFalco had 13 kills, six digs and three blocks to go with three assists. Kyle Ensing had 12 kills, four digs, two blocks and an ace. The Beach hit .360.
It came on the heels of a season-opening Thursday sweep of Grand Canyon in which Long Beach hit .507. Ensing led with 14 kills, hit .550, and had two digs and an ace. Simon Anderson had 11 kills in 11 swings.
Concordia Irvine dropped to 0-2. Raymond Barsemian led with 12 kills.
UC Irvine opened its season with a wild 30-32, 16-25, 33-31, 25-22, 15-13 victory at Loyola.
Schneidmiller was in a league of his own, but Aaron Koubi added 12 kills, 11 digs, an assist and an ace, and Karl Apfelbach had 10 kills, three blocks and six digs, but no aces and six of his team’s 24 service errors.
Loyola of the MIVA, also opening its season, got 16 kills from Collin Mahan, 15 from Will Tischler and 12 from Kyle Piekarski. But Loyola had just three aces and 25 serving errors. Paul Narup had nine kills in 15 errorless swings to hit .600 and led with seven blocks.
UCSB improved to 2-0 with a home victory over Grand Canyon (0-2) as Xia Haotian had 14 kills and hit .385 in the 25-16, 25-15, 28-26 victory. Corey Chavers added 12 kills, hit .400 and had six digs and two blocks.
Janke Christian had 12 kills for GCU.
Thursday, UCSB opened with a five-set win over Harvard. Chavers had 19 kills and hit .409 in the 25-19, 22-25, 21-25, 25-14, 15-7 victory. He added nine digs and two aces. Jack Truman had 10 kills and hit .615. Griffin Schmit led Harvard with 13 kills, seven digs, an ace and five blocks.
Things didn’t get any better for Harvard Friday, losing in five to CSUN. Dimitar Kalchev led the Matadors with 20 kills and hit .316 in the 21-25, 19-25, 34-32, 25-20, 15-12 victory. Kalchev had five of his team’s 11 aces and eight of its 28 serving errors. CSUN (2-0) got 17 kills from Maciej Ptaszynski, who hit .406.
Ryan Hong had 12 kills and hit .500 for Harvard. He had four blocks, two solo.
MPSF: Pepperdine improved to 2-0 with its 25-21, 25-18, 25-18 sweep of UC San Diego.
Michael Wexter led the Waves with 12 kills in 25 errorless swings to hit .480. He had six digs and four blocks. David Wieczorek had nine kills, hit .333, and had three digs and two blocks.
Xander Jimenez led UCSD with 10 kills in its season opener.
Stanford opened with a 25-12, 25-14, 25-16 sweep of Menlo College. Jaylen Jasper led with 12 kills, hitting .733 with one error in 15 swings. Eric Beatty had four of his team’s 16 aces. Stanford hit .466.
And USC won an exhibition over visiting Alberta 25-20, 25-20, 21-25, 25-21 as Jack Wyett had 16 kills.
EIVA, MIVA, Conference Carolinas: The only EIVA team to win out of the five in action was George Mason, which swept Queens University 25-16, 25-12, 25-11. Langston Payne and Hayden Wagner had nine kills each in the Patriots’ season opener. Payne had no errors in 11 swings to hit .818, and had three blocks, one solo.
While Loyola lost, four other MIVA teams won.
Purdue Fort Wayne swept NJIT of the EIVA, Ohio State did the same to Charleston of the EIVA, and so did Ball State to Princeton. Lewis also swept, beating North Greenville of Conference Carolinas.
Pelegrin Vargas had 14 kills and hit .458 to lead Purdue Fort Wayne in the season opener for both teams.
Ohio State’s season-opening win over Charleston saw Jake Hanes get 13 kills while hitting .611.
At Ball State, the hometown Cardinals won their season opener while Princeton dropped to 0-3. Kaleb Jenness led Ball State with 13 kills and hit .588. Matt Szews had 10 kills and eight digs.
Lewis beat North Greenville in the season opener for both teams with about the strangest scoreline you will ever see: 25-5, 25-13, 39-37. Tyler Mitchem led Lewis with 10 kills and hit .500. He had two digs and four blocks.
