Ohio State held off visiting Penn State and UC Irvine made it 2-0 in Chicago as the first week of the NCAA men’s volleyball season continued Saturday with a busy slate of non-conference matches.
Other winners included top-ranked and defending-champion Long Beach State, which improved to 3-0 without losing a set.
Ohio State of the MIVA improved to 2-0 beat beating Penn State of the EIVA in its sesaon opener 25-13, 20-25, 25-21, 26-24.
Jakes Hanes had a big night for Ohio State, leading with 24 kills while hitting .413. He had four of his team’s 10 aces, nine digs and a block. Reese Devilbiss had 12 kills, hit .400, and had two aces, seven digs and four blocks. Blake Leeson had nine kills in 14 errorless swings to hit .643.
Calvin Mende had 18 kills for Penn State, hit .351, and had an ace, five digs and two blocks. Matthew McLaren had 11 kills, an ace, eight digs and a block …
Long Beach State of the Big West (3-0) beat Harvard of the EIVA (0-3) 25-16, 25-18, 25-22 at UC Santa Barbara. The Beach hit .365, led by Kyle Ensing’s 16 kills. He hit .565 and had two aces, a dig and a block. TJ Defalco and Ethan Siegfried had eight kills apiece and setter Josh Tuaniga had three kills in four errorless swings, four aces and two digs. Harvard, which hit .302, had just 25 kills, eight by Campbell Schoenfeld …
UC Irvine of the Big West (2-0) followed up its win at Loyola with another victory over a Chicago MIVA team, winning at Lewis (1-1) 25-19, 20-25, 25-17, 25-20.
“Lewis is such a great environment. Small gym, loud fans and always a good team,” UC Irvine coach David Kniffin said. “Navigating the energy of that place is tough and I’m proud of the guys for staying within themselves.”
Joel Schneidmiller and Aaron Koubi led the Anteaters with 13 kills apiece. Schneidmiller had two of his team’s five aces, three blocks and a block. Koubi hit .400 and had seven digs and two blocks. Karl Apfelbach had 10 kills, eight digs, five blocks and an ace.
Ryan Coenen and TJ Murray, who hit .474, had 11 kills each for Lewis …
There were four matches Saturday involving MPSF teams, three against the Big West.
UCLA (2-0) had to go four to win at UC San Diego of the Big West (0-2) 25-20, 25-13, 23-25, 25-19. Dylan Missry led with 16 kills. He had no errors in 22 swings and hit .485. He added two of UCLA’s 11 aces, two blocks and six digs. Brandon Rattray had 13 kills, five blocks and six digs and Daenan Gyimah had 10 kills, hit .615, and had three aces and eight blocks, three solo. UCSD hit .066 …
Grand Canyon (1-2) beat CSUN of the Big West (2-1) 25-14, 15-25, 25-27, 25-20, 15-10 at UCSB. Janke Christian led with 18 kills, four aces, five digs and two blocks. Jack Burton had 10 kills. CSUN’s Ksawery Tomsia had 16 kills, six digs, three blocks and an ace …
In the other match at UCSB, the home team from the Big West improved to 3-0 by sweeping Concordia (0-3). Corey Chavers led UCSB with 11 kills and hit .444 …
And Stanford (2-0) swept UC Santa Cruz (0-1) 25-11, 25-17, 25-15, hitting .500. Santa Cruz hit .028 …
MIVA teams Purdue Fort Wayne, Ball State and Loyola all won.
Purdue Fort Wayne (2-0) swept Princeton of the EIVA (0-4). Pelegrin Vargas had 14 kills for PFW, while George Huhmann had 14 for Princeton …
Ball State (2-0) had to go five to beat NJIT of the EIVA (0-2). David Siebum had 14 kills and hit .355 and Matt Szews had 13 kills, eight digs, two blocks and four of his team’s eight aces. NJIT hit .122 …
And Loyola (1-1) bounced back with a sweep of North Greenville of Conference Carolinas (0-2) as seven players had five or more kills. Kyle Piekarski and Paul Narup both had six kills in seven errorless swings to hit .857. Loyola hit .438, while North Greenville hit .105 …
One other EIVA team was in action as George Mason (2-0) beat Barton of Conference Carolinas (0-1). Hayden Wagner led with 15 kills …
