UCLA returned home from its Midwestern road trip and won with authority on Wednesday night as the sixth-ranked Bruins hit .475 and dispatched visiting No. 12 UC Santa Barbara 25-20, 25-16, 25-21.
A King also beat Queens.
Details follow but first a look at Thursday’s NCAA men’s volleyball schedule, where things get serious in the MPSF as conference play begins for two ranked teams.
Ninth-ranked Stanford plays host to No. 2 UC Irvine on Thursday and then again Saturday. in two early season meetings with big implications for both teams.
Concordia has two non-MPSF matches when it plays host to Benedictine and Westfield.
The EIVA’s Sacred Heart has a home match against Division III power Springfield.
UCLA (5-1) can now look ahead to its home match with unbeaten and top-ranked Long Beach State on Saturday.
Against UCSB (3-3), UCLA’s Brandon Rattray led with 11 kills, hitting .318. He added one of his team’s six aces. Daenan Gyimah had 10 kills in 14 errorless swings to hit .714 and added an assist, an ace, two digs and a block. Dylan Missry had nine kills, hit .389, and had two assists, an ace, a block and five digs. And Austin Matautia had eight kills in 14 errorless attacks, hit .571, and had an assist, an ace, five digs and two blocks, one solo.
UCSB hit .183, led by Brandon Hicks’ six kills. He hit .385 and had a block …
There was one MIVA match Wednesday when Quincy opened its season with a sweep at Culver-Stockton (0-2). Blake Sprecher had 14 kills and hit .632 for Quincy to go with two aces, a dig and a block …
The EIVA’s Charleston (2-2) had to go five to beat Division III Stevenson in its season opener. Maarten Bartels led Charleston with 12 kills, eight digs and four blocks, one solo. Eugene Stuart had 11 kills. Landon Shorts and Logan Smiley had 13 kills each for Stevenson …
And in Conference Carolinas, King (1-2) won in a sweep at Queens (0-4) behind 14 kills by Sean Kohlhase, who hit .312 and had eight digs and a block. Queen’s Suetonius Harris had 11 kills.
Quincy opened its season with a sweep at Culver-Stockton, they can sweep rest of the season too. 🙂