Charleston got its first EIVA victory in its history on Friday night and No. 6 Loyola had to go five to win its MIVA opener on a light NCAA Division I-II men’s schedule.
Saturday, things are busier with 12 matches, including No. 9 Penn State opening its EIVA schedule at Saint Francis, No. 5 Ohio State playing host to 14th-ranked Fort Wayne in the MIVA, and some key MPSF early season battles, with No. 2 UCLA at No. 10 Grand Canyon and No. 7 BYU at No. 14 USC.
EIVA: Third-year member Charleston, which went 0-14 of of the past two conference seasons, beat visiting Princeton in their respective league openers 22-25, 27-25, 25-21, 19-25, 15-12 to improve to 5-1 overall. Princeton is 1-8. The same teams play Saturday.
Ryan Santos had 13 kills for Charleston and five of his team’s nine aces and three blocks. Max Senica had 11 kills and seven digs and Eugene Stuart had 10 kills, hit .438 and had an ace and six blocks, one solo.
George Huhmann led Princeton with 16 kills. He hit .400 and had four blocks. Junior Oboh also had 16 kills, hit .542 and had an ace. Greg Luck had 12 kills and Parker Dixon had seven kills and four of his team’s six aces.
Also in the EIVA on Friday, George Mason swept Barton of Conference Carolinas and Harvard lost to Division III SUNY New Paltz in five.
Mason (4-6), which plays host to No. 1 Long Beach State on Saturday, got 16 kills from Hayden Wagner in the 29-27, 25-11, 25-22 victory. Wagner, who hit .565, added three blocks and six digs. Mason hit .421.
Angelos Mandilaris had 10 kills, an ace, two digs and three blocks, one solo, for Barton (5-6).
Harvard (1-5) lost 14-25, 25-14, 24-26, 19-25, 15-12.
MIVA: Both Chicago teams won as Loyola escaped visiting Quincy and No. 8 Lewis swept Lindenwood.
Loyola won 25-16, 25-15, 25-27, 22-25, 15-11 to improve to 8-2 in its league opener, while Quincy fell to 8-4, 0-2.
Loyola had to go the limit despite hitting .362. Collin Mahan led with 14 kills while hitting .346. He had an ace, three blocks and five digs. Ricky Gevis had 13 kills, hit .387, had two aces and four blocks, and Will Tischler had 12 kills, an ace and a block. Paul Narup had five seven kills and 10 blocks.
Anthony Winter led Quincy with 18 kills and four aces. Shane McAdams had 13 kills, an ace, two blocks and nine digs.
Lewis won its MIVA opener 25-20, 26-24, 25-13 to improve to 7-3, while Lindenwood dropped to 6-4, 1-2. Mitch Perinar led Lewis, which hit .371, with 11 kills while hitting .400. He had three blocks.
Also: Concordia of the MPSF was down 0-2 and came back to beat UC San Diego of the Big West 23-25, 24-26, 25-22, 25-23, 15-13.
Raymond Barsemian had 16 kills and three of Concordia’s five aces to go with eight digs and six blocks. Jonathan Predney had 15 kills, six digs and seven blocks, one solo. And setter Chandler Gibb not only had 55 assists, but six kills while hitting .750, an ace and four blocks.
Concordia is 4-4, while UCSD is 7-5. Concordia, which lost to UCSD earlier this season, beat the Tritons for the first time since 2015.
UCSD got a monster night out of Tanner Syftestad, who had 27 kills. He added two aces, 11 digs and three blocks, one solo. Luke La Mont had nine kills, an ace, eight digs and four blocks, while Bryan Zhu had eight kills and seven blocks.
And in Conference Carolinas, Limestone (3-9, 1-4) beat North Greenville (5-7, 2-3) in four, while Belmont Abbey (4-5, 3-1) did the same to Erskine (0-8, 0-5).
