Third-ranked UCLA kept No. 7 BYU reeling as it served the Cougars off the court and dealt them their fourth loss in a row, while No. 6 UC Santa Barbara kept on rolling Saturday as the Gauchos won their eighth match in a row in NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball.
Top-ranked Long Beach State and No. 2 Hawai’i were also among the winners Saturday.
Sunday’s schedule includes No. 13 George Mason of the EIVA playing at No. 11 Ball State of the MIVA and the EIVA’s Saint Francis at Queens. The MPSF and Big West are off Sunday.
UCLA (10-2, 2-0 MPSF) beat visiting BYU (4-4, 0-2) 16-25, 25-14, 25-19, 25-18 as the Bruins racked up 13 aces. The good news for BYU was the Cougars were not swept as they were in their previous three matches.
Austin Matautia led UCLA with 13 kills and hit .385. He had four digs and two blocks. Daenan Gyimah had eight kills and hit .500 to go with two blocks and three aces. Adam Parks had seven kills, hit .357, had 15 assists, nine digs and three blocks, while the other setter, Micah Ma’a, had five kills, five aces, 20 assists, six digs and four blocks. Sam Kobrine had six kills, four aces, six digs and three blocks as UCLA played again without injured Dylan Missry.
Gabi Garcia Fernandez led BYU with 11 kills but hit .097 as his team hit .118. He added three aces, seven digs and three blocks. Davide Gardini had seven kills and two of BYU’s seven aces. But he hit .091 to go with four digs and a block …
Also in the MPSF, Concordia (5-8) won its league opener, beating Grand Canyon (7-2. 0-2) 25-16, 23-25, 25-14, 25-19 despite 22 kills from David Kisiel.
Concordia’s Jordan Hoppe had 20 kills and hit .333. He had three of his team’s five aces and three blocks. Luke Krzmarzick added 17 kills to go with eight digs, four blocks and an ace. Concordia hit .350.
Kisiel’s effort included six digs and a block. Christian Janke had 12 kills, an assist, four digs and two blocks …
The Big West’s UC Santa Barbara (11-3) won its fourth sweep in a row, this time over Penn State of the EIVA in a match played at Long Beach State.
Corey Chavers led the Gauchos with 14 kills and hit .429 to go with an assist, four digs and two blocks. Ryan Wilcox had seven kills, an assist, seven digs and a block. Brandon Hicks, who had three kills, had five of his team’s seven aces to go with two digs and seven blocks, and Keenan Sanders had five kills with no errors in five swings.
“It was a good job by our guys getting two wins on the road during midterms,” UCSB coach Rick McLaughlin said. “We are looking forward to returning to Rob Gym (Wednesday) to face UCLA. We are a much better team than we were a month ago when we faced them and it should be a great match.”
UCLA won that one in three on January 16.
Matthew McLaren led Penn State, which hit .163, with 10 kills and eight digs. He added a block. Henrik Lauten had nine kills, an assist, three of his team’s five aces, and six digs …
The home team, Long Beach State of the Big West, improved to 12-0 with a 25-19, 25-18, 25-21 sweep of Ohio State of the MIVA (4-8).
Long Beach, which tied the school record with its 32nd consecutive home victory, hit .475. Kyle Ensing led with 11 kills and hit .350 to go with two assists, an ace, a dig and a solo block. TJ DeFalco had 10 kills, hit .500, and had an assist and four digs.
Sean Ryan led Ohio State with 10 kills and Martin Lallemand added nine …
Hawai’i of the Big West (8-0) stayed in Charlotte, N.C., and demolished Queens (2-9) 25-7, 25-16, 25-10. Brett Rosenmeier and Filip Humler had eight kills each and Dalton Solbrig seven for Hawai’i, which hit .423 …
Three of the four ranked MIVA teams were involved in sweeps, while No. 8 Loyola (9-3, 2-0) had to go four to win at Lindenwood (4-8, 0-2). Will Tischler led Loyola with 17 kills, hitting .500, and Collin Mahan and Luke Denton had 13 apiece. Mahan had eight digs and six blocks, two solo, and an ace …
No. 11 Lewis (9-4, 2-0 won at Quincy (4-8, 0-2) behind nine kills from Ryan Coenen and five of his team’s 11 aces by Kyle Bugee …
Purdue Fort Wayne (8-5) got swept by George Mason (8-1) as Hayden Wagner had 20 kills and hit .386 for the Patriots. He had five digs and six blocks, two solo. Sam Greenside added eight kills, hit .389, and had an assist, three digs and four blocks …
In the EIVA, Princeton (4-7, 2-0) won a league match over visiting Charleston (3-9, 0-4), while Saint Francis (5-5) got swept at Belmont Abbey of Conference Carolinas (6-3).
Greg Luck led Princeton with 17 kills and four of the Tigers’ 12 aces, and Parker Dixon had 14 kills. Maarten Bartels had 13 kills for Charleston and Eugene Stuart 12 …
Liam Maxwell led Belmont Abbey with 19 kills, hit .410, and had seven digs, four blocks and two assists …
Also in Conference Carolinas, Limestone (3-6, 2-3) swept Lees-McRae (1-8, 0-6), while Erskine (4-8) lost a non-league match to Lincoln Memorial (7-4).
Limestone, which hit .389, got 11 kills from Spencer Saint-Eloi, who hit .421 and had three aces and four digs. Evan Cory had 21 kills for Lincoln Memorial.
