Long Beach beats UH again; PFW upsets Ohio St.; Omaha tops Orlando in Pro Volleyball

The Big West rematch was a lot tougher, but No. 2 Long Beach State beat No. 1 Hawai’i for the second night in a row, this time in five sets.

Struggling Ohio State lost again as the shorthanded No. 8 Buckeyes lost their third in a row and fourth in five matches as Purdue Fort Wayne came away with the MIVA sweep.

And No. 10 Penn State had to pull off a non-conference reverse sweep to win at Saint Francis (PA).

The Omaha Supernovas beat the visiting Orlando Valkyries in four and set another Pro Volleyball Federation attendance record, this time with an announced crowd of 12,090.

The only men’s match Sunday has the teams trading venues as Saint Francis goes to Penn State.

There are no men’s matches Monday and on Tuesday there are four, including three Conference Carolinas teams playing non-conference matches. 

Sunday in the Pro Volleyball Federation the Vegas Thrill go to the Grand Rapids Rise. The next league match is Wednesday, when the Rise go to the Columbus Fury.

NCAA men

Long Beach State (18-1, 4-0 Big West) blocked its way to a 25-20, 20-25, 25-23, 24-26, 15-13 victory over visiting Hawai’i (17-3, 0-2) a day after sweeping the Rainbow Warriors. Simon Torwie had a career-high 10 blocks, three solo, as Long Beach held a 20-8 blocks advantage. Long Beach hit .270 and had three aces and 19 serving errors, while Hawai’i hit .249 and had six aces and 26 errors. 

Sotiris Siapanis led Long Beach with 17 kills, hit .333, and had two assists, an ace, four blocks and 11 digs. Skyler Varga had 15 kills, two aces, six blocks and four digs. Torwie had six kills with one error in 14 attacks. DiAeris McRaven had four kills in 12 errorless tries, two digs and eight blocks, one solo. Aidan Knipe had 39 assists, four blocks and 11 digs. 

Keoni Thiim led Hawai’i with a career-high 20 kills and had four assists, two aces, a block and seven digs. Louis Sakanoko added 19 kills, an assist, an ace, three blocks and nine digs. Alaka’i Todd had 16 kills, two assists, an ace three blocks and three digs and Guilherhme Voss had six kills, an ace, three digs and four blocks. Tread Rosenthal had three kills in six errorless tries, 57 assists, two blocks and 15 digs … 

Purdue Fort Wayne (11-9, 5-6) swept visiting Ohio State (15-7, 8-4), which hit .224 and had one ace and 13 errors. PFW, which hit .359 and had three aces and 16 errors, got 18 kills from Jon Diedrich and 15 from Mark Frazier. Diedrich hit .536 and had an assist, no aces and four errors, a block and three digs. Frazier hit .619 and had an assist, an ace, three bloks and three digs. Andrej Polomac had a kill, 31 assists, a block and a dig. Ohio State played without star outside Jacob Pasteur, “unavailable with a lower body injury,” it said in its recap. Setter Michael Wright also injured played sparingly. Shane Wetzel led Ohio State with 15 kills, hitting .370. He had no aces and five errors, two blocks and three digs. His teammates combined for 20 kills and 14 errors … 

Ball State (16-7, 9-1) maintained its two-game MIVA lead over No.12 Loyola Chicago (14-8, 8-3) as Ohio State dropped three games off the lead. Ball State hit .379 and swept Lindenwood (8-11, 3-7). Patrick Rogers led with 17 kills and hit .571 after having one error in 28 attacks to go with an assist, an ace, two digs and two blocks, one solo. Tinaishe Ndavazocha had 11 kills, hit .500, and had an assist. Ball State had two aces and 13 errors, while Lindenwood hit .300 and had three aces and 15 errors. Ian Schuller led with 12 kills and AJ Lewis had 11, hitting .421 … Loyola hit .449 and swept No. 20 McKendree (12-7, 7-4) as Parker Van Buren had 16 kills and hit .538 and Jake Read had 15 kills and hit .429 … No. 14 Lewis (12-11, 5-5) swept visiting Quincy (5-13, 1-10) as the Flyers, hitting .370, got 15 kills from Max Roquet and 13 from Syver Drolsum, who hit .455 and had an ace, eight digs and two blocks … Queens (9-13) won two non-conference matches, sweeping the SIAC’s Fort Valley State and independent Tusculum. Tusculum earlier beat the SIAC’s Fort Valley State in five as Deklan Wingo had 20 kills. Fort Valley’s Isaiah Fedd had 27 kills, hit .346, and had an assist, three aces, eight digs and a block  … 

Penn State (14-6) of the EIVA came away with a 17-25, 23-25, 25-23, 25-15, 15-13 win at Saint Francis (PA) of the NEC (12-7) despite having 15 fewer kills. John Kerr had 18 of his team’s 39 kills to go with an ace and a block. Penn State, which hit .214, had nine aces and 21 errors. Toby Ezeonu had six kills, hit .500, and had an ace, a dig and five blocks, two solo. Owen Rose also had five blocks and Michal Kowal four. Michael Schwob had a kill in his only try, 34 assists, three aces, two blocks and five digs. Ryan Merk added 15 digs and four assists. 

SFU had a 54 kills, hit .279 and had eight aces and 33 errors. Nathan Zini had 20 kills and four errors in 43 atttacks to hit .372. He added an ace, two blocks and five digs. Brady Stump had 12 kills, hit .500, an ace but 10 errors, five blocks and three digs. Nicholas Lynch had six kills, an ace but eight errors, and eight blocks, one solo. Ryan Parker had two kills, 43 assists, two aces and eight errors, two blocks and five digs …

In the MPSF, No. 4 Grand Canyon (18-2) beat visiting NJIT (8-11) of the EIVA in four as Jackson Hickman had 21 kills, hit .390, and had an assist, four digs and three blocks … In a league match, No. 9 Pepperdine (16-5. 4-3) hit .513 and swept visiting Concordia Irvine (6-10, 0-4) \. Akin Akinwumi had 14 kills, hit .522, and had an assist, an ace, a block and three digs. Ryan Graves had a kill, 37 assists and 10 digs. CUI, which lost despite hitting .344, had just 28 kills, 10 by Gage Doble. He hit .522 and had an ace, two blocks and a dig … 

Also in the EIVA, No. 17 George Mason (11-7) swept visiting Mount Olive (13-6) of Conference Carolinas behind 18 kills by Omar Hoyos, who hit .342 … Charleston (9-11) snapped a six-match skid as the Eagles won in five at Belmont Abbey (12-4) of Conference Carolinas. Garret Schnitker led with 20 kills, an assist, seven digs and a block. Max Nissen had 16 kills, two assists and six digs. Zach Puentes had 14 kills for BA …

There were two NEC league matches as LIU (9-11, 3-3) swept Fairleigh Dickinson (6-11, 0-4) and Merrimack (7-9, 2-2) beat Sacred Heart (7-12, 2-4) in four. LIU’s Arthur Sueur had seven kills with one error in 13 attacks, an assist, two aces, four digs and six blocks, one solo. Setter Jack Sarnowski had a kill, 26 assists, an ace, eight digs and seven blocks, one solo … Merrimack got 16 kills from Matthew Motes, who had one error in 23 swings, two digs and four blocks, three solo. Logan Whitaker had 15 kills and Kai Vogel 12. Sacred Heart’s Patrick Mucherino had 22 kills, eight digs and three blocks, one solo … Also in in the NEC, D’Youville (10-7) split two matches, getting swept by independent Lincoln Memorial before sweeping the SIAC’s Central State. Lincoln Memorial improved to 15-5 by later sweeping Central State (5-21) … 

Also, King of Conference Carolinas swept Talladega and the ECC’s St. Thomas Aquinas swept the SIAC’s Kentucky State … In the ECC, American International swept Roberts Wesleyan.

Pro Volleyball Federation 

The Omaha Supernovas (8-4) pulled back into a tie with idle Atlanta (8-3) in the win column after they defeated the Orlando Valkyries (5-7) for the fourth time this season. 

Brooke Nuneviller lead a balanced Omaha attack with 15 kills in the 25-23, 22-25, 25-22, 25-20 victory. Nuneviller added 12 digs and had three block assists. Bethania De La Cruz had 13 kills, two aces, eight digs and five blocks, two solo. Nia Reed had 11 kills, an ace, 11 digs and seven blocks, two solo. Tori Dixon had seven kills, three digs and 12 blocks, three solo. Kendall White had 21 digs and four assists. Omaha is now off for 12 days.

Orlando’s Shainah Joseph had 15 kills, 13 digs and four blocks, one solo. Adora Anae had 13 kills, two aces, 12 digs and six blocks, one solo. Kaz Brown added 12 kills and had a dig and 13 blocks, one solo. M’Kaela White had five kills, four digs and 14 blocks, four solo. Jill Gillen had 10 kills, an ace, 19 digs and five blocks, one solo. Georgia Murphy had 24 digs and four assists. 

Orlando plays again Thurday when it visits the Atlanta Vibe.

Long Beach-Hawai’i photos by Jim Wolf and Andy J. Gordon