NCAA men’s volleyball: UCLA beats Long Beach again; Hawai’i, GCU roll on

By Larry Hamel for VolleyballMag.com

UCLA recorded its second victory in as many nights over Long Beach State —
this time upsetting the nation’s No. 2-ranked team in front of a sellout crowd at The
Pyramid — to grab the spotlight on Friday in NCAA Division I-II men’s indoor
volleyball.

The No. 4 Bruins featured a balanced attack set by freshman Andrew Rowan,
stepping in for the departed Miles Partain, during a tight four-set victory in a hostile
environment.

Meanwhile, top-ranked Hawaii rolled along with a sweep at Stanford, surging
Grand Canyon kept its “0” intact and UC-Irvine prevailed in a matchup of top-seven
squads.

Recaps are below, but first, here’s a rundown on the matches schedule on
Saturday:

The featured attraction on the West Coast is the second installment of the
weekend series between Hawaii of the Big West and host Stanford of the MPSF.

Another attractive rematch of nationally ranked teams sees No. 14 UC Santa Barbara
(Big West) at No. 10 BYU (MPSF). CSUN, which broke into the AVCA poll
this week at No. 15, of the Big West visits Fairleigh Dickinson of the NEC.

Conference action continues in the MIVA with Lewis at No. 11 Ohio State, No. 9
Ball State hosting McKendree, No. 13 Loyola Chicago visiting Lindenwood and Purdue
Fort Wayne playing at Quincy.

Elsewhere in the East, No. 3 Penn State of the EIVA visits the NEC’s Saint
Francis (Pa.) and Princeton of the EIVA entertains St. Francis Brooklyn of the NEC.
Conference Carolinas has four league matches: Barton vs. Belmont Abbey,
Erskine vs. King, Emmanuel vs. Lees-McRae and Mount Olive vs. North Greenville.

In other action, Kentucky State of the SIAC plays two matches in Walesa,
Georgia, against St. Andrews and host Reinhardt; and in a quad in St. Louis, the SIAC’s
Central State faces Missouri S&T and Alderson Broaddus, and host Maryville meets
Alderson Broaddus.

For links to all matches that are being shown, go to our VolleyballMag.com TV &
Streaming Listings.

Even with 4,138 packed into the iconic Pyramid, the third-largest crowd in
program history and its first post-COVID sellout, second-ranked Long Beach State
(6-2) of the Big West couldn’t get over the hump against No. 4 UCLA (11-1) of the
MPSF.

Following a three-set blowout on Thursday night at storied Pauley Pavilion with
this four-set road victory, the Bruins figure to move up a spot in the AVCA poll, soldiering
on despite the decision by Partain, the 2022 MPSF player of the year, to leave the team.

UCLA didn’t match its epic .551 hitting of the previous match against the Beach, but
Rowan shrugged off the adversity of dropping the first set and dished out 37 assists in
the 18-25, 25-21, 25-23, 25-23 triumph. The Bruins got 12 kills from Ethan Champlin, 11
from Alex Knight and 10 (on 15 swings) from Merrick McHenry. Sotiris Siapanis’ 17 kills
paced Long Beach State, which had 42 errors, 21 each hitting and
serving.

No. 1 Hawaii (8-0) of the Big West continued to receive stellar production on the
pins from Greek nationals Demetrios Mouchlias (12 kills, five block assists) and Spyros
Chakas (11 kills, six digs) while handling No. 8 Stanford (7-3) of the MPSF 25-22,
25-19, 26-24 at Maples Pavilion. The Rainbow Warriors hit .449 in what had figured to
be their toughest test to date and extended the nation’s longest winning streak to 17
matches. Fifteen attack errors and 16 miscues from the service line proved difficult for
the Cardinal to overcome.

The only other undefeated team left in the AVCA Top 15 is fifth-ranked Grand
Canyon (11-0). The host Lopes out of the MPSF won for fun against NAIA opponent
Arizona Christian (1-1) 25-12, 25-20, 25-21, with 16 players seeing court time.
Camden Gianni recorded 11 kills on 18 swings with no errors over two sets.

No. 7 UC Irvine (9-3) of the Big West scored a mild poll upset by tripping No. 6
Pepperdine (8-4) of the MPS 25-20, 23-25, 25-20, 25-17. The host Anteaters logged 39
kills to the Waves’ 54, but Pepperdine was derailed by 25 attacking errors, many of
which came courtesy of a tight block had notched two solos and 25 assists.The Waves also misfired on 19 serves. Francesco Sani’s 15 kills and .440 hitting were key for the
Anteaters. Jaylen Jasper topped Pepperdine with 16 kills but made 11 hitting errors.

In another crossover involving power conferences, No. 10 Brigham Young (7-2)
of the MPSF defended its home court in Provo, Utah, with a 22-25, 25-19, 25-23, 25-20
victory over No. 14 UC Santa Barbara (2-8) of the Big West. Anthony Cherfan cracked
a gaudy .600 for the Cougars with 14 kills on 20 swings and added two aces and nine
digs.Rees Barnett had 19 kills and seven digs for the Gauchos, who continue to play in
touch luck.

CSUN traveled cross-country to Newark to play NJIT and the host Highlanders of the EIVA were anything but awed by the Matadors’ newly gained No. 15 national ranking, battling to the wire before dropping a five-set thriller. CSUN (7-5) of the Big West dodged match points in the fourth and fifth sets while pulling out a pulsating 25-19, 22-25, 22-25, 28-26, 17-15 victory. The match-clinching points came on an ace by Christian Trevino, and a block by setter Donovan Constable and Michael King (who played in just two of the five sets) against Allesandro Negri. Kyle Hobus led the winners with 17 kills, but hit .196 on 46 swings. NJIT (5-5) hit .240 and got 12 kills each from Negri (.144 on 35 attempts) and Jens Feldthus (.226 on 31). .

The No. 1-ranked team in the NAIA poll, The Master’s University of Santa
Clara, California, scored a significant road victory in tripping Concordia-Irvine of the
MPSF19-25, 25-21, 28-26, 25-19. The Mustangs (4-1) rode the hitting of
6-foot-10 freshman Nolan Flexon, who rang up 26 kills on 42 swings with just three
errors for a .548 percentage. Uriel Batista picked up 13 kills for the Golden Eagles (4-5),
who were held to .173 hitting, .069 in the fourth set.

No. 13 Loyola Chicago (8-2) bounced back from losses on the West Coast last
weekend to Concordia-Irvine and Long Beach State by thumping host Quincy (4-5) in
the MIVA opener for both. The Ramblers outhit the Hawks .356 to .148 in a 25-18,
25-21, 21-19 sweep while ripping eight aces. Parker Van Buren (eight kills on .500
hitting) and Cole Schlothauer (eight kills/.438/two aces) had productive nights for
Loyola. Raje Alleyne notched 12 kills and two aces for Quincy, but hit just .107.

In another MIVA match, host Lindenwood (3-5, 1-0) pulled off a five-set stunner
of Purdue Fort Wayne (9-2, 0-1) 25-17, 19-25, 25-23, 27-29, 15-11, punctuating the
victory on a kill by Rodney Wallace. Carter Stenmark and AJ Lewis had big nights for
the winning Lions, each logging 18 kills. Jon Diedrich led the Mastodons with 17 kills
and three aces.

Conference Carolinas held a four-game slate. King (7-8) improved to 2-0 in
league play with a four-set road triumph over Emmanuel (3-5, 0-1) 25-20, 25-21, 22-25,
25-15 behind Jackson Carroll’s 17 kills; Belmont Abbey (2-7, 1-1) got 18 kills and a
.452 hitting percentage from Matteo Miselli in a 25-14, 25-21, 25-22 victory over visiting
Mount Olive (4-4, 1-1); host North Greenville (6-3, 1-1) limited struggling Barton (0-7,
0-1) to .097 hitting in a 25-21, 21-8, 21-17 shellacking; and Lees-McRae (4-3- 1-0)
swept visiting Erskine (4-6, 1-1) 28-26, 25-23, 25-12.

King’s College of Pennsylvania pushed its undefeated streak to open the season to 11
with a tense four-set victory (23-25, 27-25, 25-19, 25-23) over host American
International (1-11). Jared Piontkowski picked up 14 kills and two aces for the
Monarchs, who were helped along by 29 hitting errors from the opposition.
In the Arch City Classic in St. Louis, Maryville (3-7) of the IVA topped Central
State (3-8) of the SIAC 25-19, 26-24, 25-22; and Missouri S&T (4-8) took a five-set
slugfest from Alderson Broaddus (2-7) 25-23, 22-25, 25-16, 19-25-15-12.

Elsewhere, NAIA member Life University (3-3) of Marietta, Georgia, took a
home-court victory over St. Andrews (3-2) 20-25, 25-22, 25-19, 25-21; Limestone (6-3,
1-0 IVA) swept host Tusculum (3-9- 1-2) 25-20, 25-23, 26-24; Daemen upped its record
to 5-1 with a 25-18, 25-21, 25-14 thumping of host D’Youville (3-2); host Lincoln
Memorial (8-4) slogged out a 21-25, 25-23, 25-23, 27-25 victory over Queens (3-8);
and and in the first match for the new men’s conference, Saint Francis (PA) improved to  2-7 as it rolled to an NEC victory over host Fairleigh Dickinson (3-3, 0-1) 25-22, 25-21, 25-17.

VBM Staff