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Ninth-ranked Grand Canyon pulled off a reverse sweep at No. 13 BYU, and four of the five sets went to overtime in an MPSF match in Provo, Utah. Christian Janke had 31 kills for GCU, Davide Gardini 29 for BYU, and the teams combined for 53 service errors.
Also in NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball Saturday: No. 4 Penn State is still unbeaten in the EIVA but had to go the distance to win at NJIT; CSUN of the Big West upset No. 12 Stanford of the MPSF; and No. 14 Loyola beat No. 10 Lewis in the MIVA.
There are just four matches Sunday, including American International playing twice at Nichols of the New England Collegiate Conference. Also, the EIVA’s Saint Francis (PA) plays at independent LIU. and Fairleigh Dickinson goes to Alderson Broaddus.
MPSF — Grand Canyon (9-6, 3-1) won 24-26, 28-30, 25-22, 28-26, 18-16 at BYU, which lost its seventh match in a row. Christian Janke tied for the most kills in GCU history with 31. He had only four errors in 46 attacks and hit .587 to go with two assists, a block and six digs. The Lopes, who won in four at BYU on Friday, had three aces against 27 serving errors, and Janke was 0 for 7. Camden Gianni added 15 kills, three assists, an ace, a block and 12 digs. Kyle Thompson had 12 kills in 18 errorless attacks, five blocks and two digs. Nicholas Slight had two kills in six errorless tries, 56 assists, eight digs and two blocks, one solo. Cole Udall had 13 kills and an assist, and GCU hit .363.
The match had 50 ties and 11 lead changes. GCU had three match points before Thompson’s kill ended it.
David Gardini had 29 kills for BYU, three more than his previous career high and the most by a Cougar since Taylor Sander had 29 in 2011. Gardini had three errors in 52 attacks and hit .500 to go with an assist, an ace, two blocks and seven digs. Miks Ramanis had 18 kills, an assist, an ace — but seven errors — four blocks and seven digs. Bartosz Slawinski had 58 assists, a block, eight digs and five errors. BYU (5-9, 0-2) hit .317 and had seven aces and 26 errors …
CSUN (5-3) of the Big West got eight or more kills from four players and defeated visiting Stanford (8-5) of the MPSF 25-15, 25-27, 25-20, 26-24. Kyle Hobus led the way with 12 kills, two assists, a career-high four aces, 10 digs and four blocks, one solo. CSUN hit .292 and had 10 aces and 23 errors, six by Hobus. Daniel Wetter had 11 kills, hit .360, and had an ace, three digs and a career-high seven blocks, one solo. Donovan Constable had two kills, 38 assists, three aces, four blocks and six digs.
Stanford hit .167 and had six aces and 22 errors. Kevin Lamp led with 14 kills, an assist, two aces, a block and 12 digs.
EIVA — Penn State is 12-3 overall, 7-0 in the conference, after its 23-25, 25-21, 25-18, 16-25, 15-13 victory at NJIT (8-4, 4-2). It was the first time the Nittany Lions lost a set in EIVA play, and they won despite hitting .150. They had eight aces and 18 errors. Brett Wildman led with 15 kills, three aces, five blocks and four digs. Cal Fisher had 13 kills, an assist, four aces, three blocks and nine digs. Toby Ezeonu had eight kills and seven blocks, and Cole Bogner had a kill, 42 assists, seven digs and three blocks, one solo. NJIT hit .214 and had two aces and 21 errors. Julian Meissner led NJIT with 16 kills, an assist, four digs and seven blocks, three solo. He had no kills and six errors. Alessandro Negri had 15 kills, five assists, an ace, two blocks and six digs. Griffin Fieseler had a kill, 40 assists, two blocks and 17 digs, and Joe Kennedy had 15 digs …
Saint Francis (PA) improved to 8-6, 5-2 and moved into second place with its 25-23, 25-21, 25-22 victory at St. Francis Brooklyn (7-6, 3-5). Blake Liprando had 14 kills, hit .306, and had an ace and five digs. Joshua Blair had 12 kills with one error in 14 attacks, an ace and three solo blocks. Saint Francis hit .381 and had six aces and 22 errors. St. Francis Brooklyn hit .212 and had two aces — both by David Vorfi, who also led his team with 11 kills — and 12 errors …
Princeton (5-8, 4-3) won 23-25, 25-18, 21-25, 25-23, 15-12 at George Mason (5-7, 0-5) as the teams combined for 49 service errors. The Tigers hit .271 and had 11 aces and 25 errors. Ben Harrington led them with 17 kills, three aces, three blocks and four digs. Nate Thomson and James Hartley had 12 kills each. Mason hit .274 and had five aces and 24 errors. Omar Hoyos had 18 kills as he hit .378 and added two assists, an ace, two blocks and seven digs. Jack Bolz had 13 kills, four blocks and six digs but six errors …
Sacred Heart (5-6, 1-5) got its first league win — a 19-25, 25-23, 27-25, 19-25, 15-10 victory at Charleston (5-5, 2-4). Patrick Mucherino led Sacred Heaert with 15 kills, two assists, an ace, two blocks and eight digs. His team hit .214 and had four aces and 22 errors. Charleston, which hit .252 and had six aces and 25 errors, got 19 kills from Lachlan Bray. He hit .333 an had an assist, six digs, three blocks — one solo — and five errors.
MIVA — Loyola (9-6, 5-1) moved into a tie with idle Ball State atop the league with its 25-18, 25-22, 25-22 sweep of visiting Lewis (8-6 2-4). Loyola hit .315 and had six aces and 13 errors. Cole Schlothauer led with 12 kills, two aces, five digs and two blocks, one solo. Henry Payne had 10 kills, hit .389, and had a block and six digs. Garrett Zolg had 36 assists, three aces, a block and six digs.
Lewis, which hit .184 and had four aces and nine errors, had four players with six or more kills. Taylor Mitchem led with nine and added an assist, an ace, three blocks and a dig …
Purdue Fort Wayne (10-6, 4-2) stayed a game back with a 25-23, 25-23, 25-27, 24-26, 15-12 victory over visiting McKendree (7-5, 4-2). Vicente Ibarra had 22 kills, four blocks and three digs in the win. He had no aces and six errors as the Mastodons hit .308 and had six aces and 26 errors. Three PFW players had 12 kills each — Rico Wardlow, Jon Diedrich and Zach Solomon. Solomon added three aces, three blocks and eights digs. Sean Califf had three kills in five errorless tries, 53 assists, four blocks and eight digs.
McKendree hit .262 and had five aces and 20 errors. Ethan Carroll, who had three aces and a block, and Patrick Ross, who hit .412, had 15 kills each. Ross had two blocks and 13 digs. Ryan Serrano had a kill, 49 assists, two aces, 11 digs and five blocks, one solo.
CONFERENCE CAROLINAS — North Greenville (10-3, 5-1) stayed alone in first place with its 25-19, 25-18, 25-18 sweep of visiting Erskine (5-12, 2-4). Five players had five or more kills for North Greenville, which hit .238 and had five aces and 14 errors. Erskine hit .012 and had an ace and eight errors …
Mount Olive (6-3, 4-1) stayed a game back with a 25-12, 25-15, 23-25, 25-13 win over visiting Lees-McRae (5-6, 2-5). Mount Olive, which hit .396 and had 10 aces and 11 errors, got 13 kills from Tyran Gillespie. He had one error in 27 attacks to hit .444 and had an assist, two blocks and eight digs. Michael Marsans continued to come up big for Lees-McRae, this time with 26 of his team’s 40 kills. L-M hit .163 and had two aces and 15 errors …
King (5-9, 4-2) swept at Barton (0-8, 0-5) as four players had six or more kills, including 12 by Diego Marcano. Marcano hit .500 and had four digs and three blocks, one solo. King hit .274 and had five aces and 13 errors. Barton hit .052 and had three aces and 13 errors …
Emmanuel (6-4, 2-2) beat visiting Belmont Abbey (9-6, 3-2) in four. Eli Zdonek led with 16 kills, hit .343 and had two blocks and two digs. Gustavo Cavalcanti had 14 kills, all six of his team’s aces, five blocks and seven digs. Emmanuel hit .230 and had 17 serving errors. BA, which got 13 kills and 12 digs from Matteo Miselli and 12 kills and six blocks from Andrew Kohut, hit .133 and had four aces and 13 errors.
AROUND THE NATION — Independent Maryville (MO) (12-8) swept the SIAC’s Kentucky State (1-5) twice … Independent Daemen (9-2) swept Central State (1-10) of the SIAC … and Fairleigh Dickinson (3-7) won in four at Alderson Broaddus (3-8).
