NCAA men’s volleyball: CUI beats Stanford again; Penn St., Loyola, UH win, Kobrines come up big

Concordia scored another MPSF upset of No. 14 Stanford, No. 4 Penn State won again to improve to 8-0 in the EIVA, No. 12 Loyola won again to finish the first half of MIVA play 6-1 and take a half-game lead in the conference, No. 3 Hawai’i bounced back with a sweep at No. 10 UC San Diego, and it was a good day to be a Kobrine.

The recaps from a busy Friday in NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball follow, but first a look at Saturday’s schedule.

There’s an MPSF match at USC, when the No. 6 Trojans play host again to No. 15 BYU. The MPSF’s No. 7 Pepperdine is home for the MIVA’s McKendree.

Two Big West teams are in action as No. 2 Long Beach State is home for independent LIU and UC Irvine goes to the MPSF’s Concordia. 

In the MIVA, the only conference match has Lindenwood at Quincy. No. 13 Ohio State is home for independent Lincoln Memorial and Loyola is home for Emmanuel of Conference Carolinas.

There are two EIVA matches when Charleston goes to Saint Francis (PA), Princeton is at Harvard and George Mason goes to Sacred Heart.

Two other Conference Carolinas teams play independents when King goes to Queens and Mount Olive is home for Tusculum. 

There are three SIAC matches when Benedict goes to Edward Waters, Central State is at Morehouse, and Kentucky State goes to Fort Valley State.

Other independents playing include American International home for Rivier and Maryville playing twice, against Cornerstone and Cumberland.

Want to watch a match? Our Volleyball TV & Streaming Listings are updated through Monday’s matches. Click here for the links to watch any match that is being shown. 

MPSF — Top-ranked UCLA (12-2, 4-0) hit .462 and swept visiting Grand Canyon (9-8, 3-3) for the second straight day. Kevin Kobrine had 14 kills with no errors in 27 attacks in the 25-18, 25-20, 25-21 victory. Korbrine added an ace, two blocks and seven digs. Guy Genis had nine kills with one error in 13 attacks, two blocks and a dig. Ethan Champlin had eight kills, three assists, an ace, two blocks and eight digs, and Merrick McHenry had seven kills in nine errorless swings to go with an assist, five blocks and three digs. Miles Partain had four kills in five errorless tries, 34 assists, two blocks and nine digs. UCLA had two aces and 11 errors, five by McHenry. GCU hit .220 and had five aces, four by Hugo Fisher, and six errors. Christian Janke had 12 kills, hit .370, and had an ace and eight digs. Fisher and Camden Gianni had nine kills each … 

USC (12-3, 2-1) beat visiting BYU (5-10, 0-3) 25-23, 25-19, 18-25, 25-20 behind 14 kills each by Sam Kobrine, the brother of UCLA’s Kevin, and Simon Gallas. Kobrine hit .300 and had an assist, three aces, three blocks and two digs. Gallas hit .323 and had two aces, two blocks and seven digs. Chris Hall had 44 assists, three aces, four blocks and 10 digs. His team hit .327 and had 10 aces and 19 errors. BYU, which hit .264, had six aces and 17 errors. Davide Gardini led with 18 kills as he hit .375 and had five digs. Kupono Browne had 14 kills, hit .333, and had two aces, a block and nine digs … 

Concordia (7-4, 2-2) not only beat Stanford (8-7, 0-2) for the second straight day, but swept the Cardinal for the first time. Jonathan Carlson had 15 kills, Owen Chun 14 and Uriel Batista 12 in the 25-22, 22-25, 27-25, 2-20 victory. Carlson hit .345 and had three blocks and nine digs. Chun hit .423 and Batista had five digs and five blocks, one solo. Mclain Mott had 45 assists, a block and 11 digs. His team hit .284 and had no aces and six errors. Stanford hit .290 and had six aces and 19 errors. Will Rottman led with 14 kills, two aces, three blocks and six digs. Luke Turner had 12 kills, hit .364, and had three blocks and 16 digs … 

Pepperdine (8-5) made the trip to Lebanon, Illinois, and swept the MIVA’s McKendree (7-6). The Waves hit .343 and had four aces and five errors in the 25-18, 25-22, 25-20 victory. Jacob Steele had 11 kills, hit .368, and had three assists, an ace and four digs. Spencer Wickens had 10 kills, two assists, two blocks and four digs. McKendree hit .278 and had no aces and 19 errors. Ethan Carroll led with 13 kill.

BIG WEST — Hawai’i (14-3, 1-1) lost the previous two matches it played against UC San Diego (8-7, 1-1), including in the Big West tournament semifinals last spring and then in five on Thursday. This time the Rainbow Warriors came away with a 25-22, 25-20, 25-19 sweep as they hit .429. Spyros Chakas led with 15 kills and hit .700 after having one error in 20 attacks to go with two assists, a solo block and a dig. He also had his team’s only ace. Hawai’i had 10 errors. UCSD hit .222 and had two aces and 11 errors. Kyle McCauley led with 17 kills as he hit .345 and had an assist, an ace and two digs … 

Long Beach State (9-2) beat visiting NJIT (9-5) of the EIVA 25-16, 25-20, 23-25, 25-16. Alex Nikolov led with 19 kills and hit .351 to go with two assists, three aces, five digs and two blocks, one solo. Spencer Olivier had 14 kills, hit .321, and had had 14 digs and four blocks, one solo. Long Beach hit .281 and had six aces and 14 errors. NJIT hit .078 and had three aces and nine errors. Julian Meissner led the Highlanders with 15 kills, two assists, an ace, three blocks and four digs …

Fifth-ranked UC Santa Barbara (12-4) made short work of visiting independent LIU (4-13) as Ryan Wilcox led a balanced attack with 12 kills in the 25-13, 25-22, 25-13 victory. Wilcox hit 526 and had an assist, three digs and three blocks. UCSB hit .343 and had six aces and 14 errors. LIU hit .043 and had one ace and 16 errors.

EIVA — Penn State 13-3, 8-0) hit .500 and blasted visiting Charleston (5-6, 2-5) 25-14, 25-17, 25-14. The Nittany Lions had 39 kills with seven errors in 64 attacks, four aces and 19 errors. Brett Wildman had 11 kills, hit .528 and had an ace, three blocks and three digs. Toby Ezeonu had seven kills in 11 errorless swings and seven blocks, and Cal Fisher had seven kills with one error in 10 attacks, an assist, two blocks and three digs. Charleston hit minus .031 and had no aces and 11 errors … 

Harvard (5-6, 3-2) beat visiting Princeton (5-9, 4-4)  25-22, 25-23, 22-25, 26-24. Ethan Smith, Kade McGovern and Campbell Shoenfeld had 11 kills each. Smith had no errors in 17 attacks and four blocks, one solo. McGovern had an ace and also four blocks, one solo. Schoenfeld had an assists, three blocks and 10 digs. The Crimson hit .292 and had four aces and 26 errors. Princeton hit .205 and had six aces and 22 errors. Ben Harrington, who had 11 digs, and Jerod Nelsen had 17 kills each. Nelsen hit .467 and had three assists, an ace, four digs and two blocks, one solo …

George Mason (6-7, 1-5) won 24-26, 25-17, 25-18, 25-23 at Sacred Heart (5-7, 1-6). Mason hit .356 and had five aces and 14 errors. Jack Bolz led with 21 kills as he hit .395 an had two aces, three blocks and five digs. Omar Hoyos had 14 kills, an ace, three blocks and seven digs. Lucas Little had six kills with one error in 10 attacks, a dig and 11 blocks, one solo. Sacred Heart, which hit .202, had five aces and 14 errors. Patrick Mucherino led with 16 kills, an assist, three digs and three blocks, one solo. Aaron Peterson, who had three blocks, and Mark Berry, who had seven digs, had nine kills each.

MIVA — Loyola (10-6, 6-1 beat visiting Purdue Fort Wayne (10-7, 4-3) 25-21, 25-20, 25-20. The Ramblers, who hit .375 nad had four aces and only three errors, got 16 kills from Parker Van Buren. He hit .464 and had two aces, a block and four digs. Andrew Lyons had seven kills in 10 errorless attacks, two digs and three blocks, one solo. Garrett Zolg had two kills in as many tries, 32 assists, a block and seven digs. PFW hit .236 and had five aces and 13 errors. Vicente Ibarra led with 11 kills as he hit .409 and had an ace and a block. Rico Wardlow, Jon Diedrich and Zach Solomon had eight kills each … 

Lewis (10-6) swept visiting Emmanuel (6-7) of Conference Carolinas as 10 Flyers had kills in the 25-18 25-13, 25-22 victory. Max Roquet led with eight kills. He had one error in 14 attacks, a block and two digs. John Davis had six kills in 10 errorless attacks, two digs and five blocks, two solo. Lewis hit .380 and had three aces and 16 errors. Emmanuel hit minus .027 an dhad five aces, four by Gustavo Cavalcanti, and 11 errors. 

CONFERENCE CAROLINAS — There were four non-conference matches. North Greenville, the league leader, lost in five to visiting independent Limestone, which hit .400 and got 22 kills from Geraldo Rivera, Barton lost to visiting independent Tusculum, and Erskine beat visiting Edward Waters of the SIAC in four. As mentioned, Emmanuel lost at Lewis. 

SIAC — There were two conference matches as Central State won in five at Fort Valley State and Kentucky State swept Morehouse. Carlos Pinto of Central State had 19 kills, hit .417, had six assists, two aces, three digs and two blocks.

PLEASE JOIN THE TEAM!
Keep free volleyball journalism free and get cool stuff by becoming a VolleyballMag.com Sustaining Member:  https://volleyballmag.com/sustaining-membership/  
Or make a contribution through Venmo @VolleyballMag