Lewis, Loyola, McKendree and Ball State were the winners Saturday in the MIVA quarterfinals.
Also in NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball, Hawai’i won again in the Big West and earned the regular-season title, and UCLA gained a split with BYU in the MPSF, which also saw USC’s Billy Fauntleroy get 31 kills in a loss to Grand Canyon.
There are no matches until the Conference Carolina quarterfinals Tuesday.
MIVA — Top-seeded Lewis (18-2) swept Quincy (5-13) as the Flyers hit .392. Ryan Coenen had 13 kills, hit .500, and had three blocks and two digs. Tyler Mitchem had 12 kills as he hit .579 after having one error in 19 attacks to go with two aces and six blocks. Kevin Kauling had four kills in six errorless tries, 33 assists, and five blocks. Quincy, which hit .115, got eight kills from Omari Wheeler …
Second-seeded Loyola (14-5), which was coming off back-to-back losses to Lewis to end the regular season, beat visiting Lindenwood (5-13) in four as Cole Schlothauer and Devin Joslyn had 17 kills each.
Schlothauer had three assists, two aces, five blocks, and four digs. Joslyn, filling in for All-MIVA player Luke Denton, had two errors in 30 attacks and hit .500 to go with two assists, four blocks, and eight digs. Ben Montplaisir had eight kills in 12 errorless attacks, an ace, a dig, and 10 digs, one solo. Lindenwood hit .135 but got 16 kills from AJ Lewis, who had three blocks and seven digs. Diego Negron had 11 kills …
Third-seeded McKendree (11-5) had to go five to get past Purdue Fort Wayne (6-9) despite 23 kills by PFW’s Pelegrin Vargas and 21 by Vicente Ibarra.
McKendree’s Patrick Ross had 18 kills in the 27-25, 21-25, 29-27, 25-27, 15-13 victory as he hit .333 and had four blocks and five digs. Zach Schnittker had 14 kills, an assist, two aces, six blocks, and 14 digs, and Ethan Carroll had 13 kills, two blocks, and 10 digs. Lucas Galifos had nine kills with one error in 16 attacks and nine blocks, one solo. Ryan Serrano had a kill, 56 assists, five blocks, and eight digs, and Francisco Comas had 21 digs and two assists …
And fourth-seeded Ball State (12-7) beat visiting Ohio State (9-10) in four despite 25 kills from the Buckeyes’ Sotiris Siapanis. Blake Reardon led Ball State with 19 kills as he hit .500 and had two blocks and seven digs. Kaleb Jenness had 16 kills, an assist, an ace, four blocks, and three digs. Quinn Isaacson had two kills, 53 assists, an ace, a block, and 13 digs. The match was the last at home for 23rd-year coach Joel Walton, who is retiring after this season.
Ohio State’s Siapanis hit .308 and had an assist, five digs, and four blocks, one solo. Martin Lallemand had 16 kills, hit .314, and had two assists, an ace, three blocks, and five digs. Samuel Clark had 14 kills, hit .435, and had an assist, four blocks, and an a dig.
When MIVA play resumes Saturday, Lewis will be home for Ball State, back in the semifinals for the first time since 2017, and Loyola will play host to McKendree.
MPSF — A day after getting swept by BYU, UCLA (14-5) beat the visiting Cougars (17-3) in four as Kevin Kobrine had 23 kills and Cole Ketrzynski had 20. Kobrine had four errors in 38 attacks and hit .500 to go with two assists, two aces, and 12 digs. Ketrzynski also had four errors in 38 attacks and had an assist, an ace, two blocks, and 10 digs.
BYU, which had won 12 in a row, got 18 kills from Gabi Garcia Fernandez, who had two assists, an ace, a block, and two digs. Davide Gardini had 11 kills, two assists, two aces, two blocks, and 11 digs …
Grand Canyon (6-10) won in five at USC (5-12). Christian Janke had 18 kills and hit .412 for the Lopes and had an ace, eight digs, and three blocks, two solo. Hugo Fisher had 12 kills, an ace, four digs, and three blocks, two solo. Kyle Thompson had 11 kills, an assist, four blocks, and four digs. Heath Hughes had two kills, 45 assists, three blocks, and 17 digs.
USC’s Fauntleroy got his career-high 31 kills in 66 swings with 16 errors and he had an ace, eight digs and two blocks, one solo.
Fauntleroy’s 31 kills were the most by an MPSF player this season and the most by a Trojan since Lucas Yoder’s 33 in 2017 versus Penn State. He was five kills shy of tying the USC rally scoring era record of 36 set by Brook Billings in 2002 against Pacific.
Vecas Lewin had 14 kills with one error in 21 attacks to hit .619 and he had a dig and four blocks, one solo. Cole Paxson had a career-high 19 digs, the MPSF high for 2021, and four assists.
This week, Pepperdine, which won the No. 3 seed in the MPSF quarterfinals that will be played April 22, goes to Stanford Friday and Saturday, while Concordia goes to Grand Canyon for two matches.
BYU, which gained the top spot in the MPSF tournament and the first-round bye that comes with it, is off until Friday, April 23, when the Cougars will be a semifinals host. UCLA is the No. 2 seed and plays Thursday, April 22, against the No. 7 seed. Grand Canyon is the fourth seed.
BIG WEST — Hawai’i (13-0, 8-0) swept at CSUN (1-7). Rado Parapunov had 15 kills as the Rainbow Warriors notched their fourth series sweep in a row and claimed their first outright conference regular-season title since 1980. Hawai’i had been in the MPSF until 2017.
Parapunov hit .407 and had a block and four digs. Jakob Thelle had a kill in his only try and 32 assists, a block, and four digs. Hawai’i hit .384.
CSUN’s Griffin Walters and Cole Chea had nine kills each …
Long Beach State (5-3) swept visiting UC San Diego (3-9, 3-5) as Simon Anderson led a balanced attack with nine kills in 16 errorless attacks. He had two aces and four blocks. Spencer Olivier, who had six blocks, and Clarke Godbold had seven kills each. LBSU hit .307, while UCSD hit .070.
EIVA — Penn State (19-3, 16-2), which had already won the regular-season title, swept at Charleston (4-12). No stats were available but Penn State reported that Cal Fisher had seven kills on 11 errorless attacks and he had five aces …
Saint Francis (6-18, 5-12) swept at Sacred Heart (1-18, 0-15). SFU, which hit .358, got 10 kills from Joshua Blair and nine from Alexander Finch … George Mason’s matches at NJIT were canceled.
Penn State plays again April 22 when it plays host to the winner of the April 17 match between Charleston and Saint Francis. NJIT will also play April 22 against the Sacred Heart-George Mason winner.
CONFERENCE CAROLINAS — The next action is Tuesday when fifth-seeded King plays at fourth-seeded Barton and sixth-seeded Emmanuel plays at third-seeded North Greenville.
Top-seeded Mount Olive awaits the King-Barton winner, while second-seeded Belmont Abbey gets the Emmanuel-North Greenville winner.
