NCAA men’s volleyball: Top teams all win, regular season ends Saturday with conference seeds on line

The NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball season ends Saturday with seeding at stake in three of the five conference tournaments that get automatic NCAA tournament bids. 

That comes after a Friday in which all three top seeds won in the MPSF and Big West. But in the MPSF, USC had to go five to win at Grand Canyon, and in the Big West, Long Beach State had to go five to get past CSUN. 

And in the EIVA, second-ranked Penn State finished the conference schedule 16-0 after winning its 19th match in a row.

The MIVA begins its conference tournament Saturday with top-seed and No. 7 Ball State home for Quincy, second-seeded and 11th-ranked Loyola home for Purdue Fort Wayne, third-seeded and 15th-ranked McKendree home for Ohio State, and fourth-seeded and No. 13 Lewis home for Lindenwood.

And Conference Carolinas has its tournament quarterfinals Tuesday when Erskine faces Emmanuel and Belmont Abbey plays Mount Olive.

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MPSF — Top-ranked UCLA (20-3, 10-1) has the first seed and the bye that goes with it. Stanford (12-12, 4-7) has the No. 5 seed, BYU (8-15, 3-8) the No. 6 and Concordia (10-15, 3-9) the No.  7. Fifth-ranked USC (20-6, 7-4), No. 8 Pepperdine (15-9, 6-5) and No. 10 Grand Canyon (16-10, 6-5) are all fighting for the other spots.

Saturday, USC is at Grand Canyon, Stanford is at Pepperdine, and UCLA is at BYU. 

Friday, UCLA won 20-25, 25-23, 25-16, 25-18 at BYU. David Ido had 18 kills with one error in 25 attacks to hit .680 and added an assist, three aces, a block and five digs. UCLA hit .350 and had three aces and 23 errors. BYU hit .126 and had five aces and 16 blocks. Davide Gardini had 16 kills … 

USC had to pull the reverse sweep to win 21-25, 15-25, 25-14, 25-23, 15-12 at Grand Canyon as Simon Gallas led with 23 kills, hitting .474, and he had an assist, three aces, nine digs and three blocks, one solo. USC hit .286 and had eight aces and 18 errors. GCU, which hit .228 and had nine aces and 10 errors, got 16 kills from Camden Gianni and 14 from Hugo Fisher … 

No. 6 UCSB (17-8) of the Big West swept Concordia 25-23, 25-22, 25-21. UCSB’s Dayne Chalmers and Nick Amoruso had 14 kills each. The Gauchos, who hit .330, had two aces and 13 errors. Owen Chun had 17 kills for CUI, which hit .179 and had four aces and 12 errors.

BIG WEST — Third-ranked Long Beach State (18-4, 7-2) is in first place and is the regular-season champion and top seed for the league tournament. Fourth-seeded Hawai’i (21-5, 6-3) is a game back, followed by UCSB (17-8, 5-4), No. 9 UC San Diego (13-9, 5-4), No. 14 UC Irvine (10-14, 3-6) and CSUN (6-14, 1-8).

Things finish up Saturday with UCI back at Hawai’i, UCSB at UCSD and Long Beach at CSUN.

Hawai’i beat visiting UCI 25-21, 25-18, 25-22 on Friday as Dmitrios Mouchlias led a balanced attack with 13 kills. The Rainbow Warriors hit .390 with five aces and seven errors. Francesco Sani had 16 kills and four aces for UCI, which hit .200 and had six aces and eight errors … 

Long Beach State battled to a 25-20, 16-25, 20-25, 25-20, 16-14 win over visiting CSUN. Spencer Olivier and Alex Nikolov had 19 kills each for LBSU, which hit .347 and had 10 aces and 19 errors. CSUN’s Kyle Hobus had 21 kills, hit .317, and had three assists, an ace, 12 digs and four blocks, two solo. The Matadors hit .388 and had nine aces and 16 errors.

EIVA — Penn State (23-3, 16-0) has been the runaway winner, but NJIT (14-10, 9-6), Princeton (11-12, 9-6) and Harvard (11-12, 9-6) are all tied for second. Saint Francs (PA) is next at (15-11, 8-7), followed by George Mason (13-13, 7-8), Charleston (8-14, 4-11), St. Francis Brooklyn (10-14, 4-11) and Sacred Heart (10-16, 2-13). 

Penn State’s regular-season is finished. On Saturday, NJIT is at St. Francis Brooklyn, Princeton is home for Sacred Heart, Harvard is at Mason, and Saint Francis is at Charleston, so tiebreakers could definitely come into play for seeding.

Penn State won 25-18, 25-21, 15-25, 25-12 at Charleston. Brett Wildman had 12 kills and Jack Shampine had 11. Penn State hit .305 and had eight aces and 15 errors. Charleston hit .232 and had three aces and 13 errors … 

NJIT beat St. Francis Brooklyn 25-23, 24-26, 25-18, 25-23. Jens Feldthus and Martin De Chavarria had 12 kills each. NJIT hit .402 and had six aces and 23 errors. St. Francis hit .245 and had five aces and 15 errors …

Princeton won its sixth in a row, a 25-18, 25-14, 25-18 sweep of Sacred Heart, which hit .015 and had three aces and 13 errors. Princeton, which hit .224 and had 12 aces and 12 errors, got 11 kills from Ben Harrington …

Harvard beat Mason 18-25, 25-21, 25-17, 21-25, 15-11. Ethan Smith had 17 kills with no errors in 24 attacks, an ace, three digs and 10 blocks, one solo. Campbell Schoenfeld added 13 kills, two aces, two blocks and 12 digs. Harvard hit .307 and had four aces and 21 errors. Mason hit .219 and had two aces and 12 errors. Jack Bolz and Omar Hoyos had 19 kills each.

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Lee Feinswog

Lee Feinswog is the publisher and editor of VolleyballMag.com
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