NCAA volleyball: UCI knocks off GCU; top non-conference battles highlight Friday’s slate
NCAA Men
Lee Feinswog
March 8, 2024
Spyros Chakas of Hawai’i goes high over the Lewis triple block/UH photo
What a Thursday at the Outrigger Invitational in Hawai’i.
And what a Friday on tap in NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball.
Top-ranked Grand Canyon of the MPSF, the last unbeaten team, was knocked off by No. 5 UC Irvine of the Big West.
Then third-ranked Hawai’i of the Big West swept visiting No. 14 Lewis of the MIVA, setting up Friday’s No. 1 vs. No. 3 faceoff between two teams that now have one loss each. Earlier, UCI and Lewis play each other in the Stan Sheriff Center.
Second-ranked Long Beach State opens Big West play when No. 19 UC Santa Barbara visits the Pyramid.
Fourth-ranked UCLA of the MPSF plays host to No. 9 Penn State of the EIVA.
Eighth-ranked Ohio State of the MIVA is at No. 12 USC of the MPSF.
Sixth-ranked BYU is at No. 7 Stanford for a big MPSF match.
No. 10 Pepperdine of the MPSF continues its Conference Carolinas swing when the Waves head to Tigerville, South Carolina, to play at North Greenville. Also, the MPSF’s Concordia Irvine is home for St. Xavier of Illinois. SXU is coming off losses at Vanguard and The Masters on its California trip.
The MIVA has two other non-conference matches when No. 20 McKendree plays Erskine of Conference Carolinas and Quincy faces independent Maryville.
There are two EIVA matches as NJIT is at No. 17 George Mason and Harvard goes 28 miles north in Massachusetts to the NEC’s Merrimack. Also in the NEC, LIU plays host to Barton of Conference Carolinas and Daemen is home for independent Tusculum.
Lees-McRae of Conference Carolinas plays Campbellsville and Emmanuel of Conference Carolinas plays Talladega.
There are four SIAC matches. Winelsss Benedict (0-10) plays at Central State (3-17) — which is coming off back-to-back victories over Morehouse — twice, Edward Waters is at Kentucky State and winless Morehouse (0-10) is at Fort Valley State.
Thursday’s action includes those victories by UCI and Hawai’i, and also Pepperdine at Belmont Abbey.
UCI (13-4) beat Grand Canyon (15-1) to ensure that no team will go unbeaten this season. UCI, which won its seventh match in a row, got a career-high-tying 29 kills from Hilir Henno in the 25-21, 19-25, 24-26, 29-27, 15-6 victory. Henno had three errors in 64 attacks to hit .406 and added an assist, an ace, a block and eight digs. William D’Arcy had 19 kills with two errors in 31 swings to hit .548 and had an ace, two blocks and 11 digs. Maxim Grigoriev had 12 kills, hit .474, and had four assists, three aces, five blocks — two solo — and three digs. Brett Sheward had a kill, 58 assists, 10 digs and three blocks. Akhil Tangutur had 10 digs, five kills, two assists, and three blocks, and Cole Power had 15 digs and four assists. UCI hit .370 and had five aces and 15 servring errors.
GCU’s Jackson Hickman had 23 kills with no errors in 38 attacks to hit .604 and had three blocks and 15 digs. Cameron Thorne had 14 kills, hit .550, and had two digs and seven blocks, one solo. Camden Gianni had 12 kills but 11 errors, an assist, four aces, six blocks and five digs. Nicholas Slith had 58 assists, a block and 10 digs. His team his .283 and had eight aces and 12 errors …
Hawai’i (15-1) cruised to a 25-9, 25-18, 25-21 sweep of visiting Lewis (10-9). The Rainbow Warriors, who have won 14 in a row, hit .458 and had 10 aces and 11 errors. Spryos Chakas led with 15 kills and hit .737 after having one error in 19 attacks to go with two aces, two blocks and two digs. Alaka’i Todd had eight kills with one error in 12 attacks, two aces, a block and five digs, and Guilherme Voss had seven kills, hit .556, and had two aces, two digs and two blocks, one solo. Lewis, which hit .206 and had one ace and 16 errors, got nine kills from Max Roquet …
Pepperine (13-5) opened its Conference Carolinas trip with a 25-16, 25-17, 25-20 win at Belmont Abbey (11-3). Cole Ketrzynski led with 17 kills as he hit .375 and had an ace, two blocks and five digs. Ryan Barnett had 10 kills, hit .308, and had two aces, two blocks and seven digs, and Akin Akinwumi had seven kills, two assists, three aces, two blocks and seven digs.The Waves hit .333 and had six aces and 14 errors. Belmont Abbey hit .138 and had one ace and 13 errors. Zach Puentes had eight kills …
Lindenwood (8-9) of the MIVA won in four at Erskine (9-7) of Conference Carolinas behind 16 kills from Clay Wieter. Wieter hit .542 and added an assist, an ace, five digs and two blocks … Fort Valley State (7-5) of the SIAC swept visiting Emmanuel (5-14) of Conference Carolinas. Chey Cooper had 11 kills and Isaiah Fedd and Jaxon Hicks nine each …
Wednesday, slumping USC (11-8) beat visiting Penn State (12-5) 25-22, 25-19, 15-25, 25-23 as Jack Deuchar had 14 kills, Dillon Klein 13 and Riley Haine 11. Haine hit .429 and had three blocks and four digs, but also no aces and five serving errors. The Trojans, who hit .238, had six aces — three by Caleb Blanchette — and 20 errors. USC snapped a four-match skid, losing twice to then No. 2 GCU and then twice to No. 4 UCLA. Penn State’s John Kerr had 21 of his team’s 39 kills, hit .405 and had an ace, two blocks and four digs. Penn State hit .250 and had seven aces — four by Toby Ezeonu — and 20 errors …
Also Wednesday, Saint Francis (PA) of the NEC (11-6) won in four at Fort Valley State (6-5) by hitting .435. Michael Mosbacher led with 22 kills, hitting .526, to go with two aces, four digs and a block … McKendree (10-6) swept at Missouri S&T (8-10) as it hit .347 and six players had six or more kills … No. 18 UC San Diego (8-10) hit .469 and swept St. Katherine.
