Long Beach State and big middle Simon Torwie, hitting against LIU last week, play at Merrimack on Wednesday/Jim Wolf photo
No. 14 Ball State, No. 16 Princeton, No. 18 CSUN, Thomas More and the weather were the winners Tuesday in NCAA men’s volleyball.
The match at D’Youville in Buffalo, New York, between the Saints of the NEC and Dominican of the ECC was postponed. D’Youville was hoping to open its season, which is now on hold. Because …
Harvard of the EIVA has lost two matches because of the winter weather. The Crimson (0-2) were scheduled to play at D’Youville on Wednesday and at Daemen in Amherst, New York, on Thursday. Both have been postponed. Harvard will play at Daemen on March 1 and at D’Youville on March 2.
Tuesday’s recaps follow, but first a look at Wednesday’s schedule, which includes second-ranked Long Beach State of the Big West going to North Andover, Massachusetts, to play Merrimack of the NEC. Long Beach is 2-0, while Merrimack will play its season opener. We have to assume it’s the first time Long Beach will play at Merrimack. It’s the first of a three-match East Coast swing for Long Beach, which plays NJIT on Friday and George Mason on Saturday at NJIT in Newark, New Jersey.
The Big West’s sixth-ranked UC Irvine plays host to the MIVA’s McKendree, the MIVA’s Quincy is goes to the SIAC’s Central State, Lees-McRae of Conference Carolinas is at the MIVA’s Queens, and the NEC’s FDU plays at Roberts Weleyan in Rochester, New York.
Thursday’s slate includes LIU vs. St. Thomas Aquinas, Mount Olive vs. Queens, FDU playing Roberts Wesleyan again, and Tusculum vs. King.
Ball State of the MIVA improved to 7-2 with a sweep of visiting Trine College of Angola, Indiana, which was playing its season opener. The Cardinals hit .385 in the 25-16, 25-20, 25-19 victory. Ryan Bartz led with 16 kills and hit .882 after having one error in 17 attacks. He added three aces, nine digs and three blocks, one solo. Nathan Goh added nine kills, four blocks and six digs. Eyal Rawitz had four kills with one errod in nine swings, three aces, four digs and nine blocks. Ball State led in blocks 11-3.
Ted Hofmesiter and Johnson-Kuhao Ho’okano-Pelekai, who went to Kamehameha-Kapalama High School in Kanoehe, Hawai’i, had seven kills each for Trine …
Princeton (3-1) of the EIVA swept at No. 18 UC San Diego (2-4) of the Big West. Ben Harrington had 13 kills and Nyherowo Omene 12 in the25-18, 25-21, 25-21 victory. Harrington had three aces and four digs, and Nyherowo hit .500 and had three aces and four digs. Owen Mellon had eight kills, an assist, five aces, a block and four digs. The Tigers hit .303 and had 12 aces and 18 errors. UCSD, which hit .164,had three aces and 12 errors. Anthony Cherfan led with seven kills …
CSUN (3-2) of the Big West visiting DIII independent Cal Lutheran (3-1) 25-15, 25-15, 25-23. The Matadors hit .395 as 11 players got kills. Lorenzo Bertozzi led with nine. Cal Lutheran hit minus .056 …
Independent Thomas More of Crestview Hill, Kentucky, improved to 3-3 with 25-17, 25-21, 25-21 sweep of visiting Central State, which dropped to 0-3. Seven Thomas More players had kills, 10 by Ben Albers, who had an ace and eight digs. Caleb Lipscomb had nine kill, hit .429, and had four blocks and five digs. Central State hit minus .012. In its three matches this season, Central State has 45 kills and 47 errors.
AVCA top 20
UCLA and Long Beach State stayed 1-2. Hawai’i, Ohio State and Grand Canyon moved up a spot each as UC Irvine fell three notches to No. 6. No one dropped out.
