Hawai’i, UCLA, Penn St., Long Beach, GCU all win in NCAA men’s volleyball
NCAA Men
VBM Staff
February 18, 2023
The top five teams in NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball — Hawai’i, UCLA, Penn State, Long Beach State and Grand Canyon all won Friday night and only unbeaten GCU lost a set.
Saturday’s schedule includes BYU back at UCLA and Pepperdine at Stanford in the MPSF, and a key MPSF match when Ohio State goes to Loyola.Â
Ido David hits against the BYU triple block/Andy J. Gordon photo
Top-ranked Hawai’i of the Big West improved to 11-0 and won its 20th in a row with its 25-20, 25-19, 25-19 sweep of visiting Concordia Irvine (4-7) of the MPSF. Spyris Chakas had 14 kills and hit .462, Chaz Galloway had 11 kills and Dimitrios Mouchlias had 10 kills and hit .471 …Â
No. 2 UCLA (12-1) opened MPSF play with a win over visiting No. 8 BYU (8-3) 25-20, 25-22, 25-18. Ethan Champlin and Ido David had 11 kills each and Alex Knight 10 …Â
UCLA’s Ethan Champlin hits against BYU/Andy J. Gordon
Third-ranked Penn State (10-1) opened EIVA play with a 25-18, 25-23, 25-20 sweep of visiting Princeton (4-7). Toby Ezeonu had 11 kills, hit .529 and had two blocks …Â
No. 4 Long Beach State (7-2) of the Big West rolled to a 25-15, 25-19, 26-24 win over visiting NJIT (5-1) of the EIVA. The Beach hit .421 and got 11 kills each from Spencer Olivier and Sotiris Siapanis. Olivier hit .348 and had an assist, three blocks and six digs. Siapanis had one error in 19 swings, an assist, an ace, five blocks and seven digs. Simon Torwie had seven kills and eight blocks, one solo. NJIT’s Alessandro Negri had 17 kills, an ace and six digs …Â
No. 5 Grand Canyon is 13-0, 2-0 in the MPSF, after its 21-25, 25-22, 25-20, 25-22 victory at USC (6-6, 0-2). The Lopes, who hit .061 in the first set, hit .365 in the last three sets. Jason Hickman had 14 kills and four blocks and Christian Janke added 13 kills, four blocks and six dig. Kevin Kobrine had 14 kills for USC. He hit .406 and had an assist, nine digs and five blocks, one solo …Â
Jaylen Jasper had 20 kills and hit .783 as No. 7 Pepperdine (9-4) won its MPSF opener at No. 9 Stanford (7-5). Jasper had only two errors in 23 attacks and added two assists, an ace, a block and four digs. Pepperdine hit .571 with 48 kills and eight errors in 70 attacks …
Also in the EIVA, No. 15 Charleston improved to 12-0 as it won its league opener with a sweep of visiting Harvard (4-5). Garret Schnitker led with 18 kills as he hit .517 and had two assists, two aces, four blocks and seven digs …
In the MIVA Kyle Wilson had 11 kills, five blocks and four dig as, McKendree (6-5, 1-3) swept visiting Quincy (4-8, 0-4), and Lindenwood (5-6, 3-1) won in five at Lewis (8-7, 2-2). Lindenwood got 15 kills from Ian Schuller, who had three aces and four blocks, one solo. Clay Wieter had 14 kills and four blocks, and AJ Lewis had 10 kills and four aces …Â
Emmanuel and Erskine both got four-set Conference Carolinas wins. Jayden Young had 23 kills as Emmanuel (5-6, 1-2) won at Mount Olive (4-7, 0-3). Young hit .378 and had two aces, a solo block and two digs. Nicklas Eichenberger had 10 kills, hit .400, and had three assists, three aces and 18 digs …. Erskine (5-7, 2-2) won at Barton (0-9, 0-3). Austin Edgerrin had 16 kills, two digs and four solo blocks …
Daemen (7-1, 2-0) got 12 kills each from Henry Moffitt and Zach Schneider in its five-set NEC win at Merrimack (5-5, 0-1). Xander Thesz led Merrimack with 13 kills … Also in the first-year NEC, Sacred Heart and LIU got their first league wins. Sacred Hert(3-5, 1-0) swept visiting D’Youville (3-4, 0-2)Â as Patrick Mucherino had 14 kills, hit .478 and added an assist, an ace, four digs and four blocks, one solo … LIU (5-4, 1-0) swept visiting Fairleigh Dickinson (3-5, 0-2). Kale Spencer had 17 kills in 25 errorless attacks to hit .680 and he had an assist, three blocks and five digs …
Belmont Abbey (5-8) of Conference Carolinas beat visiting Fort Valley State (2-8) of the SIAC in four. Matteo Miselli led a balanced BA attack with nine kills, an ace and two digs. Fort Valley’s Jamil Scott had 15 kills and Isaiah Fedd 12 … Central State (3-1) of the SIAC won at Adrian (8-5) in four behind 17 kills from Cameron Lee … Thomas More swept Kentucky State (1-11) of the SIAC …
Independent Alderson Broaddus (4-9) beat Carolina University twice.
Wade Garard of the First Point Volleyball Foundation presented the game ball to Daemen and Merrimack as they played their first NEC match. From left, Merrimack’s Ray Lewis, NEC commissioner Noreen Morris, Garard, Daemen’s Donny Gleason.
