Top-ranked Hawai’i was back in NCAA men’s volleyball action for the first time in nearly two weeks and the Rainbow Warriors crushed visiting Queens.
No. 2 BYU opened MPSF play with a sweep of visiting No. 7 UCLA, while Pepperdine and UC San Diego also notched victories. Stanford, which lost to Pepperdine, got 28 kills from Jaylen Jasper.
The recaps and a note about Northeastern and Seattle hiring women’s coaches follow, but first Friday’s schedule.
Hawai’i of the Big West is back at it at its 26th Outrigger Hotels and Resorts Invitational when it plays host to No. 14 Concordia of the MPSF, while No. 4 UC Irvine of the Big West faces Queens.
The rest of the Big West is also in action. Fifth-ranked Long Beach State plays No. 9 Penn State of the EIVA at Ohio State, and then No. 3 UC Santa Barbara plays No. 15 Ohio State of the MIVA. Also, CSUN plays Lindenwood of the MIVA.
Also in the MIVA, there’s a league-opening match when McKendree (6-4) goes to No. 6 Lewis (7-3), while Purdue Fort Wayne and Pelegrin Vargas, featured here this week, plays host to Urbana.
Also in the EIVA, there are league matches when Princeton (4-4, 2-0) goes to NJIT (5-2, 0-0) and George Mason (4-4, 0-0) goes to Charleston (1-8, 0-2). There are two MIVA-Conference Carolinas matches when Sacred Heart plays Mount Olive and Harvard plays Barton.
There are two Conference Carolinas matches when Erskine goes to Lees-McRae and Emmanuel plays at King, while Limestone faces Campbellsville.
To watch any match that is being streamed or broadcast, go to the VolleyballMag.com TV listings.
Hawai’i, UCI win: Hawai’i (10-0) rolled over visiting Queens (4-5) 25-10, 25-15, 25-17 as 11 players had kills and only four played three sets. Max Rosenfeld led with nine kills as he had no errors in 11 attacks to hit .818. He had three blocks and two digs. Hawai’i hit .434 and had four aces and 11 errors. Queens hit .025 …
UCI (6-3) beat Concordia (4-5) 26-24, 18-25, 25-21, 25-20 as the Anteaters hit .358 and had four aces and 23 errors. CUI hit .154 and had three aces and 12 errors.
Joel Schneidmiller led the Anteaters with 17 kills, an assist, an ace, four blocks and nine digs. Alexandre Nsakanda had 15 kills, hit .438 after having one error in 32 swings, and added a block and seven digs. Scott Stadick had 11 kills in 18 errorless attacks and had 10 blocks, three solo. Raymond Barsemian led Concordia’s balanced attack with 10 kills but hit .000. Gil Herold and Zack Meyer had nine kills each.
MPSF: BYU (11-0, 1-0) beat UCLA (5-4, 0-1) 31-29, 25-12, 25-23 as the Cougars hit .373. Gabi Garcia Fernandez led with 13 kills, hit .429, and had an assist, three of his team’s four aces against 12 errors, three blocks and four digs. Davide Gardini had 11 kills, two assists, and also three blocks and four digs. Zach Eschenberg had seven kills, hit .500, and had an assist, the other ace, two blocks and five digs. Wil Stanley had three kills in as many attempts, 33 assists, two blocks and three digs.
UCLA, which hit .256 and had one ace and 18 errors, got 11 kills from Cole Ketrzynski, who hit .318. He had an assist, a dig and two blocks, one solo. Mads Kyed Jensen had four kills, 27 assists, two digs and three blocks, one solo …
No. 8 Pepperdine (4-2) opened league play with a 18-25, 25-22, 25-22, 20-25, 15-9 victory at No. 13 Stanford (4-5) as three players had 10 or more kills. The Waves hit .234 and had four aces and 17 errors, while Stanford hit .274 and had one ace and 18 errors.
Jacob Steele led Pepperdine with 13 kills and he had two assists, an ace, four blocks and 12 digs. Noah Dyer had 10 kills, hit .364, and had three assists, an ace, five blocks and two digs. Alex Gettinger had 10 kills, hit .300, and had an ace, three blocks and four digs. Austin Wilmot had nine kills, an ace and 10 blocks. Joe Karlous had three kills, 49 assists, two blocks and five digs.
Jasper got his 28 kills on 55 swings as he had six errors and hit .400. He had an ace, two blocks and 11 digs. Will Rottman had 11 kills, a block and five digs. Setter Justin Liu had 52 assists and 15 digs.
Also: UC San Diego of the Big West (9-3) beat visiting USC of the MPSF (2-8) 21-25, 25-20, 25-23, 25-22.
Kyle McCauley led with 16 kills and hit .313. He had an assist, an ace and three digs. Wyatt Harrison had 14 kills with one error in 21 attacks to hit .619 and he had an ace, eight digs and three blocks, two solo. Shane Benetz had 11 kills, hit .429, and had four blocks and a dig. Connor Walbrecht had two kills, 44 assists, 10 digs and three blocks, one solo. His team team hit .393 and had three aces and 14 errors.
“I thought Connor Walbrecht set a really nice match,” UCSD coach Kevin Ring said. “We talked about our balanced offense, and balanced production. It’s one thing to set multiple guys, but we’re getting production from multiple guys. I thought we did a nice job of that tonight.”
USC hit .242 and had nine aces and 15 errors.
“USC did a really nice job of serving, I think they had nine aces. I think that’s a little high, we have some pretty good passers on our side. To play our way through that was really key,” Ring said.
USC’s Kyle Gear had 13 kills, an ace, a block and three digs. Brandon Browning had 11 kills, two assists, four of those aces and four digs …
Ball State of the MIVA (6-3) swept Urbana (0-11). Brandon Shepherd led with 10 kills as he hit .471 and had a block and three digs …
Belmont Abbey of Conference Carolinas beat Campbellsville in five. Liam Maxwell led with 22 kills, he hit .326, and had three assists, an ace, three digs and two blocks, one solo.
Coaching carousel: Northeastern, the Boston team in the Colonial Athletic Association, hired Canisius coach Lenika Vazquez as its head coach. Vazquez was at Canisius for three seasons. Vazquez was a Saluki when she was a defensive specialist at Southern Illinois. Canisius was 15-16 last season, 12-6 in the Metro Atlantic. Northeastern finished 15-14 last season, 9-7 in the CAA, before coach Caitlin Schweihofer left to take the job at Rutgers …
Seattle U. also hired a coach as The Citadel assistant Michelle Cole will move across the country to take on a team that finished 13-18 last season, 4-12 in the WAC. Cole, who played at Texas A&M, has also been an assistant at South Dakota and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi …
Two power-five conference jobs remain opens, at USC of the Pac-12 and NC State of the ACC as the recruiting season is set to re-open in a week. Other jobs open include those at Penn, Portland State and UNCW.
