After just two matches into the MPSF schedule, second-ranked BYU and Grand Canyon have two-game leads over UCLA and USC. Both came up with big victories on Saturday, and also in the MPSF, so did No. 13 Stanford as it beat No. 7 UCLA.
CSUN of the Big West, however, probably wishes it had stayed home. The Matadors got knocked off by the MIVA’s Lindenwood for the second straight day.
There were no upsets Saturday in NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball — although No. 3 UC Santa Barbara had to rally from 0-2 to beat No. 9 Penn State in five — as 15 of the 19 matches on the schedule were sweeps, including top-ranked Hawai’i beating No. 4 UC Irvine.
There are three matches Sunday, all at Urbana, as Daemen plays the home team, then plays Lincoln Memorial, and then LM and Urbana face off.
There are no matches Monday, just four are scheduled Tuesday and three on Wednesday. Four MIVA matches are on tap for Thursday.
To watch any match that is being streamed or broadcast, go to the VolleyballMag.com TV listings.
MPSF: BYU improved to 12-0, 2-0 in the MPSF, with a 25-18, 25-22, 22-25, 25-20 home victory over No. 8 Pepperdine (4-3, 1-1) that gave coach Shawn Olmstead his 100th career victory on the men’s side.
Gabi Garcia Fernandez led BYU with 14 kills and he had an ace, four digs and five blocks. Davide Gardini had 12 kills, two assists, two aces, four digs and two blocks, and Zach Eschenberg had 10 kills, hit .400, and had an ace, five digs and three blocks. Felipe de Brito Ferreira had five kills and seven blocks. Wil Stanley had a kill, 36 assists, six digs and four blocks.
BYU, which tied its best start in the rally-scoring era, hit .327 and had five aces and 13 serving errors.
“I didn’t know anything about coming up on my 100th win until one of the coaches mentioned it to me about five minutes before the match,” Olmstead said. “I immediately just thought of all the great people I’ve been surrounded by throughout my time here.
“I think very highly of David Hunt and Pepperdine. It makes it that much more special to be able to get this win against them because I think the world of him.”
Pepperdine, which hit .278, had three aces and 20 errors. Noah Dyer led a balanced attack with 12 kills, two assists, an ace, two digs and a block. Jacob Steele had 11 kills, four digs and three blocks, and Alex Gettinger had 11 kills, hit .714, and had two assists, an ace and three digs. Joe Karlous had two kills, 43 assists, five digs and a block …
Grand Canyon (9-2, 2-0) went to USC (2-9, 0-2) and came away with a 25-21, 25-18, 25-18 sweep as it hit .455. Hugo Fisher went off for the Lopes with 17 kills and no errors in 25 attacks to hit .680. He had four digs and two blocks, one solo. Christian Janke added 15 kills, hit .565, and had an assist, two aces, four digs and a solo block. GCU had three aces and eight serving errors.
USC hit .267 and had four aces and 14 errors. Nine Trojans had kills, led by Brandon Browning with eight. He hit .312 and had two assists, an ace and six digs. Vecas Lewin had seven kills and hit .455 …
Stanford (5-5, 1-2) hit .565 as it blasted visiting UCLA (5-5, 0-2) 25-17, 25-19, 25-17. Eric Beatty led a balanced Stanford attack with 11 kills and no errors in 16 attacks as he hit .688. He had an ace and three blocks. Jaylen Jasper also had 11 kills and hit .429 and had two assists and four digs. Will Rottman had 10 kills, hit .600, and had four of his team’s six aces against 15 errors. He added a block and a dig. Justin Lui had a kill, 33 assists, two blocks and three digs.
UCLA, which hit .242 and had four aces and 17 errors, got eight of its 28 kills from Cole Ketrzynski …
No. 14 Concordia (6-6) swept independent Queens (4-7) 25-20, 25-19, 25-19 at Hawai’i. Ten CUI players had kills as the Eagles hit .366 and had seven aces and 15 errors. Raymond Barsemian led with eight kills and hit .571 after having no errors in 14 swings. Queens hit .241 and had three aces and 17 errors.
Big West: The conference went 4-1 Saturday, with the lone loss coming when CSUN lost in five to Lindenwood.
In Hawai’i, the Rainbow Warriors improved to 12-0 as they beat league foe UC Irvine (7-4) 25-22, 25-20, 25-20 in a match that doesn’t count in the league standings but did give Hawai’i the Outrigger Hotels tournament title.
Hawai’i, which hit .276 and had five aces and 10 errors, got 14 kills from Rado Parapunov. He hit .364 and had two aces, four blocks and six digs. Colton Cowell had 12 kills, an assist, an ace, a block and four digs. Patrick Gasman had six kills, hit .625, and had two blocks and three digs. UCI hit .189 and had three aces and 15 errors. Alexandre Nsakanda led with 15 kills as he hit .400 and had an ace, five blocks and four digs. Scott Stadick had three kills and 11 blocks …
UC Santa Barbara (8-2) beat Penn State of the EIVA (4-6) at Ohio State as Ryan Wilcox had 20 kills in the 19-25, 23-25, 25-15, 25-19, 15-9 victory. Wilcox hit .390 and had an assist, an ace, four digs and four blocks. Randy DeWeese had 15 kills, two assists, two aces, 10 digs and five blocks, and Keenan Sanders had 10 kills with no errors in 15 attacks, two digs and six blocks. Casey McGarry had three kills in four errorless attempts, 44 assists, 20 digs and two blocks, one solo. His team his .333 and had four aces and 15 errors.
Penn State, which hit .201, had nine aces — five by Cal Fisher — and 19 errors. Brett Wildman led with 14 kills, an assist, two aces, nine digs and two blocks. Henrik Falck Lauten had 12 kills, hit .333, and had nine digs and two blocks, one solo. Fisher had 11 kills, two assists, nine digs and a block. Cole Bogner had 47 assists, an ace, eight digs and four blocks, one solo …
No. 5 Long Beach State (7-1) beat No. 15 Ohio State (8-3) 25-21, 25-20, 28-30, 25-22 as Spencer Olivier led four players with 10 or more kills. Long Beach hit .392 and had six aces and 19 errors. Olivier had 15 kills, hit .321, and had two assists, two aces, six digs and two blocks. Ethan Siegfried had 14 kills, hit .419, and had two assists, an ace, seven digs and two blocks. Simon Andersen had 13 kills, hit .345, and added an assist, two aces, eight digs and two blocks. And Shane Holdaway had 10 kills, hit .389, and an assist, an ace, three digs and five blocks. Carlos Rivera had two kills in three errorless tries, 45 assists, nine digs and three blocks.
Ohio State hit .345 and had five aces and 20 errors. Reese Devilbiss led with 19 kills as he hit .400 and had an assist, an ace, five digs and a block. Martin Lallemand had 16 kills, hit .387, and had an ace, six digs and four blocks. Tyler Alter had 15 kills, five digs and three blocks. Samuel Clark had four kills in nine errorless swings and added two aces, five digs and two blocks, one solo. Michael Wright had 49 assists, an ace, 10 digs and two blocks …
CSUN fell to (2-9) as it lost in five at the MIVA’s Lindenwood (7-4) 25-17, 31-33, 18-25, 25-21, 15-12. Lindenwood, which won its fourth match in a row, had 19 blocks. The leader was AJ Lewis, who had 17 kills, two aces, nine digs and nine blocks, two solo. Sam Schindler had 10 kills, hit .529, and had nine blocks to go with two aces and two digs. Alex Pappas had five kills and seven blocks. Diego Negron had 14 kills, three aces, three blocks and three digs. Lindenwood hit .293 and had eight aces and 24 errors. CSUN, which hit .221, had six aces and 23 errors. Daniel Wetter led with 15 kills as he hit .550 and had two aces, a dig and five blocks, one solo. Paul Rzepniewski and Maciej Ptaszynski had 10 kills each …
And UC San Diego (10-3) beat Vanguard (1-2) 25-19, 25-21, 27-25 as Wyatt Harrison had 17 kills and hit .382 to go with two aces, four blocks and five digs.
Around the nation: There was one MIVA match Saturday as No. 10 Purdue Fort Wayne (6-2, 1-0) got 19 kills from Pelegrin Vargas and swept Loyola (3-8, 0-1) 27-25, 25-23, 28-26. PFW hit .293 and had four aces and 10 errors. Vargas hit .333 and had a block and nine digs. Tomas Gago had 10 kills with no errors in 16 swings to hit .625 and added a dig and five blocks, two solo. Richie Diedrich had five kills and four blocks, two solo. Loyola hit .232 and had seven aces and 10 errors. Devin Joslyn led with 14 kills, an assist, two aces, two blocks and two digs, and Cole Schlothauer had 12 kills, an assist, two aces and four digs …
Two other MIVA teams played non-conference matches as Ball State (7-3) swept Daemen (3-5) but Quincy (2-8) got swept by Grand View, a team from Iowa. Matt Szews led Ball State with 12 kills and three aces … Grand View hit .397 against Quincy …
Harvard of the EIVA (7-2) swept Mount Olive of Conference Carolinas (7-5) as the Crimson hit .395. Griffin Schmit led with 12 kills as he hit .579 after having one error in 19 attacks. He had nine digs and three blocks. Teammate Eric Li had 11 kills, hit .350, and had five digs and three blocks, one solo. Tobi Azeez had 15 kills for Mount Olive …
Barton of Conference Carolinas (5-2) swept the EIVA’s Sacred Heart (4-2) as it hit .389. Barton’s Nicolo Mancin led with 14 kills as he hit .375 and had three of his team’s five aces and added six digs and three blocks, two solo. Adrian Iglesias had 13 kills, hit .379, and had three digs and a block. Angelo Mandilaris had 10 kills, hit .389, and had an ace, six digs and a block. Calin Butler had nine kills for Sacred Heart …
George Mason of the EIVA (6-4) swept Tusculum by needing only 26 kills. Sam Greenslade, who had four aces, and Jack Reese had seven kills each. Reese had no errors in eight swings … It was a tough day for Tusculum (2-9), which later was swept by the host team, Charleston (2-9). Max Senica led Charleston with eight kills as he hit .353 and had two assists, an ace, a block and four digs …
The EIVA’s Saint Francis (3-6), which is located in Pennsylvania, swept St. Francis Brooklyn (2-4), which hit .048. SFU, rather, hit .397 as Michael Fisher had 15 kills, hit .600, and had two aces, two blocks and two digs …
There were two Conference Carolinas matches as King swept Erskine and Emmanuel beat Lees-McRae in four. King (6-5, 4-0) got 10 kills from Sean Kohlhase, who hit .562 in the 27-25, 25-14, 25-13 victory. He had one error in 16 swings. Diego Marcano had nine kills, hit .389 and had a dig and two blocks. King hit .389, while Erskine (3-7, 1-5) hit .012 …
Aleksa Lakic had 23 kills as visiting Emmanuel (1-7, 1-4) left Lees-McRae (0-7, 0-3) alone in the league basement. Lakic hit .340 and had an assist, an ace, eight digs and four blocks. His team hit .148 and had two aces and 20 errors. Lees-McRae hit .053 …
Also, North Greenville of Conference Carolinas was swept by Campbellsville.
The player for Pepperdine mentioned above is not Alex Robinson but rather Alex Gettinger.
Thanks. On it.