NCAA volleyball: Ball State, Loyola get MIVA wins, WIU hires a coach

There were only two NCAA men’s volleyball matches Thursday, but they were both in the MIVA and they both went five.

Seventh-ranked Ball State got 31 kills from Kaleb Jenness and survived visiting Purdue Fort Wayne, while unranked Loyola Chicago got 27 kills from Parker Van Buren and beat No. 14 Ohio State.

There was a women’s volleyball hire when Western Illinois tabbed Dale Starr as its head coach.

Friday’s NCAA men’s schedule is busier, including No. 3 Hawai’i of the Big West playing host to independent Lincoln Memorial, unbeaten and ranked No. 15.

Also in the Big West, No. 5 UC Santa Barbara plays host to No. 13 BYU of the MPSF,  CSUN is at No. 12 Stanford of the MPSF, UC Irvine plays host to the MPSF’s Concordia, and No. 11 UC San Diego is home for UC Santa Cruz.

There is the first MPSF match of the season when No. 8 Pepperdine goes to No. 10 Grand Canyon.

The EIVA’s No. 4 Penn State, tied atop the standings with St. Francis (PA) at 4-0, is off, but St. Francis is at Harvard, NJIT goes to Sacred Heart, Charleston is at Princeton, and St. Francis steps outside the league to play host to independent Queens.

The only MIVA match has No. 9 Lewis at Lindenwood.

In Conference Carolinas, Emmanuel is home for Edward Waters of the SIAC, and Barton is home for independent Limestone.

In the SIAC, Morehouse is at Benedict, while Fort Valley State goes out of conference to Tusculum.

Want to watch a match? We have the viewing links in our VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings.

BALL STATE TOPS PFW — Ball State (9-1, 3-0) rallied for a fourth-set win and then routed visiting Purdue Fort Wayne (8-5, 2-1) in the fifth set for a 25-21, 26-28, 23-25, 25-20, 15-6 victory. Ball State, PFW and Loyola were all tied at 2-0 atop the standings entering Thursday.

Kalem Jenness had a career-high 31 kills, tying the school record for most kills in the rally scoring era. 

Jenness had only three errors in 44 attacks, hit .636, and had two blocks and 10 digs. Will Hippe had 13 kills with one error in 19 swings to hit .632 and had three digs and three blocks, one solo. Dyer Ball had 12 kills, an ace, seven digs, and four blocks, one solo. Quinn Isaacson had two kills, 59 assists, four aces, three blocks, and 17 digs. His team hit .406 and had five aces and 13 errors. 

PFW hit .320 and had five aces and 20 errors. Four Mastodons combined for 53 kills. Bryce Walker had 17 with two errors in 34 attacks to hit .441. Vicente Ibarra had 14 kills with three errors in 32 swings to hit .344 and had two aces and 10 digs. Jon Diedrich had 13 kills, an ace, three blocks, and four digs. Rico Wardlow had nine kills, three blocks, and a dig.

LOYOLA DOWNS OHIO STATE — Parker Van Buren went off for 27 kills and  Loyola Chicago (7-5, 3-0) battled to a 25-22, 28-26, 25-23, 26-24, 16-14 road victory at Ohio State (4-6, 0-3). Van Buren had five errors in 51 attacks and hit .431 to go with an assist, an ace, three blocks, and seven digs. Six other Ramblers had three or more kills, nine by Colton Brooks, who had two assists, two blocks, and seven digs. Henry Payne had eight kills, an ace, a block, and 10 digs. Loyola hit .232 and had five aces and 22 errors.

Ohio State, now three games off the early lead in the MIVA, got 24 kills from Jacob Pasteur, who hit .429 and had three assists, three aces, three blocks, and 11 digs. Samuel Clark had 17 kills, an assist, no aces and seven errors, two blocks, and six digs. Ohio State hit .238 and had three aces and 25 errors.

STARR TO WIU — Western Illinois hired Robert Morris head coach Dale Starr to take the same role at the school in Macomb, Illinois. Starr was at Robert Morris for 12 seasons. 

He previously coached at Tennessee-Martin and McNeese State. In 2019, Robert Morris finished 25-2, 12-1 in the Northeast Conference. In the spring of 2021, the Colonials finished 4-12 and last fall Robert Morris went 9-21, 3-9 in the Horizon League. Starr, who had a record of 169-191 at Robert Morris, was let go with four matches left in the season and Robert Morris lost them all. WIU finished 5-24 last season, 4-14 in the Summit League. The contract of Ben Staupe, who went 16-88 in four seasons, was not renewed.

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