Eighth-ranked Grand Canyon took a set in its loss to No. 7 UC Irvine and Ball State did the same in its defeat at Lindenwood.
Otherwise, every other match on Friday’s NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball scoreboard ended in a 3-0 sweep, including EIVA victories by No. 10 Penn State and No. 11 Princeton.
The recaps follow, but first a look at Saturday’s schedule, including a look at what’s on tap for NCAA beach.
Those two EIVA front-runners are home again as Penn State plays host to Charleston and Princeton entertains Harvard. No. 15 George Mason goes to Saint Francis and Sacred Heart is at NJIT.
In the MPSF No. 2 BYU is home for No. 13 Stanford.
There are two Big West teams home against MPSF competition as No. 4 Long Beach State heads to No. 12 UCLA, and No. 3 UC Santa Barbara plays at USC.
In the MIVA, No. 5 Lewis is home for Loyola, McKendree goes to No. 14 Purdue Fort Wayne, Ball State is at Quincy and Ohio State goes to Lindenwood.
Conference Carolinas has two league matches as Lees-McRae is at Mount Olive and King, two games back in the standings, goes to first-place Barton.
Also in non-leage matches at Mount Olive, Lees-McRae plays St. Francis Brooklyn and then so does Mount Olive. Limestone goes to Lincoln Memorial.
To watch any match that is being streamed or broadcast, go to the VolleyballMag.com TV listings.
Men’s recaps: Grand Canyon got to its highest ranking ever but now has lost twice since since heading to Irvine, California, losing to Concordia on Thursday and now UC Irvine on Friday.
UCI of the Big West improved to 8-0 while GCU of the MPSF fell to 12-5 as Alexandre Nsakanda had 19 kills for the Anteaters in the 25-17, 25-23, 24-26, 25-18 victory.
Nsakanda had an ace, a block and four digs. Joel Schneidmiller had 13 kills, hit .314, and had four digs and six blocks, one solo. Akhil Tangutur had 10 kills, hit .350, and had an ace, 10 digs and three blocks, one solo, and Scott Stadick had four kills and nine blocks, one solo. UCI hit .282 and had three aces and nine errors. GCU hit .175 and had seven aces and 20 errors. Camden Gianni led with 17 kills, two aces, three digs and six blocks, one solo. Christian Janke had 13 kills and hit .370 to go with two aces and five digs, and Kyle Thompson had 11 kills, hit .625, and had an ace and two blocks. Heath Hughes had 47 assists, a solo block, and 17 digs …
UCLA (8-7) swept CSUN of the Big West (4-10) 25-22, 25-19, 25-18. The Bruins hit .421 and had six aces and 15 errors. Seven Bruins had kills, led by Daenan Gyimah’s 10. He hit .474 and had six blocks. Kyle Hobus had 13 kills and hit .611 for CSUN, which hit .216 and had four aces and 13 errors …
No. 6 UC San Diego (13-3) swept Division III independent UC Santa Cruz (12-11) 25-22, 25-19, 25-10. The Tritons hit .350, had six aces and 14 errors, and got nine kills each from Wyatt Harrison and Ryan Ka. Santa Cruz hit .031 …
Penn State (10-6, 6-0) stayed a game ahead of Princeton (8-5, 5-1) in the loss column atop the EIVA standings as the Nittany Lions blasted visiting George Mason and Princeton beat Sacred Heart.
Cal Fisher led Penn State with 16 kills, hitting .467, and had three blocks and five digs in the Nittany Lions’ 25-19, 25-20, 25-16 sweep of Mason. Brett Wildman had 11 kills, hit .400, and had two assists, an ace and five digs. Cole Bogner had a kill, 33 assists, three blocks and six digs as his team hit .352 and had eight aces — five by Jason Donorovich — and 12 errors. George Mason hit .198 and had one ace and 10 errors. Sam Greenslade led with 11 kills and hit .348 …
Princeton beat Sacred Heart (4-7, 0-6) 25-15, 25-21, 25-21. The Tigers hit .410 and had three aces and 15 errors. Jerod Nelson led with 14 kills and hit .478 to go with nine digs and three blocks, one solo. George Huhmann had 11 kills and hit .381 to go with three aces, three blocks and a dig. Sacred Heart hit .208 and had one ace and 12 errors …
Also in the EIVA, NJIT (7-5, 2-3) swept Harvard (9-5, 3-3) and Saint Francis (5-10, 2-4) did the same to Charleston (4-10, 2-4).
Alvaro Gimeno had 12 kills for NJIT in its 25-22, 25-19, 25-19 victory as the Highlanders hit .418 and had 10 aces — three each by Jens Feldthus and Luca Berger — and 16 errors. Campbell Schoenfeld had 14 kills and hit .480 for Harvard, which hit .254 and had one ace and 11 errors …
Michael Fisher had 14 kills and hit .545 to go with an assist, two aces and two blocks in Saint Francis’s 25-21, 25-17, 25-23 victory …
In the MIVA, Ohio State (10-6, 2-3) beat Quincy (4-12, 1-4) and Lindenwood (10-6, 3-2) beat Ball State (9-6, 2-3). In Ohio State’s 25-17, 25-23, 25-16 victory Reese Devilbiss had 17 kills with no errors in 23 attacks and hit .739, while Matt Tompkins had 14 kills, hit .500, and had an ace, a block and three digs. The Buckeyes hit .470 and had five aces and 24 errors. Quincy hit .148 and had no aces and 11 errors … Lindenwood won 25-21, 17-25, 25-21, 25-20 as it hit .295 and had 11 aces and 20 errors. Jeremy Kirch led with 17 kills as he hit .467, had three of those aces, six blocks and four digs. Diego Negron had 13 kills and AJ Lewis had nine kills, two aces, five digs and five blocks, one solo. Ball State hit .181 and had six aces and six errors. Kaleb Jenness led with 20 kills and hit .361. Blake Reardon had 15 kills …
Mount Olive (10-7, 6-2) moved into second place in Conference Carolinas with its 25-18 25-19 25-18 sweep of King (7-8, 5-2). Jarrod Ferguson had 13 kills and hit .417 for Mount Olive and Tobi Azeez had 12 kills, hit .304, and had three aces, five digs and a block. Mount Olive hit .369 and had eight aces and 10 errors. King hit .179 and had one ace and six errors …
Barton (12-2, 7-0) stayed alone atop ConfCarolinas with its 5-12, 25-17, 25-12 win over Lees-McRae (2-10, 1-5). Barton hit .438 and had more aces than errors, 13 to 12. Angelos Mandilaris had seven kills and six of those aces. Alejandro Hernandez had 11 kills and hit .471 to go with an assist, an ace, a dig and two blocks, one solo. Lees-McRae hit .000 …
And North Greenville (8-7) won a non-conference match over Bluefield College.
NCAA beach: The big one Saturday is No. 1 UCLA at LSU late in the afternoon, but both teams open with other opponents. UCLA faces Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 11:15 a.m. and then LSU plays Houston Baptist.
The Hilton Head Island (South Carolina) Invitational includes the season debut of No. 4 USC, which plays Charleston and No. 17 South Carolina on Saturday and No. 10 Grand Canyon and No. 3 Florida State on Sunday. FSU plays Grand Canyon and South Carolina on Saturday and plays Charleston before the USC match.
There were a handful of matches Friday at tournaments that continue Saturday, including No. 7 Stetson beating No. 16 Georgia State (3-2) and St. Petersburg College (4-1).
Saturday Stetson plays No. 18 Florida Atlantic. Georgia State also lost to FAU (4-1), which opened with a victory over St. Leo (5-0). Click here for more from Stetson, here for more from Georgia State, and here for more from FAU …
At TCU, the No. 15 Horned Frogs beat Texas A&M-Kingsville (4-1) and then Nebraska (5-0). Click here for more …
At Arizona, the No. 13 Wildcats beat Colorado Mesa (5-0) and Washington (4-1). Click here for more.
