The best NCAA beach-volleyball teams are gathering Saturday on Manhattan Beach and to give you an idea of the level of play, consider what No. 9 LSU has in store for the weekend: On Saturday, the Tigers play No. 4 UCLA and then No 2 USC. Then Sunday, they play No. 1 Pepperdine and No. 3 Hawai’i. In other words, teams 1 through 4.
That’s just a sample of a tournament that also includes No. 5 Florida State, No. 13 Florida International, and No. 20 TCU. Friday’s beach recaps follow.
First to NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball, where Friday night in Hawai’i No. 2 Hawai’i beat No. 11 Penn State and No. 4 BYU beat No. 8 Lewis. In other non-conference matches, the West Coast teams also won as No. 12 CSUN swept visiting George Mason and No. 14 UC Santa Barbara did the same to Fort Wayne.
Among the matches on Saturday’s slate, the teams trade places in Hawai’i, Mason goes to No. 5 UCLA, No. 6 Loyola plays at No. 7 Pepperdine, No. 3 UC Irvine goes to Stanford, No. 10 Ball State plays at No. 14 Concordia and Harvard is at CSUN.
Outrigger Resorts Invitational: Hawai’i of the Big West dismantled Penn State of the EIVA 25-16, 25-19, 25-16. The Rainbow Warriors (12-4) hit .342. A balanced attack was led by Stijn van Tilburg, who had nine kills, hit .333 and had three digs and two blocks. Austin Matautia had eight kills and hit .438. He had three of Hawai’i six aces. Dalton Solbrig had six kills, an ace and two blocks.
Penn State (10-6) hit .089. Calvin Mendes led with 10 kills.
BYU (16-4) of the MPSF beat Lewis of the MIVA 25-15, 18-25, 25-23, 26-24 as Brenden Sander had 14 kills and Gabi Garcia Fernandez 10. Sander had three of BYU’s seven aces and two blocks. Fernandez had an ace, seven digs and two blocks, one solo. Felipe de Brito Ferreira had seven kills in nine errorless swings and six blocks.
Lewis (13-7) got 15 kills from Ryan Coenen, who had three of the Flyers’ eight aces, six digs and two blocks. Julian Moses added 11 kills, five digs and five blocks.
Stanford, CSUN, UCSB win: Stanford (4-15) of the MPSF got a rare win — and its first at home this season — by beating the Big West’s UC San Diego (9-10) 23-25, 25-20, 25-18, 25-23. Jaylen Jasper went off with 27 kills as he hit .535 and had five digs and four blocks. Tanner Syftestad and Wyatt Harrison had 10 kills each for UCSD. Syftestad had three aces, nine digs and five blocks.
CSUN (9-7) of the Big West beat Mason (10-8) of the EIVA 25-23, 25-18, 25-19. Dimitar Kalchev led CSUN with 16 kills. Arvis Greene added 14. Mason got 10 kills from Kyle Barnes.
UCSB of the Big West (8-5) got past visiting Fort Wayne (14-5) of the MIVA in the first two sets and then cruised in the third 27-25, 33-31, 25-13. Keenan Sanders led the Gauchos with 13 kills, Corey Chavers had 11 and Connor Drake 10. Drake had six blocks. Fort Wayne’s Pelegrin Vargas had 13 kills, hit .417, had two aces, four digs and a block.
Also: In the EIVA, while Penn State was in Hawai’i and Mason on the West Coast, Princeton (5-11, 4-4 EIVA) beat NJIT (3-12, 1-5) in five in a conference match as Princeton’s George Huhmann had 24 kills, an ace, four digs and four blocks. Also, Saint Francis was swept by the MIVA’s Lindenwood.
There were four matches involving Conference Carolinas teams, all out of the league. Mount Olive swept Menlo College, Emmanuel lost to Lincoln Memorial in five, Erskine swept Brewton-Parker and Mount Olive was swept by Grand Canyon.
Beach: No. 14 Stanford beat No. 18 Tulane 4-1 in the Stanford Invitational that also includes Arizona State, Cal, San Jose State and Boise State. Click here for the Stanford recap. ASU beat San Jose 4-1 but lost to Cal 4-1. Click here for the ASU account.
No. 16 Stetson was home and made the most of it, sweeping three different duals, beating Tampa, Texas A&M-Kingsville and Florida Southern. Click here for the recap and results.
