Second-ranked UCLA won twice in NCAA beach volleyball on Wednesday, as the Bruins beat No. 6 USC 3-2 and No. 9 Pepperdine 3-2. It was a tough day for the Waves, who also lost to USC.
In NCAA men’s volleyball, No. 6 UC San Diego of the Big West swept visiting No. 10 Penn State of the EIVA, while Jordan Hoppe had 21 kills as Concordia won an MPSF match over USC.
There are four matches on Thursday’s men’s schedule, including a Big West battle between No. 3 UC Santa Barbara (14-2, 1-0) at No. 4 Long Beach State (10-1), which is playing its league opener.
The MIVA’s Ohio State plays at the EIVA’s NJIT. Concordia of the MPSF plays host to Jamestown, and Queens of Conference Carolinas is home for Urbana.
NCAA men: UC San Diego (14-5) beat Penn State (11-8) 25-16, 25-21, 25-21 as the Tritons won the most matches since the program moved to Division II in 2001.
UCSD, which hit .315 and had four aces and 13 errors, got 13 kills from Kyle McCauley. He hit .333, had three assists, an ace, three blocks and two digs. Four other players had five or more kills, including Shane Benetz and Logan Clark, who had five kills and five blocks each.
Penn State hit just .092 and had six aces and 15 errors. Brett Wildman led with 10 kills and hit .316, but his teammates combined for 16 kills. Wildman had an assist, two aces, a solo block and seven digs …
Concordia (11-10, 3-4 MPSF) beat visiting USC (5-14, 1-6) 22-25, 22-25, 25-19, 25-23, 17-15. Hoppe not only had his 21 kills, but hit .333 and had an ace and nine digs. Raymond Barsemian had 16 kills, an assist, two aces, four blocks, and six digs. Owen Chun had 12 kills, hit .556, and had two blocks and two digs. Mclain Mott had 57 assists and five digs.
“I thought Jordan was phenomenal,” CUI coach Shawn Patchell said. “He passed really well, he hit at a good clip and it was really balanced between those three guys and Mott found them and did a nice job as a freshman setter finding the right guys.”
USC hit .273 and had five aces and 22 errors. Brandon Browning led with 17 kills and hit .429 to go with two aces, a block and 10 digs. Vecas Lewin had 11 kills with no errors in 20 attacks to hit .550 and had two digs and five blocks, one solo. Simon Gallas had nine kills, an ace, a block and three digs, and Matt Farimo had 52 assists, two blocks and 11 digs …
Eighth-ranked Pepperdine (8-6) beat visiting Jamestown 25-23, 25-20, 25-17. Jamestown, which hit .113 and no aces and nine errors, is an NAIA team from North Dakota and was playing the match as an exhibition. Pepperdine, which hit .294 and had seven aces and 15 errors, had six players with six or more kills. Noah Dyer led with eight …
Alderson Broaddus got swept twice, once by Emmanuel of Conference Carolinas and the other by another independent, Lincoln Memorial … And Limestone of Conference Carolinas won at Webber International in Florida.
NCAA beach: UCLA improved to 13-2 with its 3-2 victory over host USC (6-5) and 3-2 win over Pepperdine (2-5).
Against USC, UCLA went down 2-0 but came back to ultimately win at No. 5 when Mac May and Megan Muret defeated Cammie Dorn and Paige Dreeuws 17-21, 21-14, 15-11.
Then against Pepperdine, UCLA clinched with a match to go when the No. 1 pair of Abby Van Winkle and Savvy Simo beat Deahna Kraft and Brook Bauer 21-15, 21-13.
In USC’s victory over Pepperdine, the Trojans lost sets at No. 1 and No. 2 and the No. 3 pair of Audrey Nourse and Nicole Nourse beat Alexis Filippone and Gigi Hernandez 21-11, 24-22.
Click here for the Pepperdine recap and results, and here for the USC recap and results.
No. 17 Arizona won twice Wednesday, sweeping Stephen F. Austin and then UC Davis. Arizona is 10-1. Click here for the results.
