The field is set for the MPSF Tournament and Saturday’s results are yet another example of how unpredictable the league can be as No. 5 UCLA swept visiting No. 2 BYU.
The MIVA tourney bracket was also decided, and after No. 12 Ball State beat visiting No. 7 Ohio State in five, it’s evident there are no givens in that league, either.
Top-ranked Long Beach State has been in the driver’s seat all along and Saturday clinched the regular-season title where No. 3 UC Irvine and No. 6 Hawai’i also won.
In the EIVA, which has no ranked teams, Penn State won in five at previously league-unbeaten George Mason, whose lead is now one game over Harvard with two matches left — against each other.
And in Conference Carolinas, also a league with no ranked teams, King swept Mount Olive and Barton did the same to Lees-McRae to finish the regular-season tied but Barton wins the tiebreaker as the top seed in the tournament.
Rain played havoc in NCAA beach action. At Florida State, where the field included No. 7 FSU, No. 11 Georgia State and No. 18 Florida Atlantic, the day was washed out.
In New Orleans, No. 19 Tulane got its tournament through a rain-delayed soggy day where No. 8 LSU had to go the distance to beat the home team. Two matches were canceled as a result of the rain as play continues Sunday.
And No. 3 Hawai’i went 3-0 at home and No. 15 Arizona went 2-0 at home.
NCAA men
MPSF: UCLA drew a big crowd — 5,671 — as the Bruins thumped visiting BYUÂ 25-21, 25-23, 25-22. Also Saturday, No. 4 Pepperdine swept visiting Stanford 25-21, 25-17, 25-21 and No. 13 Concordia beat visiting USC 25-22, 19-25, 30-28, 25-14, to set up the MPSF tourney that start with the quarterfinals next Saturday. BYU (20-6, 10-2) clinched the top spot and will be the host for the April 19 semifinals and April 21 final:
No. 7 seed Stanford (6-19, 3-9) at No. 2 seed UCLA (22-6, 9-3)
No. 6 seed USC (7-19, 3-9) at No. 3 seed Pepperdine (15-7, 8-4)
No. 5 seed Grand Canyon (18-10, 4-8) at No. 4 seed Concordia (15-14, 5-7)
Jake Arnitz, who hit .500, and Daenan Gyimah, who hit .625 and had six blocks, led UCLA with 12 kills each. Gabi Garcia Fernandez had 14 kills for BYU.
David Wieczorek led Pepperdine with 15 kills while hitting .619. He had three aces, four digs and two blocks. Colby Harriman had 13 kills and hit .600 to go with an ace and seven blocks. Jaylen Jasper led Stanford with 13 kills.
Raymond Barsemian led Concordia with 17 kills, two aces and four digs. Jack Wyett had 17 kills for USC and Ryan Moss had 12 kills, eight digs and five blocks, three solo.
MIVA: Ball State’s 16-25, 22-25, 25-22, 25-17, 15-13 win over Ohio State was the only league match that wasn’t a sweep as No. 10 Lewis beat Lindenwood, No. 8 Loyola beat Quincy and No. 15 Fort Wayne beat McKendree. Ohio State and Loyola tied for the title, but the Buckeyes win the tiebreaker, so Saturday’s tournament sets up as:
No. 8 Quincy (12-18, 0-14) at No. 1 Ohio State (20-5, 11-3)
No. 5 Fort Wayne (18-10, 6-8) at No. 4 Lewis (18-10, 9-5)
No. 7 Lindenwood (9-15, 3-11) at No. 2 Loyola (21-6, 11-3)
No. 6 McKendree (11-14, 6-8) at No. 3 Ball State (17-11, 10-4)
Matt Walsh led Ball State with 14 kills, an ace and nine blocks. Ben Chinnici and Mitch Weiler had nine kills each and Weiler had an ace, nine blocks and nine digs. Jake Hanes led Ohio State with 19 kills, Nic Szerszen had 18 and Maxime Hervoir 16.
Ryan Coenen led Lewis with 17 kills while hitting .630 and Mitch Perinar had 13 kills. Connor Hipelius had 12 kills and hit .688 for Lindenwood.
Ricky Gevis had nine kills and two aces for Loyola, which needed only 32 kills to win the match. Quincy hit minus .056.
And Pelegrin Vargas led Fort Wayne with 10 kills.
Big West: Long Beach State (23-0, 8-0) remained the nation’s only unbeaten team with its 25-21, 25-18, 25-13 victory over UC San Diego (9-16, 0-8).
Kyle Ensing and TJ DeFalco had 10 kills each as the Beach set the school record for consecutive victories. Long Beach hit .452.
UC Irvine won at No. 9 CSUNÂ 25-18, 25-23, 25-20 to improve to 19-7, 5-3, while CSUN is 13-10, 3-5. Karl Apfelbach led the Anteaters with 12 kills and hit .524, while Scott Stadick had eight blocks, four solo, to go with nine kills.
And Hawai’i won at No. 11 UC Santa Barbara 25-20, 25-27, 25-21, 25-14 as Rado Parapunov led with 20 kills, two aces and 10 blocks, two solo. Corey Chavers had 21 kills for UCSB.
EIVA: Things got tighter at the top as Penn State (14-9, 9-3) won at Mason (15-11, 11-1) 25-17, 19-25, 25-21, 21-25, 15-13, and Harvard (11-11, 10-2) beat visiting NJIT (7-16, 4-8) 25-21, 25-19, 25-15.
Penn State got 11 kills from Matthew McLaren and nine each from Jalen Penrose and Aidan Albrecht. Penrose had a whopping seven of his team’s 13 aces, three digs and five blocks, one solo. Jason Donorovich had four kills and 10 blocks, two solo. Penn State won despite hitting .069.
Mason’s Kyle Barnes had 12 kills, Christian Malias 11 and Hayden Wagner 10 and seven blocks, one solo.
Harvard hit .500 as Brad Gretsch had 10 kills and hit .571.
Also in the EIVA, Princeton (10-14, 6-6) beat Sacred Heart (5-14, 1-11) and Charleston (14-9, 4-8) beat St. Francis (8-19, 3-9), both in four. George Huhmann had 26 kills for Princeton while hitting .465 to go with an ace, three digs and nine blocks, two solo.
Conference Carolinas: Barton (19-7, 5-1) beat Lees-McRae (3-21, 1-14) as Angelos Mandilaris had 14 kills, three aces, four digs and four blocks, one solo.
King (19-5, 15-1) beat Mount Olive (15-12, 11-5) as Jeff Sprayberry and Kiel Bell had 12 kills each.
Also, Belmont Abbey (12-14, 8-7) beat Erskine (7-18, 4-11)Â in five and North Greenville (12-15, 6-9) did the same to Limestone (8-19, 5-11).
Division III Springfield: The top-ranked Pride swept Ramapo and beat MIT 3-1 to improve to 28-1. Springfield, which lost its season opener to Concordia of the MPSF, has won a school-record 28 in a row since. Sergio Figueroa Velez had eight kills to lead against Ramapo and 20 kills against MIT.
NCAA beach
Hawai’i: The SandBows beat Utah 5-0 and No. 16 Loyola Marymount 5-0 before taking a 4-1 victory over Washington. UH is 26-3 and has won 21 in a row. The pair of Emily Maglio and Ka’iwi Schucht have now won a school-record 17 in a row. They had to go three two times, beating Dani Barton and Adora Anae of Utah 21-19, 23-25, 17-15 before beating Jordan Anderson and Kimmy Gardiner of Washington 15-21, 21-17, 16-14. Click here for the Hawai’i recaps and summaries.
Arizona: The No. 15 Wildcats beat Colorado Mesa 4-1 and then No. 14 Cal 3-2. That included the No. 1 pair of Natalie Anselmo and Olivia Macdonald going 2-0 with a 21-12, 21-12 sweep of Cal’s Alexia Inman and Mima Mirkovic. Click here for the Arizona recap and summaries.
Arizona State: No. 17 Stetson beat the homestanding Sun Devils and both beat Vanguard. Click here for the Stetson recap and summaries.
Tulane: The Green Wave gave visiting LSU all it could handle but the Tigers held on 3-2. Tulane’s No. 1 of Madeline Mertz and Kaylie McHugh beat LSU’s Claire Coppola and Kristen Nuss, who is from New Orleans, 21-17, 21-16. LSU won two three-setters, including at No. 2 where former Wisconsin indoors All-American Haleigh Nelson and Mandi Orellana beat Anna Chin and Lauren Olrich 21-17, 16-21, 15-13. LSU also beat No. 12 Grand Canyon 4-1. Click here for the LSU recaps and summaries.
Tulane’s tournament continues Sunday when the Wave plays Grand Canyon and New Orleans, while LSU plays Central Arkansas.
For all the NCAA beach results, go to collegebeachvb.com.Â
I thought Haleigh Washington played indoors at Penn State.
You’re correct, our mistake. We meant Haleigh Nelson, but typed Washington. Have made the correction, thanks for the catch!
Title says rain hampered beach play. I don’t see anything in the article about matches hampered or cancelled because of rain.