Friday saw a busy slate of indoor and outdoor action. In Columbus, Ohio, Ohio State set another record, while the three teams behind the Buckeyes in the national rankings also took care of business.
And the second season of NCAA-sanctioned women’s beach began in earnest with tournaments around the country.
But first a look at Saturday’s calendar. Only two MPSF teams are in action with Stanford and Santa Barbara both wrapping up junkets to Penn State’s Rec Hall.
In the MIVA, two matinee matches are on tap with No. 5 Lewis visiting Quincy and Loyola Chicago facing Lindenwood in Missouri.
EIVA-related action on Saturday sees Penn State playing host to Stanford at Rec Hall. Charleston is at Princeton, Coker plays at George Mason, while McKendree travels to Saint Francis for a non-conference contest.
In Conference Carolinas, Lees-McRae plays Santa Barbara at Penn State. Pfeiffer travels to Mount Olive, while Belmont Abbey visits Barton. Erksine is at Limestone, while Lincoln Memorial faces North Greenville in non-conference play. King is at Alderson Broaddus.
MIVA: Top-ranked Ohio State ran its record to 18-0 with a 25-15, 23-25, 25-15, 25-15 win against St. Francis (8-10). In doing so, the Buckeyes set a new Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association record with their 41st win in a row. Loyola Chicago had won 40 matches in a row during the 2014-2015 timeframe to set the previous record for the league, which has been in existence for 56 years. Ohio State last lost a contest 391 days ago. UCLA holds the all-time record for wins in a row at 47 (accomplished twice).
Gabriel Domecus led all players with eight digs and ran his career total to 743 to pull even with Conor Martin (2005-2008) for the second most in school history. Mik Berzins holds the record with 902.
Miles Johnson and Blake Leeson combined for four blocks (three stuff blocks combined). Nicolas Szerszen had 15 kills and hit .448, while Driss Guessous and Leeson combined for 17 kills on 27 attempts with four errors (.481). Johnson had 12 kills.
Stephen Braswell led St. Francis with 10 kills.
MPSF: No. 2 Long Beach State took care of business at home with a 28-26, 25-19, 25-11 win over UC San Diego. In this match, 49ers senior libero Andrew Sato became the program’s all-time career digs leader with 893.
Long Beach State moved to 17-2 overall and 13-1 in MPSF action. The 49ers have won 10 matches in a row and 13 straight within the league. UC San Diego dropped to 5-13 overall and 2-11 in MPSF play.
Sato, who had 10 digs, broke a record that had stood since 1993 (Zack Small, 886 digs). Sato also holds the school record for most double-digit dig performances with 49.
TJ DeFalco had nine digs, while Andrew Whitt added seven digs. Bryce Yould had a season-high seven blocks in the contest. DeFalco had 15 kills, while Kyle Ensing had 14. Long Beach State hit .476 in the match led by DeFalco’s .667 effort (15 kills, one error, 21 swings). Josh Tuaniga had 36 assists.
Tanner Syftestad had eight kills, while Devin Pontigon had seven for UC San Diego.
Heading east to Provo, Utah, No. 3 BYU was a 25-16, 25-17, 28-30, 25-15 winner over Cal Baptist. The Cougars recorded 11 aces in the match, paced by Jake Langlois’ career-high five.
“One of our points was to come out aggressive and assertive from the start,” BYU coach Shawn Olmstead said. “We were happy that we were serving well in the first set and I felt we could put a lot of pressure on (Cal Baptist) and their serves and we did that tonight. Our guys stayed very well-composed. At one point when I had some doubt, I made some changes and the guys responded very well.”
The 11 aces were the fifth-most in a match in BYU rally-scoring-era history and just one ace short of the season-high of 12. Langlois’ five aces were the sixth-most by a Cougar all-time at BYU.
The Cougars moved to 15-2 overall and 9-1 in the MPSF. Baptist dropped to 3-14 and 1-12 in conference play.
Langlois had 15 kills, while Brenden Sander added 14 kills and Tim Dobbert had 12. Leo Durkin and Mitchel Worthington each had a match-high seven digs.
Enrique Garcia’s 15 kills were tops for Cal Baptist.
At Northridge, the No. 12-ranked and host Matadors took No. 6 UC Irvine to the limit, but the Anteaters escaped with a 22-25, 25-19, 25-16, 23-24, 15-13 MPSF victory at the Matadome.
Irvine moved to 12-6 overall and 9-5 in conference play and moved to 7-0 in five-set matches this season.
Irvine, which hit a season-low .106 against Long Beach State earlier in the week, hit .410 here and also had seven aces.
Junior Aaron Koubi posted a career-high 20 kills, while hitting .455. Seniors Thomas Hodges and Tamir Hershko each added 15 kills. Hodges hit .542, while Hershko hit .407. Hodges also had five digs and a career-best six total blocks. Freshman Matthew Younggren also had six total blocks. Freshman middle Scott Stadick had nine kills and three blocks, while setter Michael Saeta had five kills, 54 assists and three aces.
Northridge was led by Arvis Greene’s match-high 21 kills, Dimitar Kalchev added 11 kills and seven digs, while Josiah Byers had 10 kills and hit .600 (10-1-15). The Matadors dropped to 12-7 overall and 5-7 in league action.
At the Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu, No. 4 Hawai’i won its eighth consecutive match in straight sets, this time recording a 25-13, 25-15, 25-18 win over No. 14 USC, to complete a two-match sweep of the Trojans.
Hawai’i moved to 18-2 with what is regarded as a non-conference win. The Rainbow Warriors have won 13 matches in a row and 26 sets in a row. It was Hawaii’s 17th win in a row at home, two-shy of the program record.
Freshman outside hitter Rado Parapunov had a team-high 10 kills and hit .389. Sophomore middle Dalton Solbrig had six of the team’s season-high 14 blocks. Freshman Austin Matautia had eight kills, while freshman middle blocker Patrick Gasman had four kills and four blocks.
USC, which played without four of the team’s starters (including the nation’s kills leader in Lucas Yoder) from Thursday night’s contest as coach Jeff Nygaard opted to get his backups playing time in the non-conference match, hit -.013 in the match. Freshman Aaron Strange led the Trojans with six kills.
Hawai’i played its usual lineup, but began subbing out starters midway through the opening set.
USC dropped to 6-12.
Two other MPSF squads were in action at Penn State Friday. No. 8 Stanford was a 25-16, 25-21, 22-25, 25-15 winner against Lees-McRae.
Stanford (10-7) racked up 12 blocks. Redshirt junior Clay Jones, appearing in his third match of the year after sustaining an injury in the season opener, matched a career high with six blocks. Freshman Eric Beatty led all players with 10 kills, while Jones added eight kills and six digs. Sophomore Ryan Smith hit a career-best .462 with seven kills with one error on 13 swings. Middles Kevin Rakestraw and Chris Moore each had five kills and combined for nine blocks. Junior setter Kyle D’Agostino matched his second-highest assist output of the season with 40.
Karl Deichmann led Lees-McRae with six kills and hit .625. Freshman libero Keenan Freitas had a match-best 11 digs.
The other match at Rec Hall saw host Penn State defeat UC Santa Barbara 25-19, 16-25, 25-21, 25-23. It was Santa Barbara’s first appearance in Rec Hall since the 2011 NCAA title match. Penn State moved to 12-6 overall while Santa Barbara dropped to 7-10.
Kevin Gear paced the Nittany Lions with a career-best 10 kills on 17 attempts (.471 hitting), while adding one dig and 11 blocks to earn Mike Anderson Player of the Match honors. Aidan Albrecht had 13 kills and 10 blocks and hit .333. Luke Braswell had 37 assists, while Royce Clemens had a team-high 10 digs.
Junior Hayden Boehle led Santa Barbara with 10 kills and 12 digs. Freshman opposite Spencer Fredrick had 12 kills, while freshman middle Keenan Sanders had nine kills on 15 swings. Roy McFarland, making his first start, had seven kills and eight digs, while setter Randy Deweese had 38 assists.
EIVA: In George Mason’s 25-13, 25-14, 25-16 win over McKendree in non-conference play, the Patriots set a program record by hitting .632, committing only four attack errors.
Jack Wilson led Mason with 14 kills and hit .667. Wilson also had two of Mason’s season-high 12 aces. Sam Greenslade had nine kills and hit .692 while registering a career-high five aces.
Andrew Schnittker had eight kills for McKendree, which fell to 6-12. Mason improved to 6-9.
At the Pitt Center in Fairfield, Conn., Sacred Heart edged Harvard 23-25, 19-25, 25-19, 25-17, 15-10 in EIVA play. Sacred Heart moved to 12-3 overall and 5-2 in conference action, while Harvard dropped to 5-7 and 3-4.
Michael Comens led Sacred Heart with 19 kills. Joshua Ayzenberg had 15 digs and Taylor Bloomquist had five blocks.
Erik Johnson’s 12 kills led Harvard. Chase Howard had 12 digs, while Matthew Ctvrtlik had his first career double-double with 21 assists and 10 digs.
Princeton ran its mark to 7-7 overall and 5-2 in EIVA play with a 3-0 win against Charleston (7-9, 0-6 EIVA). Parker Dixon led the Tigers with 10 kills. Junior Oboh had eight kills and four blocks, while George Huhmann had seven kills and five blocks. Greg Luck added six kills and four blocks.
Ryan Santos led Charleston with 12 kills. Byron Hurd had seven kills and Eugene Stuart had six.
Conference Carolinas: Mount Olive moved to 11-6 overall and 9-1 in CC play with a 3-1 win over Belmont Abbey at Kornegay Arena in Mount Olive, N.C.
Bret Rutledge led Mount Olive with 17 kills. Brennan Beyner’s 11 kills paced Belmont Abbey (3-10, 2-7).
Barton kept on the heels of Mount Olive with a 3-0 win over winless Pfeiffer at the Wilson Gymnasium in Wilson, N.C. Barton moved to 11-4 and stayed a half-game back of Olive at 9-2 in CC play.
Aleksa Brkovic had 11 kills, while Angelos Mandilaris added 10 kills for the winners. Evan Blair had eight kills for Pfeiffer.
Emmanuel (Ga.) got past Lincoln Memorial in five in a non-conference match. Emmanuel moved to 6-13 overall. Memorial dropped to 7-12.
Aleksa Lakic led Emmanuel with 14 kills. Manuel Melenciano had 11 kills, while Ackeem West had 10 kills. Caleb Bonaventure had 44 assists. Joshua Riblett led Memorial with 17 kills.
NCAA women’s beach: The women’s beach season kicked off late this week around the country.
In Big West Conference-related action, at Pismo Beach, Calif., Cal Poly was a 4-1 win over Bakersfield, while UCLA defeated Poly 4-1 and Bakersfield 5-0.
At the Arizona Invitational in Tucson, Hawaii was a 4-1 winner against Arizona State and defeated host Arizona 5-0. Arizona also was a 5-0 winner against Jacksonville, while Arizona State posted a 4-1 win over Jacksonville.
Over in the Atlantic Sun, Mercer was a 6-0 winner against Jacksonville State in Birmingham, Ala., and also scored a 5-0 win over New Orleans.
And in Coastal Collegiate Sports Association-related play, Florida International was a 4-1 winner over Florida Atlantic in Boca Raton, Fla.
Among the tournaments happening Saturday, UCLA and USC go to Pepperdine.
