Second-ranked BYU lost the first set and then came back and not only won in four at No. 5 UC Irvine, but salvaged a tough Friday for the MPSF in NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball. Earlier Friday, after the MPSF’s Grand Canyon beat McKendree, USC got swept by Ohio State and then No. 6 UCLA […]
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Second-ranked BYU lost the first set and then came back and not only won in four at No. 5 UC Irvine, but salvaged a tough Friday for the MPSF in NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball.
Earlier Friday, after the MPSF’s Grand Canyon beat McKendree, USC got swept by Ohio State and then No. 6 UCLA was swept by No. 10 Penn State.
Three MPSF teams are in action Saturday as No. 9 Pepperdine goes to No. 4 Long Beach State of the Big West, No. 8 Stanford plays host to third-ranked UC Santa Barbara of the Big West, and Grand Canyon continues its MIVA swing against Lindenwood.
Six more MIVA teams play as No. 7 Lewis is home for the EIVA’s Charleston, No. 15 Loyola plays host to Urbana, No. 11 Purdue Fort Wayne plays No. 12 George Mason of the EIVA, McKendree is home for the Big West’s UC San Diego, Quincy plays Lees-McRae of Conference Carolinas, and Ball State plays the EIVA’s NJIT.
Also in the EIVA, three teams play independents as Sacred Heart faces Arcadia, Saint Francis plays Lincoln Memorial, and St. Francis Brooklyn plays Elms.
CSUN of the Big West plays Cal Lutheran.
And in Conference Carolinas, Mount Olive plays Emmanuel, Barton plays Erskine, Belmont Abbey plays King, and Limestone faces Queens.
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MPSF: BYU of the MPSF improved to 8-0 with its hard-fought 28-30, 27-25, 25-17, 27-25 victory at UC Irvine (3-3). The Cougars also won in four at UCI on Wednesday.
High-flying and hard-hitting opposite Gabi Garcia Fernandez led all scorers with 22 kills and had all four of team’s aces, four blocks and 11 digs. Davide Gardini had 16 kills, four blocks and 12 digs, Zach Eschenberg had 14 kills and hit .444 to go with four blocks and six digs, and Felipe de Brito Ferreira had 10 kills with no errors in 12 swings to hit .833. He had four blocks and two digs. Setter Wil Stanley had 57 assists, five blocks and 12 digs. BYU hit .312 but had 17 service errors.
BYU had a strong fan base in the Bren Center, perhaps more than half of the crowd of 1,665.
“It was a good match to be a part of in January from top to bottom,” BYU coach Shawn Olmstead said. “It’s a great venue, we love it out here, think the world of Kniff (UCI coach David Kniffin). He and are were talking when there was a little delay and we said what a fun match this was for January.”
Joel Schneidmiller led UCI with 13 kills and he had an assist, four blocks and 11 digs. Scott Stadick had 12 kills, hit .375, and had an ace, six blocks — back to back stuffs to end the first set — and had two digs. Alexandre Nsakana had 10 kills, two assists, an ace, four blocks and eight digs, and JB Kam had eight kills, an assist, two aces, two blocks and seven digs. The Anteaters hit .217 and had seven aces and 15 errors.
“BYU is one of those iconic teams that bring out the best in us,” UCI coach David Kniffin said. “I was proud of our fight and moments when we were down that our guys were composed. They just love playing volleyball in the Bren in front of a great crowd.”
Ohio State of the MIVA (6-0) thumped USC (1-5) at Penn State 25-20, 25-21, 25-22. Martin Lallemand led with 16 kills and hit .448 and had both the Buckeyes’ aces. Ohio State had nine errors and hit .315 as it improved to 18-1 in sets this season. Reese Devilbiss had 11 kills, hit .320, and had eight digs and a block.
USC hit .293 and had three aces and 18 errors. Billy Fauntleroy led with seven kills, hit .357, and had two of those aces and a solo block …
Penn State of the MIVA hit .500 and beat UCLA 25-22, 29-27, 26-24, leaving both teams 3-2.
Calvin Mende led with 15 kills and hit .591, adding an assist, two aces, five digs and a block. Brett Wildman had 12 kills and hit .450, although he had no aces and eight serving errors. Penn State had seven aces and 20 errors. Jason Donorovich had four of the aces and also three kills in seven errorless attempts. Cole Ketrzynski and Alex Knight had 10 kills each for UCLA, which hit .354 and had eight aces — five by Mads Kyed Jensen — and 19 errors …
And Grand Canyon (4-2) beat McKendree of the MIVA (3-3) 25-20, 21-25, 25-22, 25-18. Hugo Fischer led GCU with 19 kills as he hit .452 and had five blocks and eight digs. Camden Gianni had 15 kills. The Lopes had five aces, 14 errors and hit .216. McKendree, which hit .142 and had three aces and 13 errors, got 15 kills from Zach Schnittker, who had two aces, five digs and seven blocks, one solo.
Big West: UC San Diego (5-2) swept Quincy (1-5) as Wyatt Harrison led with nine kills in the 25-22, 25-13, 25-20 victory … and CSUN (1-5) lost to Menlo (8-0) 25-23, 25-17, 20-25, 26-24.
MIVA: Lewis (4-3) swept Urbana (0-7), Loyola (2-5) beat Charleston (1-6) in four, and Lindenwood (3-3) swept Lees-McRae (0-2). Ten players had kills for Lewis, including Jackson Hickman with seven … Loyola, which had lost five matches in a row, hit .327 and got 13 kills from Cole Schlothauer, who had three assists, three of his team’s 11 aces, nine digs and a block. Kyle Piekarski had 10 kills with no errors in 15 swings and had four aces, a dig and two blocks … Michael Jennings had nine kills, hit .375, and had two blocks and three aces for Lindenwood.
EIVA: Saint Francis (2-3) had to go five to beat King (2-5) 28-30, 25-16, 21-25, 25-19, 15-12. Joshua Blair had 17 kills and hit .355 for Saint Francis, Michael Fisher had 16 kills and Blake Liprando had 14 kills. Diego Marcano led King with 16 kills and Sean Kohlhase had 14.
Conference Carolinas: There were two league matches as Mount Olive (6-3, 2-0) swept Erskine (1-3, 0-2) and Barton (2-0, 1-0) did the same to Emmanuel (0-5, 0-2).
Troy Magorien had 11 kills and hit .429 for Mount Olive to go with two aces, three digs and a solo block … Angelos Mandilaris had 15 kills for Barton, hit .423, and had an assist, two aces and two digs. Don Thompson had 14 kills for Emmanuel.
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