NCAA men’s volleyball: UCLA, Lewis win; upsets for Princeton, UCSD; GCU rolls on
Merrimack’s Matthew Motes tips against Grand Canyon/Merrimack photo
UCLA held on for a five-set victory at UC Irvine, Lewis opened MIVA play with a victory, Princeton and UC San Diego scored upsets and Grand Canyon improved to 7-0 with a win Massachusetts.
The recaps and top performances follow, but first a look at the NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball schedule for the next two days.
The only match Thursday has No. 11 Loyola Chicago at No. 15 Ball State as both those teams open their MIVA seasons.
Friday’s slate is full, including four more MIVA matches with No. 8 Penn State at Ball State, Saint Francis (PA) at Purdue Fort Wayne, Queens at Quincy and No. 14 Lewis at McKendree.
All six Big West teams are in action.
Top-ranked Long Beach State is home for King of Conference Carolinas, No. 3 Hawai’i hosts independent Tusculum, No. 7 UC Irvine for the No. 5 UCLA of the MPSF, No. 12 UC Santa Barbara plays the NEC’s Daemen at Harvard, No. 17 CSUN is at the MPSF’s No. 4 Stanford and No. 19 UC San Diego is at No. 12 USC.
Also in the MPSF, No. 2 Grand Canyon is at Harvard and No. 10 Pepperdine is at the EIVA’s No. 16 Princeton.
The EIVA’s Charleston is home for Thomas More and NJIT entertains the NEC’s LIU.
Lincoln Memorial, the independent ranked No. 20, goes to Erskine of Conference Carolinas.
There are two NEC-ECC matches when FDU goes to the Dominican and Sacred Heart is home for American International.
The first SIAC match of the season pits Kentucky State at Benedict. The SIAC’s Edward Waters plays Talladega College. Other independents in action include Olivet Nazarene at Maryville and St. Xavier at Missouri S&T.
If a match is being shown, we have the viewing link in our VolleyballMag TV & Streaming Listings.
Cooper Robinson had a career-high 22 kills as fifth-ranked UCLA (7-2) of the MPSF won 25-18, 25-15, 23-25, 21-25, 15-9 at No. 7 UC Irvine (5-2) of the Big West. Robinson hit .333, had four assists, two first-set aces, four blocks and five digs. Ethan Champlin had 13 kills, four assists, an ace and nine digs. Ido David had nine kills with one error in 18 attacks, an ace, nine digs and three blocks, one solo, and Merrick McHenry had six kills, hit .400, two aces and three blocks. Andrew Rowan had five kills in eight errorless tries, 47 assists, an ace, two blocks and eight digs. UCI’s Hilir Henno had 15 kills, hit .481, and had three assists, two aces, two blocks and five digs. Maxim Grigoriev had 11 kills, an assist, five blocks and four digs. Brett Sheward had a kill in his only try, 38 assists, an ace, fvie blocks and six digs. His team hit .226 with four aces and 17 errors. UCLA hit .321 and had seven aces and 18 errors …
No. 16 Princeton (5-3) of the EIVA knocked off visiting No. 12 UC Santa Barbara (3-6) of the Big West behind 20 kills from Nyherowo Omene in the 25-18, 24-26, 25-16, 25-21 victory. Omene hit .486 and had two aces, two blocks and six digs. Jameson Vaccaro had 13 kills, hit .381 and had two blocks and five digs. Ben Harrington had seven kills, four aces, a solo block and 10 digs. Henry Wedbush had 42 assists, three aces and 12 digs. The Tigers hit .330 and had 10 aces and 14 errors. UCSB, which hit .204 and had seven aces and 19 errors, got kills from 10 players. Owen Birg led with 11, hitting .391, with a block and a dig. Jack Walker had two kills, 33 assists, three aces, four blocks and eight digs …
No 19 UC San Diego (3-6) of the Big West, which had lost five in a row, beat visiting No. 12 USC (6-3) of the MPSF 18-25, 25-21, 23-25, 25-23, 15-13. The Tritons, who hit .266, had 14 aces and 26 errors. Anthony Cherfan led with 17 kills, six of those aces and nine errors, three blocks and eight digs. Matthew Lin had 15 kills, two aces, a block and six digs. Josh Schellinger had 13 kills, hit .391 and had two assists, two blocks and two digs. Andrew Boyle had a kill, 50 assists, two aces, a block and two digs. USC, which hit .252 and had five aces and 14 errors, got 15 kills from Dillon Klein. He hit .321 and had an assist, three blocks and five digs. Jack Deuchar had 11 kills, an ace, four blocks and six digs …
No. 14 Lewis (6-3) hit .370 and won 22-25, 25-17, 25-20, 25-17 at Lindenwood (2-5) in the MIVA opener for both teams. Daniel Haber led the Flyers with 15 kills as he hit .370 and had an ace and a dig. Max Roquet had 12 kills in 23 errorless swings to hit .522 and had four blocks and eight digs. Christian Prayer had eight kills, two assists, four aces, two blocks and seven digs. Lewis had eight aces and 14 errors. Lindenwood hit .218 and had five aces and 18 errors. Clay Weiter had 17 kills, hit .367 and had two assists, two aces, six digs and two block, one solo. Ian Schuller had 15 kills, hit .370 and had an assist, a block and seven digs. Their teammates combined for 16 kills and 15 errors …
Second-ranked Grand Canyon (7-0) of the MPSF had to go four to win at the NEC’s Merrimack (1-4 ) in North Andover, Massachusetts. Jason Hickman had a career-high 15 kills in the 25-18, 25-17, 23-25, 25-17 victory. Hickman, hit .542 and had an assist, a solo block and three digs. Three other Lopes had six kills each. GCU hit .305 and had five aces and 15 errors. Merrimack, which hit .120 and had five aces and 21 errors, was led by Logan Whitaker, who had 16 kills, an assist, three aces, a block and trhee digs …
Belmont Abbey (4-1) of Conference Carolinas hit .412 swept visiting Benedict (0-3) of the SIAC as 11 players had kills … LIU (3-5) of the NEC swept the ECC’s Dominican (2-3) as Gio Collazo had 12 kills, hit .364 and had an assist, two aces, two digs and a solo block … Sacred Heart (1-6) of the NEC beat visiting St. Thomas Aquinas (0-7) of the ECC in a match in which one team would no longer be winless. Carlos Santa Cruz had 12 kills with one error in 23 attacks for Sacred Heart to go with three digs and a block.
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