UCLA, USC, Loyola win in men’s volleyball; Omaha goes to Vegas in PVF
There were six NCAA men’s Division I-II volleyball matches Wednesday and all but one were sweeps, including No. 4 UCLA beating No. 9 Pepperdine, No. 12 USC topping Concordia Irvine and No. 10 Loyola defeating No. 13 Lewis.
An NCAA women’s team promoted a coach and the Pro Volleyball Federation has a Thursday match.
All that follows, but first a look at Thursday’s schedule.
NCAA MEN: There are five matches, two in the MIVA when No. 14 Ball State (9-7, 2-1) is home for Purdue Fort Wayne (7-5, 1-2) and Queens (6-7, 2-2) is at McKendree (5-4, 2-1).
The Big West’s No. 18 UC Santa Barbara (4-9) plays at Division III Cal Lutheran (11-3), No. 20 UC San Diego (3-8) of the Big West is at the SIAC’s Central State (0-12) and Dominican (3-6) of the ECC is home for Division III Bard (4-4).
PVF: The Omaha Supernovas (2-2) go to Henderson, Nevada, for the home debut of the Vegas Thrill (1-1). The Thrill played their match in franchise history and won in five at Omaha on Feburary 7 and are coming off a four-set loss Saturday at Orlando. The Supernovas won in four Monday at Grand Rapids.
Want to watch? If a match is being shown, we have the viewing link in our VolleyballMag TV & Streaming Listings.
UCLA’s Ido David hits agains Pepperdine/UCLA photo
NCAA men
UCLA (10-3) opened MPSF play with a 25-20, 25-20, 25-18 sweep of visiting Pepperdine (9-3). UCLA, which won its 20th conference match in a row, hit .292 and had seven aces and 13 serving errors. The Bruins got 10 kills each from Alex Knight and Cooper Robinson. Knight hit .400 and had three assists, two aces, six blocks and two digs. Robinson had two assists, an ace, three digs and two blocks, one solo. Merrick McHenry had nine kills with one error in 14 attacks, two blocks and three digs. Ido David had seven kills, two aces, three blocks and seven digs and Andrew Rowan had 32 assists, two aces, five blocks and six digs. Pepperdine hit .143 and had two aces and 11 errors. Cole Ketrzynski led with 11 kills, an assist and two digs. CUI hit .143 and had two aces and 11 errors. The same teams play Saturday in Malibu …
Props to USC sports information director Jeremy Wu for the headline on his story, “No. 12 USC Men’s Volleyball Sweeps Concordia Off Its Feet on Valentine’s Night.” Indeed, USC (9-4) swept at CUI (5-2, 0-1) in MPSF opener for both 25-21, 25-21, 25-23. USC hit .425 and had four aces and 16 errors. Jack Duechar had 15 kills for the Trojans, hit .355, and had an ace and a solo block. Dillon Klein had 14 kills, hit .545 andhad an ace, four digs and three blocks, one solo. CUI, which hit .268 and had six aces and 11 errors, got 13 kills from Christian Galoppo. He hit .333 andhad an ace, an assist, two blocks and a team-high six digs. The same teams meet again Friday at USC …
Loyola (8-8, 3-1 MIVA) went on the road and swept Lewis (7-5, 2-2), hitting .418. Parker Van Buren led with 14 kills and hit .500 in the 25-23, 25-23, 25-19 victory to go with two blocks and a dig. Jake Read had 10 kills with one error in 20 attacks, five blocks and four digs. Setter Ryan McElligott had five kills with one error in nine attempts, 32 assists, no aces but six errors, a block and two digs. Loyola had two aces and 19 errors. Lewis hit .219 and had three aces and 12 errors. Seven Flyers had kills, 10 by Max Roquet, who hit .333 and had two blocks and three digs.
Just as important as the match, it was also “Rae Strong” night for Lewis, its fundraiser for the Rae Strong Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charity foundation that provides support to Chicagoland NICUs and families of micro-preemies. Click here to read more.
The Big West’s No. 16 CSUN (8-5) swept visiting Hope International (4-3) of the NAIA, hitting .453. Lorenzo Bertozzi had 14 kills, hit .462, and had an ace and a dig. Kyle Hobus had eight kills with one error in 10 swings …
Independent Lincoln Memorial (8-3), ranked No. 19, hit .540 and beat visiting King (1-9) of Conference Carolinas 25-21, 25-18, 25-18. Five Railsplitters had six or more kills, nine nine by Johan Negron, who had one error in 15 attacks, three blocks and four digs. Shay Spadaro had eight kills with one error in 13 swings and Ethan Morgan had eight kills with one error in 14 attacks. Eliel Salva Torres had six kills with one error in seven attacks, three of his team’s seven aces, a dig and eight blocks. King got 15 kills from Warren Davis, who hit .429 …
Division III St. John Fisher (14-1) won in four at the ECC’s Roberts Wesleyan (4-7). Jake Baker — who had no errors in 16 attacks — and Griffin Stella led with 13 kills each and Ian Rauth had 12. Rauh had one error in 16 attacks, an assist, an ace, a dig and five blocks, one solo.
Long Beach promotes
Tyler Hildebrand left to become an assistant as USC, so Long Beach State promoted Natalie Reagan to interim head coach.
Read the USC hiring story here. Read the Long Beach news release here.
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