Saturday was another good day for the MIVA, especially against the EIVA, as No. 8 Lewis beat Saint Francis, No. 9 Loyola beat No. 11 George Mason and No. 13 Ball State beat Sacred Heart.
There were two MPSF matches. No. 5 Hawai’i got a league win over No. 6 UC Irvine and UC San Diego got into the winners’ column for the first time this season by beating Concordia.
Everyone is off until Tuesday when there is another showcase MIVA-EIVA battle as No. 15 Penn State travels to No. 1 Ohio State. Also Tuesday, there is a Conference Carolinas match when Mount Olive goes to Belmont Abbey.
MIVA goes 3-0 vs. EIVA: It took Lewis five to defeat Saint Francis 25-21, 25-22, 27-29, 17-25, 15-11 and improve to 6-1. Saint Francis is 3-4.
Mitch Perinar led the Flyers with 27 kills. He had just five errors in 46 swings and hit .478. Ryan Coenan added 12 kills.
Michael Fisher led SFU with 20 kills and Stephen Braswell had 17.
Jeff Jendryk had 11 kills and hit .588 to lead Loyola at Mason 23-25, 20-25, 26-24, 26-24, 15-13. Loyola, which improved to 4-3, was down 12-10 in the fifth. The Patriots won on Cole Murray’s ace and a GMU hitting error.
Loyola got nine kills from Paul Narup, who hit .375. Jendryk had six blocks, one solo, and Narup three block assists.
Mason’s Jack Wilson had 18 kills but 11 errors, and teammate Radoslav Popov had 11 kills. Their team dropped to 4-2.
Ball State improved to 6-1 by sweeping previously unbeaten Sacred Heart 25-18, 25-22, 25-22.
Mitch Stahl led the visitors with 12 kills and three blocks. Matt Walsh added nine kills and four blocks and Brendan Surane had eight kills.
Emerson Waumans led Sacred Heart (3-1) with 13 kills.
More MIVA, EIVA: The scores make you scratch your head, especially after Grand Canyon swept Lindenwood on Friday.
The MIVA’s Grand Canyon improved to 3-3 and kept visiting Lindenwood winless with a 14-25, 17-25, 37-35, 25-23, 15-11 victory.
What’s more, they are the only schools to have played MIVA matches, so Grand Canyon is atop the league at 2-0, while Lindenwood is 0-2.
“Lindenwood deserves a lot of credit for the way they performed tonight,” Grand Canyon coach Matt Werle said. “They came out with a lot of energy and were making some plays that we didn’t match. They blocked extremely well and our pin attackers struggled.”
Cody Williams led Grand Canyon with 17 kills and three blocks. Ashton King and Will Schwob had 11 kills each. Michael Millstein had four blocks and 40 assists.
“I am proud that we fought back from a two set deficit, but I don’t find our efforts tonight acceptable,” Werle said. “Even though we won, we are chalking tonight up as a loss and hoping to use it as a huge motivator. If we __play like this against Lewis this coming weekend, they will sweep us straight sets. We have to be better at every facet of the game.”
Jake Duckworth led Grand Canyon with 19 kills.
Also, Quincy of the MIVA beat Emmanuel of Conference Carolinas 25-20, 25-20, 21-25, 25-19 for its first win of the season as it improved to 1-4. Emmanuel drops to 1-3.
The EIVA had two winners in non-conference matches, as Charleston beat Lees-McRae and NJIT held off UC Santa Cruz. Charleston improved to 3-2 with its 27-25, 25-22, 25-18 sweep, while NJIT also got to 3-2 by beating the Banana Slugs 25-20, 25-18, 18-25, 22-25, 15-12.
Hawai’i, UC San Diego get MPSF victories: The trip to the mainland started with back-to-back losses at Long Beach State, so the Warriors desperately needed their 25-16, 25-23, 15-25, 25-23 victory at UC Irvine.
It left Hawai’i 6-2 overall, 1-2 in the MSPF, while the Anteaters fell to 6-2, 3-2.
Stijn van Tilburg led Hawai’i with 19 kills and hit .485. He also had five blocks. Kupono Fey added 10 kills and seven digs.
Irvine’s Thomas Hodges had 21 kills and hit .444. Tamir Hershko had 10 kills.
UC San Diego had to go out of the league and go five to get its first victory, 19-25, 25-13, 21-25, 25-21, 15-11 over Concordia.
UCSD, coming off a five-set loss the night before against UC Irvine, improved to 1-5 as Tanner Syftestad led with 22 kills and hit .366. He also had four blocks. Ian Colbert added nine kills and Alec Flowers eight.
UCSD had four aces and 20 service errors and Concordia zero and 22.
Concordia got 15 kills from Jonathon Predney, 13 from Ryan Anselmo and 11 from Hunter Howell.
Conference Carolinas: Limestone knocked off Barton in the only CC match, while King won two out-of-conference matches.
Barton dropped to 3-1 overall, 2-1 CC, as Limestone improved to 1-1 in its league opener after its 25-21, 25-22, 24-26, 25-23 victory.
Dylan Layner led with 14 kills and hit .480. He also had five blocks, three solo. Bruno Kretzschmer had 12 kills and Kevin Rocklein 11.
Vasilis Mandilaris led Barton with 15 kills and 11 digs. Michael Tyler had 12 kills and eight digs and Jonathan Novoa-Miralles had 10 kills and nine digs.
King beat both East Mennonite and Lancaster Bible, winning in four both times.
North Greenville lost to Coker in four.
