A rare Tuesday night full of matches included No. 4 Hawai’i making an out-of-the-way non-conference trip to Lebanon, Ill., and taking it to McKendree of the MIVA and No. 13 Penn State coming up short at Saint Francis.
There are three matches Wednesday involving teams from the four NCAA Division I-II men’s conferences.
Hawai’i of the MPSF continues its Midwest sojourn at Lindenwood of the MIVA, while the MPSF has two other matches. No. 2 Long Beach State goes to No. 12 UCSB and No. 14 CSUN is at UCLA.
Hawai’t sweeps McKendree: The Rainbow Warriors cruised 25-16, 25-19, 25-18 and improved to 13-2 after the first meeting between the schools.
Stijn van Tilburg was all over it with 17 kills in 24 swings and one error. He hit .667 and also had five digs and three blocks, one solo. Brett Rosenmeier and Kupono Frey had five kills each.
McKendree, 5-11, got eight kills from senior middle Wyatt Patterson, who hit .429. Junior middle Brendan Schmidt had seven kills and three blocks.
Hawai’i plays at Lindenwood, another MIVA team, Wednesday.
Saint Francis beats Penn State again: Saint Francis has the Nittany Lions’ number, obviously, after beating them for the third time in four matches. That includes last spring’s EIVA tournament and then again Tuesday 5-14, 25-20, 18-25, 21-25 , 15-10.
It left SFU 4-8 overall and 1-3 in the EIVA, while Penn State dropped to 8-5, 3-1.
“Thanks to the fans at DeGol Arena, the Rascals were great again,” SFU coach Mike Rumbaugh said. “It was a good fight out of Penn State in sets three and fourth to comeback to force a fifth and deciding set. It was great to see our guys rise to the occasion and prevail in the fifth set.”
Michael Fisher led with 16 kills, but had 14 errors and hit .056. He had one of his team’s whopping 10 aces, but five of its 15 errors. Jeff Hogan added 13 kills, four blocks and three digs. Stephen Braswell had seven kills and seven digs.
Penn State got 13 kills from Jalen Penrose, who had all three of his team’s aces. Kevin Gear added seven kills and had seven blocks, two solo. Matthew McLaren and Matt Callaway had six kills apiece. Callaway hit .357 but had four of Penn State’s 14 service errors.
More EIVA: Princeton beating visiting NJIT 23-25, 34-32, 25-21, 25-16. It took seven times to close out the second set as the Tigers improved to 4-6, 2-1. NJIT dropped to 5-6, 1-2.
Freshman Parker Dixon led Princeton with a career-high 22 kills and hit .515 but also five of his team’s 21 service errors. Princeton hit .394 for the match, including .524 in the fourth set.
Kendall Ratter added 18 kills and hit .323 and had one of his team’s seven aces but also five errors. He aded five digs. Greg Luck had 10 kills and also an ace and five digs.
Jabarry Goodridge led NJIT with 19 kills and hit .412. He had four of his team’s 21 service errors and five digs. Luke Robbe and Raymond Kowalski had nine kills each. Robbe hit .667 and Kowalski had one of his team’s three aces and five of its 21 errors.
In a non-conference match, Charleston lost to visiting Alderson Broaddus 25-21, 21-25, 25-15, 31-29 to fall to 7-6. Alderson Broaddus is 3-10.
Conference Carolinas: There were four matches Tuesday, three in the league.
Limestone beat Belmont Abbey 25-23, 25-15, 25-27, 25-17 to break a three-match losing streak and improve to 4-4, 4-3 CC. Visiting Belmont Abbey dropped to 3-6, 2-3. Kevin Rocklein led Limestone with 14 kills and Bruno Kretzschmar added 11. Robert Nixon had 10 kills for Belmont Abbey.
Limestone had no aces and 12 service errors, while Belmont Abbey had three and 22.
North Greenville swept winless Pfeiffer 25-18, 25-21, 25-18. NG is 4-9, 4-3, while Pfeiffer is 0-5, all in the league. Aaron Campbell had 12 kills and hit .526 for the winners, who had nine aces and only nine errors. Alexander Schinzing had five aces and four digs.
Emmanuel won its first CC match as it beat Erskine 20-25, 25-21, 25-20, 25-22 to improve to 2-9, 1-6. Erskine is 1-10. 1-6.
League-leader King won a non-conference match at Lincoln Memorial 25-15, 25-15, 25-21 to improve to 10-1. LM is 3-9.
