And just like that Penn State is back in first place in the EIVA.
The No. 15 Nittany Lions beat last-place Charleston on Saturday night, Sacred Heart thumped Princeton to knock the Tigers out of first and move into second, and Saint Francis made sure George Mason stayed in its downward spiral.
There are results to report on from the MIVA — where Lindenwood got its first victory of the season — the MPSF — where Jacob Delson had 34 kills in a loss — and Conference Carolinas, but first a look at Sunday’s very limited schedule.
There are three matches involving teams from the four Division I-II conferences on Sunday.
Top-ranked Ohio State (16-0, 7-0 MIVA) faces Grand Canyon (9-6, 5-2) as the Buckeyes go for their 40th win in a row and second victory in three days at GCU.
In the MPSF, No. 10 Pepperdine (6-6, 4-5) plays at No. 4 Hawai’i (15-2, 8-2) trying to avoid a second loss in three days to the Warriors.
There is one match in the Conference Carolinas, when Mount Olive (9-6) continues its out-of-conference sojourn at Lincoln Memorial. The Railsplitters have won three in a row and are 6-9.
The EIVA is off until next Friday.
EIVA: Nittany Lions leap into first
Penn State cruised at Charleston 25-20, 25-13, 25-16 to improve to 11-6 overall, 6-2 in the EIVA, while the home team fell to 7-8, 0-5.
Lee Smith led with nine kills and hit. 562. He also had four digs and a block. Jalen Penrose had eight kills and hit .400 and Matt Callaway had eight and hit .429. Penrose had four of his team’s six aces and five of its nine service errors to go with a dig and a block. Callaway had an ace, an error, two digs and three blocks, two solo.
Charleston got 12 kills from Byron Hurd, who hit .348. The team from West Virginia had no aces and 11 errors.
Princeton’s time alone atop the league was ended at Sacred Heart 18-25, 25-22, 25-22, 25-18.
It left the winners 11-3, 4-2, as the Tigers fell to 6-7, 4-2. In other words, Penn State is in the lead, but tied with Sacred Heart and Princeton in the loss column.
Christopher DeLucie led the winners with 15 kills and hit .393. He had one of his team’s four aces and four of its 19 errors. He also had six digs and three blocks. Emerson Waumans added 13 kills, hit .348 and had two digs and two blocks, one solo. Sacred Heart hit .351 as a team with four aces and 19 errors.
Princeton’s Parker Dixon had 14 kills and hit .375. He had four of his team’s 18 service errors. Kendall Ratter had 12 kills and hit .444, one of those aces and five of the errors. He had five digs and two blocks. George Huhmann had seven kills, hit .429, four errors and five blocks. Princeton hit .350.
Saint Francis improved to 8-9, 4-4 and is in fourth place after rallying to beat slumping George Mason (5-9, 2-5) 22-25, 21-25, 25-22, 25-14,15-12.
While SFU won for the fourth time in a row, Mason (5-9, 2-5) lost for the fourth time in a row and eighth time in nine matches.
Jeff Hogan led the Flash with 15 kills, 10 digs and five blocks and Michael Fisher added 15 kills. Stephen Braswell had 11 kills and a match-high six service aces. Keith Kegerreis added five blocks.
Jack Wilson led Mason with 13 kills. Kyle Barnes had 10 kills and Langston Payne eight and four blocks.
Also in the EIVA, Harvard swept visiting NJIT 25-20, 25-23, 25-18. It left Harvard 5-6, 3-3, while NJIT dropped to 7-7, 3-3, putting the teams in a tie for fifth but just one game back in the loss column. Erik Johnson led Harvard with 11 kills, while Jabarry Goodridge had 15 for NJIT.
MIVA: Ball State, Lewis, Lindenwood win
No. 12 Ball State routed Quincy 25-18, 25-14, 25-17as freshman Matt Szews led with 16 kills and hit .577. He also had four aces and four digs. Matt Walsh had nine kills and four blocks, one solo. Jarrod Kelso led the home team with 14 kills.
No. 5 Lewis rolled past visiting Mount Olive of Conference Carolinas 5-17, 25-20, 25-19. Lewis is 13-3, while Mount Olive is 9-6. Tom Beckman led Lewis with 10 kills and Trevor Weiskircher added nine and five digs. Robert Poole led MO with 10 kills.
In a league mach, Lindenwood beat Fort Wayne for its first victory of the year after 13 losses. The Lions are 1-8 in MIVA __play after its 19-25, 25-21, 23-25, 25-23, 18-16 win. Fort Wayne dropped to 5-14, 2-6.
Jake Duckworth led with 14 kills. Sam Schindler added 13 and Michael Shard and Blake Koppel 10 each. Connor Hipelius had 10 blocks, one solo, and seven kills. Schindler had two of his team’s five aces and nine of its 25 errors.
Colton Stone led Fort Wayne with 16 kills and Richie Dietrich had 13 and hit .600.
MPSF: UCLA, UC Irvine win
No. 6 UCLA won at UC San Diego 25-19, 25-21, 22-25, 25-21 to improve to 11-7 overall, 8-6 in the MPSF. The Bruins got 15 kills from Christian Hessenauer, who hit .333 and had eight digs. Jake Arnitz had 12 kills and hit .400 and Dylan Missry had 11 kills and hit .444. He also had three blocks and seven digs and a career-high four aces.
UCSD, 5-11, 2-9, lost for the sixth time in a row. Tanner Syftestad, who hit .406, and Ian Colbert , who hit .300, led with 14 kills each.
No. 6 UC Irvine certainly earned its 25-23, 25-27, 18-25, 28-26, 18-16 over No. 13 UC Santa Barbara as it improved to 11-5 overall, 8-5 in the MPSF and 6-0 in five-set matches.
His team fell to 7-9, 4-9, but Jacob Delson had 34 kills for UCSB, hitting .375. He also had four digs and four blocks.
Tamir Hershko led UCI with 19 kills, while hitting .417. Thomas Hodges followed with 14 kills, Scott Stadick had a career-high 13 kills and eight block assists and Aaron Koubi matched his career-high with 11 kills. Dillon Hoffman had 11 digs, while Michael Saeta had 48 set assists, five kills and five block assists. Matthew Younggren hit .625 with five kills on eight attempts.
The Anteaters had 31 service errors, 10 by Hershko, who had one of the team’s three aces. Michael Saeta had eight errors.
Keenan Sanders added 14 kills for UCSB and hit .632. His team had three aces and 19 errors, meaning the two squads combined for six aces and 50 errors.
ConfCarolinas: King, Erskine, L-M get league wins
King swept Limestone 25-23, 25-21, 25-17 and maintained its tie in first with Mount Olive at 13-2, 8-1. Limestone dropped to 6-5, 6-4. Kiel Bell led King with 11 kills and hit .556.
Erskine improve to 3-10, 3-6 with its 25-20, 25-19, 25-18 sweep on winless Pfeiffer 0-8, 0-8. Issac Lanier led with 13 kills and hit .360 and teammate Daniel Fralix had 10 kills and hit .400. Evan Blair had 14 kills for Pfeiffer.
Lees-McRae beat North Greenville 25-19, 25-16, 25-23 and is 5-9, 3-6. NG is 4-11, 4-5. John Sobel led with 15 kills and hit .325 and Mark Shayka had 13 kills and hit .435. Matthew McManaway led NG with 15 kills and hit .522.
Emmanuel lost in five to Lincoln Memorial 25-22, 20-25, 25-16, 23-25, 15-13. Emmanuel is 4-11, LM 6-9.
