Things weren’t boring in NCAA men’s volleyball on Friday.
The MPSF match featuring No. 14 CSUN at No. 12 UCSB was rained out, a victim of the torrential downpours in southern California and all the damage that has resulted including the closure of Highway 101.
Top-ranked Ohio State keeps rolling in the MIVA, but Quincy actually took a set off the Buckeyes.
In the EIVA, No. 15 George Mason took a hit at NJIT and Sacred Heart took an even bigger one at Saint Francis. And in Conference Carolinas, Mount Olive and Barton won and are beginning to separate from the pack.
First a look at Saturday’s schedule.
Start with the MIVA, where No. 11 Ball State (11-3, 3-2) tries to get right at No. 10 Loyola (8-4, 4-1). No. 7 Lewis (10-3, 5-2) has Fort Wayne (4-12, 1-4) at home, while Grand Canyon (7-5) plays two non-conference home matches, the first against Benedictine Mesa (6-2) and the second against Cal Lutheran (2-7).
The EIVA slate includes No. 13 Penn State (9-5, 4-1) playing host to Sacred Heart (9-2, 2-1), Mason (5-6, 2-2) trying to rebound at Princeton (4-6, 2-1) and Harvard (3-5, 1-2) playing at Saint Francis (6-8, 2-3).
Conference Carolinas leader Mount Olive (8-4, 7-0) goes to Lees-McRae (4-7, 2-4), second-place Barton (8-3, 7-1) at third-place King (10-2, 5-1), and Emmanuel (2-9) stepping out of conference to entertain Coker.
In the MPSF, where the CSUN-UCSB match was rescheduled for Wednesday, March 8, No. 2 Long Beach State (12-2, 8-1) goes to No. 5 UCLA (10-5, 7-4), UC San Diego (5-8, 2-7) plays for the second straight night at No. 3 BYU (11-2, 6-1), No. 9 Pepperdine (6-4, 4-3) goes to USC (4-9, 3-7), and No. 6 Stanford (8-5, 5-3) plays at Cal Baptist (3-10, 1-8).
EIVA: Big wins for NJIT, Saint Francis
NJIT (6-6, 2-2) won 25-21, 25-19, 17-25, 25-20, behind 19 kills from Jabarry Goodridge, who hit .424, had seven blocks, two aces and four blocks. Raymond Kowalski added eight kills but hit minus .036. He had 10 digs and two aces.
Mason got 12 kills from Hayden Wagner, who hit .350. Bradley Kreamer had seven kills and hit .417.
Sacred Heart was the only unbeaten team in league play, but lost in four to Saint Francis 26-24, 25-20, 15-25, 25-22. Jeff Hogan had a big night with 17 kills and hit .353 to go with four blocks. Stephen Braswell and Michael Fisher had 10 kills each.
Christopher DeLucie led Sacred Heart with 17 kills and hit .467 but he had five of his team’s 24 service errors against three aces. MIchael Comens had 11 kills and Taylor Bloomquist 10. Bloomquist had seven blocks, two solo.
Penn State swept visiting Harvard and really earned it in the second set, winning 25-17, 35-33, 25-22. Lee Smith had 16 kills and hit .379 to lead Penn State. He also had seven digs and four blocks, one solo, and three of his team’s 15 service errors against one ace.
Calvin Mende added 15 kills and hit .333 and had five blocks, one solo. Alden Albrecht had 10 kills and seven digs.
Casey White led Harvard with 12 kills.
BYU beats UC San Diego
The Cougars, playing for the first time in a week, worked hard to beat visiting UCSD 25-21, 26-24, 25-23.
Storm Fa’agata-Tufuga had a career-best 10 kills and hit .471. Jake Langlois led with 17 kills.
Tanner Syftestad led UCSD with 13 kills and hit .333. Ian Colbert added eight kills. The same teams __play Saturday at BYU.
Ohio State cruises, Lewis downs Cardinals
Ohio State won for the 37th time in a row, beating Quincy 25-14, 22-25, 25-15, 25-20 to improve to 14-0, 4-0.
Nicolas Szerszen led with 16 kills and hit .429 and had four aces. Driss Guessous, Miles Johnson and Reese Devilbiss had seven kills each for the Buckeyes, who hit .398.
Coach Pete Hanson substituted in the second set, which Ohio State lost, but the Buckeyes hit .611 in the third.
David Siebum had 18 kills and hit .483 for Quincy, 3-9, 1-5. Quincy had one aces and 13 errors.
Lewis scored a big victory and Ball State took a tough loss in the 25-27, 25-21, 25-17, 25-17 outcome.
Ryan Coenan had a big night for the Flyers, leading with 21 kills while hitting .436. He also had two blocks and six digs.
Mitch Perinar added 15 kills, three blocks and nine digs.
Ball State’s Brendan Surane led the Cardinals with 17 kills, three blocks and six digs. Matt Szews added 14 kills, but hit .167 and had four of his team’s 17 service errors against three aces.
Conference Carolinas: Mount Olive takes first
Mount Olive won at King to take over sole possession of first with its 16-25, 21-25, 25-19, 25-13, 15-13 win. Robert Poole led with 16 kills and six of his team’s nine aces. Bret Rutledge added 15 kills and hit .333, while Joel Roberts had 13 kills and hit .346 and Andrew Sydow had 10 kills and hit .600. Their team hit .324.
Jeff Sprayberry led King with 19 kills and hit .317. He had 10 digs. Teammate Jon Wheaton had 10 kills and hit .600 and Sean Luhmann added nine kills. Andrew Besson had seven kills, hit .636 and had five blocks.
Barton kept pace with a 25-14, 25-21, 25-18 sweep at Lees-McRae after hitting .403. Limestone swept Pfeiffer 25-18, 25-13, 25-17.
And Belmont Abbey lost a non-conference match to Alderson Broaddus 25-21, 21-25, 25-19, 22-25, 15-12.
