The MPSF is now a two-team race. No. 1 Long Beach State and No. 3 BYU won again, are virtually tied for first, and hold a three-game lead in the loss column.
Ohio State’s Pete Hanson coached in his 1,000th match, a victory over Lewis.
But before a recap of Saturday’s NCAA men’s and beach action, a quick preview of Sunday’s light schedule. In the MIVA, McKendree goes to Loyola. There is only one match in the MPSF and EIVA, where Sacred Heart continues its SoCal trip at No. 12 USC. The Conference Carolinas are off until Tuesday.
MPSF: BYU (19-2, 13-1 MPSF) swept Hawai’i (20-4, 10-4) 25-19, 25-23, 28-26 for back-to-back wins at the Smith Fieldhouse.
Jake Langlois and Brenden Sander had 12 kills each for BYU, while Tim Dobbert added 11 kills and seven digs.
“I thought our guys’ approach tonight was strong,” BYU coach Shawn Olmstead said. “I’m really proud of them for being calm and scoring points when they needed it. It solidifies a lot of their work and with a win over a team like Hawai’i, they’ll continue to grow and take confidence into the next match. We’re just going to keep focusing on getting better.”
Stijn van Tilburg had a match-high 17 kills for the Rainbow Warriors.
No,. 9 Pepperdine (8-9, 6-8) upended No. 8 Stanford (11-10, 6-8) at Burnham Pavilion 25-23, 25-19, 15-25, 25-13. The loss leaves the Waves and Cardinal tied for eighth place in the MPSF, significant because only the top eight teams qualify for the league tournament. Both teams have four matches remaining in the regular season.
Pepperdine was paced by Michael Wexter and David Wieczorek, who had 15 kills each. Wexter finished with his first career double-double with 12 digs. Wieczorek also had seven blocks, six digs, and hit .367.
Stanford’s Gabriel Vega had 16 kills, but the Cardinal hit only .131 for the match. The loss is Stanford’s fifth consecutive MPSF loss following a 5-2 start.
Long Beach State (21-2) won its 14th consecutive match in straight sets against the EIVA’s Sacred Heart (12-5) by a 25-15, 25-11, 25-13 score. The Beach’s TJ DeFalco hit .368 with 10 kills, five digs, and four blocks. Sacred Heart’s Christopher DeLucie had four kills but hit minus .071. Long Beach hit .368 to Sacred Heart’s minus .154.
No. 6 UCLA went the distance against Concordia (Irvine) in a 25-22, 23-25, 23-25, 25-16, 15-9 contest at the Wooden Center. The Bruin’s Jake Arnitz led his squad with 17 kills and a season-high six block assists. Ryan Anselmo had 14 kills for Concordia. UCLA outhit Concordia .349 to .175.
EIVA representative Saint Francis (9-12) played ungrateful host to Cal Baptist (3-18), edging the Lancers 27-25, 17-25, 25-15, 23-25, 20-18. SFU’s Jeff Hogan’s 25 kills and 10 digs paced the Red Flash, while CBU’s Rohit Paul scored a career-high 19 kills.
MIVA: No. 2 Ohio State got Hanson his 666th win with a dramatic five-set victory over No. 7 Lewis 25-22, 25-23, 23-25, 14-25, 16-14 that all but clinched the league title. Ohio State is 21-1 overall, 10-0 in the MIVA, while the Flyers are 17-6, 10-3.
Nicolas Szerszen led the Buckeyes, who rallied from being down 11-8 in the fifth, with 18 kills, two aces, and 11 digs. Miles Johnson had 13 kills but had 10 errors to go with his three aces and 10 digs. The Flyer’s Ryan Coenen had a match-high 22 kills and hit .500 to go with four aces and five digs.
Grand Canyon (13-8, 10-4) swept Fort Wayne (5-16, 2-8) 25-19, 25-16, 25-17 as GCU’s Matthew Kinnebrew had 10 kills and hit .533. The Lopes are now a game back of Lewis in the loss column. Fort Wayne’s Colton Stone led with with 11 kills.
King (21-2) of Conference Carolina won its 11th in a row by sweeping visiting Quincy of the MIVA (5-15) 25-19, 25-15, 25-20. Kiel Bell and Jeff Sprayberry paced King with 10 kills each, while senior Jarrod Kelso led the Hawks with 11 kills.
EIVA: NJIT (13-7, 6-3) handled Charleston (10-12, 0-9) 27-25, 25-18, 25-20 in West Virginia. Jabarry Goodridge had 12 kills for the Highlanders while hitting .526. Ryan Santos led the Golden Eagles with 10 kills. The win is the sixth straight for NJIT, tying its longest win streak.
Conference Carolinas: Sweeps were the order of the day as Barton (14-4, 12-2) topped Emmanuel (5-15, 3-9), King (21-2, 10-1) defeated Quincy (5-15, 3-9), Lees-McRae (6-13, 4-7) beat Pfeiffer (0-12, 0-11), and Mount Olive (14-6, 11-1) downed Erskine (3-14, 3-10).
In Georgia, Barton won 25-12, 25-11, 25-17 behind Aleksa Brkovic’s 11 kills and four aces. Emmanuel’s Ackeem West and Manuel Melenciano both had seven kills.
King won its 11th straight 25-19, 25-15, 25-20 as Jeff Sprayberry and Kiel Bell led with 10 kills apiece. Nick Drooker had 35 assists and three service aces. Quincy’s Jarrod Kelso had 11 kills.
Lees-McRae broke its four-match losing streak with a 25-18, 25-16, 25-22 win over Pfeiffer. LMC was led by Wes Rogman and Mark Shayka, who had 11 kills each. The Falcons’ Evan Blair finished with 10 kills.
Mount Olive swept all three games by identical 25-22 scores as Bret Rutledge finished with 18 kills to lead all players. The Fleet’s Isaac Lanier finished with 14 kills and hit .400.
NCAA Beach: No. 1 USC extended its win streak to 41 with 4-1 wins over Hawai’i, Florida State, and Arizona to win the Outrigger Hawai’i Invitational. The No.5 Sandbows swept Utah 5-0 and edged No. 7 Arizona 3-2 to finish second. Nebraska swept Utah 5-0 but was defeated by No. 4 FSU 4-1. Arizona defeated Utah 5=0.
Worth noting, the USC No. 1 pair of Kelly Claes and Sara Hughes had to work hard to extend their winning streak to 84 by defeating Hawai’i’s Morgan Martin and Mikayla Tucker 21-16, 24-22.
Hughes was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, Utah’s Dani Barton was awarded Best Attacker, Arizona’s Madison Witt Best Blocker, and Justine Wong-Orantes Best Defender.
No. 2 Pepperdine swept No. 10 Arizona State, TCU, and Cal State LA 5-0 in the Zuma Classic, dropping only one set on the day. Arizona State dominated Cal State LA 5-0 but lost to TCU 3-2. The Horned Frogs also defeated Cal State LA 5-0.
No. 8 LSU, the home team, beat both South Carolina (4-1) and Tulane (5-0) at the Tiger Beach Challenge. Florida International went undefeated on the strength of three wins against Spring Hill (5-0), UAB (5-0), and Houston Baptist (4-1).
South Carolina defeated Tulane 4-1, while Tulane downed North Florida 4-1. North Florida beat both UAB and Spring Hill 4-1. Florida Gulf Coast scored a pair of wins, 5-0 against UAB and 3-2 against Houston Baptist.
