NCAA: Cal Baptist gets an MPSF win, Surf & Turf set at FIU

Soren Dion-Kindem, left, and Mitchell Penning put up the block for Pepperdine against UCSD/ Martin A. Folb photo

Cal Baptist, which perhaps gained some confidence by winning three matches against Conference Carolinas teams on its recent East Coast swing, finally broke a long MPSF drought on Thursday night by beating visiting No. 15 UC Santa Barbara, 27-25 in the fifth set.

In more what you might have expected in men’s Division I-II volleyball, No. 8 Pepperdine swept UC San Diego.

It sets up a busy Friday both in men’s indoor and women’s NCAA beach.

Start with the men and the EIVA, where the top four teams are within a game of each other. First-place Penn State (6-2), dealing with more injuries than can be imagined and likely to __play just eight players once again, is home for Princeton (6-3), which is tied with NJIT (6-3), which goes to Saint Francis (4-4). Sacred Heart (5-3), a game back of the Nittany Lions, goes to George Mason (3-5). And Harvard (4-4) goes to last-place Charleston (0-10).

In the MPSF, UCSB tries to bounce back at No. 11 USC. Both teams are tied for eighth, 1.5 games behind seventh-place Stanford, in the race for the eighth and final spot in the MPSF tournament. No. 5 UC Irvine goes to No. 9 Stanford and No. 2 Long Beach State goes out of conference to __play host to Concordia Irvine.

There are four MIVA matches, including No. 1 Ohio State playing host to McKendree and No. 12 Ball State entertaining Quincy. No. 10 Loyola gets Grand Canyon and Lindenwood is at Fort Wayne.

And in Conference Carolinas, first-place King (13-1) goes to second-place Mount Olive (13-2), Barton (13-2) tied with Mount Olive, is home for Lees-McRae and Emmanuel plays at Belmont Abbey. The plot thickens even more Saturday when King goes to Barton, while Mount Olive plays host to Lees-McRae.

Cal Baptist, Pepperdine win: The Lancers, last in the MPSF at 7-18 overall and 2-13 in the league, not only won their fourth match in a row but broke a seven-match league losing streak with a come-from-behind 16-25, 20-25, 25-19, 25-20, 27-25 victory.

“I have to give credit to both teams,” Cal Baptist coach Derek Schmitt said. “We knew we could compete with this team. I’ve never been a part of a game that went this long in the fifth set.”

Kevin Viaz led CBU with 16 kills, had seven blocks and three digs. Luis Palos had 11 kills despite hitting .097, and had two blocks and eight digs. Rohit Paul added 10 kills, two blocks and seven digs.

Cal Baptist recently went on a road trip during which it lost to the EIVA’s Penn State and Saint Francis, but finished with wins over Limestone, Erskine and Belmont Abbey of Conference Carolinas. The Lancers won their other MPSF match on Feb. 3 against Grand Canyon.

UCSB, which fell to 10-13, 5-10 and did itself no favors in trying to get into that eighth spot for the MPSF tourney, got one third of its 60 kills from Jacob Delson. He had 20, one of his team’s two aces and three of its 20 service errors, two blocks and six digs.

Keenan Sanders had 12 kills and six digs and Connor Drake had nine kills and three blocks.

In the fifth set, which was tied 15 times, UCSB had a 14-12 lead and was up again 24-23. An ace by Paul ended it.

Pepperdine celebrated its senior night with a 27-25, 25-20, 25-15 win over UC San Diego that left the Waves 9-10, 7-9. UCSD, 7-16, 3-12, is just a game ahead of Cal Baptist for last place in the MPSF standings.

David Wieczorek led with 17 kills, hitting .556. He had both of Pepperdine’s aces, three of its 11 errors, and four blocks. Noah Dyer had nine kills and seven digs. Michael Wexter and Mitchell Penning had five kills each.

UCSD’s Tanner Syftestad had 14 kills, two of his team’s three aces and three of its nine errors.

Beach

FIU’s Surf & Turf: No. 15 Florida International in Miami is the host for a Friday-Saturday gathering that includes No. 3 UCLA, No. 4 FSU, No. 12 Arizona State, No. 14 Florida Atlantic, the University of New Orleans and Tulane.

No. 1 USC is in Santa Cruz on Saturday and plays San Francisco and then plays Saint Mary’s and San Jose State on Sunday in Monterey.

No. 2 Pepperdine has the week off.

No. 5 Hawai’i plays Saturday-Sunday in Huntington Beach in a field that includes No. 6 Long Beach State, Cal Poly, Sacramento State and CSUN.

No. 7 LSU is at the Georgia State Diggin’ Duals, which includes No. 10 Georgia State, Jacksonville State (Ala.), UAB and Austin Peay.

No. 8 Arizona is the host to No. 13 Grand Canyon, New Mexico, CSU Bakersfield and Santa Clara.

No. 9 Stetson goes to Jacksonville (Fla.) Friday-Saturday for a field that includes North Florida and Mercer.

And No. 11 South Carolina, in between watching both its basketball teams in the respective final fours, is at UNC-Wilmington’s tournament that also includes Coastal Carolina, Mercer and College of Charleston.

NCAA: Penn State men beat Princeton, UCLA extends beach streak

Penn State's Aidan Albrecht hits against Princeton's Jonah May/ Mark Selders photo

The 13th-ranked Penn State men had to earn it, but the first-place Nittany Lions finally created some space below them in the EIVA standings.

There was an upset in the MIVA as Grand Canyon won at No. 10 Loyola, while Ohio State clinched its 26th league reguar-season title.

The UCLA women won three times on the beach in Miami on Friday and have extended their school-record winning streak to 14.

All the beach follows but first a look at Saturday’s NCAA Division I-II men’s action.

There is a full slate on April Fool’s Day in the MIVA as Penn State is back at it, this time playing host to NJIT. Princeton tries to bounce back at Saint Francis, George Mason tries to beat Sacred Heart on back-to-back nights and Harvard goes for its second sweep in as many nights at Charleston.

In the EIVA, Loyola gets a chance to even the score against Grand Canyon. Top-ranked Ohio State goes to a second sweep in two nights against visiting McKendree, No. 12 Ball State entertains Lindenwood and Quincy goes to Fort Wayne.

The MPSF has two league matches as No. 9 Stanford tries to bounce back from a tough loss to UC Irvine on Friday when UC San Diego visits. No. 6 UCLA goes to Cal Baptist.

In Conference Carolinas King gets to build its first-place lead even more when it goes to second-place Barton, Mount Olive tries to bounce back from losing to King when Lees-McRae visits, and Limestone goes to Pfeiffer and North Greenville plays at Belmont Abbey. Emmanuel goes out of conference at Coker.

EIVA: Penn State moves away from the pack

Penn State, coming off that big non-conference win over No. 1 Ohio State, built its lead in the standings to one and half games as the Nittany Lions came away with a 23-25, 25-21, 17-25, 19-25, 19-17 win over visiting Princeton.

It left Penn State 15-9 overall and 7-2 in the EIVA and dropped Princeton to 10-11, and tied with NJIT at 6-4. They’re a half-game up on Sacred Heart, Harvard and Saint Francis.

Three players who have fought various physical ailments of late led Penn State.

Calvin Mende had 17 kills and had five blocks, one solo. Chris Nugent had 14 kills and hit .346 to go along with nine digs, four blocks and three of Penn State’s six aces. Aiden Albrecht had 16 kills and had eight digs but four of his team’s 16 service errors. Kevin Gear had 11 kills and hit .600 and had four blocks.

Parker Dixon led Princeton with 17 kills and hit .278 but had four of his team’s 14 service errors. He also had six digs and six blocks. Kendall Ratter had 16 kills but hit .139. Greg Luck had 11 kills and hit .148, had two aces and two errors, nine digs and five blocks. And George Huhmann had quite an up-and-down line with five kills but a whopping 12 blocks, one solo, to go with four digs, an ace and four errors.

In the fifth set, Princeton held the upper hand much of the way, leading 13-9 before the Nittany Lions responded to a timeout with a 4-0 run to tie it.

A kill from Albrecht gave Penn State an 18-17 lead, and a block by Nathan Smith, Nugent and Gear ended it.

NJIT had a chance to keep pace and all but bury the hosts, but lost at Saint Francis 23-25, 25-18, 25-20, 32-30 to drop to 13-8 overall, 6-4 EIVA, while SFU stayed in the chase at 10-14, 5-4.

Jeff Hogan led SFU with 16 kills to go with four blocks and seven digs while Stephen Braswell and Michael Fisher had 15 kills each.

NJIT’s Jabarry Goodridge had 20 kills and eight digs.

The fourth set had 23 ties and 24 lead changes. It ended on two NJIT errors.

Harvard improved to 8-10, 5-4 by sweeping Charleston (11-14, 0-11) and George Mason dealt a tough blow to Sacred Heart in four to improve to 11-1, 4-5. Sacred Heart is 12-8, 4-5.

MIVA: Big win for Grand Canyon

Loyola  was knocked off at home 27-25, 21-25, 25-21, 27-25. It left the Ramblers 14-10 overall and 7-6 in the MIVA, while Grand Canyon improved to 16-9, 11-4.

Cody Williams and Cullen Mosher had 18 kills each to lead the Lopes, who hit .322.

Collin Mahan had 16 kills for Loyola, which also got 13 from Ben Plaisted and 12 from Jeff Jendryk.

Ohio State improved to 24-2 overall and 13-0 in the MIVA as it rebounded from its loss to Penn State with a 25-17, 29-27, 25-18 over McKendree (9-17, 4-9).

Miles Johnson had a big night for the Buckeyes with 21 kills while hitting .486. Nicolas Szerszen added 14 kills and hit .542. Nolan Rueter and Will Frank had seven kills each for McKendree.

Also, Lindenwood (5-15, 4-9) beat Fort Wayne  (5-20, 2-11) in four.

MPSF: Important win for USC

The Trojans swept No. 15 UC Santa Barbara 27-25, 28-26, 25-21 to improve to 12-13 overall, 6-10 in the MPSF, while UCSB dropped to 10-14, 5-11.

It gave USC a one-game lead over the Gauchos in the race for the eighth and final berth in the upcoming MPSF tourney, with two regular-season matches remaining for both squads.

Lucas Yoder led USC with 16 kills. Gianluca Grasso added eight kills and six digs, Andy Benesh had seven kills and hit .667) to go with four blocks and Matt Douglas had eight digs.

Jacob Delson led UCSB with 13 kills and seven digs, Roy McFarland added 11 kills and six digs and Keenan Sanders had nine kills.

UC Irvine came up big at Stanford 25-23, 31-29, 21-25, 25-19. UCI improved to 17-6, 11-5,  while  Stanford dropped to 11-11, 6-9.

Thomas Hodges led UCI with 18 kills, Aaron Koubi added 16 and Tamir Hershko had nine.

Gabriel Vega led Stanford with 13 kills and Kevin Rakestraw and Clay Jones had nine each.

No. 2 Long Beach went out of conference to beat visiting Concordia 25-16, 25-22, 25-21, its 18th sweep of the season. TJ DeFalco had 10 kills and hit .444.

Conference Carolinas: King-Barton showdown looms

King (25-2, 14-1) holds a half-game lead over Barton (17-5, 14-2) and they __play Saturday. King is coming off a tough Friday-night victory over Mount Olive 22-25, 25-19, 22-25, 25-23, 15-9 that dropped MO to 15-8, 13-3. Barton is coming off a sweep of Lees-McRae.

Also in the CC Friday, Belmont Abbey beat Emmanuel.

Beach: Good day for UCLA

The big gathering Friday was in Miami, where No. 12 Arizona State had a day, losing 5-0 to UCLA, 4-1 to Tulane and 4-1 to No. 15 FIU.

UCLA, rather, improved to 16-2 by also sweeping New Orleans 5-0 and beating No. 14 Florida Atlantic 3-2. The Bruins take on No. 4 Florida State on Saturday.

Also Friday, No. 9 Stetson swept Jacksonville and  North Florida, No. 8 Arizona beat New Mexico and Santa Clara, and No. 13 Grand Canyon beat Santa Clara and CSU Bakersfield.

There are quite a few matches Saturday with tournaments at Huntington Beach, Georgia State and UNC-Wilmington.

NCAA: Notes, polls, POWs, big week for Penn State and Chris Nugent

So much volleyball in one place.

We have another tradeoff between the Nos. 1 and 2 teams in the AVCA men’s Division I-II poll, some movement in the men’s D-III poll, hardly any in the NCAA beach poll, but some good info for beach coaches.

Penn State’s Chris Nugent is both the AVCA and EIVA player of the week.

Just about everything you’d want to know about college volleyball is here in our weekly Tuesday NCAA notebook. All the polls follow — men’s Division I-II, men’s Division III and women’s beach — plus some analysis, the POW’s, and more.

NCAA men

AVCA Division I-II Poll: Penn State’s upset of Ohio State made for some movement on both ends of the poll. Long Beach State jumped a notch back to No. 1, while Ohio State dropped back to No. 2. Spots 3 through 11 stayed the same, but Penn State moved up from 13th to No. 12, trading places with Ball State. And Grand Canyon got back in at No. 15, replacing UC Santa Barbara.

Click here for the AVCA poll

AVCA Division III Poll: Springfield stayed No. 1 and got all 17 first-place votes, but SUNY New Paltz dropped four spots to No. 5 after losing to Vassar. Vassar moved up a notch to No. 2 and Stevens went up two spots to No. 3. Wentworth made a jump from 10th to No. 7.

Click here for the full AVCA Division III poll

National POWs

AVCA Division I-II POW:  Penn State senior outside hitter Chris Nugent. Nugent averaged 3.21 kills and hit .430 for the Nittany Lions in wins over Ohio State and Princeton. He also had four aces, an assist, 23 digs and eight blocks.

AVCA Division III National POW: Vassar junior middle blocker Matt Knigge. He led the Brewers to two victories, including an upset of SUNY New Paltz in which he had 14 kills and hit .478.He also had four digs and four blocks.

EIVA

Offensive Player of the Week: Penn State’s Chris Nugent, see AVCA POW above.

Defensive Player of the Week: George Mason senior libero Johnny Gomez. He averaged 3.89 digs in two victories and jumped up to fifth in the EIVA for digs at 2.16.

Key matches this week: Both Friday and Saturday’s three-match slates have big implications as first-place Penn State goes to Sacred Heart and Harvard, while second-place Harvard has third-place Saint Francis on Friday. George Mason could knock out both fourth-place teams, NJIT on Friday and Princeton on Saturday.

Last week’s key results: It was all about Penn State, which upset then-No. 1 Ohio State in five and then survived a five-setter against Princeton.

Worth noting: Nugent and Gomez won the individual honors for the second time this season … Penn State leads the EIVA in hitting percentage at .283, but Saint Francis, while ranked seventh in hitting percentage at .234, has the most kills (554) … Princeton freshman George Huhmann leads in hitting percentage (.386) but has only 298 kills. NJIT’s Jabarry Goodridge of has the most kills by far (370). Saint Francis’ Jeff Hogan is the next closest with 333.

Click here for the EIVA standings

MIVA

Offensive Player of the Week: Ohio State senior opposite Miles Johnson. Johnson hit .387 and averaged 4.73 kills per set for the Buckeyes in three matches.

Defensive Player of the Week: Quincy sophomore libero Kolbie Knorr. Knorr averaged 3.21 digs for the Hawks in three matches and had just two receiving errors in 67 attempts.

Key matches this week: Lewis plays at Ball State on Thursday and Loyola goes there on Saturday.

Last week’s key results: Ohio State’s victory over McKendree not only saw the Buckeyes bounce back from being upset by Penn State, but gave them the MIVA regular-season title. Lewis wrapped up second place by beating Loyola in five and then Loyola secured the deal by splitting with Grand Canyon, which needed a sweep.

Worth noting: Ball State’s Matt Walsh is fourth in the nation in hitting percentage (.443), while Lindenwood’s Connor Hipelius leads the nation in blocks per set (1.39). Loyola’s Jeff Jendryk is fourth in blocks (1.19) and sixth in hitting (.434).

Click here for the MIVA standings

MPSF

Player of the Week: UCLA junior outside hitter Jake Arnitz. Arnitz hit .450 in the eight sets UCLA played last week with 33 kills on 60 swings. He hit a career-best .632 in a win at No. 11 USC with 12 kills and no errors on 19 attacks. Arnitz had a career-high tying 21 kills and hit .366 on 41 swings in a five-set win at Cal Baptist.

Key matches this week: First-place Long Beach State will try to clinch the top MPSF tourney seed with a win against visiting CSUN on Friday. BYU goes to UCSB for matches Thursday and Friday, while UCLA plays host to Hawai’i on Friday and Saturday.

Last week’s key results: Last-place Cal Baptist upset UCSB and then took UCLA to five, 20-18 in the fifth. USC also beat UCSB in the battle to __play in the postseason.

Worth noting: The longest current streak in the league right now is CSUN, which has lost six in a row. The longest winning streaks are three by UC Irvine and UCLA … Cal Baptist beat UCSB 27-25 last week in the second-longest set five in MPSF history … BYU’s only hope for the tourney No. 1 seed is to win twice this week and have CSUN upset Long Beach State. Click here for the scenarios and possibilities regarding the MPSF Tournament.

Click here for the MPSF standings

Conference Carolinas

Player of the Week: Barton senior setter Federico Pagliara. The Italian averaged 10.92 assists per set and also had 17 digs and eight blocks in a 3-0 week.

Key matches this week: There aren’t many. First-place Barton plays Tuesday in a non-conference match against Coker. Second-place King plays host to Limestone on Saturday. Third-place Mount Olive has the week off. Looking ahead, a week from Tuesday Mount Olive is at Barton.

Last week’s key results: King’s five-set win at Mount Olive and Barton’s five-set win over King.

Worth noting: Jeff Sprayberry had 27 kills for King against Mount Olive. Teammate Nick Drooker had seven aces against Barton. And Barton’s Justice Lord, had nine blocks against King in the best performances of last week. Not surprisingly, Sprayberry leads the league with 316 kills, although Isaac Lanier of Erskine leads in kills per set (3.67). Jon Wheaton of King lead in kills per set (.445).

Click here for the ConfCarolinas standings

NCAA Beach

AVCA Collegiate Beach Poll: There are few things more predictable than this poll, where in spots through 1 through 11 there was one change as Long Beach State moved from sixth to No. 5, changing places with Hawai’i. USC remains No. 1, followed by Pepperdine, UCLA and Florida State. Grand Canyon moved up a notch to No. 12 and FIU jumped two places to No. 13, while Arizona State fell three spots to No. 15.

Click here for the entire AVCA Beach poll

CCSA top pair: Florida International’s top pair of Margherita Bianchin and Federica Frasca took the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association honors. They went 6-0 and playing at Nos. 1, 2 and 3. They are 12-0 this season.

Big West top pair: Rachel Nieto and Nele Barber of Long Beach State. They went 6-1 last week and are 19-1 for the season.

ASUN top pair: Kristin Lind and Darby Dunn of Stetson are the Atlantic Sun honorees for the second straight week and third time this year. Lind, from Sweden, and Dunn, from British Columbia, won all four of their matches in straight sets.

Pac-12 top pair: Who else but Kelly Claes and Sara Hughes of USC? They went 8-0 in straight sets and had five sets in which they held opponents to single-digit points to improve to 26-0 this season, extending their record-setting winning streak to 99 matches.

Key matches this week: Top-ranked USC plays host Friday and Saturday to Washington and No. 15 Arizona State on Friday and then goes to Manhattan Beach on Saturday to __play ASU, Loyola Marymount and Saint Mary’s.

Before heading to Hawai’i, No. 2 Pepperdine plays Wednesday at Zuma Beach against Grand Canyon and No. 5 Long Beach State. LBSU also plays Grand Canyon.

Fourth-ranked Florida State is home Friday and Saturday for a tournament that includes TCU, No. 14 Florida Atlantic, No. 11 South Carolina and No. 10 Georgia State.

No. 6 Hawai’i has Pepperdine and Cal Poly. It’s the last play for the Wahine before the Big West Championship April 28-29 on Pismo Beach in California.

No. 3 UCLA has Wednesday home matches against Cal Poly and Loyola Marymount and goes to Santa Monica Saturday and Sunday to play Washington, Concordia, Long Beach State and No. 8 Arizona.

Speaking of Beach, it goes to Santa Monica and plays Washington, Arizona, Concordia (Irvine) and UCLA.

No. 7 LSU goes to the Houston Baptist Invitational that also includes Texas A&M Corpus Christi, Tulane and Central Arkansas.

There’s a big gathering at Stetson in DeLand, Fla., where the No. 9 Hatters play host Friday and Saturday to Mercer, Coastal Carolina and Florida Gulf Coast.

Worth noting: USC won its 50th in a row and the pair of Kelly Claes and Sara Hughes have now won 99 in a row.

AVCA Collegiate Beach Conference: It will be in conjunction with the NCAA Beach Championship in Gulf Shores, Ala. The conference is May 6-7 and is free to AVCA members with a purchase of an NCAA all-session ticket. It’s for current college beach coaches in addition to coaches and/or administrators interested in starting a beach program. Click here for all the info from the AVCA. 

NCAA women

Top players going to Thailand: USA Volleyball announced a 12-player group it’s calling the U.S. Women’s Collegiate National Team Thailand Tour. The coach is Jerritt Elliott of Texas and they’ll practice in Bangkok May 19-30.

According to USA Volleyball, the match schedule will include playing the Thailand National Team, the Thailand U23 Team and Bangkok Glass, the top team in the Thai professional league. The CNT-Thailand team will also play against two other teams yet to be confirmed. The team training and competition matches will be at the FIVB Development Center in Bangkok, one of only four such centers in Asia.

The roster:

Name (Position, School, Height, College Eligibility Remaining, Hometown)

Yaasmeen Bedart-Ghani (OPP, University of Texas, 6-4, 2, Los Angeles, Cal.)
Kaz Brown (M, University of Kentucky, 6-4, 1, Waterloo, Iowa)
Ashley Dusek (L, University of Kentucky, 5-7, 1, East Bernard, Texas)
Taylor Hughes (S, Ohio State University, 2, 6-1, Carroll, Ohio)
Lily Johnson (OH, Missouri State University, 5-11, 1, Wildwood, Mo.)
Morgan Johnson (M, University of Texas, 6-3, 2, DeSoto, Texas)
Taylor Nelson (S, Cal Poly, 1, 6-0, Granite Bay, California)
Chiaka Ogbogu (M, University of Texas, 6-2, 1, Coppell, Texas)
Madison Rigdon (OH, University of Kansas, 6-0, 1, Pflugerville, Texas)
Jordan Thompson (OPP, University of Cincinnati, 2, 6-4, Edina, Minn.)
Micaya White (OH, University of Texas, 6-1, 3, Frisco, Texas)
McKenna Woodford (OH, Washington State University, 6-4, 2, Chandler, Ariz.)
Head Coach: Jerritt Elliott (head coach at University of Texas)
Assistant Coach: Paula Weishoff (head coach at University of Concordia Irvine)
Assistant Coach: Alyssa D’Errico (assistant coach at University of Dayton)

NCAA: Ohio State men clinch MIVA, Long Beach beats Hawai’i in beach

Morgan Martin lays out for Hawai'i at the Big West Challenge in Huntington Beach/Ed Chan, VBshots.com

A busy Saturday in men’s college action saw Ohio State wrap up the MIVA regular-season title, plus Conference Carolinas has a new occupant of the league’s top spot. We’ll also check in on the college beach scene where USC extended its impressive winning streak.

Ohio State clinches: We start with top-ranked Ohio State taking down McKendree by a 25-18, 26-24, 25-15 count in Columbus to clinch the MIVA regular-season title.

Ohio State moved to 25-2 overall and a perfect 14-0 in MIVA action. It’s the Buckeyes’ 26th conference crown and the win was No. 29 in a row against MIVA opponents dating back to the 2016 season.

Christy Blough directed Ohio State to a .437 hitting percentage on 42 kills. Miles Johnson and Nicolas Szerszen led the way on offense. Johnson had 16 kills and hit .423, while Szerszen had 11 kills and hit over .400. Matt Dorn and Driss Guessous combined to register 11 kills on only 15 swings.

Ohio State, which celebrated senior night, added eight aces with Johnson and Szerszen registering three each.

Elsewhere in the MIVA, Loyola Chicago shook off a loss to Grand Canyon the night before by returning the favor in a 25-21, 25-22, 25-18 win in Chicago.

Loyola moved to 15-10 overall and 8-6 in conference, while Grand Canyon dropped to 16-10 overall and 11-5 in conference.

Collin Mahan and Ben Plaisted each had 12 kills. Mahan hit .579 with only one error on 19 swings. Loyola hit .312 as a team. Ian Cowen added 30 assists, while Plaisted had eight digs and Avery Aylsworth had seven.

Ashton Kings’ nine kills led Grand Canyon.

In other MIVA play, Quincy edged Fort Wayne 3-2, while Ball State was a 3-1 winner over Lindenwood. Jarrod Kelso’s 20 kills and .630 hitting percentage led Quincy (7-19, 2-12). Edgardo Cartagena had 11 kills and Blake Reardon added 10 to help Ball State move to 17-8 overall and 8-6 in MIVA action.

MPSF: A light night in the MPSF saw Stanford clinch a conference playoff berth after a 3-2 win against UC San Diego. The Cardinal trailed 2-1 on their home court before engineering the comeback win.

Stanford now has appeared in the postseason in nine of the past 10 years under coach John Kosty.

Gabriel Vega, a fifth-year senior, led the Cardinal with a career-high 21 kills while hitting .362. He also had seven digs and two blocks. Vega had 10 kills in the fourth set and went a perfect 5-for-5 hitting in the tiebreaker. Kevin Rakestraw added 11 kills, four blocks and four digs and hit .450.

UC San Diego fell to 7-17 overall and 3-13 in MPSF action. Ian Colbert led San Diego with 16 kills and hit .324.

No. 6 UCLA also was extended to the limit in Riverside but came away with a 3-2 win over Cal Baptist. Jake Arnitz led UCLA with a season-high 21 kills.

UCLA won its seventh match in a row and moved to 17-7 overall and 10-6 in MPSF play. Michael Fisher finished with a season-high 11 kills and hit .429 to help the Bruins. Mitch Stahl also added 11 kills and hit .389. JT Hatch added 13 digs. UCLA connected on 12 service aces.

EIVA: Four matches were on tap Saturday in the EIVA. Penn State moved to 8-2 in EIVA __play with a 3-1 win over New Jersey Institute of Technology. Aidan Albrecht and Calvin Mende each had 13 kills to lead the Nittany Lions, while Chris Nugent added 12 kills and hit .407. Royce Clemens added 13 digs.

Jabarry Goodridge had 23 kills to pace NJIT, which fell to 13-9 overall and 6-5 in EIVA play.

In Saint Francis’ 3-2 win at home against Princeton, Jeff Hogan led the way for the Flash with 19 kills, six digs and two blocks. He also hit .343. Daniel Ford added 47 assists and 10 digs for his second double-double in a row. Gabe Woffindin had 10 digs. Stephen Braswell had 15 kills, while Michael Fisher had 14 kills and three aces.

Saint Francis moved to 11-14 and 6-4 in EIVA play, while Princeton, led by Kendall Ratter’s 17 kills, dropped to 10-12 and 6-5.

In George Mason’s 3-2 win at home against Sacred Heart, Jack Wilson (14 kills) and Sam Greenslade (12 kills) led the way for the victors. Greenslade made only one error on 24 swings (.458). Brian Negron had 42 assists and Johnny Gomez had 18 digs. Mason moved to 12-11 overall and 5-5 in EIVA action.

Christopher DeLucie’s 17 kills led Sacred Heart, which also received 44 assists from Eduardo Zardo and 12 digs from Joshua Ayzenberg. Taylor Bloomquist had nine block assists. Sacred Heart fell to 12-9 overall and 5-5 in conference.

Harvard improved to 6-4 in conference __play with a 3-1 win at Wehrle Arena in Charleston, W. Va., against host Charleston. Erik Johnson had 13 kills, while Casey White had 11. Harvard had 50 kills in the match and hit .432.

Barton defeats King 3-2 Saturday to reach first place in CC play/Barton athletics

Conference Carolinas: A full slate of Conference Carolinas action Saturday saw Barton ovetake King for first place in the loop. Barton was a 25-20, 17-25, 25-21, 23-25, 15-9 winner at Wilson (N.C.) Gym.

Barton moved to 18-5 overall and 15-2 in CC play, while King fell to 25-3 and 14-2 in CC action. Aleksa Brkovic had 16 kills and hit .389 to lead Barton. Angelos Mandilaris had 11 kills, while Vasilis Mandilaris had 10 kills. Federico Pagilara had 50 assists and Jonathan Novoa-Miralles had 21 digs. Justice Lord had eight block assists.

Jeff Sprayberry had 17 kills, while Kiel Bell added 11 kills and Eddie Moushikhian and Jon Wheaton each had 10 kills. King hit only .126 in the match. Nick Drooker had 48 assists and Jimmy Nuckolls had 16 digs.

Elsewhere in Conference Carolinas-related action, Mount Olive was a 3-0 winner against Lees-McRae, Limestone downed Pfeiffer 3-0, Belmont Abbey scored a 3-1 win against North Greenville while Coker was a 3-0 winner over Emmanuel in non-conference play.

USC beach extends streak to 48: No. 1 USC extended its winning streak to 48 duals in a row with a 5-0 win over San Francisco in women’s beach action at Main Beach in Santa Cruz, Calif.

USC moved to 18-0 with the win. Seniors Kelly Claes and Sara Hughes were 21-9, 21-4 winners in the third match, which clinched the win for the Trojans. Claes and Hughes now have won 95 matches in a row.

The 49ers’ Hailey Harward plays defense as Long Beach goes 2-0 on the first day of play at the Big West Challenge/Ed Chan, VBshots.com

Big West Challenge: First-day results of the Big West Challenge at Huntington Beach, Calif., saw No. 6 Long Beach State defeat Sacramento State 5-0 and No. 5 Hawai’i 3-2. Hawai’i also scored a 4-1 win over Cal Poly. Cal State Northridge defeated Sacramento State 4-1, while Poly defeated Northridge 3-2.

Long Beach State moved to 15-3 overall, while Hawaii fell to 16-4. It was the first time Long Beach State and Hawai’i have met since the championship match of the Big West tournament last year.

“Today was a good day,” Long Beach State coach Mike Campbell told VBM’s Ed Chan at the tournament. “I think we had a couple really tough losses—3-2 nail-biters to Pepperdine and UCLA. A lot of it came down to inexperience and immaturity. It was really nice to see the opposite today. It was great to see our kids step up in the three pairs we won against really good competition, a fantastic team. It’s fun to see our team mature and grow from the experience of losing and use that in a more positive direction in winning.

“I think we are doing really well. They are executing at a high level. The errors we’re making are really fixable and controllable and pretty aggressive. That’s the attitude I definitely want for the team. I don’t want them holding anything back. I like the direction they are moving in, in terms of our understanding of beach volleyball.”

In the match featuring the Big West’s two heavyweights, Long Beach State’s Nele Barber and Rachel Nieto were 21-18, 22-20 winners at No. 1. Sasha Karelov and Kobi Pekich were 21-15, 21-15 winners at No. 2 for Long Beach. Emily Maglio and Laurel Weaver were 21-15, 21-15 winners for Hawai’i at No. 3, while Morea Wagner and Heather Weiss were 21-14, 21-17 winners at No. 4 for Long Beach. Ari Homayun and Carly Kan were 21-13, 21-16 winners at No. 5 for Hawaii.

“Today we were a little up and down,” said Hawaii coach Jeff Hall. “I think we let one get away against Long Beach. They wanted it more than we did. They deserved to win. They were better today than us. I like how we responded with a 4-1 win against Cal Poly—a team that’s improving and well-coached (by beach great Todd Rogers).

“Individually, each person has to execute a little better. Our partnerships are right, it’s just about execution, staying into the skill set and what I call segmented thinking. Stay in the pass until you’ve made the pass. Stay in the set until you have the set. And then overhead, make sure you’re going for what you’re trying to go for. We lost sideout a little bit. We can get better at it, that’s what we are working on.”

At Georgia State: No. 7 LSU won a pair of matches at the Georgia State Diggin’ Duals tournament at the GSU Complex.

LSU scored wins over No. 10 Georgia State and Jacksonville State to extend its winning streak to 10 matches.

“We had a really good day today,” LSU coach Russell Brock said. “I’m proud of our group for coming together to win both matches. We have been grinding against great competition all year and I think that confidence from playing great teams over and over pulled us through the Georgia State match. Georgia State is such a well-coached team and are always incredibly disciplined. They never give points away so to beat a team at their place is a real accomplishment.”

LSU’s No. 4 team of Cati Leak and Maddie Ligon won twice and moved to 10-3 on the season, with half their wins coming against teams ranked in the Top 12 in the nation.

FIU Surf & Turf: Tulane wrapped up play in the FIU Surf & Turf Invitational at Lummus Park Courts in Miami.

Tulane went 1-2 against three opponents to move to 15-8 overall.

“We played some really good volleyball against terrific opponents, but fell sort of making enough plays to beat them,” said Tulane coach Wayne Holly. “As good as we are, we have a lot to improve upon to get to the next level and we will continue that process in practice over the next week.”

Tulane lost 4-1 to No. 15 FIU, defeated New Orleans 5-0 and lost 5-0 to No. 5 UCLA. UCLA’s Nicole McNamara and Megan McNamara were 21-17, 21-18 winners over Tulane’s Madeline Mertz and Lan Nguyen at No. 1.

Also in Miami, No. 12 Arizona State recorded a pair of wins over New Orleans and Florida Atlantic.

The Sun Devils downed New Orleans 4-1 and No. 14 Florida Atlantic 3-2 before losing to No. 4 Florida State by a 5-0 count.

Arizona State seniors Bianca Arellano and Whitney Follette won five matches over the weekend, while the No. 2 pair of Oluoma Okaro and Madison Berridge won two matches on Saturday.

UNC Wilmington Beach Blast: Host UNCW split a pair of matches at its own Beach Blast held at Dig & Dive.

The Seahawks were 4-1 winners against Mercer before dropping a 3-2 match against College of Charleston.

“Mercer was an absolute battle with our No. 2, 3, and 4s winning in three sets,” UNCW coach Amy Bambenek said. “Bella (Borgiotti) and Halle (Hunt) made their debut at our five’s pairing and had a solid two-set win against Mercer. Against Charleston, Tanna (Aljoe) and Nicole (Lott) and Sydney Alvis and Sarah Kelly played tough defensively to earn the win in two sets. The other matches could have gone either way, but we came up just a bit short. Overall, the entire event was a huge success with a good turnout of energetic fans.”

NCAA: USC beach streak now at 50, Claes/Hughes at 99

Morgan Martin of Hawai'i plays a ball out of the net at the Big West Challenge in Huntington Beach/Ed Chan, VBshots.com

The top-ranked USC beach team won its 50th match in a row Sunday and the No. 1 pair of Sara Hughes and Kelly Claes extended their winning streak to 99 as the Trojans swept San Jose State.

There were a handful of other NCAA beach matches Sunday, including No. 5 Hawai’i sweeping two matches and No. 7 LSU doing the same.

The next time ranked teams are in action is Wednesday.

There were no matches in men’s Division I-II volleyball Sunday.

The MPSF is off until Thursday when Cal Baptist goes to USC and BYU is at UC Santa Barbara.

The next MIVA match is Tuesday when Grand Canyon plays host to Concordia Irvine.

In the EIVA, the next match is Wednesday when Charleston plays at Alderson Broaddus.

And Conference Carolinas has four matches on the slate for Tuesday.

Streaking USC now 20-0: The streak is among the top 10 longest in USC history across all sports after two victories in Monterey Invitational II at Del Monte Beach.

Claes and Hughes beat San Jose State’s Allison Meehan and Lyndi Scholl 21-10, 21-11. Other USC winners were Katrina Kernochan and Lainy Thomas, Jenna Belton and Jo Kremer, Joy Dennis and Allie Wheeler and Terese Cannon and senior Nicolette Martin.

USC plays host to Washington and No. 12 Arizona State on Friday.

No. 4 Long Beach, No. 5 Hawai’i finish strong: Hawai’i wrapped up the Big West Challenge Sunday in Huntington Beach with 5-0, two-set wins over Sacramento State and CSUN.

UH (18-4) finished the two-day challenge 3-1 and finished second in the Challenge to No. 6 Long Beach State (17-3), which won all four of its matches, including a 3-2 victory over the Rainbow Wahine on Saturday.  

Hawai’i’s winning pairs were Morgan Martin and Mikayla Tucker, Ka’iwi Schucht and Nikki Taylor, Emily Maglio and Laurel Weaver, Norene Iosia and Hannah Zalopany and Ari Homayun and Carly Kan.

Long Beach worked hard to beat Cal Poly 3-2 and then swept CSUN. The No. 1 pair of Nele Barber and Rachel Nieto went 2-0 Sunday, as did Anete Brinke and Hailey Harward and Jenelle Hudson and Megan Kruidhof.

LSU keeps rolling: For the third consecutive week, the Tigers (14-5) swept through the weekend, beating UAB and Austin Peay at the Georgia State Diggin’ Duals tournament.

LSU’s No. 1 pair of Claire Coppola and Kristin Nuss improved to 16-3.

The Tigers’ No. 3 of Katie Lindelow and Maddie Ligon have won 12 of 13.

Host No. 10 Georgia State won twice Sunday, beating UAB 4-1 and sweeping Jacksonville State to improve to 14-9.

Also, No. 11 South Carolina swept the host team UNC Wilmington Beach Blast Classic. A new AVCA beach poll comes out Monday.

Coach John Cook on new-look Nebraska: “Exciting and energizing”

John Cook of Nebraska during a time out during the 2016 NCAA Championship semifinals/Ed Chan, VBshots.com

Few teams lost more than Nebraska, from three All-Americans to both top assistant coaches.

But don’t cry for the Huskers, who will field a roster in 2017 that will keep them in their annual hunt for the NCAA women’s volleyball championship.

As John Cook enters his 18th season in Lincoln, the sixth-winningest coach in NCAA history has every reason to be optimistic. His Huskers won the 2015 NCAA title and last year lost in the semifinals.

But gone from that team are 6-foot-3 twins Amber and Kadie Rolfzen and the all-time Nebraska digs leader in Justine Wong-Orantes, the Big Ten defensive player of the year. What’s more, top assistant Dani Busboom Kelly left to become the head coach at Louisville, and Chris Tamas got the job as head coach at Illinois and took with him his wife, volunteer assistant Jen Tamas. And technical coordinator Natalie Morgan, who handled film breakdown and statistical analysis, was hired as an assistant coach at Loyola Marymount.

“Yeah, we lost a lot. My motto right now is we’re in teaching mode,” Cook said. “Assume nothing.

“That’s what I tell myself every day. Teach, teach, which I love to do. We’re kind of re-inventing. Everything we do we have to explain what we’re doing, why we do it, explain everything.”

Nebraska coach John Cook

Cook said it can be as basic as sending Hildebrand across campus for something and him not really sure of where to go or what to do. Conversely, his other new assistant, former Olympic libero Kayla Banwarth, played for Cook at Nebraska, so that can’t hurt.

“Both Kayla and Tyler are really talented,” Cook said, adding that he hopes that Hildebrand’s wife, Kristin, a former USA national-team captain, will be a part of things, too.

“But, yeah, it has really given me a shot, a boost of energy, with a new staff and kind of a new team in a way. The timing is good, because we’re kind of re-inventing our team, as well. We have some new players. We have some returning players but we’ll have five new freshmen. A third of our team will be freshmen, so it is exciting and it’s energizing and I love it.”

Kelly Hunter sets for Nebraska in the 2016 NCAA semifinals/Ed Chan, VBshots.com

It’s got to help that the setter will be a senior. Kelly Hunter will be a fifth-year player. She is from Papillion-La Vista South, the same Nebraska high school that produced the Rolfzens.

“One of the reasons we redshirted her (after her freshman year) was we wanted her to have a year playing without Kadie and Amber,” Cook said. “She played with them for literally eight years. I’ve been talking to her about how it’s her time now and her team and they won’t be saying. ‘Kadie, Amber and Kelly from Papillion-La Vista and they all did this together.’ I think she’s really motivated and energized and excited an opportunity to maybe even go to another level.”

Nebraska outside hitter Mikaela Foecke led the Huskers with 13 kills in the NCAA semifinals/Ed Chan, VBshots.com

Also back are junior outside hitter Mikaela Foecke and senior middle blocker Briana Holman, who played last year after sitting out in 2015 as a transfer from LSU.

“They’re working hard and they know the roles they have are going to be increased a lot,” Cook said about two of the more powerful hitters in the college game. “I’ve seen them work really hard this spring and they’re also energized. Mikaela we’re talking about playing six rotations and Bri getting more opportunities to kill balls and being a leader as a senior. There are some great challenges ahead for those guys but I think they’re excited about working towards and embracing them.”

Senior outside Annika Albrecht hopes to get in the front-row mix.

“She’s only been a three-rotation DS for us and she’s going to have the opportunity to __play all the way around,” Cook said.

Lauren Stivins, a 6-foot-4 middle who redshirted last year, is ready to make an impact as a freshman, Cook said.

“By the end of last season she was playing as well as any middle in our gym,” Cook said. “She should be really motivated.”

And Olivia Boender, a super sub, if you will, the past two years, will vie for an outside hitter spot.

“At times she’s shown she can be a super player,” Cook said. “Her issue has been consistency. I’m hoping now that she’s a junior that maturity and the mental part will allow her to be a really good player every day.”

Kenzie Maloney of Nebraska passes against Texas in last December’s national semis/Ed Chan, VBshots.com

The libero will be junior Kenzie Maloney, who has been groomed to replace Wong-Orantes.

“She actually had equal passing stats to Justine the last two years,” Cook said. “She can pass, but she’s filling some big shoes. But she’s been gearing up for this for two years and we recruited her to be in his position. She’s got a chance to be a pretty high-level libero.”

Two of the five incoming freshmen should make an immediate impact and both are members of the VolleyballMag.com Fab 50, 6-3 middle Chesney McClellan from Maryville, Tenn., and 6-3 right side Jazz Sweet, a left-hander from Tecumseh, Kan., who certainly has one of the great names in sport.

“Jazz’s goal should be to be the Big Ten freshman of the year,” Cook said.

The new players enter a program that went 31-3 last year, 18-2 in the Big Ten, and for almost the entire season was considered the odds-on favorite to win it all. That, of course, was before the Huskers ran into a Texas buzzsaw in the national semifinals and got swept.

In retrospect, was being so highly regarded a burden and did it get to his team?

“It was a burden, but we had prepared so well to handle it and they did such a good job. But what really got us was the wear and tear of how tough the Big Ten was in winning that conference,” Cook said. “And then having to __play Penn State a third time (and winning in five in the regional semifinals).

“I think we were just emotionally drained. By the time we got to Texas, we were out of gas. Give Texas credit, they were on a mission to beat us. They had lost to us the last two times (including getting swept in the 2015 NCAA final) and they played phenomenal. We could not rally to match it.”

But all that’s history with what was a different team.

“It’s gonna be fun. We had a great beach season and played really well and these guys like being with each other and like playing for each other,” Cook said. “It’s going to be interesting and I know we’ll compete really hard.”