NCAA volleyball: UCLA tops Penn St.; Hawai’i, Pepperdine, red-hot Daemen win
A busy Division I-II men’s volleyball weekend got underway Thursday with second-ranked UCLA putting an end to Penn State’s nine-match winning streak and top-ranked Hawai’i sweeping Purdue Fort Wayne.
Among the other results, No. 7 Pepperdine got an MPSF sweep of No. 10 USC and St. Francis Brooklyn and streaking Daemen got NEC victories. The recaps and top performances follow, plus a couple of NCAA women’s coaching moves.
Friday’s schedule is chock full of more non-conference matchups, not the last of which is Hawai’i of the Big West playing Penn State of the EIVA and the MPSF’s UCLA playing Purdue Fort Wayne of the MIVA.
The Big West has two conference matches when fourth-ranked Long Beach State plays host to UC Santa Barbara and No. 6 UC Irvine is home for UC San Diego.
Eighth-ranked BYU of the MPSF is home for No. 15 Ohio State of the MIVA. Fifth-ranked Grand Canyon of the MPSF plays Olivet Nazarene of Illinois, which is making an Arizona trip.
Two EIVA teams are in action when No. 14 Charleston plays Mount Olive of Conference Carolinas and George Mason takes on independent Limestone.
In the MIVA, Lewis is home for Erskine of Conference Carolinas, McKendree gets King of Conference Carolinas, and Quincy goes to Maryville.
There are two NEC matches when Fairleigh Dickinson goes to St. Francis (PA) and Merrimack is at Sacred Heart, while the NEC’s D’Youville plays independent American International.
Other Conference Carolinas teams in action include Emmanuel at independent Lincoln Memorial, North Greenville at independent Tusculum and Belmont Abbey at Morehouse of the SIAC.
There’s an SIAC match when Benedict is at Central State.
If a match is being shown we have the viewing link in our VolleyballMag.com TV & Listings.
UCLA (18-1) won its ninth in a row as the Bruins grinded out a 25-20, 25-22, 16-25, 21-25, 15-10 victory over Penn State (15-2) at Hawai’i. UCLA, off to its best start since its 1995 team went 31-1 and won the NCAA title, got 21 kills from Ido David. He hit .390 and had an ace, six digs and four blocks, one solo. Alex Knight added 11 kills, an ace, five blocks and two digs. Merrick McHenry had nine kills with one error in 13 attacks, three aces, six digs and seven blocks, one solo. Andrew Rowan had a kill, 47 assists, an ace, 10 digs and two blocks. His team his .256 and had six aces and 23 serving errors. Penn State hit .250 and had seven aces and 23 errors. Michal Kowal led the Nittany Lions with 13 kills, an assist, an ace, two blocks and seven digs. Brett Wildman had 10 kills, two aces, two solo blocks and six digs …
Hawai’i (16-0) swept visiting Purdue Fort Wayne (12-6) and has won 25 in a row, which ties the 2019 team for the longest winning streak in program history. The 27-25, 25-13, 25-20 victory also extended UH’s home winning streak to 29. Hawai’i hit .436 with three aces and eight errors. Dimitrios Mouchlias had 14 kills, hit .462, and had two assists, an ace, six digs and five blocks. Spyros Chakas had 12 kills, hit .409, and had an ace, a block and three digs. PFW, which hit .211 and had five aces and 12 errors, got nine kills apiece from Carlos Mercado and Bryce Walker and eight from Jon Diedrich …
Pepperdine (11-8, 3-2 MPSF) hit .414 and swept visiting USC (8-8, 1-4) as Jaylen Jasper had 19 kills in the 25-17, 25-16, 25-19 victory. Jasper hit .364 and had three of his team’s five aces, a block and five digs. Bryce Dvorak had 30 assists, four blocks and four digs. Dillon Klein and Kyle Paulson had 10 kills each for USC …
Daemen is 11-1 overall and 6-0 in the NEC after its 25-23, 25-22, 25-21 victory over visiting LIU (8-8, 3-1). Daemen, which has won 10 in a row, got 11 kills each from Zach Schneider and Cameron Milligan. Schneider hit .348 and had an assist, four aces, nine digs and three blocks, two solo. LIU hit .103 …
In a battles of the Francises, St. Francis Brooklyn (6-7, 3-1) swept at Saint Francis (PA) (4-10, 3-2). Bartek Zielinski led the winners with 10 kills, Patrick Rogers had nine and Andrea Lancianese had eight …
Erskine (10-7) of Conference Carolinas got a sweep at the SIAC’s Kentucky State (2-20). Pablo Zamar had 11 kills … Quincy (6-12) swept at Missouri S&T (7-9).
OHIO STATE ADDS BARTSCH-HACKLEY — Michelle Bartsch-Hackley, the Olympic gold-medalist and former Illinois star, has signed on as a volunteer assistant at Ohio State. She has had a tremendous pro career and joins coach Jen Flynn Oldenburg’s staff that includes another former national-team member in Nicole Fawcette.
Bartsch-Hackley played for the Illinois team that went to the 2011 NCAA title match when Oldenburg was an assistant. For more, click here for the Ohio State news release.
UNC ASHEVILLE HIRES HAVER — Amber Haver, the coach at Columbia International, takes over at UNC Asheville. She was at CIU, an NAIA program, for five seasons. Last season her team went 38-9 and lost in the NCCAA Division I title match.
UNC Asheville finished 4-22 last season, 1-15 in the Big South. Frederico Santos left in December after 12 seasons. UNCA has never been to the NCAA Tournament.
The post NCAA volleyball: UCLA tops Penn St.; Hawai’i, Pepperdine, red-hot Daemen win appeared first on Volleyballmag.com.