NCAA men’s volleyball: Hot-hitting UCLA, Penn State, UCSB, GCU, UCSD win
UCLA opened its men’s volleyball season with sweeps of two visiting SIAC schools, Fort Valley State and Morehouse, hitting a school-record .822 against Morehouse.
Other winners Thursday included Penn State, UC Santa Barbara, Grand Canyon and UC San Diego.
Recaps follow but first a look at Friday’s NCAA Division I-II schedule that includes Loyola Chicago back at Hawai’i after getting swept there Wednesday.
Fort Valley plays at USC, while Morehouse goes to Pepperdine.
At Santa Barbara, UCSD plays GCU, George Mason plays the home team and CSUN faces NJIT.
Ball State goes to BYU for back-to-back matches and Lewis heads to Central State.
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UCLA (2-0) of the MPSF hit .427 and swept Fort Valley State (0-2) as Ethan Champlin had 13 kills in the 25-18, 25-12, 25-17 victory. Champlin had two errors in 20 attacks to hit .550 and added three assists, an ace, a block and 10 digs. Ido David had 10 kills, an assist, five digs and three blocks, one solo. FVSU got 11 kills from Chey Cooper, who hit .400 and had an assist, an ace and seven digs …
The Bruins then hit a program-best .822 and demolished Morehouse 25-9, 25-15, 25-6. UCLA had 38 kills with one error in 45 swings. UCLA’s previous school record hitting percentage for a match was .666 against Loyola Marymount in 1984. The previous MPSF record was .667 UCSB in 2011 …
For both matches the defending national champions played en route to their 14th win in a row, the Bruins had 89 kills with 10 errors in 120 attacks. Against Morehouse, Zach Rama had 10 kills with no error in 12 attacks, an assist and three aces. Cooper Robinson had nine kills with that only error in 11 swings, two assist, two blocks and three digs.
Penn State of the EIVA rolled to a 25-14, 25-17, 25-19 sweep of visiting Central State of the SIAC in the opener for both teams. Tony Ezeonu had 10 kills in as many tries, becoming just the fourth player in program history to hit 1.000 with a minimum of 10 attacks, joining Norm Keil (10-0-10) vs. Rutgers in 2002, Zeljko Koljesar (11-0-11) vs. Springfield in 2002, and Max Holt (12-0-12) vs. Harvard in 2009. Penn State hit .508 with 39 kills and nine errors in 59 attacks. John Kerr had seven kills with one error in 10 swings and Michal Kowal had six kills in eight errorless attacks …
At Santa Barbara, UCSB of the Big West beat the EIVA’s NJIT 27-25, 23-25, 25-17, 25-19 in the opener for both teams. The Gauchos hit .444, led by Geste Bianchi, who had 21 kills with four errors in 32 attacks to hit .531. He had an assist, two aces, six digs and five blocks. Ben Coordt had 11 kills. NJIT’s Will Migdal and Josh Gregg had nine kills each …
Grand Canyon of the MPSF swept the Big West’s CSUN in the opener for both. Camden Gianni and Jackson Hickman had nine kills each in the 25-22, 25-20, 27-25 victory. Gianni had an assist, three digs and three blocks, one solo. Hickman hit .462 and had an ace and five digs. CSUN’s Kyle Hobus had 11 kills …
UC San Diego of the Big West beat the EIVA’s George Mason 27-25, 23-25, 25-21, 25-20 in the season opener for both. UCSD got 14 kills and two aces each from Josh Schellinger ad Anthony Cherfan. Schellinger had two assists, eight digs and four blocks. Cherfan had an assist, six digs and two blocks, one solo. Jim Garrison had five kills and five blocks, one solo. Mason’s Jack Bolz and Omar Hoyos had 10 kills each. Bolz had three aces, four digs and four blocks, one solo.
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