NCAA men’s volleyball: UCLA overpowers Loyola; Remembering Penn State’s Tait
Top-ranked UCLA weathered its road trip to frigid Chicago, disappointing a record crowd at Loyola by handily dispatching the No. 10 Ramblers on Saturday night behind red-hot serving and a torrid block.
The Bruins (4-0) needed only 95 minutes to inflict a 25-20, 25-19, 25-19 shellacking on Loyola, which will need to do some serious damage control after falling to 1-5, all of the losses coming against powerhouse programs ranked among the first nine in the AVCA/NVA men’s Division I-II poll. Sent back into the Arctic blast (wind chill on Chicago’s lakefront was around minus-10 degrees) from a packed Gentile Arena were 3,334 fans, the Ramblers’ largest gathering for a regular-season match in history.
Defending NCAA champion UCLA of the MPSF were unaccommodating guests, ripping nine aces (three each by Merrick McHenry, Cooper Robinson and Ethan Camplin) and recording 12 blocks (Guy Genis led with five). After handling No. 15 Lewis in four sets on Thursday night in southwest-suburban Romeoville, the Bruins’ loaded lineup of veteran stars overwhelmed the MIVA’s Ramblers, who gave heavy court time to four freshmen.
UCLA’s athletic front row hamstrung Loyola’s go-to guy, Parker Van Buren, limiting the 6-foot-9 redshirt junior to eight kills against seven errors on 26 swings, and .038 hitting percentage. Its blockers also tossed a blanket over promising 6-6 freshman Daniel Fabikovic, who hit .000 with seven kills and seven errors on 24 attempts. The Ramblers managed just 29 kills over three sets and hit .128 overall. Conversely, the Bruins attacked at .389 efficiency, led by 6-7 junior All-American Ido David (12 kills on 18 errorless swings, .667), who added seven digs and four blocks.
Loyola coach John Hawks, in his second season at the helm of the Chicago school after working as an assistant under UCLA’s John Speraw for seven years, took a glass-half-full approach to his team’s effort against the Bruins. The lone “W” for his Ramblers came in a five-setter at Hawaii, and they also lost to the fourth-ranked Rainbow Warriors, No. 8 Stanford (twice) and No. 9 Brigham Young.
“That’s the level we need to be at consistently,” Hawks said. “We played really well in moments and in spurts. I feel like we’ll figure it out.”
In other highlights over the weekend in nonconference men’s volleyball, Lewis knocked off BYU, Ohio State was extended to five sets on its home court by UC San Diego, Grand Canyon topped Lindenwood twice, Hawaii put a wicked thumping on visiting Emmanuel before a crowd of 5,903 in Honolulu and Stanford went a tough 2-for-2 against UC Santa Barbara in a matchup of ranked West Coast squads. No matches are scheduled on Monday.
Weekend update
Lewis (2-2) of the MIVA warmed up against the MPSF’s BYU (3-1) in the tie-breaking fifth set on Saturday after dropping the fourth by 16 points. Consecutive aces by Max Roquet stoked a rally that got the host Flyers to match point in the fifth before Christian Prayer’s kill put an exclamation point on a pulsating 25-16, 25-23, 16-25, 11-25, 15-13 victory. Sophomore Daniel Haber ripped 15 kills and hit .478 for Lewis. The Cougars, who opened their Midwest road trip with a five-set victory at Loyola on Thursday, got 14 kills on .417 hitting from Trent Moser.
No. 5 Ohio State (4-0) of the MIVA fell behind 2-1 to No. 17 UC San Diego (2-3) out of the Big West before righting its ship on Saturday night in Columbus. Real points on a triple block and an ace by Jacob Pasteur created a five-point separation deep in the tiebreaker, leading to a 24-26, 25-20, 21-25, 25-11, 15-11 triumph by the Buckeyes. Pasteur paved the way with 20 kills and 10 digs. The Tritons were paced by Matthew Lim’s 13 kills and seven digs.
Sixth-ranked Grand Canyon (5-0) of the MPSF dropped one set over two matches against visiting Lindenwood (0-2) of the MIVA on Friday and Sunday. The Lopes’ Camden Gianni picked up a combined 25 kills and hit .466.
The Big West’s Hawaii (3-1) outscored Emmanuel (0-2) 75-33 over three sets on Friday as the shellshocked visitors from Conference Carolinas had nine more attacking errors than kills (21 against 12). In his first start, freshman Louis Sakanolo created havoc with nine aces, equalling the Rainbow Warriors’ record set by Costas Theocharidis in 2002. All-American Spyros Chakas notched 10 kills on .692 hitting.
Stanford (4-0) of the MPSF enjoyed a productive weekend series at No. 14 UC Santa Barbara (2-3) of the Big West. The Cardinal survived in a tense five sets (16-14 in the fifth) on Friday and prevailed in four on Saturday. Will Rotman’s 22nd kill preceded by a service error from the Gauchos’ Sam Collins concluded Friday’s tiebreaker. A 14-5 advantage in blocks loomed large for Stanford on Saturday, with Nathaniel Gates picking up six.
Around the nation
Second-ranked Long Beach State (2-0) of the Big West won twice at its Pyramid against opponents from the NEC. The Beach swept the LIU on Friday and prevailed in four over Saint Francis (0-3) on Saturday, as Clark Godbold notched 12 kills in each. … With Nolan Flexen flexing his hitting muscles (20 kills against two errors on 27 swings), No. 3 UC Irvine (2-1) of the Big West outgunned visiting No. 15 Princeton (2-1) of the EIVA in four sets on Saturday. … Dialing up 11 aces, No. 11 Pepperdine of the Big West then handed visiting LIU (0-3) a four-set defeat. …
The Waves (4-0) on Sunday swamped visiting independent Lincoln Memorial (1-2) in three, with Ryan Barnett pounding 12 kills on 18 errorless swings. … Dillon Klien went off for 24 kills in a four-set victory by No. 12 USC (4-0) of the MPSF over Lincoln Memorial on Saturday. … No. 18 Cal State Northridge (2-2) of the Big West defeated the EIVA’s Harvard (0-2) on Friday with the fourth and final set going to 29-27. … The MPSF’s Concordia Irvine (2-0) swept visiting Springfield (0-1) on Friday, holding the seventh-ranked team in Division III to .042 hitting.
No. 7 Penn State (4-0) of the EIVA swung at a .449 clip as a team in rolling over Conference Carolina’s King (0-2). John Kerr continued to rack up big numbers for the host Nittany Lions, cracking 15 kills against three errors on 25 attacks. He has hit .468 on the season. … No. 19 Charleston of the EIVA opened its season with home-court sweeps of the MIVA’s Queens (0-3) on Friday and Conference Carolinas’ Lees-McRae (0-3) on Sunday. … Lees-McRae also dropped a five-setter (15-13 in the fifth) at D-III Saint Vincent on Friday. … No. 13 Ball State (6-2) of the MIVA took six of seven sets in a Friday-Saturday series against visiting independent Tusculum (0-3). Nathan Goh was a one-man gang for the Cardinals with a combined 23 kills and a .564 hitting percentage. … Edward-Waters (1-0) of the SIAC scored a five-set road upset (15-13 in the tiebreaker) over Erskine (1-1) of Conference Carolinas on Friday behind junior Kaelen Ingram’s 26 kills.
The MIVA’s Purdue Fort Wayne (3-1) split an East Coast trip, handling the NEC’s Sacred Heart in four before losing to New Jersey Institute of Technology (2-3) of the EIVA in a reverse sweep (15-7 in the tiebreaker) on Saturday. Allesandro Negri ripped 26 kills with three errors on 49 attempts for the host Highlanders, who had outpointed King 75-47 the day before. … D-III Dominican hung tough with host Quincy (1-0) of the MIVA on Friday before falling in three. … On Sunday, independent Missouri S&T (1-0) defeated Dominican (0-2) in another competitive three-setter. … Conference Carolinas’ Mount Olive (2-0) on Friday swept Roanoke and Randolph-Macon in Ashland, Virginia. … Sixteen players for independent Maryville (1-0) saw action in a sweep of visiting Kentucky State (0-2) of the SIAC.
In matches in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on Friday and Saturday involving teams from Conference Carolinas, the NEC, the ECC and the SIAC: Barton went 3-0, topping St. Thomas Aquinas (in three), Sacred Heart (in five) and Fairleigh Dickinson (in four). Belmont Abbey also won three times, beating St. Thomas Aquinas (in three) Sacred Heart (in five) and FDU (in five). And St. Thomas Aquinas swept FDU.
Tom Tait dies at 86
Renowned as “The Father of Penn State Volleyball,” George Thomas “Tom” Tait has passed at age 86. A member of the inaugural American Volleyball Coaches Hall of Fame class of 2003, Tait launched and coached the Nittany Lions men’s and women’s volleyball programs.
He elevated both from club status to varsity sports, establishing legacy programs that have risen to the highest levels of collegiate volleyball. He coached the women’s team from 1976 to ‘78 before handing the reins to another legendary figure, Russ Rose.
The Nittany Lions women have won seven NCAA titles, including four in succession from 2008 to 2011, and they are the only program to earn a berth in every NCAA Tournament since it began in 1981. Penn State went 38-0 during each of its 2008 and 2009 campaigns and it won 109 consecutive matches stretching from the 2007 to the 2010 seasons.
Tait coached the men’s program from its inception in 1977 until 1989 and his teams reached the NCAA tournament (which then numbered four teams) seven times. The Nittany Lions men became the first non-California team to win an NCAA title in 1994 under Coach Tom Peterson and claimed a second crown in 2008 under Mark Pavlik.
Honored by USA Volleyball as an All-Time Great Coach in 2007, Tait compiled a career record of 405-150-5.
On the X social-media site (formerly Twitter) the Penn State men’s and women’s programs acknowledged Tait’s passing with these words: “We are saddened to hear of the passing of Tom Tait, who touched the lives of so many here as a coach, mentor and professor. In those roles, he was part of the Penn State community spanning four decades, including the first varsity head coach of both men’s and women’s volleyball.”
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