UCLA bounces back against Long Beach; Orlando tops Vegas in Pro Volleyball

Top-ranked Long Beach State is no longer unbeaten.

A day after beating No. 4 UCLA at home, the Beach went to Westwood and left on the short end of a 29-27, 27-29, 25-19, 25-20 outcome. It left idle No. 2 Grand Canyon (9-0) as the only undefeated team in NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball. 

There were more surprises in the men’s game again as Sacred Heart pulled off a wild reverse sweep and dealt No. 10 Princeton its second upset in as many days, Harvard beat Lincoln Memorial, No. 11. Ball State bounced back — barely — and No. 17 UC Santa Barbara lost for the fourth time in five matches.

Both the Orlando Valkries and Vegas Thrill are 1-1 after the Valkries won their Pro Volleyball Federation match Saturday in four sets.

The recaps and top performances follow and, it’s worth noting, Super Bowl Sunday is a volleyball-free day. 

For that matter, the next men’s matches are Tuesday, seven in all, involving only Conference Carolinas, SIAC or independent teams. 

The Pro Volleyball Federation is off Sunday, too, but comes back with two matches on the same day for the first time when the Orlando Valkries go to the Atlanta Vibe and Omaha Supernovas play at the Grand Rapids Rise on Monday. It’s also the first time two PVF teams will compete for the same 7 p.m. Eastern YouTube audience at the same time.

NCAA men

The MPSF went three-for-three against the Big West on Saturday and 5-0 overall for the day.

UCLA (9-3) of the MPSF drew more than 3,300 to Pauley Pavilion for its rematch with Long Beach State (10-1) of the Big West. Grant Sloane led with 16 kills, hitting .583, to go with an ace, five digs and two blocks, one solo. Alex Knight had 14 kills, hit .345, and had an assist and two digs. Cooper Robinson had 10 kills, an ace, three blocks and five digs. Merrick McHenry had 10 kills, hit .444, and had an ace, seven digs and five blocks, one solo. The solo was his 45th, putting him at the top of the UCLA all-time list, one more than Garrett Muagututia, a USA national-team member who played at UCLA from 2007-10.

The Bruins, who hit .301 and had six aces and 18 errors, saw Andrew Rowan get 59 assists. He had a kill, an ace, three blocks and four digs. Ethan Champlin, playing libero, had 17 digs — most by a UCLA player since 2016 — and an assist.

Long Beach’s Clarke Godbold had 15 kills, an assist, four blocks and four digs. Sotiris Siapanis had 13 kills, two assists, a solo block and four digs. Long Beach hit .238 and had one ace and 15 errors …

No. 12 Pepperdine (9-2) added to the woes of UCSB (4-9) with a 25-16, 25-21, 25-23 sweep, two days after winning at UCSB in five. Pepperdine, which hit .481, had two aces and 18 errors. Cole Ketrzynski led with 19 kills and hit .600 after having one error in 30 attacks. He had no aces and five errors but three blocks and four digds. Akin Akinwumi had eight kills with one error in 15 swings, four blocks and five digs, Ethan Watson had nine kills with one error in 11 attacks, six blocks and two digs, and Cole Rasic had seven kills with one error in 14 attacks, two assists, five blocks and two digs. Tyler Stewart had the two aces to go with 39 assists, a block and five digs. UCSB hit .133 and had four aces and eight errors …

No. 15 USC (8-4), which lost in four at No. 7 UC Irvine (6-4) on Thursday, came back with a 12-25, 25-22, 25-23, 25-14 home victory. Dillon Klein led with 17 kills, hitting .359 to go with an assist, an ace, two blocks and five digs. Riley Haine had 13 kills, an assist, an ace, two blocks and six digs. USC hit .265 and had three aces and 10 errors. UCI, which hit .250 and had two aces and 13 errors, got 16 kills from Hilir Henno and 13 from Maxim Grigoriev. Henno hit .333 and had three assists, no aces and six errors, seven digs and four blocks, two solo … 

No 8 BYU (9-3) of the MPSF swept visiting LIU (3-8) of the NEC as Kupono Browne had 14 kills, hit .480, and had three aces four digs and a block … and Concordia Irvine (5-1) won in four over The Master’s of the NAIA. Ties Cornelissen had 18 kills and hit .452 to go with an assist, an ace and six digs …

Both MIVA matches went five.

Ball State (9-7, 2-1 won 22-25, 28-26, 25-23, 18-25, 21-19 at Lindenwood (3-7, 0-3). Patrick Rogers led Ball State with 20 kills, hit .351, and had two assists and 11 digs. Tinaishe Ndavazocheve had 19 kills, hit .444, and had an assist, two aces, four blocks and six digs. Rodney Wallace had seven kills with one error in 10 attacks and three blocks, and Wil McPhillips had six kills with one error in 12 swings and nine blocks, one solo. Dyer Ball had 14 digs, two assists and four kills. Ball State hit .350 and had three aces and 12 errors. Lindenwood hit .299 and 11 aces and 22 errors. Ian Schuller, who had 20 kills, had five of those  aces to go with an assist, three blocks and nine digs. Clay Wieter had 22 kills, an assist, three aces, three blocks and eight digs. Noah Varga had 15 digs and two assists … First-year MIVA member Queens (6-7, 2-2) beat visiting Purdue Fort Wayne (7-5, 1-2) 25-23, 23-25, 16-25, 25-23, 15-12 as five players had seven or more kills. The Royals, who hit .240 and had eight aces and 18 errors, were led by Jack Brinkman, who had 11 kills, five of those aces, a block and 14 digs. PFW outhit Queens (.264) and had 62 kills, 12 more than the Royals. Mark Frazier led with 22 kills, hitting .425, to go with two aces, four blocks and 11 digs. Jon Diedrich added 17 kills and 10 digs and Bryce Walker had 14 kills, hit .600, and had two aces, an assist, four blocks and two digs … 

The EIVA went 2-2 Saturday. 

Ninth-ranked Penn State (8-3), without three starters, had to go four– 25-21, 32-34, 25-16, 25-21 — to beat the NEC’s Fairleigh Dickinson (6-3). Michal Kowal stayed hot for the Nittany Lions, this time with 24 kills, hitting .697 after having one error in 33 attacks. He added two assists, eight digs and two blocks. FDU’s Jama Ellis Carballo had 15 kills … No. 10 Princeton (6-5), coming off an upset to Lincoln Memorial the day before, got knocked off again, this time by the NEC’s Sacred Heart (5-6). Patrick Mucherino had 17 kills and Mark Berry and Carlos Santa Cruz 16 each in the 22-25, 25-27, 25-21, 33-31, 15-10 victory. Mucherino had two assists, an ace, six digs and seven blocks one solo. Berry hit .538 and had an acem an assist, two blocks and two digs. Cole Younger had 17 digs and six assists and Teddy Payne had a kill, 45 assists, two aces, a solo block and five digs. Princeton’s Ben Harrington had 23 kills, four assists, two aces, two blocks and two digs. Nolan Kelly had two kills in three errorless tries, 45 assists, seven digs and five blocks, one solo … Harvard (3-4) battled to a 25-22, 22-25, 19-25, 25-22, 17-15 win over visiting Lincoln Memorial (7-3) despite being out-hit 66-51. Logan Shepherd had 11 kills for the Crimson and Ethan Smith and Owen Fannin 10 each. Smith had no errors in 15 swings, four digs and five blocks one solo. James Bardin had four kills in nine errorless attempts, 39 assists, an ace, six digs and six blocks, one solo. LM’s Matthew Gentry had 20 kills, hit .600, and had an ace, five blocks and a dig. Shay Spadaro had 17 kills, three aces, a block and 10 digs … Saint Francis (PA) of the NEC improved to 5-5 with a four-set win at Charleston (7-3) as Nathan Zini had 22 kills, hit .529, and had an ace, three digs and a block. Andrew Deardorff had 14 kills, hit .321, and had an ace, four digs and five blocks. Charleston’s Garret Schnitker had 19 kills, an assist, four digs and two blocks, one solo …

Three of the four Conference Carolinas matches went just three as Mount Olive (8-1, 2-0) hit .402 and swept at Lees-McRae (1-8, 0-2), Warren Davis had 18 kills as King (1-8, 1-1) broke through as it did the same to visiting Barton (5-2, 1-1) and Belmont Abbey (5-2, 1-1) beat visiting Emmanuel (1-7, 0-2). North Greenville (3-3, 2-0) won in five at Erskine (5-4, 1-1), which got 25 kills from Edgerrin Austin. North Greenville’s Diego Rosich had 21 kills, hit .444, and had an assist, three aces, 12 digs and four blocks … 

The NEC’s D’Youville (5-1) hit .435 and swept the ECC’s St. Thomas Aquinas (1-9) as Tymek Brzoza had 10 kills with one error in 13 attacks an assist, two digs and five blocks, two solo … Roberts Wesleyan (4-6) of the ECC lost to independent Thomas More (6-5) twice …. Independent Maryville swept Talladega twice, allowing just 30 points total in the nightcap … And Central State (0-12) of the SIAC stayed winless after being swept by independent Missouri S&T (6-5), which hit .426 and got kills from nine players.

Pro Volleyball Federation

The Orlando Valkries won 25-23, 25-10, 23-25, 25-21 at the Vegas Thrill in Henderson, Nevada, leaving just the 2-0 Grand Rapids Rise as the only team unbeaten in the young Pro Volleyball Federation inaugural season.

Jill Gillen led Orlando with 14 kills an ace, four blocks and seven digs. Adora Anae had 13 kills, three aces, 12 digs and four blocks, two solo. Kaz Brown had 10 kills, two digs and six blocks, one solo. Georgia Murphy had 17 digs and Wilma Rivera had 41 assists, 10 digs, two blocks — one solo — two aces and a kill.

Vegas got 12 kills from Saskia Hippe, 11 from Gabby Gonzales and 10 from Hannah Maddux. Hippe added an ace, three blocks and five digs. Gonzales had a block and 14 digs and Maddux had an ace, six digs and two blocks, one solo. Alisha Glass Childress had a kill, 14 digs, 36 assists and five blocks, two solo.

After Monday’s two PVF matches, the next match is Thursday when the Omaha Supernovas travel to the Vegas Thrill.

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