GCU men roll on, Lindenwood upsets; AVCA beach poll; Valkyries win in Pro Volleyball
Second-ranked Grand Canyon opened MPSF play Friday with a hard-fought sweep at BYU to stay unbeated in NCAA men’s volleyball, unranked Lindenwood upset No. 13 Lewis in the MIVA, there were three EIVA conference openers and two guys named Zach had 22 kills each in victories for their teams. We have the AVCA preseason NCAA […]
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Second-ranked Grand Canyon opened MPSF play Friday with a hard-fought sweep at BYU to stay unbeated in NCAA men’s volleyball, unranked Lindenwood upset No. 13 Lewis in the MIVA, there were three EIVA conference openers and two guys named Zach had 22 kills each in victories for their teams.
We have the AVCA preseason NCAA beach poll and the Orlando Valkyries beat the Columbus Fury in four sets in the only Pro Volleyball Federation match of the day.
Saturday men’s schedule
The two MPSF matches show fourth-ranked UCLA at No. 11 Pepperdine and No. 2 Grand Canyon back at No. 6 BYU.
Two Big West teams play non-conference matches when No. 7 UC Irvine goes back to No. 5 Stanford again and top-ranked Long Beach State plays host to the SIAC’s Edward Waters.
In the MIVA, No. 8 Ohio State is home for Quincy and No. 14 Ball State goes to No. 10 Loyola Chicago.
The EIVA’s slate has No. 9 Penn State back at Princeton, Charleston at Harvard and No. 17 George Mason at the NEC’s Fairleigh Dickinson.
In Conference Carolinas, Mount Olive is at Belmont Abbey, Lees-McRae is at Emmanuel, King is at Erskine and Barton is at North Greenville.
There are three NEC matches with D’Youville at Sacred Heart, Saint Francis (PA) at LIU and Daemen at Merrimack.
The ECC’s American International plays both Eastern Nazerene and Emerson and in the conference, Roberts Wesleyan plays St. Thomas Aquinas.
Independent action has Missouri S&T playing Cumberland and Roosevelt facing Maryville.
Want to watch? If a match is being shown, we have the viewing link in our VolleyballMag TV & Streaming Listings.
Men’s results
Second-ranked Grand Canyon improved to 10-0 overall as the Lopes won their MPSF opener 34-32, 25-23, 25-23 at BYU (9-4, 0-1). Camden Gianni had 12 kills, two aces, six digs and four blocks and Rico Wardlow had 10 kills with one error in 14 attacks to go with an ace, five digs and three blocks. BYU’s Luke Benson had 13 kills and Miks Ramanis 12 … No. 12 USC (10-4, 2-0) survived a 25-21, 25-12, 22-25, 23-25, 15-10 visit from Concordia Irvine (5-3, 0-2). Dillon Klein had 18 kills, three blocks and four digs and Jack Deuchar had 17 kills, hit .394 and had two aces, three blocks and three digs. Wesley Smith had 12 kills in 14 errorless attacks, four blocks and four digs. Caleb Blanchette had a kill, 55 assists, an ace, two blocks and 13 digs. CUI got 17 kills from Christian Galoppo, 16 from Ties Cornelissen and 15 from Gage Doble …
The other MPSF team in action, Stanford (7-4) was knocked off in four by visiting UC Irvine (7-4) of the Big West, which hit .368. Hilier Henno had 23 kills in the 28-26, 22-25, 25-19, 25-19 victory, hitting .422 with an assists, three aces, seven digs and five blocks, one solo. William D’Arcy had 10 kills and Connor Campbell had nine in 11 errorless attacks, an ace, three blocks and two digs. Stanford’s Theo Snoey had a season-best 19 kills as he hit .441 and had a block and six digs. Ethan Hill had 11 kills with one error in 17 attacks …
The other two Big West teams in action had easy sweeps. No. 1 Long Beach State (11-1) hit .448 and crushed visiting Central State (0-14) of the SIAC 25-10, 25-10, 25-16. Nathan Harlan had 10 kills for Long Beach, hitting .571 to go with two assists, an ace, two digs and two blocks, two more than Central State had as a team. Central State had 15 kills and 23 errors … No. 20 UC San Diego (5-8) routed Edward Waters (2-3) of the SIAC 25-16, 25-15, 25-21 as nine Tritons had kills and their team hit .493. Sebastian Lara led with nine kills. He had one error in 13 attacks, three assists, an ace and three digs …
In a MIVA upset, Lindenwood (4-7, 1-3) won 20-25, 25-12, 25-20, 25-17 at Lewis (7-6, 2-3), hitting .370. Ian Schuller led with 16 kills and had just two errors in 25 attacks to go with four of his team’s 14 aces, 10 digs and two blcoks. AJ Lewis had 15 kills with two errors in 26 attacks, two assists, seven aces and nine digs …The MIVA’s Ohio State (9-3, 3-1) hit .348 and swept visiting Quincy (5-3, 1-3) as eight Buckeyes had kills, 12 by Daniel Hurley. Noah Platfoot had a kill in his only try, 28 assistst, four blocks and five digs. Raje Alleyne had 14 kills and hit .400 for Quincy … McKendree 97-4, 4-1) hit a program-record .527 and swept visiting Queens (6-9, 2-4) as Nikos Xydakis had 12 kills with one error in 21 attacks, an assist, an ace, two digs and four blocks. McKendree has won five in a row …
Princeton (6-6, 0-1) took the first set off visiting Penn State (9-3, 1-0) before the Nittany Lions came away with a 20-25, 27-25, 25-22, 25-23 victory in the EIVA opener for both teams. Penn State, which hit .344 and had four aces and 29 serving errors, got 11 kills each from John Kerr and Toby Ezeonu, who had five blocks each, 10 kills from Owen Rose and nine each from Michael Valenzi and Michal Kowal. Princeton’s Nyherowo Omene had 20 kills, hit .375, and had an assist, three aces, a solo block and a dig …
Harvard (4-4, 1-0) beat visiting Charleston (7-4, 0-1) in four in their EIVA opener. Seven Crimson players had three or more kills, nine by Logan Shepherd, who had an assist, an ace and three blocks, one solo … George Mason (4-5, 0-1) won in four at NJIT (7-6, 0-1) as seven Mason players had three or more kills, 10 by Colin Heath, who had one error in 16 attacks and nine from Sam Peters, who also had one error in 16 swings …
In a four-match day in Conference Carolinas, North Greenville (4-3. 3-0) stayed the lone unbeaten in league play with a four-set win over visiting Mount Olive (8-2, 2-1). Diego Rosich had 16 kills for North Greenville to go with two assists, a solo block, an ace and nine digs … Zach Puentes had 22 kills as Belmont Abbey (6-2, 2-1) beat visiting Barton (5-3, 1-2) in four. Puentes hit .439, and had an ace, seven digs and two blocks, one solo … Erskine (6-4, 2-1) swept visiting Lees-McRae (1-9, 0-3) and Emmanuel (3-7, 1-2) did the same to King (1-10, 1-2) …
There were three NEC matches. Merrimack (3-6, 1-0) hit .351 and swept visiting D’Youville (5-2, 0-2) in its leage opener. Logan Whitaker had 14 kills, hit .545 and had an assist, an ace, a dig and three blocks, two solo …
Zach Schneider had 22 kills as Daemen (7-2, 2-0) won in four at Sacred Heart (5-7, 0-1). Schneider hit .378 and had an ace and three digs.
Saint Francis (PA) (6-5, 1-0) won in five at LIU (3-9, 0-1) as Nathan Zini had 18 kills and Andrew Deardorff 15 …
In the ECC, St. Thomas Aquinas (2-9) swept Roberts Wesleyan (4-8) …
Among independents, Maryville swept Cumberland, Missouri S&T did the same to Roosevelt and Thomas More lost in five to Tusculum, which got 19 kills from Deklan Wingo, who had an assist, an ace, eight digs and three blocks, two solo.
AVCA beach top 20
The preseason AVCA Collegiate Beach Poll shows USC — which has won the last four NCAA titles — with 21 of the 22 first-place votes. Second-place UCLA got the other.
The poll looks a lot like how things go for the top teams every season, with Florida State No. 3, followed by TCU, Loyola Marymount and LSU.
USC opens defense of its title on Wednesday when it plays UCLA at No. 9 Hawai’i in a tournament that also includes LMU.
Click here for the complete AVCA Poll.
Pro Volleyball Federation
The Orlando Valkyries (2-2) defeated the Columbus Fury (0-2) 25-27, 25-22, 25-20, 25-11.
Adora Anae led the Valkyries with 15 kills and 10 digs and Jill Gillen and Kaz Brown had 12 kills apiece. Gillen, who hit .430, had 10 digs, and Brown hit .500 and had five blocks. Wilma Rivera had four aces, three kills, 48 assists, nine digs and two blocks, one solo.
Reagan Cooper had 19 kills, an ace, five digs and a block for Columbus. Her teammates combined for 25 kills, six by Samantha Drechsel.
The next matches are Sunday when the Atlanta Vibe go to the Grand Rapids Rise and the Orlando Valkyries play at the Omaha Supernovas.
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The post GCU men roll on, Lindenwood upsets; AVCA beach poll; Valkyries win in Pro Volleyball appeared first on Volleyballmag.com.