Long Beach tops UCLA; upsets for Loyola, McKendree, LM; Rise win in Pro Volleyball

Top-ranked Long Beach State defeated No. 4 UCLA in four sets in the showcase battle of the early NCAA men’s volleyball season on a Friday night that saw two upsets in the MIVA — No. 13 Loyola Chicago beat No. 6 Ohio State and unranked McKendree swept No. 11 Ball State — and independent Lincoln Memorial knocked off No. 10 Princeton. 

There are just two undefeated teams left in the Pro Volleyball Federation after the Grand Rapids Rise won in four at the Atlanta Vibe.

The recaps and top performances follow, but first Saturday’s very busy NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball schedule that includes Long Beach and UCLA going at it again, this time in Westwood.

There are two other Big West-at-MPSF matches as N. 17 UC Santa Barbara goes to No. 12 Pepperdine and No. 7 UC Irvine is at No. 15 USC. 

The MPSF’s No. 8 BYU is home for the NEC’s LIU and Concordia Irvine plays host to The Master’s, which upset No. 16 CSUN on Friday.

The two MIVA matches who No. 11 Ball State at Lindenwood and Purdue Fort Wayne at Queens.

Four EIVA teams play non-conference matches as No. 9 Penn State is home for the NEC’s Fairleigh Dickinson, No. 10 Princeton plays host to the NEC’s Sacred Heart, Harvard entertains independent Lincoln Memorial and Charleston is home for the NEC’s Saint Francis (PA). 

There are four Conference Carolinas matches with Mount Olive at Lees-McRae, Barton at King, North Greenville at Erskine and Emmanuel at Belmont Abbey.

D’Youville of the NEC is home for the ECC’s St. Thomas Aquinas. The SIAC’s Central State is at independent Missouri S&T and Benedict is at Carolina. The ECC’s Roberts Wesleyan plays Thomas More and independent Maryville plays Talladega.

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There is one Pro Volleyball Federation match when the Vegas Thrill (1-0) go to the Orlando Valkries (0-1) for a 7 p.m. Eastern first serve on YouTube.

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If a match is being shown, we have the viewing link in our VolleyballMag TV & Streaming Listings.

NCAA men

LONG BEACH 3, UCLA 1: Long Beach improved to 10-0 with its 22-25, 25-21, 27-25, 25-19 win over visiting UCLA (8-3) in their first meeting since UCLA won in last May’s NCAA national semifinals.

Sotiris Siapanis led the Beach with 18 kills, an assist, two aces, three blocks and five digs. Skyler Varga had 15 kills, hit .480, and had two blocks and five digs. Mason Briggs had 11 digs and four assists. UCLA’s Ido David had 15 kills and Merrick McHenry 11, hitting .600, to go with six blocks. 

MIVA MADNESS: Loyola Chicago (7-6, 2-1) created a four-way tie at the top with an 18-25, 25-20, 27-29, 25-14, 15-5 upset of visiting Ohio State (8-3, 2-1). Parker Van Buren led Loyola with 17 kills, hitting .382, and had three aces, three blocks and two digs. Jacob Pasteur had 17 kills for Ohio State to go with two assists, two aces, two blocks and seven digs … McKendree (5-4, 2-1) swept visiting Ball State (8-7, 1-1) 30-28, 25-23, 25-21 as Kevin Schuele had 17 kills, two assists and 10 digs and Sam Hoskin had 15 kills, hit .480, and had eight digs … Purdue Fort Wayne (7-4, 1-1) won in four at Queens (5-7, 1-2) behind 17 kills from Jon Diedrich and 16 from Mark Frazier. Idle Lewis is also 2-1 in the MIVA.

EIVA GOES 1-2: The big result was Lincoln Memorial (7-2) winning 18-25, 25-21, 25-21, 25-19 at Princeton (6-4). Johan Negron, who had five blocks, and Ethan Morgan, who had no errors in 15 attacks and six blocks, led LM with 11 kills each. Princeton’s Ben Harrington had 19 kills … Saint Francis (PA) of the NEC (4-5) swept at Charleston (7-2), which hit .160 on its home court. Nathan Zini had 15 kills for SFU … Harvard (2-4) gave the league its only win when a sweep over visiting Merrimack (2-6) of the NEC. 

AROUND THE NATION: Hawai’i of the Big West improved to 10-1 with a 27-25, 25-7, 25-20 blasting of visiting Stanford (7-3) of the MPSF as Spyros Chakas had 23 kills with one error to hit .733 and added an ace, a block and three digs … 

The Master’s of the NAIA stunned at CSUN (7-5) of the Big West 25-20, 25-23, 25-18. Braden Van Groningen of The Master’s had 10 kills in 19 errorless attacks … 

In Conference Carolinas, Barton swept at Lees-McRae and Mount Olive won in four at King. Emmanuel was swept by independent Tusculum … 

Daemen of the NEC swept St. Thomas Aquinas of the ECC … Among independents, Maryville dropped the SIACs Central State to 11-0 and Missouri S&T swept Talledega.

Pro Volleyball Federation

The visiting Grand Rapids Rise improved to 2-0 and dealt the Atlanta Vibe their first loss, 25-20, 21-25, 25-22, 25-22. Symone Abbott led the Rise with 13 kills, Emiliya Dimitrova had 13 and Claire Chaussee 12 to go with 18 digs. Setter Ashley Evans had 45 assists and two aces and libero Sarah Sponcil had 20 digs and two assist. 

Leah Edmond continued to lead the Vibe, this time with 18 kills, three blocks and 13 digs. Leketor Member-Meneh had 13 kills, an ace and 12 digs. Libero Morgan Hentz had 19 digs and four asissts. 

Both teams play Monday when the Rise goes to the Omaha Supernovas and the Vibe is home for the Orlando Valkries.

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