Ball St., Belmont Abbey win men’s titles; Orlando tops Grand Rapids in Pro Volleyball

Fourth-ranked Hawai’i bounced back in a Big (West) way at No. 5 UC Irvine, second-ranked UCLA broke the tie at the top of the MPSF with a five-set win over No. 3 Grand Canyon, and No. 13 USC knocked off No. 6 BYU in NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball Saturday.

Ball State pulled off a reverse sweep to clinch the MIVA regular-season title outright and Belmont Abbey wrapped up the Conference Carolinas regular-season crown for the first time.

Line of the day: Emmanuel’s Eli Zdonek had 34 kills in a five-set Conference Carolinas loss to Barton.

The men are off until Tuesday with no in-conference matches until Thursday, so the only volleyball on tap Sunday is when the Columbus Fury play at the San Diego Mojo in the Pro Volleyball Federation. Speaking of the PVF, in the lone league match Saturday the Orlando Valkyries beat the Grand Rapids Rise in five.

NCAA men

MPSF: UCLA (20-4, 9-1), which swept visiting Grand Canyon (20-4, 8-2) the day before, battled to a 24-26, 25-22, 25-23, 18-25, 15-8 victory that broke a tie at the top of the conference. Both teams have two matches left in the regular season.

Merrick McHenry led the Bruins with 14 kills and hit .522 after having two errors in 23 attacks to go with an assist, three of his team’s 10 aces, two blocks and three digs. Ethan Champlin had 12 kills, two assists, two blocks and seven digs. Andrew Rowan had five kills in seven errorless attempts, 48 assists, an ace, two blocks and five digs. His team hit .312.

GCU’s Jarrett Anderson led the Lopes with 19 kills, hitting .405, to go with six digs and four blocks, one solo. Camden Gianni had 14 kills, hit .344, and had three assists, an ace, two blocks and six digs. Jackson Hickman added 13 kills, two assists, two blocks and 10 digs. Nicholas Slight had three kills in four errorless tries, 46 assists, a block and nine digs. His team hit .377 … 

USC (12-12, 3-7), which lost in four to visiting BYU (16-8, 7-5) the day before, came back to win 20-25, 27-25, 26-28, 29-27, 18-16 to end its home season with a flourish. Noah Roberts led with a career-high 19 kills, hitting .593 to go with nine digs and four blocks, one solo. Dillon Klein had 16 kills, three aces, five blocks and six digs, and Kyle Paulson had 10 kills, hit .368, and had an ace, six blocks and seven digs. Markus Olssson and Riley Haine had nine…