The MIVA final is set after Ball State swept Lewis and Ohio State won a different kind of match over McKendree, losing one set and winning another 25-9.
In the MPSF the seasons ended for Pepperdine, swept by Grand Canyon; USC, which lost to Stanford; and Concordia Irvine, defeated by BYU. The semifinals are Thursday.
NJIT knocked off Charleston and George Mason beat Harvard in five to move into Thursday’s EIVA semifinals.
The Big West gets going Thursday with UC San Diego vs. UC Santa Barbara and CSUN vs. host UC Irvine. The semifinals are Friday when top-ranked Hawai’i and second-seeded Long Beach State await.
LIU and Sacred Heart advanced to Thursday’s NEC semifinals.
The SIAC gets its tournament underway Thursday with four matches where two teams will play twice in a day.
Conference Carolinas has its semifinals Friday.
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MIVA
Top-seeded Ball State (20-8) overpowered visiting fourth-seeded Lewis (17-13) in the semifinals 25-21, 25-21, 25-18 to advance to Saturday’s championship match against Ohio State. At stake is the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The teams met twice in the regular season.
Ball State swept the Buckeyes at home on March 15, but Ohio State won in five on its home court three days later.
Ball State hit .400 against Lewis. Tinaishe Ndavazocheva led with 15 kills as he hit .385 and had two aces, three blocks and four digs. Kaleb Jenness had 11 kills with two errors in 20 attacks to hit .450 and added an ace, four digs and five blocks. Felix Egharevba had 10 kills with one error in 14 attacks to hit .643 and he had five blocks. Vanis Buckholz had seven kills in 11 errorless swings and five blocks. David Flores had 39 assists, three blocks and four digs.
Lewis, which hit .200, got eight kills from Christian Prayer and seven each from Cole Brillhart and Michael Sack, who had one error in nine attacks.
Second-seeded Ohio State (21-9) beat seventh-seeded McKendree (7-16) as the Buckeyes hit a whopping .451 in the 25-20, 21-25, 25-9, 25-15 victory.
Shane Wetzel had 19 kills for Ohio State to go with two solo blocks and three digs. Jacob Pasteur had 16 kills, hit .444, and had two assists, all of his team’s for aces, two blocks and seven digs. Jack Stevens had 11 kills in 20 errorless attempts and three blocks, one solo. Justin Howard had six kills in eight errorless swings and three…
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