BYU, CUI score upsets; busy Friday on tap in NCAA men’s volleyball

There were a couple of upsets Thursday and BYU and Concordia Irvine came away with big victories.

Friday is the busiest day yet in the 2023 NCAA Division I-II men’s season with some showcase matches.

That includes unbeaten No. 2 UCLA of the MPSF playing No. 13 Ohio State of the MIVA at Penn State, where the No. 4 Nittany Lions of the EIVA then play host to No. 10 USC of the MIVA.

BYU of the MPSF, ranked No. 11, is at No. 8 Ball State of the MIVA.

Three other MPSF teams are in action when No. 9 Grand Canyon plays No. 7 UC Irvine of the Big West, No. 5 Pepperdine goes to No. 15 UCA Santa Barbara and No. 6 Stanford plays at the Big West’s CSUN.  

The Big West’s Long Beach State, ranked No. 3, is home for No. 12 Loyola Chicago of the MIVA.

The EIVA schedule gets underway with Saint Francis at NJIT. The MIVA’s Lewis, ranked No. 14, goes to George Mason of the EIVA and the EIVA’s Harvard plays host to independent Daemen.

Among the other matches Friday, the MIVA’s Purdue Fort Wayne plays Mount Olive of Conference Carolinas at George Mason and the EIVA’s Pinceton plays host to the NEC’s Sacred Heart. 

There are four unbeatens left, including UCLA and Grand Canyon at 8-0, No. 1 Hawai’i at 7-0 and Long Beach at 5-0.

For links to all matches that are being shown, go to our VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings.

There were three matches Thursday, including an upset by No. 11 BYU (6-1) of the MPSF at No. 8 Ball State (4-3) of the MIVA. Three players had 13 or more kills for the Cougars in the 24-26, 25-23, 25-21, 27-25 victory. Miks Ramanis had 16 kills, hit .333, and had two aces, three blocks and 12 digs. Luke Benson had 15 kills, hit .429, and had a block and six digs. Kupono Browne had 13 kills, two aces, four blocks and 10 digs. BYU hit .287 and had nine aces and seven errors. 

Ball State lost despite hitting .353 and getting 24 kills from Tinaishe Ndavazocheva. The Cardinals had two aces and 16 errors. Ndavazocheva, a 6-foot-6 sophomore from Zimbabwe, hit .476 after having four errors in 42 attacks. He added an assist, an ace, two blocks and 10 digs. Kaleb Jenness had 19 kills, three assists, five blocks and seven digs, and Vanis Buckholz had nine kills in 14 errorless swings, an assist, an ace, six blocks and two digs. David Flores had three kills in four errorless tries, 53 assists, six digs and four blocks, one solo … 

Concordia Irvine (4-3) of the MPSF dealt Loyola (7-1) its first loss. Four players…