International Volleyball

Long Beach, UCI, UCLA, BYU, Penn St. win in NCAA men’s volleyball

Long Beach, UCI, UCLA, BYU, Penn St. win in NCAA men's volleyball

GCU’s Jackson Hickman tries to hit past the UCLA block of Grant Sloane, Merrick McHenry and Cooper Robinson/Andy J. Gordon photo

Top-ranked Long Beach State and No. 5 UC Irvine have made it a two-team Big West race after the Beach swept No. 15 CSUN and UCI dominated visiting No. 4 Hawai’i on Friday in NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball.

Second-ranked UCLA made an MPSF statement with a sweep of No. 3 Grand Canyon that left the two teams tied atop the league, while No. 6 BYU won in four at No. 11 USC but is still three games off the lead.

Stunner of the day: No. 8 Pepperdine was beaten in a reverse sweep by The Master’s, the No. 1 team in the NAIA.

The recaps and top peformances follow, but first Saturday’s schedule.

The three MPSF matches have UCLA home again for Grand Canyon, BYU back at USC and No. 7 Stanford returning to Concordia Irvine after winning there in five Friday.

In the Big West, Hawai’i gets another crack at UCI and Long Beach in turn goes to CSUN.

No. 11 Ball State can clinch the MIVA title outright when it plays host to No. 18 McKendree on the last day of regular-season play. No. 12 Loyola Chicago, however, hopes Ball State loses and it beats visiting No. 14 Lewis to force a first-place tie, No. 20 Purdue Fort Wayne is home for Quincy and Lindenwood is at Queens.

EIVA leader No. 11 Penn State is back at Charleston after winning in four there Friday and No. 19 George Mason, two games back of Penn State, is home again for Harvard.

Conference Carolinas leader Belmont Abbey, with a two-game advantage over North Greenville, is home for King. North Greenville is home for Lees-McRae as L-M tries to avoid its 20th loss in a row, Mount Olive is at Erskine and Barton is at Emmanuel. 

The NEC shows LIU at Merrimack, Saint Francis (PA) is at D’Youville and Fairleigh Dickinson is at Sacred Heart, while Daeman is home for the ECC’s Roberts Wesleyan.

The SIAC has two matches, Benedict at Edward Waters and Fort Valley State at Central State.

The ECC’s American International plays at DIII MIT and Tusculum is at Lincoln Memorial in a match of independents.

The Pro Volleyball Federation has the third-place Orlando Valkyries (6-8) at the third-place Grand Rapids Rise (6-7) in the first match that will be shown on the CBS Sports Network.

Want to watch a match? If it’s being shown, we have the viewing link in our VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings.

BIG WEST: Long Beach State (21-7, 7-0) cruised to a 25-18, 25-17, 25-20 victory over visiting…

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