UCLA made a statement in more ways than one Thursday night.
The Bruins, playing without the 2022 MPSF player of the year, hit .551 and blasted visiting and previously unbeaten Long Beach State, sweeping the 49ers in a battle of two of the top teams in NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball.
And they go at it again Friday when the fourth-ranked Bruins of the MPSF head to the Pyramid, home of No. 2 Long Beach State of the Big West.
The MIVA got underway Thursday and No. 11 Ohio State beat McKendree, while once-ranked Lewis upset No. 9 Ball State, and Charleston of the EIVA won twice to improve to 11-0.
The recaps follow, but first a look at Friday’s schedule.
In addtion to the UCLA-LBSU rematch, four other Big West teams are in action, including top-ranked Hawai’i, as the unbeaten Rainbow Warriors plays at No. 8 Stanford of the MPSF.
Seventh-ranked UC Irvine plays host to No. 6 Pepperdine of the MPSF, No. 14 UC Santa Barbara is at No. 10 BYU of the MPSF, and No. 15 CSUN is at NJIT, the lone EIVA team playing Friday.
Two other MPSF teams are in action when No. 5 Grand Canyon puts its 10-0 record up against Arizona Christian and Concordia Irvine plays host to The Master’s.
There are two MIVA matches when No. 13 Loyola Chicago is at Quincy and Purdue Fort Wayne is at Lindenwood.
Conference Carolinas has four league matches when Erskine plays Lees-McRae, Barton faces North Greenville, Mount Olive plays Belmont Abbey and Emmanuel takes on King.
There are the first NEC matches of the season when Saint Francis (PA) plays Fairleigh Dickinson and Daemen plays D’Youville.
Two SIAC teams are in action when Morehouse plays St. Andrews and and Central State plays Maryville (MO).
Among independents, Queens plays Lincoln Memorial, Alderson Broaddus plays Missouri S&T, King’s (PA) plays American International and Limestone plays Tusculum.
For links to all matches that are being shown, go to our VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings.
UCLA (10-1), playing its first match without setter Miles Partain, the 2022 MPSF player of the year who left the team this week, didn’t miss a beat in its 25-19, 25-21, 25-20 victory over Long Beach State (6-1). It could have been even more lopsided had the Bruins, who hit an incredible .551, not had 23 service errors against six aces. UCLA had 44 kills and six errors in 69 attacks.
Freshman setter Andrew Rowan not only…
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