Sixth-seeded King upset third-seeded Erskine and fourth-seeded Mount Olive came back to beat fifth-seeded Barton in five as the Conference Carolinas Championship got underway Tuesday.
More tournaments begin Wednesday, including the MPSF, EIVA and NEC as NCAA Division I-II men’s postseason play is in full swing in anticipation of Sunday’s eight-team bracket announcement.
Conferences also handed out postseason honors and we’ve got the final AVCA regular-season top 20 in this report that offers a conference-by-conference breakdown. Six conferences — Big West, Conference Carolinas, EIVA, MIVA, MPSF and SIAC get automatic bids, leaving two at-large spots up for grabs.
Conference Carolinas
Mount Olive (17-9) now faces top-seeded Belmont Abbey (19-4) on Friday before King (7-20) plays second-seeded North Greenville (14-8) in the semifinals.
Justin Gregory had a career-high 26 kills and hit .548 as Mount Olive beat visiting Barton 20-25, 25-11, 21-26, 25-27, 15-9. Gregory had three errors in 42 attacks, an ace, five blocks and six digs. The Trojans’ Hayden Frear had 12 kills, hit .400, and had an assist, an ace, two blocks and nine digs.
Barton’s season ended 12-13 after the Bulldogs hit .096. Brandon Johnston led with 12 kills.
Belmont Abbey swept North Greenville on February 17 and swept the Trojans on March 22.
Visiting King won 22-25, 25-21, 27-25, 27-25 after Erskine swept both their regular-season meetings. Warren Davis had 23 kills with one error in 42 attacks to hit .524 and had three assists and 10 digs. AJ Drooker had 14 kills and Kellan Kennedy 10, hitting .467. King had lost five in a row to end the regular season
Erskine’s season ended 13-11 despite 19 kills from Pablo Zamar, who hit .361, and Edgerrin Austin, who had 18 kills, hitting .325 with five blocks.
Belmont Abbey won both regular-season meetings with King, in five on February 20 and in a sweep on April 6.
MPSF
The conference tournament begins Wednesday with three matches at USC:
Second-seeded Grand Canyon (22-4) vs. No. 7 Concordia Irvine (6-18), No. 3. BYU (16-8) vs. No. 6 USC (12-14) and No. 4 Stanford (13-11) vs. fifth-seeded Pepperdine (17-10).
The lowest remaining seed gets top-seeded UCLA (22-24) on Thursday and the other winners play each other. The final is Saturday.
ALL-MPSF: UCLA senior middle Merrick McHenry is the conference player of the year and…
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