By Larry Hamel for VolleyballMag.com
Third-ranked Penn State survived a massive error-plagued scare on the road against an unheralded opponent, and Hawaii’s steamroller rumbled to its 18th consecutive victory on a busy Saturday of NCAA Division I-II men’s indoor volleyball.
Also, BYU topped UC Santa Barbara in a match of nationally ranked teams, Ohio State and Loyola Chicago each improved to 2-0 in MIVA play, and King University rose to 3-0 in Conference Carolinas with a rollercoaster five-set victory.
Despite resume-building victories over national powers UCLA, Pepperdine, Stanford, USC and Ohio State, No. 3 Penn State (9-1) of the EIVA found itself in the ignominious position of trailing two sets to zero against NEC member Saint Francis (PA), which came into the match 2-7.
But the Nittany Lions rallied to pull off the proverbial reverse sweep (22-25, 23-25, 25-22, 25-23, 15-10) and limp out of Loretto, Pennsylvania, with a skin-of-their-teeth victory. They managed to win with 50 – count ‘em 50 – errors (22 attacking and 28 serving). Jon Kerr played in just three sets, but led Penn State with 15 kills. The host Red Flash couldn’t withstand error issues of their own, also giving away 50 points, 24 attacking and 26 from the service line. Blake Liprando’s 12 kills were high for Saint Francis.
No. 1 Hawaii (9-0) of the Big West handed No. 8 Stanford (7-4) of the MPSF its second home-court whitewash (27-25, 25-19, 25-19) in as many nights, this one coming before a packed house of 1,336 at the cozy Burnham Pavilion. The Rainbow Warriors punctuated their nation’s-leading 18th “W” in a row with a rejection by Dimitrios Mouchlias and Guilherme Voss, the team’s 12th block of the match.
Mouchlias, a 6-6 junior opposite from Greece, carried the load for Hawaii with 17 kills, a .517 hitting percentage and four block assists. The Rainbow Warriors kept the error count low with 19 in running their streak of winning sets to 24. Stanford standout Will Rottman rang up 13 kills before leaving the court late in the third set with an apparent injured leg.
The second verse at No. 10 BYU (8-2) was pretty much the same as the first for No. 14 UC Santa Barbara (2-9. The Gauchos out of the Big West dropped back-to-back matches in Provo, Utah, both in four sets, this time 25-19, 25-20, 19-25, 25-17. The Cougars of the MPSF got an eye-catching slash line from sophomore Miks Ramanis: 19 kills/.486 hitting/five digs/two aces/two block…
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