International Volleyball

NCAA men’s volleyball: Penn St. tops Stanford; Pepperdine, UCLA, LBSU win

NCAA men's volleyball: Penn St. tops Stanford; Pepperdine, UCLA, LBSU win

Fourth-ranked Penn State and No. 5 Pepperdine came away with victories Saturday at the First Point Collegiate Challenge in Austin, Texas. 

Also Saturday, the winners included No. 2 UCLA, No. 3 Long Beach State and No. 6 Ball State.

There are two matches on the NCAA Division I-II men’s Sunday schedule, Missouri S&T vs. Central State and Merrimack vs. Queens.

Penn State (6-0) of the EIVA stayed defeated and dealt No. 8 Stanford (5-1) of the MPSF its first loss as the Nittany Lions won 25-18, 25-17, 20-25, 25-23 in the Austin Convention Center. Penn State, off to its best start since going 10-0 in 2009, got 15 kills from John Kerr. He added two aces, a solo block and eight digs. Michal Kowel had 14 kills, hit .345 and had an ace, two blocks and five digs. Toby Ezeonu had 10 kills with one error in 13 attacks, an ace, three blocks and a dig. Penn State hit .313 and had six aces and 25 serving errors.

Stanford, which hit .242 and had two aces and 20 errors, got 14 kills from Will Rottman, who hit .480 and had an ace and four digs. Ethan Hill had eight kills, hit .429, and had a block and. a dig. The Cardinal was without setter Nathan Lietzke, forced to sit out in his hometown when fell ill with flu-like symptoms …

Pepperdine (5-1) of the MPSF, coming off a loss to Penn State on Friday overpowered No. 15 Lewis (3-4) of the MIVA by hitting .446. The Waves, who had 11 aces and 23 serving errors, got 23 kills from Jaylen Jasper. He hit .425 to go with three assists, two blocks and seven digs. Joe Deluzio had 15 kills, hit .522, and added two assists, an ace and three digs. Jacob Steele had 10 kills, an assist, four aces, four blocks and three digs. 

Lewis, which lost to Stanford on Friday, hit .303 and had six aces and 12 errors. John Davis had 16 kills, hit .467, and had three of those aces, a block and dive digs. Kevin Kauling had eight kills with one error in 10 attacks, 29 assists, an ace, three digs and three blocks, one solo … 

UCLA of the MPSF is 6-0 after its 25-15, 25-23, 25-18 sweep of visiting UC San Diego (3-5) of the Big West. The Bruins, who hit .463, got 18 kills from David Ido, who had one error in 28 attacks, an ace, two blocks and three digs. J.R. Norris IV had seven kills in as many swings, a dig, and five blocks, two solo. Ryan Ka and Josh Schellinger had 11 kills each for UCSD … 

Long Beach State (4-0) of the Big West made short work at George Mason (0-4), hitting .465 in the 25-17, 25-14, 25-16…

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