NCAA men’s volleyball upsets for CSUN, Penn State, UCSB

The status quo was anything but the past two days in NCAA men’s volleyball.

Things got going Wednesday when No. 18 CSUN upset No. 11 USC.

Then Thursday, No. 9 Penn State, which had lost its last two, stunned top-ranked and previously unbeaten Ohio State before No. 17 UC Santa Barbara knocked off No. 2 UCLA.

The recaps and top performances follow, but first a look at Friday’s schedule that includes more key early season matches.

There are three MPSF-Big West matches as UCLA tries to bounce back at No. 20 UC San Diego, No. 10 Pepperdine goes to third-ranked Long Beach State and No. 8 BYU is home for No. 7 UC Irvine.

The Big West’s No. 4 Hawai’i is at Purdue Fort Wayne, one of four MIVA teams in action. No. 12 Lewis is home for No. 16 George Mason of the EIVA, No. 13 Loyola Chicago plays host to the NEC’s LIU and McKendree is home for King of Conference Carolinas.  

Also in the EIVA, Harvard goes to the NEC’s Sacred Heart and NJIT is at the NEC’s Saint Francis (PA). Three other NEC teams play ECC teams as FDU is home for St. Thomas Aquinas, D’Youville is at Dominican and Merrimack is home for American International

In Conference Carolinas, Mount Olive plays both Eastern Mennonite and Virginia Wesleyan, Emmanuel is at independent Lincoln Memorial and Erskine is at the SIAC’s Benedict.

If a match is being shown, we have the viewing link in our VolleyballMag TV & Streaming Listings.

Start with Wednesday’s 21-25, 27-25, 25-20, 17-25, 15-10 victory for CSUN (4-3) of the Big West at USC (5-2) of the MPSF. CSUN, which hit .345 and had nine aces and 33 serving errors, got 23 kills from Kyle Hobus. He hit .395 and had an assist, an ace, three blocks and five digs. Jalen Phillips had 14 kills, hit .379, and had an assist, two ces, two blocks and two digs. Donovan Constable had three kills, 43 assists, no aces and six errors, four blocks and five digs.  USC, which had seven aces and 22 errors, hit .272. Jack Deuchar and Dillon Klein had 17 kills each. Deuchar hit .333 and had two assists, an ace, a block and five digs. Klein hit .314 and had three blocks and six digs …

Also Wednesday, Concordia Irvine of the MPSF improved to 3-0 with a sweep of 0-7 Central State of the SIAC, hitting .471. Ties Conelissen lked CUI with eight kills in nine errorless attacks … Queens of the MIVA won in four at Belmont Abbey of Conference Carolinas as Jack Brinkman had 19 kills, three assists, four aces,…