The Big West is a big surprise.
Consider the standings, where two-time national-champion Hawai’i is 0-1– with obviously a long way to go– and in last place after getting knocked off by Long Beach State on Friday.
UC Irvine is alone in first at 4-0, a game ahead of Long Beach in the win column.
The big Beach win was the only eye-catcher Friday in NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball. The recaps, scores and highlights follow, but first a look at Saturday’s schedule, highlighted by, yes, No. 4 Long Beach back at No. 1 Hawai’i. Also in the Big West, CSUN entertains the NEC’s Daemen.
In the MPSF, No. 3 UCLA is back at No. 10 Stanford, where the Bruins swept on Friday.
The MIVA has a full slate, including No. 9 Loyola at Purdue Fort Wayne, No. 12 Ball State at No. 15 Ohio State, Quincy at Lindenwood and McKendree at Lewis.
In Conference Carolinas, the three league matches have Barton at Erskine, Lees-McRae at Belmont Abbey and Mount Olive at Emmanuel.
There are two NEC-at-EIVA matches with Fairleigh Dickinson at George Mason and Saint Francis (PA) at No. 2 Penn State.
There’s an NEC match when Sacred Heart is at Merrimack. The NEC’s St. Francis Brooklyn plays both Randolph-Macon and Kean. D’Youville plays Elmira and LIU plays American International.
The lone SIAC league match has Morehouse vs. Benedict, but the other SIAC teams in action include Edward Waters playing both Webber International and St. Andrews, Central State playing Thomas More and Fort Valley State playing Lincoln Memorial.
Want to watch a match? If it’s being televised or streamed, we have the viewing link in the VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings.
LONG BEACH SWEEPS: The last time they played, on May 7, Hawai’i swept to win the national championship. Friday night at the Sheriff Center in Honolulu, Long Beach State (12-2, 3-0 Big West) hit .484 and swept 25-20, 29-27, 25-22. Long Beach had 52 kills in 93 attempts with only seven errors and held a 7-3 blocks advantge. Hawai’i (17-2, 0-1) hit .303.
Sotiris Siapanis led with 19 kills and hit .531 after having two errors in 32 attacks to go with an ace, two blocks and a dig. Spencer Olivier had 13 kills with one error in 24 attacks to hit .500 and added two assists, two aces, two blocks and four digs. Simon Torwie had eight kills in 11 errorless attacks, a dig and four blocks, one solo. Shane Holdaway had…
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