Pepperdine came away with a five-set victory at UC Santa Barbara in NCAA men’s volleyball on Thursday, the only one of the seven matches that did not result in a sweep. BYU, playing for the first time in nearly two weeks, swept LIU.
The recaps and top performances follow, but first a look at what’s on tap Friday.
The big match of the has top-ranked and unbeaten Long Beach State of the Big West home for No. 4 UCLA of the MPSF. This is their first meeting since UCLA, en route to the title, swept in last year’s national NCAA semifinals. The same teams play at UCLA on Saturday.
Fourth-ranked Stanford of the MPSF is back at No. 2 Hawai’i two days after losing there in four.
Also in the Big West, CSUN is home for The Master’s University, a 5-0 NAIA team from Santa Clarita, California.
There are three MIVA conference matches as first-place and No. 6 Ohio State goes to No. 13 Loyola Chicago, No. 11 Ball State is at McKendree and No. 20 Purdue Fort Wayne is at Queens.
Two Conference Carolinas league matches show Barton at Lees-McRae and Mount Olive at King. Emmanuel goes to independent Tusculum.
Three EIVA teams are in action as Harvard is home for the NEC’s Merrimack, Charleston entertains Saint Francis (PA) of the NEC and Princeton plays host to independent Lincoln Memorial.
Also in the NEC, Daemen is home for the ECC’s St. Thomas Aquinas. The only SIAC team playing is 0-10 Central State, which goes to Maryville in Missouri. Independent Missouri S&T is home for Talladega.
***
There is one Pro Volleyball Federation match when the second-place Grand Rapids Rise (1-0) go to the first-place Atlanta Vibe (3-0) for a 7 p.m. Eastern first serve on YouTube.
***
If a match is being shown, we have the viewing link in our VolleyballMag TV & Streaming Listings.
***
No. 12 Pepperdine (8-2) of the MPSF came away with a 25-13, 22-25, 23-25, 25-20, 15-9 the Big West’s No. 17 UC Santa Barbara (4-8). Pepperdine won despite getting out-hit .281-.232, but more than made up for it witha 16-8 blocks advantage. Ethan Watson had 10 kills with one error in 17 attacks, an ace, a dig and nine blocks, two solo.
Cole Rasic led the Waves with 12 kills, hit .320, and had an ace, four blocks and five digs. Cole Ketrzynski had 11 kills, two assists, five blocks and three digs, and Akin Akinwumi also had 11 kills to go with an assist, three blocks and three digs. Setter Tyler Stewart had a kill in his…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Volleyballmag.com…