UC Irvine served notice that the Big West is anything but decided as the fourth-ranked Anteaters not only won, they swept visiting Long Beach State on Friday to set up a winner-take-all, regular-season-ending match Saturday at Long Beach between the conference leaders.
Penn State had to go five, but the No. 10 Nittany Lions beat visiting George Mason in five to wrap up the EIVA regular-season title.
Line of the night: UC Santa Barbara’s Geste Bianchi had 27 kills, hit .440, and had three aces, a block and three digs in a four-set win over CSUN.
In the Pro Volleyball Federation, San Diego Mojo beat the Columbus Fury in five sets to put themselves into the hunt for the fourth playoff spot.
Recaps and top performances follow, but first Saturday’s schedule.
In NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball, the showdown at Long Beach State starts at 7 p.m. Pacific and can be seen on ESPN+. Also in the Big West, Hawai’i is back at UC San Diego after winning there Friday, and UC Santa Barbara plays CSUN.
The eight-team MIVA Tournament begins Saturday with matches at the higher seeds: No. 1 Ball State vs. No. 8 Queens, No. 2 Loyola Chicago vs No. 7 McKendree, No. 3 Ohio State vs. No. 6 Lewis and No. 4 Lindenwood vs. No. 5 Purdue Fort Wayne.
Second-ranked UCLA, which has already won the MPSF regular-season title, is home for last-place Concordia Irvine. USC goes back to Stanford after getting swept there on Friday.
The EIVA shows Mason back at Penn State, NJIT at Harvard and Charleston at Princeton.
In the NEC, Saint Francis (PA) is home for FDU, Sacred Heart is at Daemen and Merrimack is at D’Youville.
The two ECC matches have American International at St. Thomas Aquinas and Roberts Wesleyan at Dominican.
After Lincoln Memorial swept Tusculum, the top-seeded Railsplitters play third-seeded Thomas More for the IVA title. Thomas More got past Maryville in five.
There are two PVF matches when the second-place Omaha Supernovas try to close the gap at the first-place Atlanta Vibe and the Vegas Thrill play at the Grand Rapids Rise.
Want to watch a match? If it’s being shown, we have the viewing link in our VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings.
NCAA men
BIG WEST: UC Irvine (18-8, 7-2) was 4-4 in its previous eight matches, including a split two weekends ago…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Volleyballmag.com…