Volleyball today: Long Beach-UCI showdown; UCLA clinches; Rise win; USA sitting silver

A Big West title and top seeding in the NCAA tournament are on the line when top-ranked Long Beach State and No. 4 UC Irvine play back to back matches Friday and Saturday. The first match is at UCI and then Saturday they head to Long Beach’s Pyramid. Long Beach (22-1, 6-0) hold a two-game lead in the loss column over the Anteaters (17-8, 6-2), who have to win both matches to force a tie.

It’s just one of many on a busy slate in NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball as the regular season winds down.

In the Pro Volleyball Federation, the Grand Rapids Rise swept the Orlando Valkyries on Thursday. Friday, the San Diego Mojo go to the Columbus Fury.

There was an NCAA Divisioni I women’s coaching hire and the USA men took a tough loss at the World ParaVolley Sitting Olympics qualifier.

NCAA men

Lees-McRae won! More on that follows.

Also in the Big West, fifth-ranked Hawai’i plays at UC San Diego and No. 14 CSUN goes to UC Santa Barbara. 

Penn State can win the EIVA at home when the No 8 Nittany Lions (19-6, 8-0) play back to back matches against No. 16 and second-place George Mason (17-7, 6-2). Penn State has won six in a row and George Mason 11. Also in the EIVA, No 17 Princeton is home for Charleston and NJIT is at Harvard. 

The MPSF has two matches. Third-ranked Grand Canyon, which swept No. 9 Pepperdine on Thursday, is home for the Waves again. Seventh-ranked Stanford is home for No. 13 USC.

The Independent Volleyball Association (IVA) tournament begins at St. Thomas in Crestview Hills, Kentucky. Lincoln Memorial, going for its fifth IVA crown in a row, is the top seed and plays No. 4 Tusculum after second-seeded Maryville plays the home team. 

The three SIAC matches show Fort Valley State at Edward Waters, Morehouse at Benedict and Kentucky State at Central State.

In the NEC, FDU and Sacred Heart are tied atop the league at 11-3, a game up on Saint Francis (PA). FDU plays at SFU, while Sacred Heart goes to D’Youville. Merrimack is at Daemen.

The MIVA tournament starts Saturday and the Conference Carolinas tournament begins Tuesday. 

THURSDAY: No. 2 UCLA (21-4, 11-1) hit .515 and swept at Concordia Irvine ( 6-17, 0-11) to not only maintain its 1.5-game lead over GCU, but clinch the conference regular-season title. UCLA, which has won 10 in a row, got 12 kills from Ethan Champlin, who had two errors in 22 attacks, an ace, an assist, a block and five digs in the 25-12, 25-17, 25-15 blasting. Cooper Robinson had 10 kills with one error in 14 attacks and Ido David had nine kills with one error in 14 swings. CUI, which lost its 12th in a row, got kills from 11 players, six by Christian Galoppo … 

GCU (21-4, 9-2) beat visiting Pepperdine (17-9, 5-6) for its 14th sweep of the season. Camden Gianni had 11 kills in 16 errorless attacks to lead a balanced attack in the 25-19, 25-16, 25-17 victory. Gianni, who hit .688, added a block and two digs. Jackson Hickman had 10 kills, an ace, a block and a dig. Pepperdine hit .118 and got eight kills apiece from Alexander Mrkalj and Ryan Barnett …

Conference Carolinas finished its regular season. Belmont Abbey, which had already clinched the title, won by two games over North Greenville. BA beat visiting Erskine in four as Zach Puentes had 19 kills and hit .531 to go with an assist, five digs and two blocks, one solo. NG had to go five to win at Emmanuel as Logan Keothavy had 23 kills and hit .425 and Diego Rosich had 21 kills and hit .545 … Mount Olive swept Barton and …

Lees-McRae ended its season on not just a high note but a sweep of visiting King. Lees-McRae, which had lost 20 in a row, finished its season 2-26, 1-13 in Conference Carolinas. 

King is 6-20, 4-10. Nicholas Brewster and Sebastian Heer had eight kills each for Lees-McRaw, M.J. Doyle had seven and Austin Beaird six. Erel Bardah had five kills in 10 errorless attacks.

Pro Volleyball Federation

Grand Rapids (7-8) builit its lead to two games in the loss column over Orlando (7-10) with a 25-23, 25-21, 25-22 victory. 

Emiliya Dimitrova led the Rise with 13 kills and had 18 digs and two block assists. Erika Pritchard had 10 kills, nine digs and four blocks, one solo. Ashley Evans had 36 assists, 12 digs, six block assists and three kills.

Orlando’s Adora Anae led the Valkyries with nine kills, an ace, 21 digs and seven blocks, two solo. Her teammates combined for 28 kills, eight by Shainah Joseph and seven by Carly Skjodt.

When San Diego (5-8) goes to Columbus (5-9), the Fury will be without middle Asjia O’Neal. The Texas NCAA champion has left for the USA gym in Anaheim to train with the national team in the hopes of making both the Volleyball Nations League and Olympic rosters. O’Neal played in nine matches for the Fury, averaging 2.65 kills and hitting .350.

CSUN tabs Montoya

CSUN hired Aquiles Montoya as its head coach. The school in Northridge, California, is coming a 6-23 season, 4-14 in the Big West. CSUN was 9-23, 4-16, the year before. Montoya replaces longtime coach John Price, who retired in December.

Montoya has been an assistant at Portland State the past four seasons. CSUN has been to the NCAA Tournament five times, the last in 2013. 

Sitting silver for USA men

The USA men won silver this week in the 2024 World ParaVolley Sitting Volleyball final qualifier in Dali, China, but the loss to Ukraine means they will not make the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.

The USA, which finished 6-2, lost in the final 25-17, 32-30, 25-19. Outside hitter Zach Upp led the Americans with 14 kills and two aces. Middle blocker Roderick Green had five kills, three blocks and an ace. Opposite Eric Duda had seven kills and a block and outside James Stuck had six kills.

Slovenia beat  Iran 25-13, 11-25, 25-22, 23-25, 15-13 in the women’s final.