NCAA men: CSUN, Hawai’i both win in five, MIVA, EIVA, ConfCarolinas into playoffs

Saturday is busy in NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball.

The MIVA and Conference Carolinas have tournament semifinals, there is a play-in match in the EIVA, and the the Big West and MPSF end their respective regular seasons.

Each of the five conferences get an automatic bid to the six-team NCAA Men’s Volleyball Championship May 6-8 in Columbus, Ohio. 

The NCAA will announce the bracket, and who gets the one at-large bid, on April 25. Click here for more information.

For a look at the Saturday schedule and to watch any match, we’ve got the viewing links at our VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings.

BIG WEST — Play Saturday has UC San Diego (3-11, 3-6) at UC Santa Barbara (12-4, 6-3), CSUN (2-7) at Long Beach State (5-4), and UC Irvine (2-12, 2-7) at Hawai’i (14-0, 9-0). 

CSUN won an absolute wild one Friday over visiting Long Beach State — and check out these scores — 12-25, 25-18, 29-27, 29-31, 16-14.

“This is only our fifth week in league play so this win tonight is really a testament to us getting better each and every week,” CSUN coach Jeff Campbell said. 

“Long Beach State is an elite team and very well-coached so anytime you can compete against a team like that, and win is fantastic. I feel like we’re moving in the right direction as a team and we hope we can play well again tomorrow night and carry some momentum into the Big West Tournament next week.”

CSUN had four players with nine or kills, led by Maciej Ptaszynski, who had 13, hit .300, and had an assist, two aces, three blocks, and seven digs. Daniel Wetter had 12 kills with one error in 24 attacks to hit .458, and had an assist, two digs, and five blocks. Cole Chea had 10 kills and hit .438, and Griffin Walters had nine kills, two assists, an ace, three blocks, and 11 digs.

Kyle Merchen had five kills, 45 assists, two blocks, and two digs. His team hit .227.

Long Beach State, which hit .259, got 21 kills from Spencer Olivier. He had two aces, two blocks, and a dig. Ethan Siegfried had 17 kills, hit .310, and had two assists, three aces, five blocks, and five digs. Clarke Godbold had 11 kills, five blocks, and nine digs, and Simon Anderson had eight kills, hit .313, and had an ace, three digs, and 13 blocks, two solo.

Ryan Poole had 53 assists, five blocks, and four digs, and Mason Briggs had 13 digs and an assist … 

Rado Parapunov had 25 kills but top-ranked Hawai’i had to go the distance to stay unbeaten with a 25-22, 25-23, 23-25, 24-26, 15-13 win over visiting UC Irvine.

Parapunov hit .426 and had six digs. Colton Cowell had 17 kills and hit .393 and had an assist, three blocks, and six digs. Patrick Gasman had nine kills, hit .583, and had an assist, two blocks, and a dig. Guilherme Voss had seven kills, an assist, two blocks, and two digs. 

Jakob Thelle had three kills, 56 assists, two aces, and three digs and his team hit .370. Gage Worsley had 11 digs and two assists.

UCI lost despite hitting .417. Joel Schneidmiller led with 20 kills and hit .500 to go with an assist, two blocks, and four digs. Alexandre Nsakanda had 13 kills, hit .391, and had an ace and five digs. Cole Gillis had 12 kills, hit .478 after one error in 23 swings, and he had an assist, two aces, a block, and three digs. Setters Dylan Zhai and Brian Garcia combined for 59 assists, a kill, two blocks, and five digs.

The Big West tournament is April 22-24 at Hawai’i. Click here for more information.

MIVA — In the tournament semifinals, top-seeded Lewis (18-2, 12-2) plays host to No. 4 Ball State (12-7, 8-5) in Romeoville, Illinois, while over in Chicago No. 2 seed Loyola (14-5, 9-5) is home for No. 3 McKendree (11-5, 9-5).

In the quarterfinals, Lewis beat Quincy, Loyola beat Lindenwood, McKendree beat Purdue Fort Wayne, and Ball State beat Ohio State.

EIVA — Fifth-seeded Charleston (4-12) plays at Saint Francis (7-18, 6-12). Saint Francis has won five of the last seven matches between the two, but that includes them splitting four matches this spring with the visiting team winning all four.

On Thursday, the winner of the Saturday match plays Penn State, while in the other semifinal George Mason plays NJIT.

MPSF — Grand Canyon (7-10) swept visiting Concorida (3-12) on Friday. The Lopes, who hit .318, got 10 kills from Hugo Fisher, who hit .444 and had two blocks and two digs. Chibuike Obi had four kills with one error in six attacks and seven blocks, one solo.

Concordia got kiills from 12 players, nine by Jesper Schut, who had a dig and three blocks.

The MPSF tournament starts Thursday at BYU. Click here for more information.

CONFERENCE CAROLINAS — The tournament semifinals Saturday pit top-seeded Mount Olive (12-3) against No. 5 King (12-12) and third-seeded North Greenville (13-4) against second-seeded Belmont Abbey (13-7).

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