VBelo Scouting Report: February 09, 2023

Quatro Cinco Sets

Feb 09, 2023

New Team Announced for 2024!
Welcome Alliance University!

So many Cinco Sets! Four of the six matchups yesterday went the distance in an incredibly exciting Wednesday. Erskine was able to hold off the upset bid from Belmont Abbey to get their first conference win of the season. North Greenville, on the other hand, will be starting their conference defense in the red, as they dropped a match to King. VBelo had this as a close matchup, but between the home court advantage and the experience of playing top teams, King was able to get this important conference win. King is now 4-0 in 5-Set matches this season! Out in New Jersey, Princeton actually scored 10 more total points than CSUN (116-106), but it doesn’t matter if the points aren’t at the right time. CSUN has now put together an impressive two match streak against Stanford and Princeton to help raise their profile. Maybe the Matadors play their best when they are ranked.

The day finished with two top 10 teams taking the match to a decisive fifth set. UC Irvine was able to edge out Pepperdine in Malibu, handing the Waves their first home loss of the year. The Anteaters were able to hold Jaylen Jasper to his lowest hitting percentage of the year (.054%) with a season high 14 hitting errors. Luckily, we get to see these two face off (just in a different location) again tomorrow. These types of matchups are exactly what we hope to see in non-conference matchups.

Today, we get a huge matchup with #2 Long Beach making the 34 mile drive down to #4 UCLA. With just one loss between these teams, this will be a must watch match. VBelo has this as a super close matchup but UCLA gets the edge (largely due to home court advantage).

The MIVA is also kicking off conference matches today as Lewis takes on Ball State and McKendree travels to Ohio State. Two of these teams are ranked and the other two received votes, so all 4 of these teams are realistically looking to win the MIVA. I don’t want to leave the IVA out as they also have a conference matchup today. Non-conference matches are fun, but it is the in-conference matches that really matter for tournaments and help teams get to the big show in May. It sounds cliché but every match counts.

Match Recaps

ConfCarolinas

Erskine (65%) def. Belmont Abbey (35%)
3-2 (25-16, 20-25, 20-25, 25-20, 20-18)

Matteo Miselli (BAC) had a season high 25 kills in the loss. This was just 2 kills shy of his career high (27) back in 2021.

King (43%) def. North Greenville (57%)
3-2 (19-25, 23-25, 26-24, 25-23, 15-8)

King could do no wrong in set 5. They had 10 kills on 12 errorless swings for a .833 hitting percentage in final set.

Non-conference

UC Irvine (28%) def. Pepperdine (72%)
3-2 (29-27, 20-25, 25-20, 27-29, 15-9)

Joe Karlous (UCI) set the Anteaters to a .267 hitting percentage with his 31 assists. He also added in a team high 13 digs in the dramatic win.

CSU Northridge (22%) def. Princeton (78%)
3-2 (27-25, 17-25, 15-25, 32-30, 15-11)

Princeton dominated the aces stat line (12-3) in the loss. Ben Harrington and Gavin Leising each contributed 5 aces each.

Purdue Fort Wayne (66%) def. Maryville (34%)
3-0 (25-17, 25-19, 25-17)

Jon Diedrich (PFW) was the only player in the match to reach double-digit kills (10), because of course he was. He added 4 aces just for good measure.

Harvard (67%) def. Merrimack (33%)
3-0 (25-20, 25-20, 25-21)