VBelo Scouting Report: February 10, 2023
VBelo Scouting Report: February 10, 2023
Conference matches galore
The volleyball world had its eyes on Los Angeles last night and…it was not the epic battle we thought. The big news was that UCLA’s Miles Partain, the reigning MPSF Player of the Year, parted ways with the UCLA Men’s Volleyball team. (Miles, best of luck in your professional beach career.) For the Bruins, this is a huge loss, but they are far from out of luck in the setter department, as evidenced in the early season and last night. Andrew Rowan led the Bruins to a .551 hitting pct while adding 40 assists, 5 blocks, and 6 digs, in just 3 sets. So yeah, it looks like UCLA will be just fine. Even with their 23 service errors, UCLA handled Long Beach with relative ease. I will wait to pass judgement on this series until after tonight’s matches, but UCLA got a very important first win post-Partain.
Charleston continued its perfect season with 2 victories today. Of course, they were both sweeps which means that the Golden Eagles are now 33-0 in sets this year. Over in the MIVA, conference play got off to a hot start. Ohio State held off a scrappy McKendree and Lewis pulled off the upset at Ball State. It looks like the Cardinals are getting creative with their lineups (possibly due to injuries) but I wouldn’t count them out just yet. If these matches are any indication, we are in for some great conference matches in the Midwest.
Today we have conference matchups from the middle of the country eastward. Apparently the West Coast didn’t get the memo. Every team in the Conference Carolinas will be vying for a value conference win. We will also have 6 of the 8 IVA teams in action. The MIVA will continue its second day of conference play after a very exciting day one. But the big news is that the NEC will have its first EVER conference matches. Best of luck to all of the NEC teams as they enter into the gauntlet of conference play. Thank you for being a part of the men’s volleyball community and for making us all better.
In the non-conference world, we get the rematch between UCLA and Long Beach, but this time the Bruins will be in hostile territory. VBelo has this match as a virtual toss-up, and honestly, I could see it going either way. We also get the rematch of Pepperdine and UC Irvine which might be closer than the Long Beach/UCLA match. Also Hawai’i, after a bye-week, will travel to Stanford for two very important matches for the two time defending champs. Tons of matches all over the country today so I hope you have the chance to watch, listen, or live-stat a match or twelve.
Match Recaps
IVA
Queens (60%) def. Tusculum (40%)
3-0 (25-19, 25-21, 25-22)
Matthew Pilch (QU) finished with 17 kills to lead all players. He only had 1 hitting error and had a .593 hitting percentage.
MIVA
Lewis (32%) def. Ball State (68%)
3-2 (25-22, 19-25, 25-23, 20-25, 18-16)
Tinaishe Ndavazocheva (BSU) is quickly making a name for himself. He had 27 kills (a career high) in the loss.
Ohio State (58%) def. McKendree (42%)
3-1 (25-23, 22-25, 25-18, 25-21)
Noah Platfoot (OSU) had a double-double (43 assists & 14 digs) and Kevin Schuele (McK) also had a double-double (10 kills & 14 digs). Double double-double!1
Non-conference
UCLA (60%) def. Long Beach (40%)
3-0 (25-19, 25-21, 25-20)
UCLA’s top 3 hitters (David Ido-17k, Alex Knight-12k, Merrick McHenry-7k) combined for 2 total hitting errors!
Benedictine (39%) def. Concordia-Irvine (61%)
3-2 (25-16, 22-25, 25-18, 17-25, 15-11)
Edward Waters (71%) def. Webber International (29%)
3-0 (25-18, 25-22, 25-21)
Setter Kenyon Haynes (EWU) led his team to a .330 hitting percentage with 42 assists (in just 3 sets).
Charleston (74%) def. Wittenberg (26%)
3-0 (26-24, 25-13, 25-16)
Charleston (80%) def. Rio Grande (20%)
3-0 (25-19, 25-17, 25-13)
Match Projections
ConfCarolinas
Erskine (53%) vs Lees-McRae (47%)
Emmanuel (36%) vs King (64%)
Mount Olive (69%) vs Belmont Abbey (31%)
Barton (8%) vs North Greenville (92%)
IVA
Queens (28%) vs Lincoln Memorial (72%)
Alderson Broaddus (33%) vs Missouri S&T (67%)
Limestone (65%) vs Tusculum (35%)
MIVA
Purdue Fort Wayne (72%) vs Lindenwood (28%)
Loyola Chicago (83%) vs Quincy (17%)
NEC
Daemen (78%) vs D'Youville (22%)
Saint Francis (48%) vs Fairleigh Dickinson (52%)
Non-conference
Master's (36%) vs Concordia-Irvine (64%)
Morehouse (24%) vs St. Andrews (76%)
Pepperdine (54%) vs UC Irvine (46%)
Hawai'i (77%) vs Stanford (23%)
UC Santa Barbara (44%) vs BYU (56%)
UCLA (48%) vs Long Beach (52%)
CSU Northridge (24%) vs NJIT (76%)
King's (59%) vs American International (41%)
Arizona Christian (10%) vs Grand Canyon (90%)
Central State (42%) vs Maryville (58%)
Tweet of the Day
This doesn’t get old for me.