UC Irvine had a phenomenal night and beat a very good USC team. I know this isn’t how it actually works, but VBelo had this match as a 51/49 tossup in favor of the Anteaters and that feels like exactly what happened. If those two teams played 100 times, I can easily imagine them each winning 50 matches. There were great performances on both sides of the net, and these teams are just so well matched. Just look as some of the match stats!
Other matches were played yesterday too. Princeton got it’s first ever win against Concordia-Irvine and Lees-McRae played its first match of the season. There was also a tough matchup where Sacred Heart took down the 4th ranked team in D-III in five sets. The Big West also got three wins from CSUN, Hawai’i, and UCSD. This is the 9th straight season that the Hawai’i Rainbow Warriors have started the season 3-0.
In case you are wondering, there are currently 16 teams who are undefeated. Six of those teams1 lead the way with 4-0 records. Of the undefeated teams, there are 5 who have not dropped a single set.2 The MPSF still has the best record at 23-3. In terms of conference-on-conference records, the MPSF is 7-2 against the Big West and the EIVA is 7-1 against the NEC.
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Today, a great 2-day, 5-team event will kickoff at King University in Bristol, TN. It will feature teams from the MIVA, ConfCarolinas, EIVA, and IVA. On the West Coast, USC will be hosting UCSB as they look to get revenge after their season opening loss to the Gauchos and bounce back from their tough 5-set loss last night. After today’s matches, we will be down to only 5 teams who have yet to play their first match in 2023.
Despite only out-hitting Concordia in one set, Ben Harrington (21 kills, .515 pct, 4 aces) helped power the Tigers to their first ever victory over Concordia-Irvine.
