NCAA Selection Show 2019 MVB

 

This is the bracket for the 7 teams competing in the national finals for the 2019 men's indoor volleyball

Dear Readers~


On April 21, 2019 the NCAA revealed the 7 teams that will be in Long Beach, California trying to win the 2019 NCAA national championship trophy for men's indoor volleyball. Those 7 teams include: Barton, Princeton, Pepperdine, USC, Lewis, Hawaii, and Long Beach State. Now it's time to see where each team stands at the end of the 2019 regular season.

Up first is Barton University, based in Wilson, North Carolina. Back in 2017 they won the Conference Carolinas championship. In 2019 they ended their regular season with 25-5 with a few teammates that were on that 2017 team including Middle Blocker 6'7 Senior Justice Lord and Outside Hitter 6'3 Senior Aleksa Brkovic. If you've seen any of the Pitch Perfect movies, this is the Barton they refer to (even though they shot the scenes at LSU) anyways, back to volleyball.

 

This is Barton's 2017 men's indoor volleyball team when they won the Conference Carolinas Championships back in 2017

The next team is Princeton University based in Princeton, New Jersey.  They ended their 2019 season with a record of 18-12 along with winning their last 8 games. A few of their top athletes from their most recent game include George Huhmann and Joe Kelly. Of the 5 categories I cover when blogging about an indoor game (Kills, Aces, Blocks, Assists, and Digs) 3 had Huhmann leading while Kelly led the other 2.

 

This is Princeton's men's indoor volleyball team after they made it to Long Beach after beating the previously discussed Barton 3 sets to 1 in North Carolina

The next team is Pepperdine University, the same school AVP player Corinne Quiggle played beach for when she was in college not long ago. If you've read some of my previous blogs you'll know that Pepperdine is in Malibu, California not far from Los Angeles. Pepperdine is sitting at 22-6 for their 2019 regular season as they prepare to take on Princeton in the Quarterfinals in Long Beach. One thing Pepperdine was able to do in the regular season was beating Concordia and become the MPSF regular season champions.

 

This is Pepperdine's men's indoor team after they became the 2019 MPSF regular season champions

The next team is USC. With lots of my blogs revolving around USC, either beach or indoor, y'all may know that USC is in Los Angeles, California, just like UCLA and has had the chance to have many players from the AVP play here for either indoor or beach. People like Riley and Maddison Mckibbin, Nicolette Martin, Geena Urango, and 2 time Olympic medalist on the beach, April Ross. USC ended their regular season with a record of 18-10 along with a 12-0 at home for the 2019 season. USC will be taking on Lewis in the quarterfinals there at Long Beach State.

 

This is USC's excitement after finding out they made it to their 15th NCAA tournament appearance

Now it's time for USC's opponent in the quarterfinals, Lewis University. Lewis is just outside of Chicago. Lewis has a 2019  record of 25-5 along with a 7 game win streak. Their game with USC is on April 30th and the winner taking on Hawaii.

 

This is Lewis ready for their trip to Long Beach State for a chance to win the national title

 

The next team is Hawaii. Being ranked #1 in the country, they go straight to the semifinals and will be taking on the winner of the USC vs Lewis game. Hawaii ended their 2019 regular season with 27-2 and a win streak of 2 so far. Being put right in the semifinals, Hawaii doesn't play until May 2, 2019.

 

Hawaii's reaction when they found out they moved straight to the semifinals

The last team to be covered is the host of the big event, the #2 ranked Long Beach State. Being ranked #2, Long Beach State was put right in the semifinals, like Hawaii, so they don't play until May 2, 2019 they have time to prepare since their last game they played was a loss against Hawaii and gave Long Beach State a record of 26-2.

 

Long Beach State is ready for the party and the finals

Those are the 7 teams that are bound for Long Beach State for the 2019 NCAA men's indoor volleyball national championships. By this time next week the 2019 NCAA men's indoor national champion will be announced. Will it be Long Beach State for a second year in a row or will Hawaii stay at #1 and win the title or maybe schools like USC or Pepperdine will defeat the #1 and #2 ranked teams in the nation for the title. Until next time, Miller out


~J. Miller

Oregon @ UCLA 4-25-2019 BVB

 

This is UCLA's game day post they put on their Instagram featuring senior Zana Muno. Don't forget to follow Zana and the UCLA beach team on Instagram to keep up with their 2019 season and beyond: @zanamuno and @uclabeachvb

 

This is the game day post that Oregon put on their Instagram featuring senior Maddy Silberger-Franek. Don't forget to follow both Maddy and the Oregon beach team on Instagram to follow them on their 2019 seaon and beyond: @maddog_franek and @oregonbvb

Dear Readers~


On Thursday, April 25, 2019 the #1 ranked UCLA Bruins took on the #9 ranked Oregon Ducks in a game of NCAA beach volleyball at the Merle Norman Stadium, home to USC, in Los Angeles, California to start the Pac-12 championship tournament for the two teams. Going into the game, UCLA has a record of 29-1 while Oregon has a record of 5-10-1 for the 2019 season. Oregon has three numbers because they tied with UC Davis back on April 12th. Now it's time to get into the most recent game.

The first game to end were the 5's. This game had Izzy Carey and Lindsey Sparks, for UCLA, taking on Elise Ferreira and Carly Wallace, of Oregon. The first set ended at 21-12, with Izzy and Lindsey taking the first set for UCLA. The second set ended at 21-8 with Izzy and Lindsey taking that set as well and putting UCLA up 1-0 against Oregon.

The second game to end were the 4's. That game had Lea Monkhouse and Savvy Simo, for UCLA, taking on Josie Cole and Ally Haden, for Oregon. The first set ended at 21-13 in favor of Lea and Savvy for UCLA. The second set ended at 21-10 with Lea and Savvy taking that set for UCLA as well and giving UCLA a 2-0 overall lead over Oregon.

The third game to end were the 1's. This had Nicole and Megan McNamara, for UCLA, taking on Brooke Nuuneviller and Lindsey Vander Weide, for Oregon. The first set ended at 21-13 with Nicole and Megan taking that set. The second set ended at 21-17 with Nicole and Megan taking that set as well and putting UCLA up 3-0 against Oregon.

The last two games between UCLA and Oregon consisting of pairs 2 and 3 were not finished and got suspended. The 2's contained Lily Justin and Sarah Sponcil, for UCLA, taking on August Raskie and Maddy Silberger-Franek, for Oregon. The first set ended at 21-13 with Lily and Sarah taking set 1. The second set ended at 19-13 with Sarah and Lily in the lead when that set was suspended.

The last game was between the 3's. It included Zana Muno and Abby Van Winkle, for UCLA, taking on Emily Mattoon and Lauren Page, for Oregon. The first set ended at 21-13 in favor of Zana and Abby. The secondo set stopped at 23-22 with Zana and Abby leading when that game was suspended.

That concludes the game between #1 UCLA and #9 Oregon. UCLA will next play Arizona on Friday, April 26, 2019 at 12 pm Pacific Time while Oregon was unable to make it to Day 2 of the Pac-12 Championships. Until next time, Miller out

~J. Miller

Long Beach State @ Hawaii 4-20-2019 MVB

 

This is the game day post Long Beach State put on their Instagram for the big gam against Hawaii. Hawaii didn't have a game day post of their own so make sure to follow both of these teams on their Instagram accounts as the end of the 2019 season is drawing nearer: @lbsumvb and @hawaiimvb

Dear Readers~


On April 20, 2019 the #2 ranked Long Beach State 49ers traveled across the ocean to Hawaii to take on the #1 ranked University of Hawaii Rainbow Warriors in a game of men's indoor volleyball at the Sheriff Center, there in Honolulu, Hawaii. With Long Beach Stat sitting at 26-1 and Hawaii at 26-2 the question was simple: Which team would get their 27th win of the 2019 season? Now it's time to get into the game to answer this very important question.

The first set ended at 25-15 with Hawaii taking that set. The second set was much closer. That set ended at 25-23 with Hawaii taking the second set as well. Long Beach State knew that to stay in this they had to win the next 3 sets, so that's just what they tried to do. The third set ended at25-22 with Long Beach State taking that third set. The next set ended at j25-20, in favor of Lon Beach State. With each team having 2 sets a fifth set happened. At the end of the set, the score was sitting at 15-8 with Hawaii taking that set and giving Long Beach State their second loss of the 2019 season and giving Hawaii their 27th win of the 2019 season. Now it's time to see what players topped the board for each category.

First up is kills. That was led by Hawaii's Stijn van Tilburg, with 25, while Kyle Ensing got 21 kills of his own for Long Beach State. The leader in aces goes to Long Beach State's Kyle Ensing and TJ DeFalco, who each got 3 aces a piece, while Rado Parapunov got 2 aces of his own for Hawaii. Hawaii's Rado Parapunov also led in blocks, getting 5, while Simon Andersen and TJ DeFalco each got 4 blocks a piece for Long Beach State. The leader in assists goes to Hawaii's Joe Worsley, with 59, while Josh Tuaniga got 52 assists of his own for Long Beach State. The leader in digs was Hawaii's Colton Cowell, with 12, while TJ DeFalco got 10 digs of his own for Long Beach State.

That concludes my blog covering the game between Long Beach State and Hawaii at the SHeriff Center on April 20, 2019. The next time these two teams play each other will be at Long Beach State for the semifinals of the 2019 men's NCAA indoor volleyball season.

 

These are the teams that made it to the bracket for the national finals for the 2019 NCAA men's indoor volleyball season. Don't forget to follow the NCAA on Instagram (@ncaavolleyball) to keep up with the finals happening at Long Beach State

I hope you enjoyed this blog and until next time, Miller out


~J. Miller

Berkeley @ Pepperdine 4-13-2019 BVB

 

This is Berkeley's game day post for this game. It features 6'0 sophomore #41 Caroline Schafer. Don't forget to follow Berkeley on the rest of their 2019 season and beyond over on Instagram: @calbeachvolleyball for the rest of their 2019 season and beyond.Pepperdine didn't have a game day post so now let the blog begin

Dear Readers~


On Saturday, April 13, 2019 Pepperdine University held the Pepperdine Invitational on Zuma Beach, there in Malibu, California. Pepperdine hosted Cal Poly and UC Berkeley. The results of the Berkeley vs Cal Poly game are linked down below: https://calbears.com/news/2019/4/13/beach-volleyball-no-12-cal-comes-up-just-short-against-top-10-opponents.aspx The game between Cal Poly and Pepperdine is also linked below: https://www.gopoly.com/sports/beachvball/2018-19/releases/20190413xpr6k3 so make sure to check those out as well as the game between Pepperdine and Cal Poly I'll be covering in this blog. This was not just your average game. This game was the last game before the 2019 West Coast Conference Championships. With Pepperdine at 17-7 and Berkeley at 17-6, the pressure was on between the two teams. Now it's time to cover the game between #5 Pepperdine and #12 Berkeley.

The first game to end were the 4's. That was between Maddie Dilfer and Nikki Lyons, of Pepperdine, against Abby Waldburger and Mia Merino, of Berkeley. The first set ended at 22-20, with Maddie and  Nikki taking that close set. The second set ended at 21-10 with Maddie and Nikki taking the second set and giving Pepperdine a 1-0 lead over Berkeley.

The next game to end was between the 1's. That was Brook Bauer and Heidi Dyer, for Pepperdine, against Jordan Polo and Mimi Mirkovic, for Berkeley. The first set ended at 21-18 in favor of Brook and Heidi. The second set ended at 21-16 in favor of Brook and Heidi as well. That gives Pepperdine a 2-0 lead over Berkeley.

The next game to end was the 2's. That had Gigi Henandez and Deahna Kraft, for Pepperdine, against Caroline Schafer and Maddie Micheletti, for Berkeley. The first set ended 21-18 with Gigi and Deahna taking that set. The second set also ended at 21-18 but this time Caroline and Maddie won that set, causing a third set to happen. The third set ended at 15-7 with Gigi and Deahna taking that set and putting Pepperdine up 3-0 against Berkeley.

The next set was between the 3's. That put Alexis Filippone and Skylar Caputo, for Pepperdine, against Iya Lindahl and Grace Campbell, for Berkeley. The first set ended at 21-17 with Iya and Grace taking the first set. The second set also ended at 21-17, but this time Alexis and Skylar got revenge by winning the second set and causing a third set to happen. That third set ended at 15-10 with Alexis and Skylar winning and making the score 4-0.

The last game was the 5's. That had Simone Priebe and Katie Gavin, for Pepperdine, against Mati Dueck and Alexia Inman, for Berkeley. The first set was close, ending at 22-20 with Mati and Alexia taking the first set. The second set ended at 21-15 with Simone and Katie winning that set to cause a third set to happen. The third set ended at 15-13 with Mati and Alexia winning it and making the overall score between the two teams 4-1 with Pepperdine beating Berkeley at Zuma Beach there in Malibu, California.

That concludes the blog between Pepperdine and Berkeley. Stay tuned for my next blog and until then, Miller out


~J. Miller

Hawaii @ LBSU 4-12-2019 MVB

This is the game day post Long Beach State put on their Instagram for the big game against Hawaii. Give them a follow to keep up with the rest of their 2019 season and beyond: @lbsumvb on Instagram

This is the game day post Hawaii put on their Instagram for the big game at Long Beach State. If you want to keep up with their 2019 season and beyond, follow them on Instagram: @hawaiimvb

Dear Readers~


On Friday, April 12, 2019 #1 Hawaii and #2 Long Beach State had their first of 2 match ups during the 2019 season at the Walter Pyramid there in Long Beach, California. I will be covering their first match up. If you'd like to see their second match up that happened on Saturday, April 13, 2019 I'll be linking that down below: https://longbeachstate.com/boxscore.aspx?id=6123&path=mvball Now it's time for the first match up between the two teams.

The first set was one of the closest of the game. That set ended at 26-24 with Hawaii taking set 1. The second set was still insane, ending at 25-22, with Long Beach State taking that set. The third set had one of the biggest scoring gaps. That set ended at 25-16, with Hawaii taking the third set. The fourth set ended at 25-16 as well, but this time it was Long Beach State taking the set. With each team winning 2 sets, a fifth set happened. The fifth set was intense. The score ended at 15-13 and in favor of Long Beach State. At the end of the game, Long Beach State had won 3 sets to 2 and gave Hawaii their first loss of the 2019 season. At the end of this game, Long Beach State's record for 2019 is 24-1 while Hawaii's record for 2019 is 25-1.

Now it's time to meet the top players from each category that made the scoring possible. The leader in kills goes to Hawaii's Rado Parapunov, with 21, while Kyle Ensing and TJ DeFalco each got 18 kills of their own for Long Beach State. The leader in aces was Long Beach State's TJ DeFalco, with 4,while Colton Cowell got 2 aces of his own for Hawaii. The leader in blocks was Long Beach State's Kyle Ensing, with 7, while Patrick Gasman had 5 blocks of his own for Hawaii. The leader in assists goes to Long Beach  State's Josh Tuaniga, with 47, while Joe Worsley got 45 assists of his own for Hawaii. The leader in digs goes to Hawaii's Gage Worsley, with 15, while Jordan Molina got 10 digs of his own for Long Beach State.

This is Long Beach State Senior TJ DeFalco, The same man that led Long Beach in aces and had the most kills, tied with Kyle Ensing, for this first match up against Hawaii

That concludes my coverage of the game between Long Beach State and Hawaii on April 12, 2019. Don't forget to follow the two teams during the rest of the 2019 season and beyond on Instagram: @hawaiimvb and @lbsumvb. Both teams play next on Friday, April 19, 2019 in the Big West Semifinals at the Sherif Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. The teams they will be playing are undetermined at this moment because  the quarterfinals are on Thursday, April 18, 2019. Hawaii will play either #3 UC Irvine or #6 UC San Diego while Long Beach State will play either #4 UC Santa Barbara or #5 CSUN. That concludes my blog between Long Beach State and Hawaii. Stay tuned for my latest blog and until next time, Miller out


~J. Miller

UCLA vs USC 4-7-2019 BVB

 

This is USC's game day post they put on their Instagram featuring 6'3 graduate Terese Cannon. Don't forget to follow them on Instagram to keep up with their 2019 season: @uscbeach 

 

This is UCLA's game day post they put on their Instagram featuring 6'3 sophomore Mac May. Don't forget to follow them on Instagram to keep up with their 2019 season: @uclabeachvb

Dear Readers~


On Sunday, April 7, 2019 UCLA took on USC in a game of women's beach volleyball at the PAC-12 North Tournament held at the Stanford Beach Volleyball Stadium in Stanford, California. With UCLA having a record of 25-0 while USC has a record of 18-4, the two teams knew the game would be good, especially because UCLA is ranked #1 in the country while USC isn't very far behind on that list at #2. Now it's time to start the game.

The first game to finish were the 1's. That had UCLA's Nicole and Megan McNamara taking on USC's Abril Bustamante and Tina Gradudina. The first set ended at 21-16 with Abril nad Tina taking that set. Nicole and Megan fought back hard in the second to bring the set to 21-11. Sadly for Nicole and Megan, that second set went to Abril and Tina as well and putting USC up 1-0 against UCLA.

The second game to finish were the 2's. That had UCLA's Lily Justine and Sarah Sponcil taking on USC's Sammy Slater and Terese Cannon. The first set ended 21-17, in favor of Sammy and Terese. The second set was closer, ending at 21-18, with Sammy and Terese taking that set as well and putting UCLA up 2-0 against UCLA.

The third game to end was the 4's. That had UCLA's Savvy Simo and Lea Monkhouse against USC's Joy Dennis and Maja Kaiser. The first set ended 21-16 with Savvy and Lea taking that first set. The second set ended at 21-11 with Savvy and lea taking that set as well to put UCLA on the board 1-2, with USC still one game ahead.

The next game was the 5's. That had UCLA's Izzy Carey and Lindsey Sparks against USC's Laurel Kujan and Hannah Martin. The first set ended at 21-13, in favor of Izzy and Lindsey. The second set was closer at 21-14. That set went in favor of Izzy and Lindsey as well to tie it up at 2 for each team.

The tie breaker was the 3's. That had UCLA's Zana Muno and Abby Van Winkle against USC's Haley Hallgren and Alexandra Poletto. the first set ended 21-16, in favor of Haley and Alexandra. The second set ended at 21-10, in favor of Zana and Abby. That means that this match was the only one between these two teams that went to a third set. with the third set ending very close, at 15-13, the winner of that third set was Haley and Alexandra, who helped USC be the first team to beat UCLA this season.

There was also an extra game between UCLA's Madi Yeomans and Megan Muret taking on USC's Josannah Vazquez and Karina myszkowski. The first set ended 21-14 with Madi and Megan winning that set. The second set ended at 21-16, with Madi and Megan taking that set as well.

At the end of the game, The score was 3-2 with USC taking the win and handing UCLA their first lose of the 2019 NCAA Beach Volleyball Season. UCLA's next game is on Saturday, April 20, 2019 at 9:30 am Pacific Time against GCU at the Sunset Canyon Recreation Center there in Los Angeles, California while USC's next game is on Thursday, April 13, 2018 at 1 pm Pacific Time when they take on GCU at the Merle Norman Stadium there in Los Angeles, California.

 

These are the results of the game with USC beating UCLA 3-2. This picture features Alexandra Poletto (left) and Haley Hallgren (right)

That concludes my latest blog. I hope you enjoyed. Stay tuned for my next blog and Miller out


~J. Miller

UCLA @ USC 4-6-2019 MVB

 

This is USC's game day post they put on their Instagram. Follow them for more: @uscmensvolley

 

This is UCLA's game day post they put on their Instagram. Follow them for more: @uclamvb

Dear Readers~


Saturday, April 6, 2019 was a big day. That was USC's last home game of the regular season. During that game the #6 USC Trojans took on none other than their cross town rivals, #5 UCLA Bruins, in a game of men's indoor volleyball at the Galen Center there at USC. Going into the game, USC is sitting at 15-9 while UCLA is sitting at 18-7 for their 2019 seasons. Now it's time to get into the game.

The first set ended at 25-19, in favor of UCLA. The second set ended at 25-15 in favor of USC. The third set ended at 25-14 in favor of UCLA. Going into the fourth set USC knew that they had to win this set and the next one. So that's just what they set out to do. The fourth set ended at 25-20, and the only set the entire game where both teams reached 20 or more points. With each team winning 2 sets, a fifth set happened. That fifth set ended at 15-11 with UCLA falling short and USC coming out victorious by winning 3 sets to 2. By winning this game against UCLA, USC ends their regular season with an 11-0 perfect record at home and a 16-9 overall record for 2019 while UCLA has 18-8 for their overall 2019 record.

Now it's time for the players that helped make these results what they were. Up first is kills. The leader in that area was UCLA's Daenan Gyimah, with 21, while Ryan Moss led USC with 16 kills of his own. Aces was a category with a tie because 3 people each got 3 aces each during the 5 set game. They are Grant Maleski and Micah Ma'a, for UCLA, along with Chris Hall, for USC. The leader in blocks was Sam Lewis, of USC, with 4 blocks, while Micah Ma'a led UCLA with 3 blocks of his own, even though Micah is a setter not a blocker like Sam is. The leader for assists goes to UCLA's Adam Parks, with a total of 50 assists while Chris Hall led USC with 39 assists of his own. The last category is digs. The leader in that category was USC's Matt Douglas, with 12, while Micah Ma'a led UCLA with 7 digs of his own.

 

This is #24 for USC, Ryan Moss, Celebrating after the big win and an 11-0 at home during the 2019 season. Follow him on Instagram for more: @ryanmoss10

This game was very special because not only was it the last regular season game of 2019 for the two teams but also because it was senior night for USC. Their seniors include #9 Gianluca Grasso, #24 Ryan Moss, #20 Jack Wyett, #5 Matt Douglas, and #16 Tyler Resnick. The seniors for UCLA who played their final regular season game were #6 Jonah Kay, #12 Dylan Missry, #13 Micah Ma'a, and #21 Spencer Sachs. USC doesn't have a group pic of their seniors on their Instagram but UCLA does so now let's meet the seniors of the two teams:

 

This is #24 Ryan Moss

 

This is #20 Jack Wyett

 

This is #16 Tyler Resnick

 

This is #5 Matt Douglas

 

This is #9 Gianluca Grasso

 

These are UCLA's seniors. Right to left: Micah Ma'a, Spencer Sachs, Dylan Missry, and Jonah Kay

As many of you know, lots of people on the AVP went to USC or UCLA. Two people that went to USC were Riley and Maddison Mckibbin, they also played indoor there just like their little brother, Jameson, does now. Jameson actually got 2 aces, the second highest for USC, during this game against UCLA. If you'd like to watch Jameson play beach volleyball with his brothers, Riley and Maddison, the three did a video at the 2018 SmackFest event in Hermosa Beach, California that I'll be linking below. The title of the video is called "SmackFest 2018 Beach Volley Highlights and Bloopers" if you'd like to check it out. It's actually my favorite video done by the brothers so I suggest giving it a view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OgPKEBha2A Jameson comes in at around the 1:05 mark.

 

This is Jameson Mckibbin playing in the 2018 SmackFest event

Someone who played indoor for UCLA was actually Jeremy Casebeer, who played with Olympic Gold medalists Eric Fonoimoana against Maddison and Riley at the 2018 AVP Hermosa Beach Open on stadium court. That video is titled "Mckibbin/Mckibbin vs. Fonoimoana/Casebeer AVP Hermosa Beach 2018" That video is linked here if you'd like to watch it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii42zwxKzr4

 

This was the game where Riley and Maddison McKibbin took on Jeremy Casebeer and Eric Fonoimoana at the 2018 AVP Hermosa Beach Open

That concludes the game between USC and UCLA to close out the 2019 regular season of Men's volleyball between the two schools. Don't forget the national championships will be held at Long Beach State in Long Beach, California from May 2-4, 2019 for men's indoor or if you live on the east coast, the national championships for NCAA women's beach will be held from May 3-5, 2019 in Gulf Shores, Alabama. If you'd rather watch pro volleyball the AVP has their first stop in Huntington Beach, California from May 3-5, 2019 as well. Stay tuned for my next blog and until next time, Miller out


~J. Miller

USC @ UCLA 4-3-2019 BVB

 

These are the NCAA beach volleyball rankings as of April 1, 2019. #1 taking on #2 on the sand tells you that the game was good. Don't forget to follow the NCAA volleyball account on Instagram to keep up with some of these teams: @ncaavolleyball

 

This was UCLA's game day post featuring Zana Muno and Abby Van Winkle. Don't forget to follow all of these on Instagram to keep up with their 2019 season: @uclabeachvb, @zanamuno, and @_abbyvanwinkle_

 

This was USC's game day post featuring Abril Bustamante. Don't forget to follow them on Instagram: @uscbeach and @abrilbustamante to keep up with the rest of their 2019 season.

Dear Readers~


On Wednesday, April 3, 2019 UCLA took on LMU and USC in 2 games of beach volleyball. Even though the game with LMU was first, I'll be covering the game with USC instead. If you'd like to see the results of the game between UCLA and LMU, the link to that is below: https://uclabruins.com/news/2019/4/3/beach-volleyball-no-1-ucla-posts-a-pair-of-4-1-victories.aspx Even though UCLA had 2 games that day, USC only had 1 game to play. Now it's time to talk about the game. Before the games against LMU and USC, UCLA was sitting at 21-0 for the 2019 season while USC was sitting at 16-3 for their 2019 season.

The first team to finish were the 4's. That game included Savvy Simo and Lea Monkhouse, for UCLA, against Joy Dennis and Maja Kaiser, for USC. Savvy and Lea won the first set at 21-12. The second set was a little closer, coming in at 21-14, with Savvy and Lea also taking that set and putting UCLA up 1-0 over USC in the overall scoring.

The next team to finish were the 2's. That included Lily Justine and Sarah Sponcil, for UCLA, against Sammy Slater and Terese Cannon, for USC. The first set was close ending at 21-18, in favor of Lily and Sarah. The second set wasn't as close, ending at 21-15 with Lily and Sarah taking that set as well and putting UCLA up 2-0 against USC. Terese may sound familiar because she played in the 2018 AVP Chicago Open back in September. This match was also special for Sarah because this was the 100th match she won during her NCAA beach volleyball career.

The next game to finish were the 1's. That included Megan and Nicole McNamara, for UCLA, against Abril Bustamante and Tina Graudina, for USC. The first set ended 21-10 with Nicole and Megan winning that set. The second set was much closer, ending at 21-19 with Nicole and Megan taking that set as well and putting UCLA up 3-0 against USC.

The next game to end were the 5's. That game had Izzy Carey and Lindsey Sparks, for UCLA, taking on Laurel Kujan and Hannah Martin, for USC. The first set ended 24-22 with Izzy and Lindsey winning that set. The second set ended 31-29 with Laurel and Hannah winning that set and causing a third set to happen. The third set ended at 15-13 with Laurel and Hannah winning that set for USC and moving the score from 3-0 to 3-1.

The last game was the 3's. That included Zana Muno and Abby Van Winkle, for UCLA, against Haley Hallgren and Alexandra Poletto, for USC. The first set ended at 23-21, in favor of Zana and Abby. The second set was just as close, ending at 25-23, in favor of Zana and Abby. That moved the overall score from 3-1 up to 4-1, in favor of UCLA.

There was even an extra match between UCLA and USC. That match had Mac May and Megan Muret, for UCLA, against Josannah Vazquez and Karina Myszkowski, for USC. The first set between the 2 teams ended at 21-17, in favor of Mac and Megan. The second set ended 21-15 with Mac and Megan coming out on top again.

UCLA's next game is against Washington on Saturday, April 6, 2019 at 9 am Pacific Time as UCLA travels to play in the PAC-12 North Tournament held in Stanford, California. USC's next game is also on Saturday, April 6, 2019 as they also travel to Stanford to play in the PAC-12 North Tournament. Their first game is at 11 am Pacific Time against UC Berkeley.

Don't forget that in less than 1 month the national finals for the NCAA men's indoor and NCAA women's beach will be happening in Long Beach, California and Gulf Shores, Alabama. Also don't forget that during that same weekend, the first AVP stop of 2019 will be happening in Huntington Beach, California as they team up with the FIVB to host the event. Until next time, Miller out


~J. Miller

BYU @ USC 3-30-2019 MVB

 

This is USC's game day post featuring Redshirt Senior 6'5 Outside Hitter #20 Jack Wyett. Don't forget to follow the USC men's team on Instagram: @uscmensvolley

 

This is BYU's game day post featuring Sophomore 6'9 Middle Blocker #16 Felipe de Brito Ferreira. Don't forget to follow the BYU men's volleyball team on Instagram: @byuvolleyball

Dear Readers~


On Saturday, March 30, 2019 at 7 pm Pacific Time, the #9 USC Trojans hosted the #10 BYU Cougars in a game of men's indoor volleyball at the Galen Center there in Los Angeles, California. With USC coming off of 3 previous wins, with 2 of those 3 happening at home, USC was hoping to go 4 wins in a row and have a home record go from 9-0 to 10-0. BYU has lost 3 of their last 3 games so they wanted a win against USC and they also wanted to be the first team to beat USC at USC. Now it's time for the game.

The first set ended 25-20 with USC taking the first set. After working harder in the second, the score ended 25-22 with USC taking that set as well. Going into the 3rd set BYU knew that if they wanted to stay in this game they had to win the next set. The third set would end with a score of 25-21. At the end of the set, USC walked away victorious with a 3-0 sweep of BYU and are now 10-0 at home while BYU just got their 4th straight loss of the season.

Now it's time for the results of the top players for each category. Kills was led by USC's Gianluca Grasso and Jack Wyett, each with 11 kills for USC, while Gabi Garcia Fernande led BYU with 9 kills of his own. The leader in aces was USC's Gianluca Grasso, with 2 aces, while David Gardini, Alex Ah Sue, and Zach Eschenberg each got 1 ace a piece for BYU. The leader in blocks was USC's Sam Lewis, with 7, while Felipe de Brito Ferr led BYU with 3 blocks of his own. BYU's Brody Earnest led in assists with 32, while USC's Chris Hall wasn't far behind with 31 assists of his own. The leader in digs was a tie with each team's leader getting 8 digs each. They were Matt Douglas, of USC, and Zach Hendrickson, of BYU.

 

This is Senior 6'8 Outside Hitter #24 Ryan Moss

The next game for both teams won't be until Thursday, April 4, 2019 with BYU playing at 7 pm Mountain Time and USC playing at 7 pm Pacific Time. BYU travels to Phoenix, Arizona to take on GCU while USC travels to Malibu, California to take on Pepperdine.

As many of you may know, lots of AVP players went to, and even played volleyball for, USC. The two former Trojans I'll be talking about are Riley and Maddison Mckibbin. If you've seen my blog when USC traveled to play UCI in a game of men's indoor volleyball you'll remember that I talked about how Maddison won the 2017 AVP San Francisco Open with former UCI student athlete, Ty Loomis. If you've seen any of my blogs covering BYU volleyball, you'll know that a certain Olympian went there. That man is Casey Patterson. What some of y'all might not know is that Casey teamed up with Riley and Maddison to do a video for the Mckibbin's YouTube channel. That video was titled "Top 5 Hand Setting Tips for Beach Volleyball" If you'd like to watch Casey talk about what he does very well, click the link below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M61cOZFl_aI so make sure to check that out and also if you haven't already subscribed to their YouTube channel, make sure to do that. Don't forget to follow them on Instagram: @riley_mack4, @caseypatt, and @Maddison.Mckibbin to keep up with their fun adventures. Until next time, Miller out


~J. Miller