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Check out the five things to take away from the NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball matches this weekend.
St. Francis stuns Penn State — St. Francis overcame a one-game deficit to beat first-place No. 6/6 Penn State in four games on Friday for the program’s first win versus the Nittany Lions. Outside attacker Stephen Braswell in the victory had a match-high 20 kills to help the Red Flashes move into third place in the EIVA. St. Francis also became the first team since February 1998 to win a road conference regular season match against Penn State.
CSUN gets bounce-back win — Opposite Arvis Greene led all players with a career-high 21 kills to help No. 11 CSUN upset No. 2/2 Long Beach State in five games on Saturday. This victory came one day after the 49ers swept the Matadors to open the weekend home-and-home series, including having a 16-point victory in the first game. The Matadors remain in eighth place in the MPSF and have a one-match lead against ninth-place No. 13 CSUN for the final berth to the conference tournament.
BYU winning streak finished — The nation’s longest winning streak ended at 13 matches as No. 8/7 Pepperdine on the road defeated No. 1/1 BYU in four games on Saturday. Opposite Matt Tarantino finished with a team-high 20 kills, while freshman outside attacker David Wieczorek added 18 kills on a .448 attack percentage against the Cougars. Despite the loss, outside attacker Jake Langlois had a career-high 24 kills.
Four-way tie atop MPSF — With both BYU and Long Beach State losing this weekend, there is now a four-way tie for first place in the MPSF. BYU, Long Beach State, Stanford and UCLA each are 13-3 with six remaining conference matches in the regular season.
Barton takes bite out of Erskine — Barton moved into a tie with Erskine for second place in the Conference Carolinas following a road sweep against the Flying Fleet on Saturday. Both of Erskine’s conference losses this season have come against Barton. In addition, the Bulldogs in the sweep held the Flying Fleet a .119 attack percentage — their worst attack percentage in conference play this season.