Third-ranked Penn State had to go the distance and then some Sunday at No. 6 UC Irvine to improve to 15-1.
The Nittany Lions won 32-34, 25-23, 18-25, 25-22, 15-11 in a match that took three hours.
In the only other NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball match Sunday, No. 12 Ball State also won in five in California as the Cardinals came away with a 23-25, 25-19, 25-15, 23-25, 15-12 victory at UC San Diego.
The recaps of those matches and all of Saturday’s follow, plus a hire in NCAA women’s volleyball.
Penn State (15-1) of the EIVA was coming off a win at Concordia Irvine in which it won a set 40-38. Sunday, the 34-32 first-set win UCI (10-6) of the Big West saw 22 ties and seven lead changes.
Penn State, which hit .311 and had six aces and 25 serving errors, got 14 kills from Cal Fisher and 12 from Toby Ezeonu. Fisher had three assists, three aces, nine digs and six blocks, one solo. Ezeonu hit .455 after having two errors in 22 attacks and added an assist, three digs and five blocks, one solo. Owen Rose had nine kills in 17 errorless swings, an assist, an ace, a dig and five blocks. Cole Bogner had five kills in eight errorless tries, 43 assists, four digs and three blocks, one solo.
UCI hit .239 and had 13 aces — nine by Hilir Henno —…
