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The second day of the college men’s volleyball and another marquee non-conference match-up.
No. 3 Loyola after an off-season with several key departures will return to the court to defend its NCAA championship as it plays No. 9 UC Santa Barbara.
Check out all the college men’s volleyball matches to follow today.
No. 3 Loyola (0-0, 0-0 MIVA) vs. No. 9 UC Santa Barbara (0-1, 0-0 MPSF)
Match vitals: 3 p.m. in Chicago
Follow live: Live stats, Online video, In-match tweets
What to know: It already has been a chaotic week for No. 3 Loyola even before it begins its attempt at a three-peat. The two-time defending NCAA champions Loyola will play its season-opener against No. 9 UC Santa Barbara days after head coach Shane Davis resigned to become the head coach of the Northwestern women’s volleyball. With Davis’ departure, this non-conference match will be the head coaching debut for former Loyola assistant coach Mark Hulse. Hulse, the 2014 AVCA National Assistant Coach of the Year, takes over a program that lost both its All-American outside attackers but returns a majority of starters from last year’s championship team. The Ramblers had a nation-best three players named Off the Block/Springbak, Inc. Preseason All-Americans — setter Peter Hutz and middle attackers Jeff Jendryk and Nicholas Olson. UC Santa Barbara concludes its season-opening Midwest road trip after losing to No. 8 Lewis in four games on Saturday. Outside attacker Jacob Delson in the loss had a team-high 14 kills and was one of three Gauchos to finish with double-digit kills. In addition, All-American setter Jonah Seif led all players with four aces in the season-opener.