Top college men’s volleyball matches to follow tonight

Check out all the matches today involving NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball teams and how to follow them live.

No. 5/5 UCLA (15-5, 4-2 MPSF) vs. No. 7/7 Pepperdine (10-4, 4-2 MPSF)
Match vitals: 7 p.m. in Los Angeles
Follow live: Live stats, Online video, Radio feed, In-match tweets
What to know: Any realistic hopes of winning the MPSF regular season championship will be squashed tonight for either No. 5/5 UCLA or No. 7/7 Pepperdine. The Bruins and Waves will play each other to begin the second half of the MPSF season with both teams tied for second place in the conference. In addition, No. 4/3 BYU with five remaining MPSF matches is in first-place and has a two-and-half match lead in the standings. UCLA enters having lost four of its last five matches, including a three-game loss to Pepperdine on Feb. 23. The Bruins in this stretch have finished with less than a .225 attack percentage in three matches. The team still is fourth in the nation hitting .337 for the season, but before the most recent five matches UCLA had a streak of six consecutive matches with at least a .400 attack percentage. One difference for UCLA from the last time it lost to Pepperdine is the return of opposite Christian Hessenauer. Hessenauer after missing two matches was reinserted into the starting lineup and had a team-high 16 kills in a four-game victory against Stanford last week. The opposite also leads UCLA and is among the MPSF leaders with a 3.40 kills per game average. Pepperdine all-conference outside attacker David Wieczorek leads the MPSF and is eighth in the nation with a 3.89 kills per game average. Wieczorek has double-digit kills in every match he played in this season and had a match-high 20 kills in a five-game loss to BYU last week that ended Pepperdine’s five-match winning streak. Along with his offensive performance, the junior had a season-high four aces versus the Cougars and now has multiple aces in seven matches throughout the season. Wieczorek also had four aces in the victory against UCLA and added 13 kills on a .440 attack percentage. Opposite Alex Harthaller led Pepeprdine with 17 kills on a season-high .708 attack percentage in that recent sweep. This conference match also could have significant bracketology implications. Both UCLA and Pepperdine are among the teams under NCAA Tournament consideration, according to the latest Off the Block bracketology. However, a loss by either team could be a devastating blow to its at-large changes. No team with more than six regular season losses has earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament since the tournament field expanded to six teams in 2014.

No. 1/1 Long Beach State (16-0, 2-0 Big West) vs. Mount Olive (10-5, 7-2 ConfCarolinas)
Match vitals: 7 p.m. in Long Beach, California 
Follow live: Live stats, Online video, Radio feed, In-match tweets

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No. 3/4 UC Irvine (11-4, 1-1 Big West) vs. Fort Wayne (13-4, 3-3 MIVA)
Match vitals: 7 p.m. in Irvine, California 
Follow live: Live stats, Online video, In-match tweets

No. 10/10 Ball State (10-7, 4-2 MIVA) vs. No. 14 Concordia-Irvine (8-8, 3-3 MPSF)
Match vitals: 7 p.m. in Irvine, California
Follow live: Live stats, Online video

USC (4-13, 1-5 MPSF) vs. UC San Diego (8-9, 0-2 Big West)
Match vitals: 7 p.m. in La Jolla, California 
Follow live: Live stats, Online video, In-match tweets

Division III National Matches of the Day

No. 3 Marymount (14-4) vs. Stevenson (11-6)
Match vitals:
7 p.m. in Owings Mills, Maryland
Follow live: Live stats, Online video

Milwaukee Engineering (9-3) vs. Aurora (9-5)
Match vitals:
7 p.m. in Aurora, Illinois
Follow live: Live stats, Online video