There were a handful of Monday matches involving NCAA Division I-II teams and Tuesday’s slate includes NJIT of the EIVA at Coker and conference mate Harvard at USC.
In Conference Carolinas there are two league matches on Tuesday as Belmont Abbey goes to Lees-McRae and King plays at Pfeiffer. Also, Limestone plays host to Cal Baptist of the MPSF.
All the polls follow — men’s Division I-II, men’s Division III and NCAA women’s beach — plus some analysis, the POWs, and notes.
Polls
AVCA Division I-II Poll: UC-Irvine’s upset of Ohio State caused some mild ripples in the weekly poll. Ohio State dropped a notch to No. 2, still getting 11 first-place votes. Long Beach State moved up a spot to No. 1 with the 13 other first-place votes.
BYU stayed No. 3, Hawai’i stayed No. 4, but UCI moved up a spot to fifth. UCLA moved up to No. 6, while previous No. 5 Lewis, which went 1-2 on its West Coast trip, dropped to No. 7. Otherwise movement was minimal and no new teams broke through.
Click here for the AVCA Division I-II poll
AVCA Division III Poll: Springfield is still No. 1 and got all 17 first-place votes, but UC Santa Cruz tumbled from three spots to No. 5, allowing SUNY New Paltz, Stevens and Vassar to move up one spot each. Wentworth jumped from 10th to No. 6.
Click here for the full AVCA Division III poll
AVCA Collegiate Beach Poll: Defending-champion and still unbeaten USC stayed No. 1, but Pepperdine moved up a notch to No. 2 and UCLA the same to third as Florida State dropped from second to No. 4 after losing to Pepperdine and UCLA this past weekend.
South Carolina made the biggest jump, going from No. 15 to a tie for 10th.
Two new teams moved in, Cal at No. 14 and Cal Poly at No. 15.
Click here for the entire AVCA Beach poll
Pac-12 beach pair of the week: A different kind of POW, but the honor goes to UCLA Canadian twins Megan and Nicole McNamara. They went 4-0 and so did their team.
National POWs
AVCA Division I-II POW: The honor goes to UC Irvine senior setter Michael Saeta. He averaged 10.67 assists, 1.44 kills while hitting .750 and 1.78 digs in a week in which the Anteaters went 3-0 and upset No. 1 Ohio State. Teammate Tamir Hershko won the award two weeks ago and teammate Thomas Hodges is this week’s MPSF POW.
AVCA Division III National POW: Wentworth Institute of Technology junior setter Collin Ritter. Ritter’s team had three victories and he had 50-plus sets in two of them. He also averaged 1.83 digs and .58 blocks. The last time a player from his school got the honor was in 2000.
NCAA men’s volleyball
It’s relatively late in the season, but there is still a lot of out-of-conference action going on.
That includes Monday, when UC Santa Barbara of the MPSF beat visiting Harvard of the EIVA in five and No. 12 USC swept visiting George Mason of the EIVA. Also, Charleston of the EIVA won in four at North Greenville.
MPSF
Player of the Week: UC Irvine senior outside hitter Thomas Hodges. The Australian who previously played at Pacific averaged 3.67 kills in a 3-0 week in which UCI upset No. 1 Ohio State. He hit .353 and also averaged 1.22 digs, .44 aces and .78 blocks.
Key matches this week: In the league, Hawai’i at BYU and Pepperdine at Stanford. In non-conference action, Sacred Heart of the EIVA goes to UCLA, Long Beach State and USC.
Last week’s key results: Everything pales in comparison to UC Irvine’s upset sweep at top-ranked Ohio State. Hawai’i had back-to-back sweeps of visiting Stanford, BYU did the same to Pepperdine and UCLA and USC both beat visiting Lewis of the MIVA.
Worth noting: Hawai’i has broken the school record by winning 32 sets in a row … BYU gets home court advantage in the MPSF quarterfinals with its next league victory … Dimitar Kalchev has 56 aces this season for CSUN, one off the school record set by Eric Vance in 2009.
Click here for the MPSF standings
EIVA
Offensive Player of the Week: NJIT senior outside Jabarry Goodridge. The 6-4 product of Barbados averaged 5.83 kills per set in two victories and hit .509.
Defensive Player of the Week: NJIT junior opposite Raymond Kowalski. Kowalski had 11 blocks and nine digs in the two wins. His offense wasn’t bad, either, with 23 kills in those two matches.
Key matches this week: The EIVA is almost entirely out of conference this week, with the exception being NJIT at Charleston for back-to-back matches. Among the non-league matches worth noting are Harvard at USC on Tuesday, and Sacred Heart at UCLA on Friday and Long Beach State on Saturday.
Last week’s key results: NJIT swept Princeton, which put Penn State, off for the week, alone in first. George Mason lost at Long Beach State, but bounced back with an upset — and sweep — of then No. 11 CSUN.
Worth noting: Goodridge leads the league in kills (267), kills per set (4.45) and aces (28) … Second-place Sacred Heart leads in team hitting percentage, .308, and also in opponent hitting percentage, .202. SFU is also the league leader in digs at 9.35 per set, although Saint Francis has the most at 725, and leads in service aces per set, 1.60, but NJIT has the most overall, 93.
Click here for the EIVA standings
MIVA
Offensive Player of the Week: Grand Canyon junior outside hitter Cullen Mosher. Mosher averaged 4.22 kills in two wins over McKendree. He .316 for the two matches.
Defensive Player of the Week: Loyola junior middle Jeff Jendryk. Jendryk averaged 1.25 blocks per set and had four digs in two matches.
Key matches this week: Lewis gets back into MIVA __play by entertaining McKendree on Thursday and then Ohio State on Friday in truly the Flyers’ last chance to make up any ground in the league and improve their NCAA at-large status. Ohio State will be coming off a loss for the first time in more than 400 days when it first goes to Loyola on Thursday.
Last week’s key results: Ohio State’s non-conference loss to UC Irvine, which ended its 42-match winning streak, and Lewis losing at UCLA and USC
Worth noting: Ohio State lead in attack percentage (.372) and kills per set (13.56), Lewis leads in total kills with 1,024. Ball State leads in total digs (704) and digs per set (9.14) … Ohio State’s Miles Johnson and Nicolas Szerszen and Ball State’s Matt Szews are tied for the lead with 275 kills each.
Click here for the MIVA standings
Conference Carolinas
Player of the Week: King junior setter Nick Drooker. He led his team to a 3-0 week and averaged 10.33 assists per set and also had 21 digs, six blocks and five aces.
Key matches this week: Barton plays at Erskine on Friday, while Mount Olive goes to Erskine and King plays host to Quincy of the MIVA on Saturday.
Last week’s key results: King beat Lindenwood of the MIVA in five.
Worth noting: Mount Olive leads the league at 10-1, King is second at 9-1 and Barton is 10-2. Erskine’s Isaac Lanier leads the CC in kills with 3.87 per set, but Jeff Sprayberry of King leads in total kills with 241.
Click here for the ConfCarolinas standings
