NCAA: Women’s coaches hired, UCLA, BYU, Ball State men win

BYU celebrates a point against McKendree/BYU photo by Jaren Wilkey

Virginia Tech, Delaware and Stony Brook have new coaches and there’s a familiar theme among the hirings. Troy has a new coach, too.

And in men’s volleyball on Thursday night, UCLA swept UC Irvine and Ball State did the same to Saint Francis.

More on the coaches and Thursday’s results in a bit. First, the Friday NCAA men’s schedule.

The MPSF has a full slate, with two conference matches that have Long Beach State at Cal Baptist and UC San Diego at UC Santa Barbara. There are four other matches, with Pepperdine forsaking the warmth of Malibu for Chicago when it plays at Loyola of the MIVA, Stanford is home for a visit from the MIVA’s Ohio State for matches Friday and Saturday, BYU entertains Concordia and Hawai’i plays the second of its two matches against Grand Canyon of the MIVA.

Also in the MIVA, there’s a big pre-conference matchup when Penn State of the EIVA goes to Ball State.

McKendree continues __play at BYU when it faces Concordia, Lewis entertains Harvard of the EIVA, Fort Wayne plays host to Saint Francis of the EIVA and Grand View at Lindenwood was postponed because of impending weather.

The EIVA schedule also includes Sacred Heart playing host to North Greenville of Conference Carolinas, and Charleston entertaining King of Conference Carolinas.

And other ConfCarolinas teams playing non-league matches include Emmanuel going to Southern Virginia, Barton playing host to Alderson Broaddus and Lees-McRae entertaining Lincoln Memorial.

MPSF: UCLA sweeps UCI, BYU sweeps McKendree

The second-ranked Bruins improved to 3-1 by sweeping visiting previously unbeaten UC Irvine 25-16, 25-18, 25-22 their MPSF opener. UCI dropped to 5-1, 2-1.

The Bruins hit .395 for the match and were led by freshman middle blocker Daenan Gyimah’s 14 kills. He hit .737 and also had two blocks and two aces. Micah Ma’a added eight kills and three aces, while Mitch Stahl had five kills and three blocks. Ma’a was 8-for-10 and hit .800.

Senior Michael Saeta led No. 7 UCI with seven kills, seven digs and an ace. David Parker and Tucker Pikula each added five kills.

Fourth-ranked BYU made short work of visiting McKendree 25-16, 25-19, 25-20 in the Cougars’ home opener. BYU is 2-1, while McKendree dropped to 0-5.

“It’s nice to be back in the Smith Fieldhouse and the guys were excited about that,” BYU coach Shawn Olmstead said. “I liked how they played from the start. They were assertive and aggressive, and I was happy with how they played.”

Junior Ben Patch led BYU with nine kills and hit .667, while senior Jake Langlois added nine kills and six digs. Tim Dobbert had three blocks and Leo Durkin had 29 assists.

The same teams __play again Saturday.

MIVA: Ball State wins in three

The Cardinals improved to 3-0 with their 25-21, 25-22, 27-25 win over visiting Saint Francis.

Freshman Matt Szews led 15th-ranked Ball State with 16 kills, including the winning point in all three sets.

“Szews is not the typical freshman,” Ball State coach Joel Walton said. “He has a high level of maturity and is that right hand man that we know we can throw the ball to. He does a nice job creating when situations aren’t ideal.”

Connor Gross added 39 assists, an ace and 11 digs. And Brendan Surane had 12 kills.

Michael Fisher led Saint Francis (2-2) of the EIVA with 14 kills. Jeff Hogan added 11 kills and seven digs.

Princeton University’s Junior Oboh attacks against Matthew McManaway of North Greenville/Princeton photo

EIVA: Mason sweeps Charleston, Princeton wins

Mason improved to 3-1 as it cruised past the home team 25-21, 25-18, 25-18 in its league opener. Charleston was playing its season opener and it was the first sporting event in the school’s new H. Bernard Wehrle Sr. Athletic Arena.

Jack Wilson led 11th-ranked Mason with 11 kills and hit .320. Garrett Kollar had seven kills and four aces while hitting .400. Kyle Barnes had six kills and hit .455. And setter Brian Negron had 26 assists and went 2-for-2 on kills.

“We’ve got to clean up little aspects of the game,” Mason coach Jay Hosack said. “We are leaving too many points on the table. Whether it’s a free ball, a missed blocking assignment or not running the right route, we are leaving points that we shouldn’t be on the table. The kind of teams that we want to face at the end of the year will not give us freebies that often, so we have to make sure that the foundation is made of cement and not made of sand.”

Brian Cranston led Charleston with five kills and hit .625. Eugene Stuart had five kills and two blocks.

And this is from the Charleston release:

The Golden Eagle bench, staff and fans erupted with a loud roar following the opening point of the match as Eugene Stuart hammered down a kill for Charleston, winning the first point in the new arena. It would prove to be the only lead UC would have for the entire match, but was able to make runs in each of the sets to stay competitive in the three-set loss.

Princeton blasted visiting North Greenville 25-16, 25-12, 25-19 to improve to 2-2, while North Greenville dropped to 0-2.

Princeton hit .532 for the match — including .600 in each of the last two sets — and added seven service aces.

Freshman Parker Dixon led with 13 kills,hit .571, and had four blocks. Junior Oboh had 10 kills and two blocks while hitting .643. George Huhmann had five kills on five swings and added five blocks.

Matthew McManaway and Grayson Lawrence led North Greenville with eight kills apiece.

Jill Wilson

Virginia Tech, Delaware, Stony Brook, Troy have coaches

There is an interesting trend developing. The first three hired women, none of whom with head-coaching experience, while Troy hired a man who has never been a Division I head coach. Among the previous hires in Division I, Arizona State hired an assistant from within with no head-coaching experience.

Virginia Tech hired Jill Lytle Wilson, the longtime LSU assistant, who played at LSU (1997-2000) and previously was an assistant at North Carolina and Wake Forest. Wilson, regarded as a tireless and effective recruiter, replaces Chris Riley, who resigned in December after 11 seasons. The Hokies were 13-18 in 2016, 8-12 in the ACC.

Delaware hired Sara Matthews, who had been with Jill Kramer as her assistant previously at West Virginia and the past two seasons at TCU. Matthews, who played at James Madison and Kansas, is also regarded as a strong recruiter. Delaware fired head coach Bonnie Kenny and associate Cindy Gregory in mid-October and Brian Toron acted as interim head coach. The Blue Hens finished 16-16, 8-8 in the Colonial Athletic Association where they advanced to the CAA tournament championship match.

Stony Brook hired former Northern Iowa setter Kristin Belzung, who had been an assistant coach the past four years at Wyoming. She previously was an assistant at South Dakota State and director of operations at South Carolina. The Seawolves fired fourth-year coach Coley Pawlikowski after an 8-21 season, 4-8 in the Northeast Conference.

And Troy hired Josh Lauer who was an assistant at Georgia the past six seasons where the Bulldogs went 1-35 in Southeastern Conference play the past two years. Before that, Lauer was an assistant at Alabama for three years.

Lauer, who was a longtime club coach in St. Louis, was also head coach at Missouri-St. Louis.

There are still Division I openings, including Loyola Marymount, Texas-Arlington, Stetson, and Stanford, and obviously there is quite a bit of movement among assistant coaches.

New Louisville coach Dani Busboom Kelly added Kolby O’Donnell to her staff. O’Donnell spent the past four years as an assistant at UC Santa Barbara … New Georgia coach Tom Black brought with him from Loyola Marymount assistants Aaron Benning and Felicia Arriola …

Arkansas State is a top-level mid-major and its assistants are reaping the benefits.

Ole Miss coach Steven McRoberts added Arkansas State assistant Tori Mellinger to his staff. She is a former Texas A&M player … Another Arkansas State assistant, Tristan Johnson, has been hired as an assistant to Ed Allen at Alabama …

Arkansas State coach Dave Rehr in turn hired Brian Gerwig from George Washington and is expected to add Ross Kessler of Troy in the near future.

Javier Gaspar ready for challenge of coaching Puerto Rican women’s team

Javier Gaspar coaching men in Puerto Rico

More than 30 years after that day when he connected through Pittsburgh and flew a small Allegheny plane into State College, Pa., Javier Gaspar talked about a totally new chapter in his volleyball life.

Last fall, the former Penn State star was named the coach of the Puerto Rican women’s national team. Gaspar coached only men from 1998, when his playing career ended, until he started coaching some women in 2009. Even last November, as he took the new job, he was still coaching the Los Mets de Guaynabo pro men’s team.

Javier Gaspar in November in San Juan

“It’s going to be challenging,” Gaspar said in November over breakfast in San Juan. There are a lot of expectations with that team after qualifying for the Olympics and they did extremely well in the Grand Prix,” Gaspar said. “We’ve done well in our zones, in Central America we’re a top team with the Dominican Republic.”

Gaspar was the Puerto Rican men’s coach and his team came up short in trying to get to Rio. After the Olympics, he explained, the federation completely restructured.

“They asked if we would coach women. I said yes,” Gaspar recalled.

So when he got the women’s team, he brought with him assistants Abdell Otero and Hector Reyes. Their real work begins in earnest when the pro players come home and gather in the spring.

Gaspar is a pharmaceutical rep for GlaxoSmithKline. He got into that business when he retired from playing in 1998. He and his ex-wife, still a pro player in Puerto Rico, have a 5-year-old son, Eric.

Gaspar, now 50, was discovered by, of all people, Penn State women’s coach Russ Rose. At the time, Rose was coaching a men’s pro team in Puerto Rico, Ajuntas, and through his mutual friend Tony Quiles tipped off then Penn State coach Tom Tait about Gaspar, a star at University of Puerto Rico High School in San Juan. Penn State already had another Puerto Rican in Jose Rubayo.

Gaspar went to Penn State sight unseen.

“I took an Allegheny commuter into State College and I remember looking out the window thinking, ‘Where am I going?’ And then you see Beaver Stadium. It’s like a battleship. Wow. For me it was a perfect fit and I really enjoyed being in Happy Valley. Probably the four best years of my life. It was awesome.”

Javier Gaspar during his playing days

He said the first time the Penn State team actually saw him was in pickup games. And then as the season loomed near, the other two setters were declared ineligible. So Tait went with a 5-1 for the first time and he did it with a 6-foot freshman who had a vertical nearing 40 inches.

Penn State made to two final fours and despite being ranked No. 1 much of his senior year in 1988, the Nittany Lions lost in the EIVA to George Mason and didn’t get an at-large bid.

He was invited to train with the U.S. national team, so Gaspar moved to San Diego. They weren’t overpaid back then — “My parents helped me a lot” — as he tried to make the 1992 Olympic team.

Eventually Jeff Stork and Dan Greenbaum were the American setters in Barcelona. He made it to Spain, but a year later as a pro, playing four years in the north and one in the south. And in 1995 Gaspar headed home to Puerto Rico to __play in a men’s pro league.

Unhappy with the money situation for the Moca team he was on and ready to get into the real world, he finally retired in 1998.

“There was a little bit of controversy. Here in Puerto Rico there can be a problem with players getting paid. And they were a little behind. So I asked for my free agency hearing.”

He was denied and he’d already gotten a job. Gaspar recalled being named setter of the year, getting a sportsmanship award and then announcing, “I’m retiring from volleyball. I have other stuff to do. And I walked away from the game.”

But he only stayed away one year and started coaching at the University of Puerto Rico, a job he held for four years. During that time, he started coach in the men’s pro league.

Coach Javier Gaspar

However, he never coached women until directing the Carolina club in 2009.

“I enjoyed it and the teaching,” Gaspar said.

He continued coaching men, too, and in May 2015 was named head coach of the men’s team.

The Puerto Ricans played in the World League and finished fourth in the PanAm Games and were third in Norceca.

But then, in one of the Olympic tournaments, Puerto Rico was up 2-0 over Mexico and ahead 24-22 in the fourth set before losing the set and the match.

“That hurt,” he recalled.

Mexico went on to qualify for the Olympics.

But shortly after it all changed and the EIVA hall of famer had a new job.

The NCAA has seen more than its share of Puerto Rican standouts the past few years, including Daly Santana and Dali Rosado of Minnesota and, although she’s mostly from Miami, Paulina Prieto Cerame of Texas. They will all be in the mix for 2020.

“We have a lot of talent but we need to identify it. We need to get most of those players to go to the U.S. and __play in the NCAA and feed from that,” Gaspar said. “Once they come back from the NCAA and are in the national-team program, we should have those girls — and the men, too — play overseas.

“We don’t have year-round programs, so I would rather have my players when they’re done with the NCAA go overseas.”

NCAA: Hawai’i, NJIT men win, MTSU women have a new coach

Carly Kan was an All-SEC player at Missouri and will finish her career playing beach for Hawai'i.

USC dealt visiting third-ranked Long Beach State its first loss of the season in an MPSF match on Wednesday, No. 7 UC Irvine had to go five to win at No. 12 UC Santa Barbara and Cal Baptist upset No. 13 CSUN in five.

Also in men’s action Wednesday, No. 6 Hawai’i swept visiting Grand Canyon and NJIT of the EIVA beat visiting North Greenville of Conference Carolinas in four.

Middle Tennessee has hired Auburn assistant Chuck Crawford as its head coach, Nebraska has a new assistant and the Hawai’l’ and LSU women’s teams have new players for beach season.

All that and more, but first a look at Thursday’s NCAA men’s schedule.

There’s a big one in the MPSF as UC Irvine (5-0) goes to second-ranked UCLA (2-1). Also, BYU (1-1) plays host to McKendree (0-4) of the MIVA.

Speaking of the MIVA, Ball State (2-1) entertains Saint Francis (2-1) of the EIVA.

And in the EIVA, North Greenville goes to Princeton of the EIVA (1-2).

Wednesday’s matches:  Lucas Yoder had 28 kills in USC’s 25-19, 25-20, 22-25, 25-22 over Long Beach State in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation opener for both teams.

USC improved to 2-2 , while Long Beach is 3-1.

Yoder hit .404 and added 6 digs. Andy Benesh had 12 kills while hitting .526 and also had five digs and four blocks, Connor Inlow had a career-high nine kills (hitting .600) along with four blocks, Matt Douglas had a match-best 10 digs and Aaron Strange had five kills and nine digs.

TJ DeFalco led Long Beach with 13 kills and eight digs, Amir Lugo-Rodriguez added 10 kills, Kyle Ensing had nine kills, five digs and two aces, Bryce Yould had seven kills (hitting .545) and four blocks and Andrew Sato had nine digs.

UCI won 28-26, 21-25, 29-31, 25-17, 15-9 to improve to 5-0, 2-0 in the MPSF, while UCSB dropped to 3-1 in their league opener.

Tamir Hershko led UCI with 14 kills, while Michael Saeta had 11 kills without an error in 14 swings to hit .786 and tied his career-high with five aces.

Jacob Delson led UCSB with 14 kills, Hayden Boehle had 11 and Keenan Sanders 10.

In the MPSF opener for both teams, Cal Baptist beat CSUN 25-23, 13-25, 17-25, 25-16, 15-9 to improve to 2-2, while the Matadors dropped to 5-1.

“I’m just really proud of the team,” Cal Baptist coach Derek Schmitt said. “We played a really solid first set and then they really dominated us in the second and third, but we responded great. It wasn’t easy. It was a five-set match last year, but it was closer. This is our third one of the season so we’re used to it. It was great to be at home and have our fans cheering us on.”

Rohit Paul, Luis Palos and Kevin Vaz had 11 kills each for the winners. Enrique de Diego Garcia added 10.

“It feels great,” Palos said. “We were prepared for this and were excited.”

Arvis Greene led CSUN with 19 kills and hit .342. Dimitar Kalchev added 16 kills and hit .414 to go with seven digs and four aces.

“We’re capable of hitting really well and playing well, we just didn’t do it for three sets tonight,” CSUN coach Jeff Campbell said. “We didn’t __play terrible in the sets we lost, we just didn’t __play well enough. We’ve got to serve tougher and be a little more consistent.”

Hawai’i beat Grand Canyon 26-24, 25-21, 25-23. Stijn van Tilburg led Hawai’i with 15 kills and hit .333. Austin Matautia added 13 kills and five blocks and Kupono Fey had nine kills. Patrick Gasman had seven kills and four blocks.

The Rainbow Warriors (4-0) and ‘Lopes (1-2) will meet again on Friday in the rematch of a two-match non-conference series.

Shalev Saada and middle blocker Austin King led Grand Canyon with seven kills each.

“We battled tonight,” GCU coach Matt Werle said. “We are pleased with our effort but we can’t leave as many plays out there. Hawai’i is a very big and physical team and we didn’t match their elevation tonight.”

NJIT improved to 1-2 by beating North Greenville 25-16, 25-20, 22-25, 25-15.

Goodridge led the Highlanders with 23 kills and hit .541. Luke Robbe had  10 kills on 12 attempts with only two errors for a match-best .667.

North Greenville got 10 kills from Aaron Campbell in the Crusaders’ season opener.

Chuck Crawford

Middle Tennessee gets a coach: The Blue Raiders hired Chuck Crawford, an assistant at Auburn the past three seasons. He’s also been an assistant at Georgia Tech.

Middle Tennessee finished 5-24 last season, 2-12 in Conference USA. First-year coach Dan Ahiers resigned in late September and assistant Jeff Heubner served as interim head coach the rest of the way.

And forget the volleyball. This is from the MTSU news release:

Crawford and his wife, Lori, have four children, Carson, Drew, Ty and Ava. An avid rock and mountain climber, Crawford was featured in the Weather Channel TV series Epic Conditions climbing the nose of El Cap (3,300 feet) in Yosemite. He has also summited 14,400-foot Mount Rainer in Washington state and spent three years riding bulls in the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association (PRCA).

The remaining Division I vacancies include Stanford, Texas-Arlington, Delaware and Virginia Tech.

Banwarth to Nebraska, Kan and Bunn to Hawai’i: Former Nebraska libero Kayla Banwarth has been hired at her alma mater after Dani Busboom Kelly, another former Husker, got the head-coaching job at Louisville. Banwarth, 27, was the libero on the USA team that won the bronze medal in the 2016 Rio Olympics. She previously was a volunteer coach for the Pepperdine men’s team.

One of the best players in the Southeastern Conference finished her indoor career at Missouri and will play beach back home. Carly Kan, the 5-foot-9 outside hitter from Honolulu who confounded opponents the past four years, will be able to play this season and next.

Hawai’i also welcomed another transfer in Cali Bunn, a Californian who left Tulane after one semester.

Also, LSU brings in former Gonzaga indoor player Emmy Allen to its beach program. Allen, who started at Washington State, has graduated from Gonzaga and will have two seasons of beach eligibility at LSU.

NCAA men: Ohio St. beats Mason, conference roundups, POWs

Ohio State's Nicolas Szerszen Is the MIVA POW/OSU athletics

Most NCAA men’s volleyball teams are just two or three matches into their respective seasons, although Cal State Northridge (CSUN) is 5-0 and UC Irvine is 4-0.

There were two matches Tuesday.

No. 1 Ohio State improved to 3-0 when the Buckeyes of the MIVA swept visiting George Mason of the EIVA and the visiting King Tornado of Conference Carolinas swept the Lincoln Memorial to give the Railsplitters a loss in the program’s first match.

Moving forward, it’s a busy week with a full slate ahead and awards to report from all four men’s conferences. And there’s another conference ready to join the party in 2018.

MIVA:  Start with the Buckeyes’ 25-22, 25-22, 25-21 victory over 11th-ranked George Mason (2-1). Ohio State has won 26 matches in a row — including the NCAA-championship match last May and 78 of 96 sets during that stretch.

Nicolas Szerszen led with 16 kills and hit .522. Miles Johnson had 14 kills, hit .393 and had three blocks.

Jack Wilson led Mason with 10 kills and hit .368.

“I am happy in the way that my guys fought, but I think we left a few points on the table in each game that could have been the turning point,” Mason coach Jay Hosack said, adding that Ohio State is “a good team and they are going to win a lot of matches just because they don’t make a lot of mistakes. Their hitters are always available and always making swings.”

The only MIVA match on tap for Wednesday has Grand Canyon (1-1) at Hawai’i (3-0) of the MPSF. On Thursday, Ball State (2-1) entertains Saint Francis (2-1) of the EIVA.

The MIVA also announced that Szerszen is the offensive player of the week and Ball State’s Nick Lavanchy the defensive POW..

As Ohio State beat USC and No. 2 UCLA, Szerszen averaged 3.50 kills and hit .340.

Lavanchy, a freshman libero, averaged three digs against Princeton and Hawai’i in the Outrigger tournament.

MPSF: There are four matches involving MPSF teams on Wednesday, including three league battles as Long Beach State (3-0) goes to USC (1-2), CSUN (5-0) plays at Cal Baptist (1-2) and UC Irvine (4-0) travels to UCSB (3-0). Also, Hawai’i (3-0) plays host to Grand Canyon of the MIVA.

On Thursday, there’s a big MPSF match when UCI goes to UCLA (2-1). BYU (1-1) plays host to McKendree of the MIVA.

CSUN sophomore Dimitar Kalchev, an outside hitter from Kardzhali, Bulgaria, was named the MPSF POW after he hit .534 and averaged 4.38 kills per set in four wins.

CONFERENCE CAROLINAS: King beat independent LMU 25-20, 25-21, 25-12 in the season opener for both teams.

Jeff Sprayberry led King with 11 kills and hit .320, while Sean Luhmann had nine kills and hit .562.

Evan Cory, a freshman opposite who is the first player from Louisiana ever mentioned in a boys volleyball roundup, led with Railsplitters with eight kills. He added three digs and two blocks.

Wednesday’s schedule shows one match, North Greenville opening its season at NJIT of the EIVA. On Thursday, North Greenville goes to Princeton of the EIVA.

Mount Olive opposite Robert Poole is the Conference Carolinas POW. The junior from England averaged 4.43 kills per set and hit .250 as the Trojans dropped two matches against top-15 teams.

EIVA: As mentioned, Mason lost at Ohio State.

The only match Wednesday is NJIT (0-2) playing host to North Greenville.

On Thursday, Mason opens league __play at Charleston, which also opens its season.  Princeton (1-2) gets North Greenville, and Saint Francis (2-1) goes to Ball State of the MIVA.

The EIVA offensive POW is Jeff Hogan of Saint Francis. The senior opposite averaged 3.9 kills and hit .421 in three matches.

The defensive POW is teammate Keith Kegerreis. The junior middle had 13 blocks last week.

NORTHERN ATHLETICS CC ADDING MEN:  The Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference announced the addition of men’s volleyball next school year.

The NCAA said in a news release that the NACC will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Men’s Volleyball Championship in 2018, the ninth league with a ‘Pool A’ bid or commonly referred to as an AQ. The NCAA has crowned five champions at the men’s Division III level, the first which came in 2012.

The members of the NACC include Alverno College, Aurora University, Benedictine University, Concordia University Chicago, Concordia University Wisconsin, Dominican University, Edgewood College, Lakeland University, Marian University, Milwaukee School of Engineering, Rockford University and Wisconsin Lutheran College.

Five member institutions currently sponsor the sport — Benedictine University, Dominican University, Lakeland University, Marian University and Milwaukee School of Engineering — while spring of 2018 will serve as the inaugural season for both Aurora University and Concordia University Wisconsin, bringing NACC membership to seven.

The NACC began its first season of competition in the fall of 2006, then known as the Northern Athletics Conference. The conference consists of 12 private colleges and universities from the shared-border states of Illinois and Wisconsin, all of which are NCAA Division III members.

23rd annual Iowa coaches clinic being held in February

2016 VolleyballMag.com Coach of the Year Kirsten Bernthal Booth is one of the featured coaches at the 2017 Iowa Coaches Clinic.

The 2017 Iowa Volleyball Coaches Clinic takes place Feb. 24-25 in Ames, Iowa. The clinic is hosted by Championship Productions and will offer volleyball coaches the chance to learn from some of the top volleyball coaching minds in the country.

The clinic staff includes Iowa State University’s Christy Johnson-Lynch, the 2009 ASICS/VolleyballMag.com women’s college coach of the year, the University of Iowa’s Bond Shymansky, former Louisville coach Anne Kordes, Northern Illinois University coach Ray Gooden, Iowa Volleyball Hall of Fame inductee Tom Keating, Ankeny (Iowa) High School coach Jessica Rinehart and 2016 VolleyballMag.com women’s college coach of the year Kirsten Bernthal Booth (Creighton University).

Clinic segments will include on- and off-court sessions. In addition to gaining access to presentations from coaches, early registrants will receive a special staff discount rate, a free 30-day online access pass to clinic sessions and a buy-one-get-one free coupon for videos at Championship Productions’ booth.

All attendees will be invited to a coaches social and clinic breakfast, while also having access to various volleyball vendors.

The deadline for early registration is Feb. 10. Coaches seeking to register or learn more can do so on Championship Productions’ website.

Founded in 1976, Championship Productions produces instructional sports videos in 20 different sports. The videos are produced with the leading coaches in every sport. The company also works with Drake University on a series of continuing education/graduate-level college courses for coaches, with Upper Iowa University for a master’s degree in coaching and also operates the largest track and volleyball coaching clinics in the Midwest. All Championship Productions videos are available as instant streams on any device and on DVDs as well. To learn more, visit www.ChampionshipProductions.com or visit the company on Facebook at www.facebook.com/championshipproductions.

John Dunning retires as Stanford coach

Stanford coach John Dunning last May: "There are enough pieces there if we mature enough to be quite good."

Just more than three weeks after winning the NCAA championship, John Dunning has retired as the coach at Stanford.

We will have a complete story here on Tuesday with reaction from the volleyball world.

Stanford issued the following release Monday afternoon:

STANFORD, Calif. – John Dunning, a 32-year veteran of the women’s volleyball coaching ranks and five-time national champion head coach, announced his retirement Monday.

“I am a very lucky person. I have had the joy of coaching in a sport I love for decades, but have decided that it is time to retire,” said Dunning, who in December led Stanford to its record-tying seventh NCAA title with a 3-1 victory over Texas. “I have had the wonderful opportunity to coach so many great student-athletes, and work with amazing people in amazing programs at great universities. I am grateful for all the support I have received and hope in the coming weeks to be able to reach out and thank people for all that they have done for me.”

Dunning directed Stanford to three national championships (2001, 2004, 2016) and eight conference titles during his 16-year tenure on The Farm. He boasts five national titles overall (1985 and 1986 at Pacific) – which ranks as the second-most in NCAA Division I history, and was inducted into the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Hall of Fame in 2011.

In 32 seasons as a head coach, Dunning’s teams never missed the postseason. He led 12 teams to the Final Four, including eight of his 16 Stanford squads. Dunning joins current Penn State head coach Russ Rose as the only coaches in the history of the sport to guide 10 teams to the national championship match. Dunning finishes his career with an 888-185 overall record (.828).

“I want to thank Coach Dunning for all he has done to keep our women’s volleyball program among the nation’s elite during his 16 seasons at Stanford,” said Jaquish & Kenninger Director of Athletics Bernard Muir. “John is regarded as one of the best in his field by his peers, and he will be truly missed as a leader within our Stanford athletic community. On and off the court, John’s tireless dedication and passion for mentoring our student-athletes have proved instrumental in sustaining the success of our program. I want to wish him and his family well in retirement.”

Dunning is a four-time national coach of the year, three-time regional coach of the year and seven-time conference coach of the year. He holds a 91-27 mark in NCAA Tournament play, winning 77.1 percent of his postseason matches. Throughout his illustrious career, Dunning has coached 38 All-Americans to 77 total honors, and produced seven national players of the year.

Dunning holds a 451-83 mark at Stanford, the most wins in program history. While on The Farm, he also mentored three Olympians in Logan Tom (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012), Ogonna Nnamani (2004, 2008) and Foluke Akinradewo (2012, 2016), and has produced numerous U.S. National Team selections.

Prior to coming to Stanford, Dunning spent 16 seasons as the head coach at Pacific. During his tenure in Stockton, he compiled an impressive 437-102 (.811) record, was named Big West Coach of the Year four times and led the Tigers to two NCAA championships, an NCAA runner-up finish, five Big West Conference titles and 16 consecutive NCAA Tournament bids. In 2007, Dunning was inducted into the University of the Pacific Hall of Fame.

Dunning first stepped onto the Pacific campus in 1985 and guided the team to a national title in his first year as a collegiate head coach. In 1986, he helped the Tigers repeat their landmark feat. Dunning’s pair of titles with the volleyball program remain the only two national championships in any sport in Pacific’s history. After capturing an NCAA title with Stanford in his first season (2001), Dunning remains the only coach in the history of the sport to win a national championship in his first year at two different schools.

Stanford will immediately begin a national search for his replacement.

Good day for the MIVA as OSU, Lewis, Loyola win

Gabriel Domecus passes for Ohio State/OSU athletics

In a battle of the top two early-season men’s college teams in the country, it was the defending champs that came out on top.

AVCA No. 1 Ohio State recorded a 25-22, 18-25, 25-21, 25-23 victory over No. 2 UCLA in the AVCA Showcase & Big Ten/Pac-12 Challenge held at St. John Arena on the campus of Ohio State.

Ohio State now has won 25 matches in a row, a winning streak that dates back to Feb. 6, 2016. The Big Ten also was a 3-1 winner in the event over Pac-12 teams. Penn State split its matches with USC and UCLA.

Tournament action also wrapped up at UC Santa Barbara and Hawaii and one of the sport’s best earned his 400^th career win Saturday.

OSU’s Nicolas Szerszen scored 19 points on 17 kills and two aces against UCLA Saturday/OSU athletics

Nicolas Szerszen, the 2016 AVCA national player of the year, led the Buckeyes with 17 kills and two aces. He hit .500 and also led the team in digs with seven. Ohio State had nine aces, including three in a row from Christy Blough, who had 38 assists and directed the team’s offense to a .309 hitting percentage.

Miles Johnson added 12 kills, while Maxime Hervoir had 10 kills and seven digs.

Jake Arnitz, a former VolleyballMag.com boys’ high school player of the year, had 16 kills and hit .440 for UCLA. Dylan Missry had eight kills and hit .389, while Daenan Gyimah had five kills and hit .364. Micah Ma’a and Hagen Smith combined for 32 assists. Arnitz also had two aces. Smith led the team with seven digs.

Ohio State welcomes defending EIVA champion and AVCA No. 10 George Mason to town Tuesday.

In the other match at Ohio State, AVCA No. 13 Penn State was a 30-32, 25-14, 21-25, 25-23, 15-11 winner over USC.

“It was a grittiness I think we’ve been looking for over the past 16 months or so,” said Penn State coach Mark Pavlik. “We had an easy win in the second set and everything was going our way. Game three, you know the Trojans are going to come back and they socked us in the nose. Game four was where I really wanted to see how we would react and I thought, ‘freshman setter, freshman opposite, let’s see what happens.’ I think Luke (Braswell) is finding the shape of the set that Cal (Mende) wants. Cal’s future is so bright. If we can keep him in good situations where his confidence keeps soaring then when we need him in bad-ball situations, then he’s going to feel good about himself.”

Mende added: “We took it point by point. We definitely passed well, we had a lot of options on our swings. By this point in the game (fifth set) we’d keyed in on their hitters pretty well. They still put us in some tough situations, but overall I think we handled it pretty well.”

From Braswell: “We did really well. One of our seniors Matt Callaway said, ‘We have to find our identity.’ I think we did that. We played well and battled back during Game 4 and finished them off in Game 5.”

Mende led Penn State with a career-high 25 kills in only his second match with the team. Mende also had five blocks and four digs while hitting .525. Chris Nugent had 22 kills and hit .395. Braswell had a career-high 62 assists and also had nine digs, three blocks and three kills. Aidan Albrecht had 13 kills, five blocks and three digs. Royce Clemens had 14 digs. Penn State had 14 blocks in the contest.

Lucas Yoder’s 33 kills on 53 swings and .509 hitting percentage led USC. Aaron Strange added 12 kills, while Andy Benesh had 11 kills on 17 swings (1 error) and hit .588. Gert Lisha had 57 assists, while Yoder led the team with nine digs. USC dropped to 1-2 on the season.

Loyola’s Collin Mahan spikes in a four game win over BYU/Loyola athletics

Further east in Chicago, AVCA No. 3 Brigham Young lost 25-20, 25-22, 22-25, 33-31 to No. 11 Loyola-Chicago.

“Tonight was an exciting match to be part of,” said BYU coach Shawn Olmstead. “I was happy with our fight and effort. We learned a lot this weekend about ourselves and we need to make sure we work on those things each day.”

Ben Patch led BYU with a match-high 25 kills while hitting .333. He also had eight digs. Price Jarman added four blocks, while Mitchel Worthington had eight digs. Leo Durkin had 51 assists and Jake Langlois had 14 kills. BYU fell to 1-1.

Collin Mahan led Loyola with 12 kills and hit .393 on 28 swings. Paul Narup also had 12 kills and hit .476 on 31 swings. Ben Plaisted rounded out the 12-kill club. Will Tischler added 10 kills and Jeff Jendryk had eight kills. Ian Cowen had 50 assists and Loyola hit .333 for the match.

Cowen and Plaisted each had 11 digs, while Mahan had seven digs. Loyola had 12 blocks and improved to 2-1 on the season.

Tournament action also wrapped up at UC Santa Barbara and Hawaii.

Jacob Delson and the UCSB Gauchos finish 3-0 in the ASICS/ South Coast Inn-vitational/Eric Isaacs, UCSB athletics

At UC Santa Barbara, the host Gauchos swept Ft. Wayne to finish 3-0 at their own ASICS/South Coast Inn-vitational. AVCA No. 12 Santa Barbara won the match 25-22, 25-14, 25-12.

Jacob Delson led Santa Barbara with 16 kills and hit .519. Hayden Boehle had nine kills, while Corey Chavers had four kills. Freshmen setters Casey McGarry (21 assists, six digs) and Randy Deweese (11 assists) quarterbacked the team’s offense to a .420 hitting percentage.

The Gauchos had no reception errors in the match and had eight blocks.

“I was very happy with the way our team continued to improve throughout the tournament,” said Santa Barbara coach Rick McLaughlin. “Our young guys are learning fast, but we still have much work ahead.”

Pelegrin Vargas led Ft. Wayne with eight kills.

In other UCSB tournament action, Long Beach State (AVCA No. 4) also went 3-0 after a 25-17, 25-15, 25-21 win over Quincy, which fell to 0-3.

The 49ers hit .320 and had 11 total blocks. TJ DeFalco led the way with 13 kills. Scott Stephanoff had nine kills on the right side, while setter Curtis Stallings had 28 assists. Amir Lugo-Rodriguez had six blocks, while Nick Amado had five. Stephanoff and Kyle Ensing combined for seven blocks.

Jarrod Kelso had nine kills and hit .375 for Quincy, which also received 25 assists from Thane Fanfulik and nine digs form David Siebum.

Stanford (AVCA No. 9) also went 3-0 at Santa Barbara, and capped off its __play with a 25-17, 25-21, 25-21 win over McKendree (0-4).

Gabriel Vega led the Cardinal with 15 kills and three aces. Jordan Ewert had 11 kills, three blocks and two aces. Kevin Rakestraw had seven kills, while Stephen Moye had five kills and three blocks.

Stanford welcomes defending NCAA champion Ohio State to Palo Alto Friday and Saturday for a doubleheader.

The other contest at Santa Barbara saw Cal State Northridge move to 5-0 after a 25-12, 25-19, 25-19 win over Mount Olive. Northridge also went 3-0 in the tournament.

“We played really well in set one, but today we were steady throughout the entire match,” said Matadors coach Jeff Campbell. “We still have somethings to work on, but overall I thought we played well here. We got three important wins and faced some adversity, so this is a good springboard for conference __play next week.”

Arvis Greene led Northridge with 15 kills and a career-best .778 hitting percentage. He had only one error in 18 attacks and also had four blocks and two digs. Dimitar Kalchev, who was hitting .571 through his first four matches, had 13 kills and hit .364 to go with two aces (to up his team-leading total to 12).

Sophomore setter Sam Porter had 30 assists and Northridge hit more than .400 as a team for the third time in five matches.

Brent Rutledge led Mount Olive (out of Mount Olive, N.C.) with 10 kills and hit .261.

Hawai’i’s Rainbow Wahine win their eighth Outrigger Invitational on Saturday/Hawai’i athletics

In Hawaii at the Outrigger Resorts Invitational, host Hawaii won its eighth Outrigger title with a 22-25, 25-17, 25-23, 25-21 win over Ball State. It was Hawaii’s second Outrigger crown in a row.

Right-side hitter Stijn van Tilburg (6-8 sophomore) became the tournament’s first two-time winner of the most outstanding player award after finishing with a match-high 18 kills.

Freshman Austin Matautia added 13 kills and 13 digs. He also was named to the all-tournament team along with setter Jennings Franciskovic (46 assists, 10 digs) and middle blocker Patrick Gasman (11 kills, 5 blocks) Libero Mamane Namahoe had a team-high 14 digs.

Matt Szews had a team-high 13 kills for Ball State. Libero Nick Lavancy had 12 digs for the Cardinals (2-1). Both Szews and Lavancy were named to the all-tournament team.

In the third-place match in Honolulu, Princeton swept Erskine 25-20, 25-15, 25-14. Outside hitter Parker Dixon led the Tigers with 12 kills and hit .588. He also earned all-tournament honors. Isaac Lanier paced Erskine with a team-high nine kills.

Lewis Flyers coach Dan Friend gets his 400th win against NJIT/Lewis athletics

AVCA No. 6 Lewis University scored a 25-22, 25-15, 22-25, 28-26 win over New Jersey Institute of Technology in a match that gave Flyers coach Dan Friend his 400^th career victory. Friend has 241 wins as the Lewis men’s coach, 17 as the Lewis interim women’s head coach, 76 as Newman’s women’s coach and 66 as Newman’s men’s coach.

Redshirt sophomore opposite Mitch Perinar and senior middle blocker Jacob Schmiegelt combined for 29 kills and a .614 hitting percentage (29 kills, 2 errors, 44 attacks) to lead the way for Lewis.

Perinar had a match-high 20 kills and hit .594, while Schmiegelt hit .667 with nine kills. Sophomore setter Matt Yoshimoto had 41 assists, while redshirt sophomore Michael Simons had seven digs. Lewis hit .422 in the match. Lewis faces Harvard on Friday at home.

Hawai’i, BYU, Creighton top first VolleyballMag.com Mid-Major Poll

Hawai’i is the No. 1 team in the inaugural VolleyballMag.com Mid-Major Poll.

The Rainbow Wahine of the Big West Conference got nine of the 10 first-place votes. The other went to Creighton of the Big East, which is ranked third. The No. 2 team is BYU of the West Coast Conference.

The VolleyballMag.com Mid-Major Poll includes teams from the 27 non power conferences and is the first of its type in NCAA volleyball.

Hawai’i lost to Minnesota in the NCAA Tournament regional final last December and returns its top player, Big West player of the year Nikki Taylor.

“We’re honored to be ranked No. 1 in this inaugural poll and proud to represent the Big West Conference,” Hawai’i associate head coach Jeff Hall said. “The ranking is a testament not only to what our players accomplished last year, but also to the possibilities ahead.

“Now the hard part begins. We have a lot of work to accomplish and a very tough schedule, particularly early on. But I’m confident our team will be up to the challenge.”

BYU last season was ousted from the NCAA Tournament by eventual-champion Nebraska. Creighton was a big surprise on the national scene and lost to USC in the round of 16.

Rounding out the top 10 are Loyola Marymount, Western Kentucky, Colorado State, San Diego, Arkansas State, Wichita State and Marquette.

Rank	School	Total Points Adjusted	First Place Votes Adjusted	Win/Loss Record	Previous Rank
1	Hawai’i	249	9	0-0	NR
2	BYU	234	0	0-0	NR
3	Creighton	222	1	0-0	NR
4	Loyola Marymount	217	0	0-0	NR
5	Western Kentucky	208	0	0-0	NR
6	Colorado State	200	0	0-0	NR
7	San Diego	197	0	0-0	NR
8	Arkansas State	173	0	0-0	NR
9	Wichita State	163	0	0-0	NR
10	Marquette	154	0	0-0	NR
11	Long Beach State	151	0	0-0	NR
12	Dayton	144	0	0-0	NR
13	Missouri State	107	0	0-0	NR
T-14	Northern Arizona	102	0	0-0	NR
T-14	Santa Clara	102	0	0-0	NR
16	SMU	83	0	0-0	NR
17	Villanova	67	0	0-0	NR
18	Southern Illinois	63	0	0-0	NR
19	Wyoming	59	0	0-0	NR
20	Lipscomb	55	0	0-0	NR
20	Ohio	55	0	0-0	NR
22	Boise State	49	0	0-0	NR
23	Northern Iowa	42	0	0-0	NR
24	Xavier	32	0	0-0	NR
25	American	24	0	0-0	NR

Others receiving votes and listed on two or more ballots: Saint Louis 14; New Mexico State 11; Illinois State 10; UT San Antonio 8; Northern Colorado 7; Rice 7; Pacific 6; 9 teams mentioned on only one ballot for a total of 37 combined points.

The pollsters

— Dan Conners, UC Davis

— Brian Doyon, Montana

— Greg Goral, Campbell University

— Kris Grunwald, UConn

— Justin Ingram, Southern Illinois University

— Steve Loeswick, North Florida

— Kent Miller, Saint Louis University

— Coley Pawlikowski, Stony Brook

— Jennifer Petrie, University of San Diego

— Dave Rehr, Arkansas State University

The conferences from which the teams will come:

— America East

— American Athletic

— Atlantic Sun

— Atlantic 10

— Big East

— Big Sky

— Big South

— Big West

— Colonial

— Conference USA

— Horizon League

— Ivy

— Metro Atlantic

— Mid-American

— Mid-Eastern

— Missouri Valley

— Mountain West

— Northeast

— Ohio Valley

— Patriot

— Southern

— Southland

— Southwestern

— Summit

— Sun Belt

— West Coast

— Western Athletic

Top 6 — WKU, BYU, USD, Creighton, Hawai’i, Dayton — stay the same in VBM Mid-Major Poll

The vote is still split, with five different teams getting first-place nods, but the top six teams all stayed the same in the VolleyballMag.com Mid-Major Poll.

Western Kentucky is No. 1, followed by BYU, San Diego, Creighton, Hawai’i and Dayton. All of those teams won both their matches last week. WKU, 13-0 in Conference USA, is 26-2 with the second-best overall record in the nation, behind Dayton, which is 26-1, 12-0 in the Atlantic 10.

Missouri State is No. 7, trading places with No. 8 Marquette.

There were no major jumps, but Cleveland State, which has ruled the Horizon League this season at 22-4 overall and 13-1 in the conference, broke in at No. 25.

Rank	School	Total Points Adjusted	First Place Votes Adjusted	Win/Loss Record	Previous Rank
1	Western Kentucky	239	4	26-2	1
2	BYU	237	1	22-3	2
3	San Diego	230	3	21-3	3
4	Creighton	224	1	20-6	4
5	Hawai’i	209	1	18-5	5
6	Dayton	204	0	26-1	6
7	Missouri State	183	0	21-7	8
8	Marquette	180	0	21-5	7
9	Wichita State	162	0	18-7	10
10	Long Beach State	158	0	17-9	9
11	Coastal Carolina	151	0	21-4	11
12	Northern Iowa	140	0	19-8	12
13	Arkansas State	135	0	22-7	13
14	Colorado State	114	0	17-7	14
15	Loyola Marymount	93	0	17-9	15
16	Boise State	83	0	20-6	19
17	Lipscomb	80	0	18-7	19
18	Southern Illinois	75	0	20-9	17
19	Miami, Ohio	64	0	20-5	16
20	Cal Poly	51	0	15-8	22
T-21	SMU	38	0	19-7	21
T-21	UNLV	38	0	21-5	17
23	UT San Antonio	33	0	18-6	24
24	UC Santa Barbara	24	0	16-9	25
25	Cleveland State	21	0	22-4	NR

Others receiving votes and listed on two or more ballots: Northern Illinois 16, UCF 15, Cincinnati 14, Northern Arizona 11, Florida Gulf Coast 9, Wyoming 4.

4 teams mentioned on only one ballot for a total of 16 combined points.

Dropped Out: South Dakota 23.

The VolleyballMag.com Mid-Major Poll includes all teams not in the “power-five” conferences, the ACC, SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12.

The pollsters

— Dan Conners, UC Davis

— Brian Doyon, Montana

— Greg Goral, Campbell University

— Kris Grunwald, UConn

— Justin Ingram, Southern Illinois University

— Steve Loeswick, North Florida

— Kent Miller, Saint Louis University

— Coley Pawlikowski, Stony Brook

— Jennifer Petrie, University of San Diego

— Dave Rehr, Arkansas State University

The conferences from which the teams will come:

— America East

— American Athletic

— Atlantic Sun

— Atlantic 10

— Big East

— Big Sky

— Big South

— Big West

— Colonial

— Conference USA

— Horizon League

— Ivy

— Metro Atlantic

— Mid-American

— Mid-Eastern

— Missouri Valley

— Mountain West

— Northeast

— Ohio Valley

— Patriot

— Southern

— Southland

— Southwestern

— Summit

— Sun Belt

— West Coast

— Western Athletic

Kayla Banwarth: Bronze isn’t gold, but USA was golden

Kayla Banwarth exults after the USA beat the Netherlands in pool play/FIVB photo

USA libero Kayla Banwarth admitted it took a while to decompress after the Rio Olympics. Now that she has, the product of Dubuque, Iowa, a former Nebraska star, wrote this insightful and touching piece about what the team went through after losing in the semifinals to winning the bronze medal.

You heard it. Bronze is the new gold.

OK, no, it isn’t. Bronze is bronze and gold is gold. I stood on the podium next to my teammates, the ladies who had become my sisters, my best friends, and received my bronze medal.

I was filled with emotion.

Mixed emotion.

Tears welled in my eyes. I was extremely proud to have a medal hanging from my neck, but at the same time saddened that it wasn’t gold. I watched the platter of gold medals walk right past me, destined for the Chinese, and all I could think was “15-13.”

Two points. Two points that separated the bronze from the gold.

Kayla Banwarth celebrates an Olympic point with teammates Kelsey Robinson, left, Rachael Adams and Karsta Lowe/FIVB photo

Don’t get me wrong. I am honored to have brought an Olympic bronze medal back to America. I have a newfound respect for all those that compete in bronze-medal matches. Having to rebound from a devastating semifinal loss was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. I know I can say the same for some of my teammates.

After the fifth set slipped away from us in the Olympic semifinals against Serbia, we were destroyed. Everything that we had worked for, everything we invested in, the foundation we had built for ourselves, was crumbling beneath us, and we were left frantically trying to pick up the pieces.

We couldn’t stop the tears.

I found myself sobbing uncontrollably, and I looked up to see my teammates were in the same boat I was. How were we going to rebound from this?

That night, Karch called a team meeting. The tears were still flowing. The wound was still fresh. But we had to move on. The bronze was still within our reach. One of the hallmarks of this team was our ability to respond to adversity. Well, adversity just punched us in the face. How were we going to respond?

Everyone had an opportunity to speak if they wanted to. We were reminded what this team was about. Family, fun, fast, fortitude, and ferocity. One of the most powerful messages of that meeting came from our captain, Christa Dietzen. She said, “Medals don’t define us. They don’t define this team or the culture we created. We are so much more than that.” Together that night we resolved to come back stronger than before.

All in.

Training the next day was not easy, either. While we were in Rio we trained at the Brazilian Navy School every day. It was located right next to the water with a beautiful view of Sugar Loaf and Christ the Redeemer. It was absolutely majestic. It was a sunny day as we headed into the gym, a little bit tired, a little bit weary. It was obvious that everyone was making an effort to pick themselves back up. But it was easier said than done. We trained for about an hour. The movement seemed to come harder than normal. My body felt just a little heavier than the day before.

Normally after we got done practicing at the Navy School, a lot of us would take advantage of the beautiful scenery and the normally gorgeous weather and we sat outside in the sun, soaking in the Vitamin D. Well, on this particular day, several of us decided to take advantage of the pool that was located on the school campus. We taught Kim Hill how to dive and practiced our synchronized-swimming routines. We laughed uncontrollably and had a ton of fun.

Oh, how we needed that! It was so refreshing and revitalizing. And after a difficult day/morning, it was nice to be reminded to have fun.

The next morning, the day started off just like any other game day. We ate breakfast at the hotel, got ready for the match, got taped and loaded the bus to head to the gym. Whether we were ready or not, we needed to find a way to compete for a bronze medal. Once in the locker room, we turned on our normal pregame music, laced up our shoes, taped our fingers, and we were ready to hear from Karch. He didn’t even talk to us about game plan. He talked to us about what this team is about. He went around the room and thanked each one of us for our contribution to the USA Volleyball program. He acknowledged that we had all dealt with a great deal of adversity and that we were going to battle the only way we knew how: together. 

After Karch left, we continued with our normal pregame routine. Before matches, we always circled up together in the locker room and one by one told each other what we were fighting for that particular match. It could’ve been anything, for example, “I’m fighting for passion,” “I’m fighting for our process,” “I’m fighting to be aggressive,” “I’m fighting for one point at a time.”

On this day, there was a theme. We told each other we were fighting for each other. We told each other how much we loved each other. And we told each other how grateful we were to be here. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room. Carli Lloyd was to my left. Rachael Adams was to my right. Our fingers were interlaced and I could feel their love pulsing through me. There in that locker room, probably the last time we would all be together, we cried together, we laughed together, and we prepared for battle together one last time.

Netherlands is a great team. They are, without a doubt, the most improved team of this quadrennial. We have a lot of respect for them and we knew they would come at us with everything they had. We weren’t wrong. The match was an intense battle. We came out strong and won the first. They pushed back and won the second. The whole match was like that: back and forth. Both teams were battling with everything they had left. Only until the end of the fourth set were we really in control.

And then the bronze was ours.

Kayla Banwarth was front and center for the celebration photo after the USA won the bronze medal/FIVB photo

It wasn’t the fact that we had won bronze that made it so amazing. It was the fact that we did it together. We had battled through great adversity, both individually and as a group, and we ended our journey with a win.

We did everything we could have done to win a gold medal. We did things the right way: with love, discipline, hard work and respect. Every single person invested 100 percent in this program, in their teammates, and in our journey.

One thing I’ve learned from this experience, and am still learning, is that we are worth so much more than a gold medal or a bronze medal. It’s hard to remember sometimes. But, we have to keep reminding ourselves. This team is special. This team is successful. And this team’s legacy will live forever. We may not have gold medals, but this team is golden.

Follow Kayla on Twitter @kaybanwarth2 and at Instagram at kaylabanwarth

Men’s play heats up: top four ranked teams all win

Hawai'i' Kupono Fey spikes as the Rainbow Wahine move to 2-0 on the season.

While the 2017 NCAA men’s season started earlier this week with a few matches here and there, action picked up considerably Friday with the defending champions starting their season ahead of a key early-season contest Saturday. No. 3 BYU paid a visit to the No. 6 Lewis Flyers, as part of their non-conference midwest swing.

We’ll also check in on tournament action hosted by UC Santa Barbara and Hawaii.

We start in Columbus, Ohio where AVCA No. 1 Ohio State, which downed BYU for the 2016 NCAA title at Penn State, opened 2017 __play at St. John Arena in the AVCA Showcase & Big Ten/Pac-12 Challenge with a 3-1 victory over USC and did so in come-from-behind fashion.

USC (1-1) took the first set 25-22, but Ohio State rebounded and swept the next three, including winning the final two sets by a combined 16 points (18 and 16).

Ohio State had 13 blocks in the contest, its highest total since 2015. Miles Johnson and Blake Leeson each had four block assists and one solo, while Driss Guessous had four blocks.

Johnson, the 2016 NCAA tournament MVP, led the way with 15 kills and hit .333. Leeson hit 1.000 with seven kills, while Guessous had 6 kills. Christy Blough had 38 assists and a team-high seven digs, while Andrew Hillman recorded an ace on his first collegiate trip to the service line. Ohio State had seven aces in the contest.

The Buckeyes welcome AVCA No. 2 UCLA to town Saturday in a game that will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network at 6 p.m. Eastern. AVCA No. 13 Penn State faces USC in the 3 p.m. Eastern contest at Ohio State.

Speaking of USC, Lucas Yoder led the Trojans with a match-high 15 kills on 36 swings. Gert Lisha added 28 assists. Yoder also had eight digs.

In Friday’s other game in Columbus, No. 2 UCLA was a 25-18, 25-22, 25-17 victor over Penn State.

UCLA hit more than .300 in each set and was led by freshman middle blocker Daenan Gyimah’s 10 kills (.500 hitting). Senior middle Mitch Stahl added nine kills (.467 hitting). JT Hatch had five kills, two blocks and two aces,, while Michael Fisher had four kills, two blocks and one ace.

Penn State (1-1) was fueled by Chris Nugent’s 10 kills. Calvin Mende and Jalen Penrose each had four kills. Luke Braswell had 27 assists, while Royce Clemens finished with eight digs. Mende added five digs.

In Romeoville, Il., 2016 NCAA runner-up and AVCA No. 3 BYU swept No. 6 Lewis 27-25, 27-25, 25-22 in non-conference play. The Cougars hit .380 to the Flyers’ .329 in a match marred by 37 service errors (BYU committing 20,  Lewis 17).

BYU’s Ben Patch led the way with 17 kills and a .556 hitting percentage, while Redshirt freshman Ryan Coenen paced the Flyers with 10 kills and a .350 hitting percentage.

“Tonight was a great team effort to get the season going,” BYU head coach Shawn Olmstead said. “Lewis is a great program, and I was happy with how the team navigated through some ups and downs of the opener.”

BYU will continue its midwest swing, contesting Loyola at Gentile Arena at 7 pm C.S.T.

Kyle Ensing of Long Beach kit .632 against McKendree/LBSU athletics

At the ASICS/South Coast Inn-vitational hosted by UC Santa Barbara, No. 4 Long Beach State won twice on Friday against Fort Wayne (25-16, 25-20, 25-21) and McKendree (29-27, 25-16, 25-21). The win against Fort Wayne was Long Beach’s ninth season-opening victory in a row.

“I think we did a good job against two very talented teams that we don’t see very often,” said 49ers coach Alan Knipe. “Coming out and getting going was good. I thought there were a lot of things our guys did well throughout the day, primarily the adjustments made within the match were more important to me than the individual successes of block, hitting or what have you.”

Long Beach State hit .366 against Fort Wayne and .478 against McKendree.

Sophomore TJ DeFalco, a former VolleyballMag.com boys’ high school player of the year, had 10 kills against Ft. Wayne and 14 against McKendree. Sophomore right side Kyle Ensing hit .500 against Ft. Wayne with seven kills and then hit .632 (13 kills on 19 swings with 1 error) and posted 13 kills in the McKendree triumph. Setter Josh Tuaniga had a total of 75 assists in the two matches, while Andrew Sato had 21 combined digs.

“When we look at the stats as a staff, we feel there are so many other things we can tighten up,” said Knipe. “And that’s a fun feeling.”

Colton Stone and Pelegrin Vargas each had nine kills for Ft. Wayne, which hit .070 in the match. Nolan Rueter and Maalik Walker each had 13 kills for McKendree.

Long Beach State faces Quincy Saturday at 4 p.m. Pacific in the tournament.

Host UCSB swept its two matches against Mount Olive (25-14, 24-26, 25-15, 25-22) and McKendree (22-25, 25-19, 25-21, 25-13).

Outside hitter Jacob Delson led the Gauchos with a career-best 21 kills against Mt. Olive. He also posted 17 kills in the win against McKendree.

“Jacob played great today,” said UCSB coach Rick McLaughlin. “He’s going to have to do that when you have a young team around you. He’s got to carry them on his back a little bit and he did that in both matches.”

UCSB has now won 11 ASICS Invitational matches in a row dating back to 2013.

Henri Cherry added 19 total kills on the day out of the middle for Santa Barbara and hit .826. Hayden Boehle had a combined 24 kills and finished a dig short of a double-double against Mt. Olive.

Freshman setters Randy DeWeese and Casey McGarry made their presences felt immediately. Both averaged more than 10 assists per set and McGarry finished with 53 assists in his debut. Parker Boehle had 22 digs, including 14 against McKendree.

UCSB faces Fort Wayne Saturday at 6:30 p.m. Pacific.

AVCA No. 9 Stanford also is part of the USCB field. The Cardinal opened __play with a 25-15, 25-15, 25-19 win over Mount Olive. Kevin Rakestraw led Stanford with 11 kills and five blocks. Gabriel Vega had seven kills and one block, while Jordan Ewert had seven kills and two aces.Clay Jones had six kills and three blocks. Freshman setter Paul Bischoff, the 2016 VolleyballMag.com boys’ high school player of the year, had 32 assists in his collegiate debut and directed a Stanford offense that hit .355. Mount Olive was held to a .027 hitting outing.

Robert Poole tallied a match-high 14 kills for Mount Olive.

Stanford followed that with a 20-25, 25-11, 25-22, 25-14 win over Quincy. Ewert led the Cardinal with 12 kills and four aces. Colin McCall had 11 kills, three blocks and one ace. Rakestraw had 10 kills and four blocks. Matt Klassen had eight kills, five aces and two blocks. Stanford hit .360. Florida native Kyle Dagostino, a junior, set in the second match of the day and had 40 assists, four digs and two blocks. Klassen hit .357, while libero Evan Enriques had six digs and three assists.

Setter Thane Fanfulik had 27 assists, four digs, four blocks and four aces to pace Quincy.

Stanford faces McKendree Saturday at 1:30 p.m. Pacific.

Also at UCSB, AVCA No. 14 Cal State Northridge notched a 25-16, 25-19, 25-23 win over Quincy. Sophomore Dimitar Kalchev had a match-high 11 kills on 19 swings and hit .526. He also had a season-high four aces with two coming in a tight third set. Kalchev came into the contest hitting .688 on the season.

“These matches are tough because neither team is used to playing this early in the morning,” said CSUN coach Jeff Campbell. “I thought we played really well in the first two sets, but Quincy played better in the third and made it close. We had some guys respond.”

Redshirt freshman Schylar Lillethorup added nine kills and hit .389 in two sets on the right side. Senior Jakub Ciesla added six kills and hit .417 in two sets. Sophomore setter Sam Porter had 32 assists as the Matadors hit .378.

David Seibum led Quincy with nine kills. Jerrod Kelso had seven kills.

Northridge then upped its record to 4-0 on the young season with a 25-11, 20-25, 30-28, 29-27 win over Ft. Wayne.

“Winning in four is a good victory for us,” said Campbell. “You have to give Ft. Wayne credit. They played really well in sets two, three and four. We won some deuce games at the end. Anytime you’re winning by two points, that’s just a play or two that could go either way.”

Kalchev posted a match-high 20 kills and hit .485 and is now hitting .571 through the first four matches.

“Dimitar is putting up some really good numbers. We went to him a lot in the last couple sets and he was virtually unstoppable,” said Campbell.

Ciesela had 14 kills and hit .357, while Arvis Greene had 12 kills.

Vargas led Ft. Wayne with 15 kills. The Mastodons fell to 0-3.

Northridge faces Mount Olive Saturday at 11 a.m. Pacific to wrap up tournament play.

And we wrap things up on the tournament trail with a trip to Hawaii and the 23rd Outrigger Resorts Invitational held at the Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu.

Host Hawaii was a 25-15, 25-12, 25-11 winner over Princeton in Friday play to move to 2-0 on the season.

Stijn van Tilburg led the Rainbow Warriors with nine kills, three blocks and one ace. Kupono Fey had nine kills and three blocks, while Austin Matautia had six kills. Patrick Gasman added six kills and five blocks.

Hawaii hit .500 and had 11.5 team blocks. Princeton hit (minus) .072 and had no blocks.

Parker Dixon had nine kills to lead Princeton.

Hawaii goes for its second Outrigger title in a row and eighth overall Saturday against fellow 2-0 Ball State at 7 p.m. Hawaii time. Princeton and Erskine play at 4 p.m.

In Erskine’s loss to Ball State, Isaac Lanier led the Fleet with seven kills, while Trey Jones added six. Andres Talavera had 15 assists and Daniel Fralix had five digs.

UCI’s Tamir Hershko scored 13 kills in a sweep over Grand Canyon/UCI athletics

In a non-conference contest in Irvine, Calif., UC Irvine (AVCA No. 8) was a 25-20, 25-19, 29-27 winner over Grand Canyon in the first-ever meeting between the two teams.

UCI hit .404 and held a 34-20 digs advantage to run its record to 4-0. Tamir Hershko led all players with 13 kills and hit .632. Scott Stadick and Thomas Hodges each had eight kills. Hodges had a team-high six digs, while Stadick had a team-best three block assists. Setter Michael Saeta had seven kills to go with 28 assists, two aces and four digs. Middle blocker Matthew Younggren hit .600 with six kills on 10 swings and no errors. David Parker hit .625.

Ashton King had eight kills to lead Grand Canyon. Shalev Saada and Luke Turner each had seven kills.