NCAA volleyball: Top-ranked beach teams gather in SoCal; AVCA polls, POWs; men’s update
In this Wednesday NCAA volleyball report, we’ve got a big week ahead on the beach, AVCA polls and POWs, what’s happening in men’s volleyball, and a women’s coaching hire we missed last week.
NCAA beach volleyball
UCLA, ET AL — What a busy fews days ahead for the No. 1 Bruins, who are 18-0 after beating Utah, Stanford and Arizona this past weekend in Tucson in the Pac-12 South Invitational.
First, UCLA is home Thursday for the Mapes Beach Invitational when it plays host to No. 2 TCU. TCU is 24-0, so something’s got to give. Then UCLA takes on No. 9 Hawai’i. Hawai’i and TCU also play each other.
This past weekend in Gulf Shores, Alabama, TCU beat Louisiana-Monroe, Florida State, Houston Baptist, Tampa and LSU.
Then Saturday on Manhattan Beach, the UCLA Invitational is a Who’s Who of NCAA beach volleyball.
On Saturday, the Bruins play No. 15 FIU. Then Sunday, UCLA faces No. 6 LSU.
TCU plays No. 5 Loyola Marymount and LSU on Saturday and FIU and Utah on Sunday.
Third-ranked USC (15-1) plays LSU and Hawai’i on Saturday and then TCU and FIU on Sunday. This past weekend in Tucson, USC beat Utah, Arizona State and Washington.
AVCA BEACH POLL — The top 10 spots stayed the same, including UCLA No. 1, followed by TCU, USC, Florida State and Loyola Marymount. No one dropped out of the top 20.
Click here for the AVCA Collegiate Beach Poll.
AVCA POW — The honor goes to the Hawai’i No. 1 pair of senior Brooke Van Sickle and sophomore Kaylee Glagau. They went 6-0 last week. The AVCA likes to spread the wealth here, too. This is the fifth different pair in five weeks, all from different schools.
NCAA men’s volleyball
AVCA MEN’S POLL — UCLA stayed No. 1 in the confounding AVCA Men’s Division I-II Coaches Poll, but Long Beach State moved up a spot to No. 2, trading places with Penn State. Go figure, because both teams won twice last weekend. Hawai’i stayed No. 4 and USC stayed fifth. The biggest movement was by Stanford, which went from 14th to No. 12. NJIT dropped out and and McKendree moved in.
Click here for the complete AVCA men’s poll.
AVCA MEN’s POW — The AVCA continues to spread the wealth. King University’s Joshua Kim is the 12th different AVCA Division I-II player of the week in 12 weeks this season. Kim, a senior right side for the independent program, averaged five kills and hit .328 in seven sets in victories over Erskine and Emmanuel. Worth noting is that Alex Nikolov had 40 kills in Hawai’i’s two wins over No. 6 UC Santa Barbara. Nikolov was the POW on January 23.
THURSDAY-FRIDAY SCHEDULE — It’s a bid day in the MPSF when No. 1 UCLA goes to No. 5 USC, No. 12 Stanford is at No. 10 Grand Canyon and No, 8 Pepperdine is at Concordia. The same teams play each other Saturday.
In the Big West, No 14 UC Irvine plays host to No. 6 UC Santa Barbara on Wednesday. CSUN is at No. 9 UC San Diego on Thursday, but the big one is Friday when No. 4 Hawai’i is at No 2 Long Beach State. Also Friday, UC Irvine goes to UCSB.
In the MIVA, the Thursday schedule includes seventh-ranked Ball State home for No. 15 McKendree, No. 11 Loyola Chicago at Lindenwood and No. 13 Lewis at Ohio State.
There are four Friday EIVA matches, but No. 3 Penn State has the day off.
NCAA women
EWU TABS HARAGUCHI — Eastern Washington hired Northern Colorado assistant coach Jon Haraguchi as its head coach. Haraguchi has also been an assistant coach at Southeastern Louisiana, Louisiana-Lafayette and Dartmouth.
EWU finished 11-14 last season, 7-9 in the Big Sky, the same conference as Northern Colorado. Leslie Flores-Cloud resigned in December after four seasons.
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