The top five teams once again stayed the same in the VolleyballMag.com Mid-Major Poll presented by the NIVC, but San Diego jumped from 10th to No. 6 after winning three West Coast Conference matches last week.
The top five are BYU — also No. 1 in the AVCA Division I Coaches Poll — Creighton, Cal Poly, Marquette and Northern Iowa. Creighton is 10th in the AVCA, Cal Poly No. 13, and Marquette 19th.
Denver moved up two spots in the VBM poll to No. 7, Dayton is No. 8, LMU is ninth and Cincinnati is up four spots to No. 10.
New this week are Saint Mary’s at No. 22, and Austin Peay, which broke in at No. 25, where it’s tied with Lipscomb.
The 2018 National Invitational Volleyball Championship marks the second year of the revival of a Division I “NIT” event designed to bring another postseason opportunity into the sport’s calendar.
In 2017, Ole Miss defeated Texas Tech to win the NIVC title. The 2018 NIVC field will feature 32-40 teams. They will be selected after the NCAA Tournament makes announces its 64-team field. The NIVC will award berths to other deserving programs based on multiple factors, including RPI, overall record, strength of schedule and more. Much like the WNIT basketball event, matches are held at the participating schools.
The field will be announced late Sunday evening, November 25, 2018. The first round will start Thursday, November 29, with the championship match on Tuesday, December 11.
Selection — November 25
Round 1 & 2 — November 29-30, December 1-2
Round 3 — December 5-7
Semifinals — December 7-9
Championship — Tuesday, December 11, 7 p.m. Eastern
| Rank | School | Total Points Adjusted | First Place Votes Adjusted | Win/Loss Record | Previous Rank |
| 1 | BYU | 625 | 25 | 15-0 | 1 |
| 2 | Creighton | 595 | 0 | 12-4 | 2 |
| 3 | Cal Poly | 580 | 0 | 15-1 | 3 |
| 4 | Marquette | 546 | 0 | 12-4 | 4 |
| 5 | Northern Iowa | 514 | 0 | 10-6 | 5 |
| 6 | San Diego | 465 | 0 | 7-7 | 10 |
| 7 | Denver | 433 | 0 | 14-1 | 9 |
| 8 | Dayton | 405 | 0 | 12-5 | 7 |
| 9 | Loyola Marymount | 391 | 0 | 13-3 | 8 |
| 10 | Cincinnati | 378 | 0 | 12-4 | 14 |
| 11 | Colorado State | 366 | 0 | 11-5 | 6 |
| 12 | Portland | 332 | 0 | 12-4 | 11 |
| 13 | UCF | 315 | 0 | 12-3 | 16 |
| 14 | Wichita State | 284 | 0 | 7-7 | 12 |
| 15 | College of Charleston | 271 | 0 | 12-5 | 17 |
| 16 | Kennesaw State | 229 | 0 | 13-4 | 18 |
| 17 | Western Kentucky | 219 | 0 | 12-6 | 15 |
| 18 | Wyoming | 167 | 0 | 10-6 | 13 |
| 19 | Stephen F Austin | 157 | 0 | 17-2 | 22 |
| 20 | Illinois State | 140 | 0 | 12-4 | 22 |
| 21 | East Tennessee State | 111 | 0 | 13-4 | 20 |
| 22 | Miami (OH) | 98 | 0 | 11-5 | 19 |
| 22 | St Mary’s (CA) | 98 | 0 | 11-3 | NR |
| 24 | Hawai’i | 82 | 0 | 8-5 | 24 |
| T-25 | Austin Peay
Lipscomb |
69
69 |
0
0 |
14-2
9-7 |
NR
21 |
Others receiving votes and listed on two or more ballots: Pepperdine, 59; Rice, 29; James Madison, 27; Texas State, 22; Tulsa, 12; Boise State, 11; Fresno State, 10; UC Irvine, 3. Seven teams were mentioned on only one ballot for a total of 27 combined points. Dropped Out: Pepperdine.
The pollsters: Kristin Belzung, Stony Brook; Keylor Chan, Samford; Dietre Collins-Parker, San Diego State; Courtney Draper, USF; Steve Florio, Fort Wayne; Ray Gooden, NIU; Greg Goral, Campbell; Kris Grunwald, Connecticut; Ashli Hain, UCI Irvine; Tom Hanna, Akron; Venessa Hackett Jacobs, Southern; Justin Ingram, UIC; Mike Jordan, New Mexico State; Shaun Kupferberg, Howard; Frank Lavrisha, San Francisco; Aaron Mansfield, LMU; Don Metil, Towson; Kent Miller, Saint Louis; Anna Moreno Allison, Bucknell; Kaddie Platt, Houston; Mark Pryor, North Dakota; Dave Rehr, Arkansas State; Jim Smoot, Southeastern Louisiana; Kari Thompson, Southern Illinois-Carbondale; Jennifer Weiss, Harvard.
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About Triple Crown Sports: Based in Fort Collins, Colorado, Triple Crown Sports has been producing events in youth athletics and the college ranks for more than 35 years. TCS runs both the preseason and postseason WNIT basketball events and produces the men’s and women’s Cancun Challenge tournaments in November, which have been recognized by Sports Illustrated as a top-5 destination tournament for D-I basketball programs.
Triple Crown produces the revived “WNIT” concept in D-I volleyball (the NIVC), which relaunched in 2017, and has operated a similar event in D-I softball (the National Invitational Softball Championships) in 2017 and 2018. TCS youth fast-pitch tournaments (including the 900-team Sparkler/Fireworks event) draw the nation’s finest club programs, and hundreds of college coaches attend this TCS event and others for recruiting purposes.
