BYU stays a solid No. 1 in VBM Mid-Major Poll, Cal Poly up to No. 3

BYU remained an unanimous No. 1 in the VolleyballMag.com Mid-Major Poll presented by the NIVC. The Cougars, who last week beat Saint Mary’s and Pacific in West Coast Conference play, improved to 17-1 and got all 26 first-place votes.

Creighton dropped from No. 2 to fourth after getting swept by Marquette and then sweeping DePaul in the Big East. San Diego moved up a notch to No. 2 and Cal Poly moved up to No. 3. San Diego also had wins over Pacific and Saint Mary’s, while Cal Poly improved to 16-2 with a five-set Big West win over Hawai’i.

There were no big leaps, although Portland State entered the poll at No. 25.

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

The National Invitational Volleyball Championship (Nov. 26-Dec. 12, 2017) will be an annual tournament involving 64 of the nation’s top women’s Division I Volleyball teams. All games, including the semifinals and championship, are hosted by participating schools. Every round is single elimination. The event offers 32 automatic berths, one to each established conference, and 32 at-large berths. The NIVC field and bracket is announced late on the evening of the NCAA Tournament selections. The NIVC is committed to offering deserved opportunities to women’s volleyball programs; the event offers teams an opportunity to get more practices in, to experience playoff-atmosphere games, to play in front of passionate fans and to use their NIVC success and experience as a springboard to the next season.

Others receiving votes and listed on two or more ballots: Central Arkansas 26; Radford 24; Portland 19; Sacramento State 17; High Point 15; Princeton 13; Illinois State 12; Kennesaw State 10; College of Charleston 7; Southern Miss 7; Jacksonville 5; James Madison 3. Six teams were mentioned on only one ballot for a total of 27 combined points.
Dropped Out: Radford 24; Kennesaw State 25.

Previous polls: August 29, September 5,  September 12, September 19, September 26, October 2

The pollsters: Kristin Belzung, Stony Brook; Keylor Chan, Samford; Dietre Collins-Parker, San Diego State; Dan Conners, UC Davis; Steve Florio, Fort Wayne; Matt Ginipro, Appalachian State; Greg Goral, Campbell; Kris Grunwald, Connecticut; Tom Hanna, Akron;  Tommy Harold, Nicholls State; Venessa Hackett Jacobs, Southern; Justin Ingram, UIC; Mike Jordan, New Mexico State; Frank Lavrisha, San Francisco; Steve Loeswick, North Florida; Don Metil, Towson; Kent Miller, Saint Louis; Anna Moreno Allison, Bucknell; Jennifer Petrie, San Diego; Kadie Platt, Houston; Mark Pryor, North Dakota; Dave Rehr, Arkansas State; Kari Thompson, Southern Illinois-Carbondale; Jennifer Weiss, Harvard; Arlisa Williams, Georgetown; Sam Wolinski, Eastern Illinois.

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 30 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 is also rolling out a new “WNIT” concept in D-I volleyball (the NIVC), beginning in 2017, and launched a similar event in D-I softball (the National Invitational Softball Championships) in spring 2017. 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.

Triple Crown also operates one of the top club volleyball events in the country, the TC Volleyball NIT, which hosts more than 400 of the top teams in the country and is played at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.

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