Top seven remain the same in VolleyballMag.com Mid-Major Poll

Much like our counterparts at the AVCA, the VolleyballMag.com Mid-Major Poll presented by the NIVC stayed relatively the same this week, in our case for the first seven spots. And the movement after that was minimal.

Unbeaten BYU, dealt a terrible blow last week when its second-leading attacker, McKenna Miller, was lost for the season with a knee injury, got all 25 first-place votes.

The rest of the top seven are Creighton, Marquette, Cal Poly, UCF, Denver and San Diego.

Northern Iowa, now No. 8, and Cincinnati, now No. 9, traded places. Colorado State stayed at No. 10.

The biggest jump was by Texas State, going from 21st to No. 18.

Back in this week is Austin Peay, tied for 25th with Wyoming.

The AVCA Division I Coaches Poll had no new members. The biggest jump was by Washington, from No. 25 to 20th.

There are five teams from the Mid-Major Poll in the AVCA top 25, BYU, Creighton at No. 9, Cal Poly at No. 15, Marquette at No. 17, and UCF at No. 21.U

The NCAA RPI, a computer-based ranking based on performance and strength of schedule, shows Stanford No. 1, followed by Illinois, Minnesota, Texas and BYU. Only the top four teams get to be NCAA Tournament regional hosts if they win their first two matches.

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

Others receiving votes and listed on two or more ballots: Miami (OH), 15; Fresno State, 13; Yale, 11; Tulane, 8; Hofstra, 5; James Madison, 5. Eight teams were mentioned on only one ballot for a total of 36 combined points.

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.