BYU-Creighton go 1-2 in final VBM Mid-Major Poll, Cal Poly takes third

BYU finished No. 1 in the final VolleyballMag.com Mid-Major Poll presented by the NIVC, and Creighton stayed No. 2.

After that, there was plenty of movement, as Cal Poly jumped a spot to No. 3, trading places with Marquette. UCF, Cincinnati and Dayton stayed 5-6-7, but Pepperdine moved up two notches to No. 8.

Denver remained ninth, while San Diego dropped to No. 10. Every one of the top 21 teams will play in the NCAA Tournament. Only Kennesaw State (No. 22), Portland (No. 24) and Wyoming (No. 25) will not, but Portland and Wyoming will play in the NIVC.

The AVCA Division I Coaches Poll that came out Monday also had some movement. BYU dropped from first to No. 4 after sustaining its first defeat, so Stanford is No. 1, Minnesota is No. 2 and Illinois is No. 3. Spots 5-9 stayed the same, but Kentucky moved up one spot to 10th as the Wildcats and Pittsburgh traded places. The final AVCA poll is December 17, after the NCAA Championship.

Teams in both the VBM and AVCA polls include BYU (1, 5), Creighton (2, 9) Cal Poly (3, 13), Marquette (4, 15), and UCF (5, 21).

The NCAA also updated its RPI and it shows, in order, Stanford, Illinois, Texas and Minnesota, although in the NCAA Tournament BYU, ranked fifth, got one of the top four seeds over Texas.

We would like to offer a sincere thanks from VolleyballMag.com to our Mid-Major Poll voters.

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 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: Yale, 22; Western Kentucky, 17; New Mexico State, 9; Tulane, 7; James Madison, 6; Miami (OH), 2. There were eight teams mentioned on only one ballot for a total of 22 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.

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