VolleyballMag.com Mid-Major Poll: BYU, UNI, Creighton top the first list

BYU took the top spot in the first 2018 VolleyballMag.com Mid-Major Poll presented by the NIVC.

The Cougars, who opened their season with back-to-back victories over Duke, got 24 of the 25 first-place votes. Northern Iowa, which upset Creighton and Kentucky and lost to USC, got the other first-place vote.

Creighton, which also beat Kentucky and lost in five to USC, is ranked No. 3. Cal Poly and San Diego round out the top five.

Seven of the top 25 got off to 3-0 starts, including No. 9 Wyoming.

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 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. TNIVC 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 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: Missouri State 37; Stephen F Austin 34; Cleveland State 30; Pepperdine 29; American 26; Florida Gulf Coast 26; Villanova 25; UCF 24; California Baptist 23; Illinois State 23; Radford 18; Rice 17; North Dakota 14; Tulsa 12; New Mexico State 3. There were 22 teams mentioned on only one ballot for a total of 142 combined points.

The pollsters: Kristin Belzung, Stony Brook; Keylor Chan, Samford; Dietre Collins-Parker, San Diego State; Steve Florio, Fort Wayne; Matt Ginipro, Appalachian State; 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; 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; 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.