The Long Beach State men kept on winning but actually lost sets. And Hawai’i kept pace.
So the Big West men’s powers are still 1-2 in this week’s AVCA Division I-II Men’s Volleyball Poll, but for the first time, the Beach didn’t get all the first-place votes.
In the AVCA Collegiate Beach Poll, not only is UCLA still No. 1, but the first nine teams stayed exactly the same.
We have the polls and the POWs (players and pairs of the week) for both the NCAA men and beach in this weekly report.
AVCA men: Long Beach State (19-0) got 14 of the 16 first-place votes, while Hawai’i (17-0) got the other two. UC Santa Barbara stayed No. 3.
Pepperdine moved up two spots to fourth, UCLA dropped a spot to No. 5 and UC Irvine did the same to land at No. 6.
Click here for the complete AVCA men’s poll.
AVCA beach: Yup, 1 through 9 stayed exactly the same, including top-ranked UCLA (15-0) which got all 28 first-place votes. USC is second, Florida State is third, LSU kept its highest ranking ever at No. 4, and Pepperdine is fifth.
Click here for the complete AVCA beach poll.
Ohio State at Penn State: Two of the more prominent men’s programs face off Tuesday night, but this one has lost some of its luster. For that matter, it might be the first time in history that they’ll both have losing records when they play.
Ohio State, which won the 2016 and 2017 NCAA titles, is 7-14 overall, 2-6 in the MIVA. Penn State of the EIVA is 8-12, 5-2 in the EIVA.
It’s the 110th time they’ll play. Ohio State won in four in Columbus the first week of January.
There are also five matches involving Conference Carolinas teams on Tuesday, including Mount Olive playing host to the EIVA’s Harvard.
Men’s POWs
Big West: The AVCA national player of the week — and the Big West’s Hawai’i’s Rado Parapunov. The junior right side from Bulgaria averaged 4.83 kills per set, hit .600, and averaged 1.33 digs and .67 blocks.Â
The Beach’s Nick Amado, a senior middle, was the defensive POW after averaging 1.11 blocks. UC San Diego’s Logan Clark is the top freshman after the middle had seven kills and hit .462 in a sweep.
MPSF: It was all BYU as freshman outside Davide Gardini was the offensive POW and sophomore middle Felipe de Brito Ferreira got the defensive honor.
MIVA: The honors went to Purdue Fort Wayne junior outside Pelegrin Vargas on offense and Lewis senior libero on defense.
EIVA: George Mason went 2-for-2 with junior outside Hayden Wagner taking the offensive honor for the fourth time this season and sixth overall, and sophomore middle Jack Reese getting the defensive award.
Conference Carolinas: Barton College right side Angelos Mandilaris took the league POW honor for the third time this season. His brother, Vasilis, has been the POW twice this season.
Beach POWs
ASUN: The top pair is Stetson junior Sunniva Helland-Hansen and junior Carly Perales.
Big West: Hawai’i freshman Kylin Loker and senior teammate Hi’ilawe Huddleston got the nod.
Pac-12: Senior Oluoma Okaro and graduate-student Ashley Wenz are Arizona State’s first POWs in the program’s history. They are off to a 9-0 start.Â
CCSA: The Coastal Collegiate Sports Association announces on Wednesday. Last week’s POW honors were shared by Federica Frasca and Margherita Bianchin of FIU and Sara Putt and Payton Caffrey of Florida State.
