NCAA men’s volleyball: Conference Carolinas tourney begins Thursday, MIVA on Saturday

The NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball season has turned into the home stretch as Conference Carolinas begins its tournament on Thursday.

The other four men’s conferences are also have action Friday and Saturday, including the start of the MIVA tournament.

All five leagues get automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament plus one at-large.

CONFERENCE CAROLINAS — The tournament begins with winless Lees-McRae at fifth-seeded King, while Erskine, the seventh-seed, goes to sixth-seeded Emmanuel.

The Lee-McRae-King winner goes to fourth-seeded Barton on Tuesday, while the Erskine-Emmanuel winner goes to third-seeded North Greenville.

Top-seeded Mount Olive and second-seeded Belmont Abbey lie in wait for the April 17 semifinals.

MIVA — The league tournament starts Saturday with Ohio State at Ball State, Quincy at Lewis, Lindenwood at Loyola, and Purdue Fort Wayne at McKendree.

The semifinals are April 17 and the week after, April 24, is the championship. The higher-seeded teams host.

BIG WEST — Long Beach State is at UC San Diego on Friday, while Hawai’i goes to CSUN. Saturday, UCSD in turn goes to Long Beach, while Hawai’i is back at CSUN. UC Santa Barbara plays at UCSD next Wednesday and Thursday.

EIVA — The league wraps up its regular season Friday and Saturday with Penn State at Charleston and Saint Francis at Sacred Heart on Friday and then Saturday Penn State is back at Charleston, Saint Francis returns to Sacred Heart, and George Mason goes to NJIT.

Penn State (17-3, 14-2) holds a one-game lead over NJIT (13-5, 13-3).

MPSF — On Friday and Saturday, the top two teams in the league square off when BYU goes to UCLA, while Grand Canyon is at USC.