Hawai’i not only went 4-0 on its trip to the mainland with another victory Tuesday, the Rainbow Warriors were a unanimous No. 1 in this week’s AVCA Division I-II Men’s Volleyball Poll.
BYU stayed No. 2, but after that a week filled with upsets made for a new-look top 15.
We’ve also got the men’s recaps, a look ahead, the players of the week in the five men’s conferences, and some women’s coaching news.
There are three matches Wednesday, most significantly when second-ranked BYU of the MPSF plays at No. 5 UC Irvine of the Big West. Those same teams play again Friday in Irvine. At the end of this story please watch Rob Espero’s video interview with BYU coach Shawn Olmstead.
Also Wednesday, Barton of Conference Carolinas plays host to Queens, and Concordia of the MPSF goes to Vanguard.
To watch those matches or any others that are being shown, go to the VolleyballMag.com TV listings page for direct links to the broadcasts.
AVCA Poll: Hawai’i got all 16 first-place votes in a poll that saw Ohio State drop out, Penn State move up four spots to No. 14, and Concordia get in at No. 14.
UC Santa Barbara moved up a notch to No. 3, Long Beach State did the same and is No. 4, and UC Irvine is up two spots to No. 5.
UCLA dropped three spots to to No. 6. Click here for the complete AVCA Poll.
Women’s coaching carousel: Jacksonville, the team from Florida in the ASUN, hired Maggie Couture as its head coach, while longtime Stanford assistant Denise Corlett retired and Virginia Tech head coach Jill Wilson resigned.
Click here for more on Corlett, who leaves quite a legacy after 31 years at Stanford.
Couture, a former player at Belmont, has spent the past six years as an assistant coach at Ohio. Jacksonville went 10-21 last season, 5-11 in the ASUN.
Virginia Tech finished 11-20 last season, 4-14 in the ACC. Wilson, a former player at LSU who not only was an assistant there but also at North Carolina and Wake Forest, had a 35-37 overall record in her three seasons at Virginia Tech, 13-43 in the ACC.
Virginia Tech’s and NC State are the only openings in a power-five conference. Head-coaching positions remain open in at least four other programs, including San Diego State.
Men’s recaps: Hawai’i of the Big West swept at Lincoln Memorial on Monday and then on Tuesday did the same at King of Conference Carolinas.
Against Lincoln Memorial in Harrogate, Tennessee, Hawai’i (9-0) hit .603 in a 25-15, 25-15, 25-23 victory. Colton Cowell and Rado Parapunov had 10 kills each. Cowell hit .529 and had a block and three digs, while Parapunov hit .692 and had an ace, two blocks and a dig. Hawai’i had seven aces and 12 serving errors. LM (3-3) got 16 kills from Evan Cory, who had one error in 27 swings and hit .556. He had an ace, a block and five digs. The Railsplitters hit .261, had that one ace, and eight errors …
Hawai’i won at King 25-19, 25-19, 25-15 as coach Charlie Wade got to play 15 players, 10 of whom who had kills. Cowell led with 10, hit .444, and had an assist, three aces, a block and a dig. Parapunov had seven kills, hit .385, had two assists, three blocks and six digs while playing just two sets. Dimitrious Mouchilias had four aces and two blocks. Hawai’i hit .358, had 10 aces and just nine errors. Joshua Kim had 11 kills to lead King (2-4), which hit .152 and had two aces and seven errors. It was the first time King had played host to the top team in the country …
There were league-opening Conference Carolinas matches Tuesday, all sweeps, as Mount Olive (5-3, 1-0) beat Belmont Abbey (2-4, 0-1), North Greenville (3-1, 1-0) beat Emmanuel (0-4, 0-1), and Limestone (2-0, 1-0) beat Erskine (0-2, 0-1).
Mount Olive hit .317 against Belmont Abbey. Troy Magorien led with 13 kills, hit .421, had one of his team’s seven aces against 11 errors, three digs and a block. Tobi Azeez had 12 kills, hit .440, and had an ace, eight digs and a block. Liam Maxwell had 17 kills and hit .586 for BA to go with an ace, six digs and a block …
North Greenville hit .387 as Jackson Gilbert led with 16 kills and hit .667. He had an assist, three of this teams 12 aces against 14 errors, a dig and two blocks, one solo. Emmanuel hit .072 …
Limestone hit .446 against Erskine as the 98 fans at Limestone saw Vicente Mardones get 15 kills while hitting .393 to go with one of his team’s six aces against 12 errors. He also had four digs and four blocks. Andrew Holman added 13 kills and hit .684 after taking 19 errorless swings. He had two assists and five digs. Francisco Salinger Cenzual had 11 kills, hit .476, and had an assist, four aces and seven digs. Edge Austin had 12 kills and hit .385 for Erskine, but his team hit .149. Austin had seven digs and a block.
POWs: The MPSF honored Concordia’s Jordan Hoppe as its offensive player of the week and Pepperdine’s Diego Perez as the defensive POW …
In the MIVA, Pelegrin Vargas of Purdue Fort Wayne was not only the conference offensive POW, he was the AVCA national player of the week. The league defensive honor went to Ohio State’s Samuel Clark …
Both EIVA honors went to Penn State as Brett Wildman took the offensive award and Will Bantle the defensive award …
In the Big West, Parapunov of Hawai’i was the POW, while teammate Gage Worsley took the defensive honor. UC Irvine’s Patrick Vorenkamp was named Freshman POW …
And in Conference Carolinas, the POW is Brennan Davis of Belmont Abbey.
Rob Espero’s interview with BYU’s Shawn Olmstead:
