NCAA volleyball: Michigan State, Tulane hire coaches, men’s notes and recaps

Michigan State and Tulane hired head coaches for their NCAA women’s volleyball programs, for the first time this season the AVCA had quite a shake-up in its top-15 NCAA men’s coaches poll, and we’ve got Tuesday’s NCAA men’s results — including Hawai’i and Conference Carolinas — and Wednesday’s schedule.

MICHIGAN STATE TABS JOHNSON — The new coach in East Lansing is Leah Johnson, who had a strong five-year run at Illinois State. Johnson replaces Cathy George, who retired after 17 at years at Michigan State.

Johnson, who played at Missouri State, previously was the head coach at SIU-Edwardsville for six seasons. At Illinois State, she had a record of 104-53, including four NCAA Tournament appearances. Last season, the Redbirds finished 19-14, 13-5 in the Missouri Valley Conference. Illinois State lost to Purdue in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Michigan State finished 11-18 in 2021, 4-16 in the Big Ten. The Spartans have not been to the NCAA Tournament since 2017, when they lost to Penn State in the regional final.

TULANE PICKS PRICE — Florida State assistant coach Jordanna Price will take over in New Orleans. Price, who started at Southern Idaho, finished her career at Florida State before she went to play professionally for three seasons. She coached at Valdosta State and South Alabama before returning for five seasons to FSU, where she was the associate head coach and recruiting coordinator. She takes over for Jim Barnes, who left to be the head coach at Iowa. Tulane finished 18-14 last season, 11-9 in the American Athletic Conference.

Tulane, which has played in the old Metro Conference, Conference USA, and for the past seven years the American Athletic, has never been to the NCAA Tournament.

AVCA TOP 15 — Maybe it was, as they say about the stock market, a correction. Long Beach State jumped two spots to No. 1, UCLA moved up two spots to No. 2, Hawai’i fell two places to No. 3, and Penn State moved up a notch to No. 4. Pepperdine dropped three spots to No. 5. 

Long Beach got 12 first-place votes, UCLA five, and Hawai’i two.

Lewis stayed No. 6, USC stayed No. 7, but UC Santa Barbara moved up three spots to No. 8. Independent Lincoln Memorial, off to the program’s best start at 6-0, moved in at No. 15 and is ranked for the first time.  It is the first time an independent has been ranked.UC Irvine dropped out.

Click here for the complete AVCA Division I-II Men’s Coaches Poll. 

AVCA POW — UCLA’s Ido Davis is the AVCA national player of the week. The Israeli freshman right side averaged 4.3 kills in nine sets for the Bruins and hit .424. 

WEDNESDAY’S SCHEDULE — Hawai’i, which beat visiting LIU on Tuesday, plays host to the Sharks again. 

There are three Big West-MPSF matches as UC Irvine goes to Pepperdine, UCLA goes to UC San Diego, and USCB goes to USC. CSUN of the Big West plays host to Vanguard.

Also, Edward Waters of the SIAC plays host to Webber International.

The MIVA begins conference play Thursday with four matches, when Quincy goes to Loyola Chicago, Ohio State goes to McKendree, Ball State goes to Lewis, and Lindenwood goes to Purdue Fort Wayne. We profiled PFW coach Ryan Perrotte on Tuesday. Also Thursday, CSUN of the Big West goes to USC of the MPSF.

TUESDAYS RESULTS — Hawai’i (8-2) of the Big West beat visiting independent LIU (3-8) 26-24, 25-11, 25-15. Spyros Chakas had 10 kills and hit .533 to go with three digs and two blocks, one solo. Guilherme Voss had four kills and six blocks. Hawai’i had 10 aces and seven errors and hit .344. LIU hit .132 and got 11 kills from Luke Chandler, who hit .333 and had two blocks and three digs. Hasan Hadzic had eight kills with one error in 17 attacks … 

Conference Carolinas had two league matches as Erskine (3-8, 1-0) beat North Greenville (4-3, 0-1) in four and King (3-7, 2-0) swept Lees-McRae (3-3, 0-2). 

Erskine got 17 kills from Edgerrin Austin and 16 from Kacper Rybarczyk. Alex Ruiz had 15 digs and two assists. North Greenville’s Diego Rosich had 13 kills … King hit .435 against L-M with nine aces and 14 errors. Suetonius Harris led with 11 kills as he hit .381 and had an ace and three digs. Aaron Milstead had eight kills in as many attacks, two digs, and three blocks, one solo. L-M’s Michael Marsans had 12 kills … Emmanuel (3-2) of Conference Carolinas beat independent Limestone (6-2) in five. Eli Zdonek had 19 kills and Gustavo Cavalcanti had 17 for Emmanuel, while Limestone’s Albert Warzocha had 19 kills. Teammate Veit Bils had 11 kills, hit .500, and had nine blocks, one solo …

Also Tuesday, Alderson Broaddus swept Saint Vincent and Missouri Baptist won in five at Maryville. 

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