Hawai’i took a trip to the mainland and a subsequent tumble from third to No. 7 in this week’s AVCA Division I-II Men’s Poll. Otherwise, it was pretty much business as usual in the top 15.
This is the VolleyballMag.com weekly roundup that includes the men’s and beach polls and the players of the week for the respective conferences.
NCAA men
AVCA men’s poll: The nation’s lone unbeaten team, 19-0 Long Beach State, stayed No. 1. BYU remained No. 2, while UCLA moved up a notch to third and UC Irvine did the same to fourth. Pepperdine is up two spots to fifth, while Loyola stayed at No. 6. CSUN, which beat Hawai’i twice, both times at home, moved up from 10th to No. 8.
Click here for the complete AVCA men’s poll.
MPSF POWs: It was all Pepperdine as junior outside hitter David Wieczorek won the offensive POW award and senior outside Alex Harthaller took the defensive honor.
Wieczorek had 49 kills and hit .400 and had 10 aces in three victories, six in a win over Concordia. Harthaller averaged 1.2 blocks, 1.9 digs, .30 aces and 3.5 kills.
MIVA POWs: There were co-offensive POWs as Loyola senior middle Jeff Jendryk and Ohio State senior outside Nic Szerszen shared the award.
In a sweep of Lewis, Jendryk hit .684 with 13 kills on 19 swings with no errors. Szerszen hit .561 in two wins and totaled 15 blocks. Szerszen was honored for the 10th time in his career.
Big West POWs: They might as well retire the freshman of the week award for the rest of this season, because Simon Anderson of Long Beach State won it for the sixth time. The middle from Middlefart, Denmark, hit .625 in two wins with 15 total kills.
The offensive POW was CSUN senior opposite Arvis Greene, who won for the third time this season and second straight week after hitting .387 in two upsets of Hawai’i. He had 32 kills in the two wins and averaged 1.17 blocks per set. Greene was also named the AVCA national player of the week.
The defensive winner is UC Irvine freshman outside Austin Wilmot, who averaged 1.82 blocks over 11 sets, including 13 in a win over UC San Diego.
EIVA POWs: It was all NJIT as freshman opposite Alvaro Gimeno took the offensive honor and sophomore middle Luca Berger the defensive award.
Gimeno had 28 kills and hit .393 in six sets, while Berger had eight blocks in those same matches. He also had 12 kills and hit .417.
Conference Carolinas POW: Belmont Abbey College outside hitter Liam Maxwell won for the second time this season. He averaged 5.18 kills per set, finishing with 57 for the week while hitting .336. He also had 36 digs and five blocks in three matches.
NCAA beach
Pepperdine, UCLA still atop beach poll: The Waves and Bruins are still 1-2, but Hawai’i moved up from fifth to third, passing USC, which dropped a spot to No. 4. Long Beach State is No. 5.
Click here for the complete AVCA Collegiate Beach Poll.
CCSA POW: LSU’s No. 1 pair of Claire Coppola and Kristen Nuss won the honor after going 4-0 in a tournament at South Carolina. What’s more, they were also named the AVCA pair of the week. It’s the second time they’ve been honored by the CCSA this season.
Big West POW: Hawai’i’s No. 3 pair of Morgan Martin and Lea Monkhouse went back-to-back. This week they went 6-0 and only dropped one set.
ASUN POW: Stetson freshmen Rebecca Ingram and Quinci Birke were honored after they went 4-0, three sweeps. The one set they lost was the first against FAU and they rallied to win in three.
Pac-12 POW: The junior UCLA twins, Megan and Nicole McNamara, are the top pair after winning all three of their matches without losing a set.
