TJ DeFalco and Alan Knipe of top-ranked Long Beach State took top honors as the Big West announced its postseason awards Monday.
The first-year league’s six head coaches voted DeFalco, a junior outside hitter, the player of the year, and Knipe the coach of the year. UC Irvine outside Joel Schneidmiller was named the Big West freshman of the year.
Click here to view the complete Big West list of the first team, honorable mention, and all-freshman team.
In the MIVA, Nic Szerszen of Ohio State was named player of the year, while Loyola’s Mark Hulse and Garrett Zolg were named MIVA coach and freshman of the year.
Click here to view the complete MIVA first, second, and all-freshman teams.
AVCA poll: That’s right, poll. There is no men’s poll this week while the five conferences get into postseason play.
In the AVCA Collegiate Beach Poll, UCLA, Pepperdine and Hawai’i stayed 1-2-3. Cal Poly, now No. 4, and USC traded places. Saint Mary’s moved in at No. 20, while College of Charleston dropped out. Click here for the complete AVCA Beach Poll.
USC’s Gianluca Grasso was named the Sports Imports/AVCA player of the week after leading USC in an upset win over Pepperdine with 19 kills and two aces while hitting .607.
The AVCA DIII player of the week was Gabe Shankweiler of Stevens Institute of Technology, who scored 11 kills in the UVC championship.
Florida State seniors Tory Paranagua and Vanessa Freire were named AVCA pair of the week following a 5-0 record for the week, 24-6 on the season. They also claimed the final CCSA pair of the week honors, release here.
EIVA:Â George Mason received both player and coach of the year honors. Brian Negron received the Uvaldo Acosta player of the year honors, and Jay Hosack received the Bob Sweeney coach of the year honors. NJIT’s Alvaro Gimeno received the newcomer of the year award. The list of first- and second-team honorees is here.
Princeton’s George Huhmann is the league’s offensive player of the week for the third time this season after the sophomore middle averaged 5.3 kills and hit .329 in two matches.
George Mason junior libero Will Calaman is the defensive POW. He had 15 digs in a match against Harvard.
Conference Carolinas: The league’s quarterfinals are Tuesday.
Top-seeded King plays host to Lees-McRae, No. 2 seed Barton is home for Erskine, Mount Olive gets Limestone and North Greenville goes to Belmont Abbey. The semifinals are Friday at the highest two seeds remaining and higher seed is the host for Saturday’s final. Conference Carolinas gets one of the seven bids to the NCAA tournament.
The league also announced its final player of the week, North Greenville’s Matthew McManaway. The senior middle blocker had 12 kills and hit .500 while getting five blocks, two digs and an ace against Belmont Abbey, the same team North Greenville plays Tuesday.
ASUN beach: The ASUN named Stetson’s Rachel Noble and Samantha Harris and FGCU’s Ashley Glickert and Giovanna Borgiotti co-pairs of the week. Both pairs were undefeated last week, dropping only one set each.
Click here to view the ASUN release.
Big West beach: Long Beach’s new pairing of Megan Kruidhof and Rachel Nieto earned the Big West team of the week honor with a 4-0 record for the week at the no. 2 pairing. The Big West release is here.
Pac-12: Stanford’s Courtney Bowen and Sunny Villapando are the pair of the week after a perfect 4-0 week at the Pac-12 North Invitational. The Pac-12 release is here.
