It’s getting late, but teams are still stepping out of their conferences and it’s providing some interesting matches.
Tuesday night, the MIVA’s Ohio State (23-1), back in the top spot of the AVCA Division I-II Men’s Coaches Top 15 Poll, goes to No. 13 Penn State of the EIVA (13-9).
Not all the matches are non-conference. There’s a big one for Chicago bragging rights Tuesday in the MIVA when No. 10 Loyola (14-8, 7-4 MIVA) drives down to Romeoville, Ill., to play at No. 7 Lewis (19-6, 10-3). And another MIVA team from Illinois, last-place Quincy (5-18), plays host to Culver-Stockton College, a 12-17 NAIA team from Canton, Mo.
There also three matches involving Conference Carolinas teams on Tuesday as Belmont Abbey goes to Pfeiffer and Erskine goes out of the league to entertain Coker and Barton does the same for St. Andrews.
There’s an NCAA beach match on Tuesday, too, when No. 1 USC (16-0) plays host to Cal (8-3).
This is the weekly Tuesday NCAA notebook. All the polls follow — men’s Division I-II, men’s Division III and women’s beach — plus some analysis and the POWs and notes.
NCAA men
Polls
AVCA Division I-II Poll: Ohio State is back on top after Long Beach (22-3) split at BYU and the Buckeyes (23-1) kept winning. Spots 3 through 10 are unchanged and the only movement after that was USC and Ball State flip-flopping at 11 and 12.
AVCA Division III Poll: Springfield, 23-1, remains No. 1 and continues to get all 17 first-place votes. SUNY New Paltz is No. 2, but there are plenty of changes after that. Vassar moved up a notch to third, while Carthage jumped from No. 7 to fourth. Also making a jump was Lasell from No. 12 to eighth.
Click here for the full AVCA Division III poll
National POWs
AVCA Division I-II POW: Long Beach State sophomore outside hitter TJ DeFalco. In two matches that the Beach split at BYU, DeFalco had 38 kills and hit .338. He also had 32 digs. Teammate Kyle Ensing won the honor earlier this season and DeFalco won it once last season.
AVCA Division III National POW: Carthage College senior right side Griffin Shields. Shields hit .411 and averaged 1.17 digs and .50 blocks in two victories for Carthage, of Kenosha, Wisc., over ranked teams. He had 41 kills in those two matches.
EIVA
Offensive Player of the Week: George Mason senior opposite Jack Wilson. Wilson averaged 4.1 kills and hit .404 in two victories. That included four aces against Barton.
Defensive Player of the Week: Princeton junior middle blocker Junior Oboh. Oboh had 18 blocks in a 1-2 week for the Tigers, including seven at BYU. He averaged 1.5 blocks per set and hit .519.
Key matches this week: Penn State gets a crack at No. 1 Ohio State when the Buckeyes of the MIVA come to town on Tuesday. Friday’s and Saturday’s EIVA slate could decide a lot as Princeton goes to league-leader Penn State and then Saint Francis. Second-place NJIT goes to Saint Francis and then Penn State.
Last week’s key results: Princeton took a set off BYU and Penn State lost in five to No. 7 Lewis.
Worth noting: The top four teams are all within a game of each other. Penn State is 6-2, NJIT and Princeton are and Sacred Heart is 5-3. Sacred Heart plays back to back at George Mason.
Click here for the EIVA standings
MIVA
Offensive Player of the Week: McKendree senior opposite Maalik Walker. Walker averaged 3.86 kills and hit .339 in two MIVA wins.
Defensive Player of the Week: Loyola sophomore middle blocker Paul Narup. Narup averaged 2.0 blocks in wins over Saint Francis and Penn State.
Key matches this week: Ohio State plays at Penn State on Tuesday in an interesting late-season non-conference matchup. In a key match, especially for Lewis, Loyola goes to the Flyers and they end their home slate.
Last week’s key results: Lewis beating visiting Penn State and Ohio State sweeping Ball State.
Worth noting: Ohio State leads in kills per set, 13.26, but Lewis has the most kills, 1,194 … Lewis also has the most blocks, 257, but Loyola leads in blocks per set, 2.61 … Wyatt Patterson of McKendree leads in attack percentage at .480, while Ball State’s Matt Walsh is next at .471.
Click here for the MIVA standings
MPSF
Player of the Week: See AVCA national POW above. DeFalco is the MPSF POW for the third time.
Key matches this week: Any time UCLA and USC meet in anything it’s big, and in this case it’s the No. 6 Bruins at No. 11 USC on Wednesday. Also, No. 5 UC Irvine goes to No. 9 Stanford on Friday.
Last week’s key results: It was all about visiting Long Beach State bouncing back from losing in five to BYU on Friday and sweeping the Cougars on Saturday to regain first place and likely become the No. 1 seed in the MPSF Tournament. Hawai’i kept pace with two victories over visiting CSUN.
Worth noting: BYU’s Jake Langlois hit .407 last week … UC Irvine hit .407 as a team at Pepperdine … Dimitar Kalchev of CSUN leads the league with 97 aces, 11 ahead of Michael Saeta of UCI … Long Beach leads in hitting percentage, opponent hitting percentage (.183), assists (12.72/set) and blocks (2.72).
Click here for the MPSF standings
Conference Carolinas
Player of the Week: Lees-McRae freshman setter Reto Pfund. Pfund, from Mohlin, Switzerland, had a big hand in his team’s 3-0 week. He totaled 106 assists, 15 digs, 12 kills, seven blocks and five aces.
Key matches this week: King will earn its hold on first place when it plays the two teams tied for second place, Mount Olive on Friday and Barton on Saturday. King is 13-1 in the standings, while Barton and Mount Olive are 13-2.
Last week’s key results: Limestone knocked off Mount Olive.
Worth noting: Jon Wheaton of King leads the CC in hitting percentage (.459) and blocks per set (1.11). Barton is hitting .328 as a team and next closest is King at .269.
Click here for the ConfCarolinas standings
NCAA Beach
AVCA Collegiate Beach Poll: The top six spots stayed exactly the same, from No. 1 USC through No. 6 Long Beach State. LSU moved up two spots to No. 7 and the biggest move was by Stetson, going from 13th to No. 9. Cal dropped out and Florida International is back in at no 15.
Click here for the entire AVCA Beach poll
Pac-12 top pair: Junior Terese Cannon and senior Nicolette Martin of USC. They went 6-1 for the week and become the third different USC pair to be honored this season.
Big West top pair: It goes to Hawai’i’s Morgan Martin and Mikayla Tucker, the third different Rainbow Wahine pair to be honored this season. They won all four of their matches in straight sets.
CCSA top pair: Delaney Rohan and Chelsea Ross of Georgia State. The No. 1 pair went 3-1 after beating top pairs from three ranked teams. Their only loss was to seemingly unbeatable Sara Hughes and Kelly Claes of No. 1 USC.
ASUN top pair: Senior Kristin Lind and freshman Darby Dunn of Stetson. They went 3-1 last week as Lind notched the 75th win of her career.
Key matches this week: Among the gatherings, the one in Miami includes No. 3 UCLA, No. 4 Florida State, No. 12 Arizona State, No. 14 Florida Atlantic, No.15 Florida International, Tulane and the University of New Orleans.
No. 6 Long Beach State goes to CSU Bakersfield on Wednesday, when No. 5 Hawai’i is at No. 2 Pepperdine.
No. 1 USC is home for Cal on Tuesday and then goes to Santa Cruz on Saturday and Sunday to play San Francisco, Saint Mary’s and San Jose State.
No. 10 Georgia State is the host Saturday and Sunday to No. 7 LSU, Jacksonville State, UAB and Austin Peay.
Notable that we got a good but limited look at Ben Patch last week and did not see any sign of a lagging injury, so he should be able to wipe off the rust and get back into the “swing” of things, for Tourney play. A plus for all who appreciate volleyball, and especially for BYU and their formidable balanced attack.