The EIVA and MIVA announced their respective postseason honors, including Jabarry Goodridge and Nicolas Szersen, respectively, as players of the year.
We’ve also got this week’s men’s tournament matchups plus future sites for NCAA women’s Division I championships, the men’s Division I-II championships and NCAA beach, which may never leave Gulf Shores.
This is our weekly Tuesday NCAA notebook. The polls follow — men’s and women’s beach — plus some analysis, the POW’s, and more.
NCAA men
AVCA Division I-II Poll: There is no new poll this week. The next one is next Monday, so there are no changes.
Click here for the April 10 AVCA poll
AVCA Division III Poll: Springfield stayed No. 1 and got all 17 first-place votes, and Vassar is still No. 2. But NYU jumped from 10th to No. 3, while SUNY New Paltz remained No. 4.
After a week of upsets in the DIII tournaments, there was plenty of other movement, including Dominican jumping from No. 8 to sixth and Juniata entering the poll at 12 and Eastern Mennonite moving in at No. 15.
Click here for the full AVCA Division III poll
And click here for the VBM story about the DIII men’s championship.
National Player of the Week
AVCA Division III: New York University freshman right side Evan Lindley. He averaged 4.4 kills in 10 sets and hit . 369. He also had 1.6 sigs and .40 aces.
There are no more Division I-II players of the week.
EIVA
Lots of awards in the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association. Not only the weekly POWs, but end-of-season honors.
Player of the Year: NJIT senior outside hitter Jabarry Goodridge. The award, named for Uvaldo Acosta, capped a tremendous season for Goodridge, who twice this season was the offensive POW. Goodridge was third in hitting percentage (.329), by far the leader in points per set (5.15), tops in aces (.50) and No. 1 in kills per set (4.43) and overall (408). Acosta was a star player at George Mason from 1986-88 who died at 32.
EIVA Newcomer of the Year: Princeton freshman middle George Huhmann. The 6-11 Hughmann was the defensive POW twice this season and was third in the league in blocks per set (1.04) and tops in hitting percentage (.386).
The Bob Sweeney/EIVA Coach of the Year award: Greg Walker, Sacred Heart. Walker took Sacred Heart into the EIVA Tournament for the first time since 2010.
Offensive Player of the Week: Penn State freshman opposite Calvin Mende. The 6-foot-11 redshirt averaged 4.38 kills per set and hit .457 in a 2-0 week for the Nittany Lions.
Defensive Player of the Week: Sacred Heart sophomore right side Taylor Bloomquist. He had 14 blocks in two victories and ended the regular season No. 1 in blocks per set (1.20) and second in total blocks (101).
Click here for the entire All-EIVA list, with a first team that includes two players each from Penn State, Sacred Heart, Princeton and Saint Francis.
EIVA semifinals: No. 1 Penn State (19-10) plays host to No. 4 Princeton (12-13) on Thursday, preceded by No. 2 Saint Francis (15-14) against No. 3 Sacred Heart (15-10).
In the regular season, Penn State beat Princeton in five sets in both their matches. SFU beat Sacred Heart in four in both their matches.
Worth noting: In the EIVA preseason coaches poll, George Mason was picked to win it all, but finished sixth and was eliminated in the quarterfinals by SFU. Despite likely setting some kind of world record of number of injuries, Penn State is a host for the 18th consecutive year and has won at least a share of the regular-season title for 19 years in a row.
MIVA
Offensive Player of the Year: Ohio State junior outside hitter Nicolas Szerszen. Szerszen, who was also the 2016 MIVA Player of the Year, is the 10th individual in league history to twice earn the honor. In league play, he was second in the conference in kills per set (3.37) and attack percentage (.404). His 38 aces (0.68 pet set) in conference play led all student-athletes. He was named the MIVA Offensive Player of the Week and AVCA National Player of the Week on Jan. 10. He helped the Buckeyes to a perfect 16-0 MIVA record.
Co-Freshman of the Year: Ball State outside hitter Matt Szews and Lewis outside hitter Ryan Coenen. Szews was third in the league in conference play with 3.57 kills per set. He hit .242 while recording 1.81 digs per set. He had 22 double-digit kill matches including a season-high 23 against Grand Canyon. Coenen hit .295 with 3.20 kills per set, sixth best in the league. He had 20 double-digit kill matches. Teammate Mitch Perinar earned the award last season.
Coach of the Year: Pete Hanson, Ohio State. This is Hanson’s 13th MIVA Coach of the Year honor. His second-ranked Buckeyes are 27-2, 16-0 in the MIVA.
Click here for the entire list of All-MIVA players.
The semifinals: On Wednesday, No. 1-seeded Ohio State (28-2,) plays host to No. 4 Ball State (19-9), while No. 2 Lewis (23-6) entertains No. 3 Grand Canyon (18-10). Ohio State swept Ball State in both their regular-season meetings, while Lewis split in an early season, back-to-back trip to Grand Canyon. The Flyers won in five the first night and Grand Canyon won in five the next.
Worth noting: The MIVA has won the last three NCAA titles. Loyola won it all in 2014 and 2015 and Ohio State won it all last year.
MPSF
Player of the Year: Long Beach State sophomore outside hitter TJ DeFalco. The key cog in the Long Beach State run to the top of the rankings and MPSF standings hit .400 this season and averaged 4.10 kills. He also averaged 1.87 digs and .26 aces.
Freshman of the Year: UC Irvine middle blocker Scott Stadick. The 7-footer has 22 solo blocks, 88 block assists, and hit .414.
The semifinals: It’s a safe bet that the two at-large teams selected to the NCAA final six will come from this foursome that will play Thursday in Long Beach State’s Pyramid. Top-seeded Long Beach State (25-3) plays host to No. 4 UC Irvine (20-6) after No. 2 BYU (24-3) plays No. 3 Hawai’i (25-4). In the regular season, Long Beach swept UCI in Irvine and then beat the Anteaters in four. BYU swept Hawai’i in both their meetings.
Worth noting: The semifinals and finals will be televised by FloVolleyball.
Conference Carolinas
Player of the Week: King junior outside hitter Jeff Sprayberry. He had 13 kills and hit .476 in a win over North Greenville and also had two digs, an ace and a block.
The quarterfinals: The regular season ended with King (27-3, 16-2) beating North Greenville (8-18, 7-11) to tie Barton for the regular-season title. Second-seeded King plays host to No. 7 North Greenville on Tuesday. Also, top-seeded Barton (20-5, 16-2), which has the tiebreaker advantage for the top spot, is home for eighth-seeded Erskine (4-20, 4-14), No. 3 Mount Olive (16-9, 14-4) entertains sixth-seeded Lees-McRae (1-16, 8-10) and fourth-seeded Limestone (12-10, 12-6) is home for No. 5 Belmont Abbey (9-16, 8-10).
Worth noting: The semifinals are Friday and the final Saturday. The winner gets the Conference Carolinas’ automatic bid into the NCAA field of six
NCAA Beach
AVCA Collegiate Beach Poll: No surprises but some slight movement as Pepperdine dropped from a tie with UCLA at No. 2 to No. 3 and Hawai’i did the same at No. 6, falling out of a tie with No. 5 Long Beach State.
Unbeaten USC is still No. 1, Florida State stays No. 4 and LSU stayed at No. 7 and Arizona is eighth. Georgia State is now alone at No. 9 and FIU — up from No. 14 — is now tied for 10th with Grand Canyon.
Click here for the entire AVCA Beach poll
CCSA Championships: They’re Friday-Sunday in Cartersville, Ga. The winner gets the league’s automatic bid into the field of eight in the NCAA Championships. Florida State and LSU are the top seeds. Click here for the full schedule and all the tourney info. The CCSA did not announce a top pair this week.
Big West top pair: Long Beach State’s Anete Brinke and Hailey Harward. They went 2-0 as a Long Beach pair took the award for the fourth time this season.
ASUN top pair: North Florida’s Shannon McPherson and Nicole DeBolt. They went 4-0 last week. Teammates Katarina Raicevic and Courtney Miller won it the week before.
Pac-12 top pair: Washington’s Crissy Jones and Tia Scambray, who went 4-0 without dropping a set, including wins over Pac-12 opponents California, Oregon, and Stanford.
NCAA future sites
Division I women: The NCAA announced on Tuesday that the 2018 NCAA Women’s Division I Championship will be in Indianapolis. Pittsburgh is the site for 2019, it’s back in Omaha in 2020 back to Columbus in 2021.
The gathering next December is in Kansas City.
Division I-II men: In 2019 the NCAA championship gathering is in Long Beach, in 2020 it goes to Fairfax, Va., at George Mason, in 2021 the NCAA is back in Columbus, where it is next month, and in 2022 it’s at UCLA.
NCAA beach: Gulf Shores, Ala., where the NCAA Championship is next month and will be for the fourth consecutive year, got it for the next four years, through 2022.
