Updates, news and notes: Pro Volleyball Federation; NCAA men, beach, women; AVCA

In this report, we catch up on the Pro Volleyball Federation, NCAA men, NCAA beach, AVCA polls and POWS, and note a couple of NCAA Division I women’s coaching hires.

Pro Volleyball Federation

There are matches each of the next five days as the first-year league starts the 12th week of the season.

Wednesday, the first-place Atlanta Vibe go to the San Diego Mojo.

Thursday, the Grand Rapids Rise are at the Orlando Valkyries.

Friday, San Diego goes to the Columbus Fury.

There are two matches Saturday, as the Vegas Thrill go to Grand Rapids and the second-place Omaha Supernova try to close the gap at Atlanta.

Sunday, San Diego is at Orlando.

All the matches can be seen on the PVF YouTube channel except Friday’s Thrill vs. Fury, which is on the CBS Sports Network.

STANDINGS
1. Atlanta Vibe (13-4)
2. Omaha Supernovas (11-5)
3. Orlando Valkyries (7-8)
4. Grand Rapids Rise (6-8)
5. San Diego Mojo (5-7)
6. Columbus Fury (5-9) 
7. Vegas Thrill (5-11)

Atlanta has won four in a row, while Columbus and Vegas have lost four in a row.

ATLANTA SWEEPS THRILL: The visiting Vibe won 25-21, 25-18, 25-23 Monday to build their lead to 1.5 games as Leah Edmond had 12 kills and Shelly Fanning 11. Edmond added an ace, five digs and three blocks, two solo. Fanning had an assist and four block assists. Mada Jehlarova had eight kills, two digs and four xolo blocks. Morgan Hentz had 15 digs and three assists and Marlie Monserez had 34 assists, four kills in eight errorless tries, 12 digs and six blocks, two solo.

Vegas had 37 kills, 20 fewer than Atlanta, nine by Gabby Gonzales, who had nine digs and two block assists. Hannah Maddux had eight kills and 10 digs and Berkeley Oblad had seven kills, three digs and three blocks, one solo. Alisha Glass Childress had 31 assists, six digs, a block assists and three kills.

NCAA men

AVCA TOP 20: The top three stayed the same — Long Beach State, UCLA and Grand Canyon — but UCLA got two of the 23 first-place votes this week. 

UC Irvine is No. 4, trading places with No. 5 Hawai’i. 

There were no major changes but UC San Diego dropped out and Lindenwood is in at No. 20, giving the MIVA six schools, along with No. 10 Ohio State. No. 11 Ball State, No. 12 Loyola Chicago, No. 18 McKendree and No. 19 Purdue Fort Wayne.

Click here for the complete for the AVCA National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Poll.

AVCA POW: The AVCA continued its trend of ensuring it has a player of the week from a different school each week and for the first time ever, the winner is from Fairleigh Dickinson. Jamal Ellis Carballo, a sophomore opposite from Puerto Rico, averaged 5.75 kills per set and hit .350 in NEC four-set wins over Merrimack and Sacred Heart. He also averaged two digs per set and was also the NEC player of the week.

There have been 14 POWs this year and only one school has repeated. Spyros Chakas of Hawai’i, since injured and lost for the rest of the season, won on February 11 and March 10. 

SCHEDULE: There are no men’s matches Wednesday. Thursday, UCLA goes to Concordia Irvine in the MPSF, which also has Pepperdine at GCU. UCLA,which holds a one-game lead over GCU. plays CUI again Saturday. Pepperdine and GCU play again Friday.

Conference Carolinas ends its regular season as first-place Belmont Abbey is home for Erskine, Barton is at Mount Olive, North Greenville goes to Emmanuel and King is at Lees-McRae which has one chance to end its 20-match losing streak. Only the top six teams make the league tournament.

NCAA beach

AVCA POLL: There was some small movement but basically things stayed the same.

UCLA got 19 first-place votes and stayed No. 1. USC got three votes and moved up to No. 2, trading places with No. 3 Stanford (one vote). USC beat Stanford at the Pac-12 North last Friday.

Florida State, TCU and Cal Poly stayed 4-5-6, Long Beach State moved up two spots to No. 7, Cal dropped one notch to No. 8 and LSU did the same and is No. 9. Loyola Marymount stayed No. 10. No one dropped out.

Click here for the complete AVCA Collegiate Beach Poll.

AVCA TOP PAIR: The honor this week goes to Zoey Henson and Lauren Wilcock of Washington. 

Henson, a freshman from Cypress, California, and Wilcock, a freshman from Mendham, New Jersey, lost just one set in four victories at the Pac-12 North last weekend, beating teams from Arizona State, Stanford, Cal and Oregon on court 2. They were also the Pac-12 pair of the week. 

SCHEDULE:  We’ll have a full NCAA beach report on Thursday, recapping last weekend’s matches including the Pac-12 North in Washington, and looking ahead to this weekend that has a gathering at Cal Poly that includes UCLA, USC, LMU, Long Beach State, Florida State and Pepperdine.

NCAA women

There were two recent Division I head-coach hirings. 

Gardner-Webb, 14-13 last year, 8-6 in the Big South, hired Alex Hinsey. He was the head coach at Division III Mary Washington the past four seasons. He replaces Eric Plunkett, who resigned in January, citing health concerns with his family.

Youngstown State tabbed Riley Jarrett, who has been the coach at Division II West Liberty. She replaces Aline Scott, who left coaching. Jarrett was a setter at Division III Mount Union. Youngstown State finished 9-20 last season, 4-14 in the Horizon League. 

Neither Gardner-Webb nor Youngstown State has ever played in the NCAA Tournament.