NCAA volleyball: AVCA Poll, POWs, news and notes
The AVCA Poll got a complete shakeup, we’ve got POWs, and plenty of news and notes in this NCAA volleyball roundup.
AVCA POLL: The only teams in the same place they were last week are No. 1 Texas, No. 18 Washington and No. 19 Marquette.
Louisville moved up a spot to No. 2, trading places with Nebraska. San Diego is No. 4, the highest ranking for the Toreros since they were No. 2 in 2013. The fifth spot belongs to Stanford, up four spots from No. 9.
Three Big Ten teams dropped two spots each, Wisconsin to No. 6, Ohio State to No. 7 and Minnesota to No. 8. Another B1G team, unbeaten Penn State, jumped two spots to No. 9 and Pittsburgh is up two spots to No. 10.
Big drops include Georgia Tech from seventh to No. 12, and Creighton, from 17th to No. 22. Big jumps were made by Florida, up four spots to No. 12, and Pepperdine, up five notches to No. 17.
Kansas and Illinois dropped out as Rice moved in at No. 23 and UCF entered at No. 25.
Click here for the complete AVCA Division I Coaches Poll.
TUESDAY: The CAA and Metro Atlantic began conference play this past weekend. Others get underway Tuesday, including Colorado State opening Mountain West play against Wyoming. UC Riverside is at UC Davis to start Big West action, there are four Horizon League matches, and two more in the MAAC.
Want to watch a match? We have the viewing links on the VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings page.
MONDAY: UTEP (6-7) of Conference USA swept UT Rio Grande Valley (11-4) of the WAC. Sara Pustahija led with 16 kills as she hit .382 and had an ace, five digs and two blocks, one solo. Torrance Lovesee had 14 kills, hit .522, and had three blocks and three digs. Hula Crisostomo had 18 digs and five assists … Mississippi Valley (1-8) of the SWAC lost to Miles (6-4) in four. Miles is a member of the NCAA Division II SIAC.
AVCA NATIONAL POW: This week’s honoree is Louisville outside hitter Claire Chaussee. The junior from Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, had 16 kills in Louisville’s win over Kentucky and 19 against Stanford. She hit .338 in the two matches.
CONFERENCE POWs: Louisville’sChaussee and Pitt right side Courtney Buzzerio are co-ACC players of the week. Buzzerio, an Iowa transfer, had 29 kills and hit .391 in sweeps of Tennessee and Ohio State …
The Big Ten POW is Temi Thomas-Ailara of Northwestern, a senior outside who averaged 4.75 kills, 1.67 digs and .67 blocks in two victories. Rainelle Jones of Maryland, who leads the nation in blocks per set, is the defensive POW. She averaged 2.2 blocks and 2.1 kills and hit .356 in three victories …
The SEC player and freshman of the week is Florida setter Alexis Stuckey. She averaged 10.75 assists in two victories and had 10 digs, eight blocks and six kills …
The Pac-12 offensive POW is Oregon setter Hannah Pukis, a Washington State transfer, who averaged 12 assists while her team hit .407 in two victories. Oregon outside Mimi Colyer was the league’s freshman honoree for the third time in four weeks …
The Big 12 went straight Oklahoma. The offensive POW is outside Megan Wilson, the defensive POW is Callie Kemohah and the top rookie was middle Morgan Perkins ….
Players from two ranked teams got the honors in the West Coast Conference. The offensive POW is San Diego senior outside Katie Lukes, who had 36 kills in two matches and hit .431 with two aces. The defensive pick is Pepperdine senior libero Riley Patterson, who averaged 4.22 digs and 1.33 assists in two wins …
The Big South POW is Charleston Southern middle Indigo Young. She had 50 kills and hit .537 in four matches and had 13 blocks. Teammate Angelika was the leading libero and Skyar Yates the top freshman … The Sun Belt offensive POW is South Alabama junior Hannah Maddux, who averaged 5.6 kills in three matches … Valparaiso junior middle Mallory Januski is the Missouri Valley POW after averaging 2.89 kills and hitting .548 in three wins … UCF’s McKenna Melville, now the school’s all-time kills leader, was the American Athletic offensive POW for averaging 5.45 kills while hitting .336 in three wins … Xavier senior setter Carrigan O’Reilly is the Big East offensive POW after having back-to-back triple doubles … Big MAC-tion numbers for NIU libero Francesca Bertucci, who averaged 8.14 digs in two wins and is the Mid-American West defensive POW; and Western Michigan’s Logan Case, the West top setter, after averaging 11.8 assists in a 3-0 week … The Big West offensive POW is Cal Poly’s Maia Dvoracek, who averaged 4.11 kills and 3.67 digs in three sweeps … Stephen F. Austin took both the offensive (Ariana Pagan) and defensive (Haley Hoang) honors in the WAC. Pagan had 33 kills in three matches and hit .524. Hoang had 55 digs and is averaging 5.59 per set for the season.
UNBEATENS: Six teams remain undefeated in NCAA Division I, Towson and Valparaiso at 12-0, Auburn and Penn State at 11-0, and Texas and UCF at 8-0.
There are 13 teams with just one loss, including Jacksonville State and Stephen F. Austin at 12-1 and South Dakota at 11-1.
MIVA HALL OF FAME: The men’s conference will induct five from Ball State, Eduardo Ferraz, Barry Long, Wes Lyon, Rick Miemi, and Don Purvis; and two from Ohio State, Craig Sherman and Brian Sherman.
They will be inducted into the MIVA Hall of Fame in Muncie, Indiana on November 12, follwoign a fall tournament featuring MIVA members Ball State, Lindenwood, Ohio State and Purdue Fort Wayne.
Click here for the MIVA news release.
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