NCAA M: Defending champs Ohio State claim overall pre-season top spot, conferences reveal polls for post-season

Ohio-State-Buckeyes

Unlike the Women’s Championship in which only Division I teams have the right to compete for the national title, Division I and Division II sides are eligible to fight for the most prestigious trophy in the Men’s collegiate volleyball as well as the teams without a conference affiliation (independent).

As the first part of the season is over, four of five conferences have announced a teams’ ranking list (pre-season polls) based on the results and favorites in each conference named by the conference coaches. As for the overall pre-season poll, the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) has announced defending champions Ohio State Buckeyes (32-2, Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association) as No.1. The post-season, that will give the national champions, sets off on January 2.

See the overall pre-season teams’ rankings.

The 2018 season has brought a new conference in the NCAA Men’s Volleyball tournament – the Big West. It included six teams that left Mountain Pacific Sports Federation: Long Beach State, Hawai’i, California State Northridge, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, and UC San Diego. Due to this, the NCAA expanded post-season’s field to seven teams in order to give an automatic berth to the Big West conference winners.

These are the pre-season polls per conference (Conference Carolinas are yet to release the pre-season poll)

Big West:

1. Long Beach State 27-4
2. Hawai’i 27-6
3. California State Northridge 12-15
4. UC Irvine 20-7
5. UC Santa Barbara 10-16
6. UC San Diego 7-20.

Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association – EIVA:

1. Penn State 21-11
2. Princeton 12-14
3. George Mason 13-14
4. Saint Francis 16-15
5. Harvard 10-13
6. New Jersey Institute of Technology 13-13
7. Sacred Heart 15-11
8. Charleston 12-17

Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association – MIVA:

1. Ohio State 32-2
2. Lewis 23-7
3. Ball State 19-10
4. Loyola 16-12
5. McKendree 11-19
6. Lindenwood 5-19
7. Fort Wayne 5-23
8. Quincy 7-22

Mountain Pacific Sports Federation – MPSF:

1. Brigham Young 26-5
2. UCLA 17-10
3. Pepperdine 10-12
4. Stanford 13-13
5. University of Southern California 14-14
6. Grand Canyon 19-11
7. Concordia 18-12

These are independent teams that will take part in the 2018 Season: Alderson Broaddus University, Coker College, Lincoln Memorial University, Queens University of Charlotte, University of Puerto Rico at Bayamón, University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, and University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras (all coming from Division II).

The 2018 NCAA Men’s Volleyball Tournament will now have three play-in matches instead of six as last season (No.2 vs. No.7, No.3 vs. No.6, and No.4 vs. No.5) and only the overall No.1 will get an automatic berth for the National Semifinals.

Individual pre-season rankings

Points per set:

1. Lucas Yoder (senior outside hitter, USC) 5.22
2. Jabarry Goodridge (Barbados, senior outside hitter, NJIT) 5.15
3. Tanner Syftestad (senior opposite, UC San Diego) 4.92

Blocks per set:

1. Amir Lugo-Rodriguez (senior middle blocker, Long Beach State) 1.28
2. Connor Hipelius (sophomore middle blocker, Lindenwood) 1.26
3. Myles Miller (senior middle blocker, Alderson Broaddus) 1.21

Aces per set:

1. Nicolas Szerszen (France, senior outside hitter, Ohio State) .64
2. Dimitar Kalchev (Bulgaria, sophomore outside hitter, CSUN) .63
3. Michael Saeta (senior setter, UC Irvine) .59

See the complete individual pre-season rankings.

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