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The bracket is finalized and 70 players selected for the annual Off the Block/Sprinbak, Inc. Fan Choice National Player of the Year tournament.
The Off the Block/Springbak, Inc. Fan Choice National Player of the Year recognizes the best individual performances from NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball players during the season and gives volleyball fans from around the world the chance to determine who was the best player.
This annual contest is a bracket-style, five-round tournament pairing the nation’s best players against each other with the winner being determined through online voting on the Off the Block website at offtheblockblog.com/playerofyear.
The tournament begins today with six play-in matches. In addition, 16 of the first-round matches will take place on Wednesday and the other 16 first-round matches will be on Thursday.
The play-in matches and first-round voting will last one day with the online polls closing at 10 p.m. (CST). The voting period will be two days for the second round, regional semifinals and regional finals.
The four players that win the regional championship will advance to the championship round with voting taking place on June 1-4.
An individual will be allowed to vote only one time per hour for each match during the tournament.
Several volleyball organizations give a National Player of the Year award at the end of each season. However, the Fan Choice Player of the Year is the only player of the year award solely determined by the fans.
Off the Block selected and seeded the tournament field using several factors, including a player’s performance during the season, all-conference and All-American honors, level of competition played throughout the season and how the player’s team fared.
Each team making the postseason in the EIVA, MIVA, MPSF and the Conference Carolinas received an automatic player bid to the tournament. Off the Block also awarded at-large bids to complete the 70-player field.
Players selected to the tournament were placed into four regions.
Off the Block is honoring the 10, 20, 30 and 40-year anniversaries of NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player selections by name each region after those players. The four regions will named after USC’s Celso Kalache, UCLA’s Ozzie Volstad, Stanford’s Mike Lambert and UC Irvine’s Matt Webber.
This is seventh year of the Fan Choice Player of the Year. Previous winners include Loyola outside attacker Mike Bunting in 2011, Ball State middle attacker Matt Leske in 2012, IPFW outside attacker Eddie Rivera in 2013, the BYU outside attacker Taylor Sander in 2014, Coker opposite Artur Cabral in 2015 and Pepperdine outside attacker David Wieczorek.
Below is a schedule of the tournament and tournament bracket.
Tournament schedule
Tuesday, May 23: Play-in matches
Wednesday, May 24: First round for Matt Webber Region and Mike Lambert Region
Thursday, May 25: First round for Ozzie Volstad Region and Celso Kalache Region
Friday, May 26 to Saturday, May 27: Second round
Sunday, May 28 to Monday, May 29: Regional semifinals
Tuesday, May 30 to Wednesday, May 31: Regional finals
Thursday, June 1 to Sunday, June 4: Championship round
*Polls close at 10 p.m. (CST) for every round
Matt Webber Region
No. 1 seed TJ DeFalco, Long Beach State
No. 16 seed Liam Maxwell, Belmont Abbey/Jarrod Kelso, Quincy
No. 2 seed Jeff Jendryk, Loyola
No. 15 seed Bruno Kretzchmar, Limestone
No. 3 seed Jennings Franciskovic, Hawai’i
No. 14 seed Nick Drooker, King
No. 4 seed Jabarry Goodridge, NJIT
No. 13 seed Mitch Perinar, Lewis/Vasilas Mandilaris, Barton
No. 5 seed David Wieczorek, Pepperdine
NO. 12 seed Calvin Mende, Penn State
No. 6 seed Mitch Stahl, UCLA
No. 11 seed Christopher DeLucie, Sacred Heart
No. 7 seed Scott Stadick, UC Irvine
No. 10 seed Angelos Mandilaris, Barton
No. 8 seed Matt Yoshiomoto, Lewis
No. 9 seed Daniel Ford, St. Francis
Mike Lambert Region
No. 1 seed Josh Tuaniga, Long Beach State
No. 16 seed Evan Cory, Lincoln Memorial
No. 2 seed Miles Johnson, Ohio State
No. 15 seed Myles Miller, Alderson Broaddus
No. 3 seed Amir Lugo-Rodriguez, Long Beach State
No. 14 seed Maalik Walker, McKendree
No. 4 seed Ryan Coenen, Lewis
No. 13 seed Kevin Rakestraw, Stanford/Andy Benesh, USC
No. 5 seed Kyle Ensing, Long Beach State
No. 12 seed Jordan Ewert, Stanford
No. 6 seed Joshua Ayzenberg, Sacred Heart
No. 11 seed Drake Silbernagel, Grand Canyon
No. 7 seed Larry Tuileta, Hawai’i
No. 10 seed Jeff Hogan, St. Francis
No. 8 seed Thomas Hodges, UC Irvine
No. 9 seed Ben Patch, BYU
Ozzie Volstad Region
No. 1 seed Nicolas Szsersen, Ohio State
No. 16 seed Isaac Lanier, Erskine
No. 8 seed Matt Szews, Ball State
No. 9 seed Jack Wilson, George Mason
No. 2 seed Andrew Sato, Long Beach State
No. 15 seed Sam Schindler, Lindenwood
No. 3 seed Lucas Yoder, USC
No. 14 seed Casey White, Harvard
No. 4 seed Jake Arnitz, UCLA
No. 13 seed George Huhmann, Princeton/Josh Donahue, Mount Olive
No. 5 seed Chris Nugent, Penn State
No. 12 seed Wyatt Patterson, McKendree
No. 6 seed Tanner Syftestad, UC San Diego
No. 11 seed Robert Poole, Mount Olive
No. 7 seed Brenden Sander, BYU
No. 10 seed Jacob Delson, UC Santa Barbara
Celso Kalache Region
No. 1 seed Jake Langlois, BYU
No.. 16 seed Keenan Freitas, Lees-McRae/Gert Lisha, USC
No. 2 seed Stijn van Tilburg, Hawai’i
No. 15 seed Joao Victor Santos, Coker
No. 3 seed Michael Saeta, UC Irvine
No. 14 seed Michael Fisher, St. Francis
No. 4 seed Christy Blough, Ohio State
No. 13 seed Leo Durkin, BYU vs. Luke Braswell, Penn State
No. 5 seed Tamir Hershko, UC Irvine
No. 12 seed Dimitar Kalchev, CSUN
No. 6 seed Matt Walsh, Ball State
No. 11 seed Hendrik Mol, Hawai’i
No. 7 seed Junior Oboh, Princeton
No. 10 seed Jeff Sprayberry, King
No. 8 seed Arvis Greene, CSUN
No. 9 seed Federico Pagliara, Barton