The Place for College Men's Volleyball
With the men’s volleyball Final Four less than two months away, Off the Block each week for the rest of the season will release its projected NCAA Tournament bracket.
The men’s volleyball NCAA Tournament is comprised of four teams. Automatic bids are awarded to the winners of the EIVA, MIVA and MPSF conference tournaemnts, and the NCAA Men’s Volleyball National Committee chooses one team for an at-large bid.
Continue reading “Men’s volleyball bracketology”
Weeks featuring a significant amount of non-conference matches can lead to some of the biggest changes in a poll — and last week was no different.
With everything from a top-five team losing to an unranked opponent to UCLA eking out two five-game victories at home against some of the best EIVA and MIVA teams, there was a significant amount of movement in the bottom of my top 10 ballot this week.
Check out this week’s top 10 men’s volleyball media poll and my ballot with explanations on why ranked each team where I did.
Continue reading “My men’s volleyball media poll ballot”
It’s Spring Break and the Midwest and East Coast men’s volleyball teams are fleeing to the warm weather of California.
With about five EIVA and MIVA teams playing against California teams this week, Mid-March is typically when teams will schedule non-conference road trips coinciding with its Spring Break. Highlighting this week of non-conference play is the four-team Active Ankle Challenge at Long Beach State, which opens with the only match tonight between teams ranked in the top 10. In addition, No. 8 UCLA tonight plays its final non-conference match at Pauley Pavillion before the stadium later this year for renovations.
Check out the top five men’s volleyball matches to follow tonight.
Continue reading “Top 5 men’s volleyball matches to follow tonight”
The aftermath of No. 1 versus No. 2 resulted in little change to the men’s volleyball media poll.
USC remains the only team to be ranked No. 1 this season after winning both matches in five games against BYU during the weekend, while the Cougars stays at No. 2 following the road losses. Despite little change at the top, the bottom of the ranking saw some movement with UCLA jumping ahead of Penn State to No. 8 and Hawai’i breaking back into the top 10 after a one-week absence.
Check out this week’s top 10 men’s volleyball media poll and my ballot with explanations on why ranked each team where I did.
Continue reading “My men’s volleyball media poll ballot”
Two of the three men’s volleyball conferences will have two of their top teams playing each other tonight.
No. 1 USC finishing its weekend series against No. 2 BYU in the MPSF still highlights all the matches today. The other match, though, that is for sole possession of first place is in the Midwest as No. 4 Ohio State and No. 10 Loyola play with both teams vying to become the first team to go undefeated in MIVA play since 1998.
Check out the top five men’s volleyball matches to follow tonight.
Continue reading “Top 5 men’s volleyball matches to follow tonight”
The men’s volleyball spotlight is once again focused brightly on Southern California tonight.
No. 1 USC and No. 2 BYU opening their two-match weekend series in Los Angeles highlights tonight’s schedule. Not to be overlooked, though, are two other matches in Southern California tonight between teams in top 10 national rankings, including No. 3 Stanford playing No. 7 UC Irvine.
Check out the top five men’s volleyball matches to follow tonight.
Continue reading “Top 5 men’s volleyball matches to follow tonight”
Sometimes change is not needed.
With no upsets and all the top 10 ranked teams winning matches, it made my job as a voter easy this week. For the first time in my three years of voting in the men’s volleyball media poll, I have submitted identical top 10 ballot on back-to-back weeks.
Continue reading “My men’s volleyball media poll ballot”
Rematch is the theme of tonight
All of the top five nationally ranked men’s volleyball teams are in action tonight, with three of them playing teams who they have previously defeated this season. However, as this season has already proved sometimes the most difficult thing to do is defeat a team multiple times in the same year.
Check out the top five men’s volleyball matches to follow tonight.
Continue reading “The top 5 men’s volleyball matches to follow tonight”
What a difference a year makes deciding who is No. 1 in the rankings.
For most of last season there was a revolving door at the No. 1 spot with three teams having the top ranking by late February. However, this season USC has maintained the No. 1 spot since the preseason and is receiving all but one first-place vote in the coaches and media poll for the second consecutive week.
Continue reading “My men’s volleyball media poll ballot”
No. 5 Ohio State (10-2, 4-0 MIVA) remained undefeated in conference play as it swept Ball State (6-5, 1-2 MIVA) 25-16, 25-21, 28-26 on Friday at Worthen Arena.
With this victory the Buckeyes extended their nation-best winning streak to 10 matches and will likely remain in the top five of next week’s national rankings. This was also the ninth consecutive match that Ball State has lost to Ohio State — the worst losing streak against the Buckeyes in Cardinals’ 47-year program history.
Check out this postmatch press conference with Ball State coach Joel Walton as he discusses his team’s struggles in the match, some positives they can take from the loss and if this is the best Ohio State he has ever seen.
Continue reading “No. 5 Ohio State vs. Ball State: postmatch press conferecne”
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