No. 15 Ohio St. wins in 5 at new No. 1 Penn St.; AVCA polls, POWs; women’s coaching moves
Penn State was No. 1 for a day and a half until No. 15 Ohio State made sure the Nittany Lions won’t be next week.
On a Tuesday night non-conference showdown in State College, the Buckeyes of the MIVA got not only a much-needed victory, but they upset Penn State of the EIVA in an up-and-down five-set affair, all but ensuring that there will be a new holder of the top spot in next week’s AVCA Men’s National Collegiate Coaches Poll.
Speaking of which, in this report we have the AVCA men’s and beach polls, the respective POWs, results of the six NCAA Division I-II men’s matches played Tuesday, a look at the limited Wednesday and Thursday schedules, and some NCAA women’s coaching moves.
Ohio State (13-9) won 25-21, 18-25, 22-25, 25-21, 15-13 by hitting .314 with a balanced attack at Penn State (18-3). Shane Wetzel led with 15 kills, three aces and six digs. Jack Stevens had 12 kills, hit .375, and had a block and four digs. Jacob Pasteur had 12 kills, three assists and seven digs. Michael Wright had 43 assists, a block and two digs. His team hit .314 and had six aces and 15 serving errors. The Buckeyes beat a No. 1 team for the first time since knocking out BYU in the 2016 NCAA Tournament, also at Penn State’s Rec Hall.
Penn State hit .342 and had seven more kills (58) than Ohio State. The Nittany Lions had 12 aces but 29 errors. Cal Fisher led with 19 kills and hit .500 after having only two errors in 34 attacks to go with an assist, five aces and six digs. Toby Ezeonu had 10 kills with one error in 13 attacks, an ace, a dig and four blocks, two solo. Brett Wildman and Owen Rose had nine kills each and Michael Valenzi eight. Cole Bogner had a kill, 48 assists, two aces, three blocks and seven digs.
Also Tuesday, in the EIVA, NJIT (8-11, 2-3) hit .508 and swept visiting George Mason (9-10, 1-3) as Martin de Chavarria had 11 kills with one error in 12 attacks in the 25-20, 25-12, 25-22 victory. The Highlanders had 40 kills with eight errors in 63 attacks and seven aces and 12 errors. Jens Feldthus had eight kills with one error in 18 attacks to go with four assists, three aces, three blocks and three digs. Roque Nido had five kills in as many tries, 27 assists, an ace, two blocks and nine digs. Omar Hoyos had nine kills for Mason …
In the SIAC, Edward Waters (7-3, 4-0) hit .424 and swept at Morehouse (0-13, 0-5) as 12 players had kills in the 25-10, 25-9, 25-15 beatdown. Jayden Durrah had six kills in 10 errorless attacks and Dillon Taylor and Kaelen Ingram both had five kills in five swings …
In Conference Carolinas, North Greenville (13-6, 6-2) held its place atop the standings with a 25-16, 22-25, 26-24, 26-24 win over visiting King (10-13, 5-4). Mark Autrey and Diego Rosich had 13 kills apiece and Michael de la Cruz 10. Autry had an ace, four blocks and nine digs, Rosich had an assist, two aces, a block and six digs, and de la Cruz had an acem two blocks and two digs. Emanuel Adames had eight kills, hit .462, and had an assist, five blocks and a dig. Warren Davis had 19 kills for King while hitting .353 with an ace, two blocks and 10 digs …
The EIVA’s Charleston (19-2) hit .364 and swept independent Alderson Broaddus (6-12) … Missouri Baptist swept Maryville.
NCAA MEN’S SCHEDULE: On Wednesday, there are five matches, all non-conference, including Harvard of the EIVA home for the NEC’s Sacred Heart. Belmont Abbey of Conference Carolinas goes to independent Limestone, Lees-McRae of Conference Carolinas goes to independent Tusculum, Morehouse of the SIAC plays Life and Rivier faces American International.
Both matches Thursday are in the MIVA when No. 9 Loyola Chicago plays host to Lewis and McKendree goes to Purdue Fort Wayne.
AVCA MEN’S POLL: Alas, but Penn State moved into the top spot for the first time since 2009 as Hawai’i dropped to No. 2. The nine teams — including No. 3 UCLA, No. 4 Long Beach State and No. 5 Grand Canyon — stayed the same. No one dropped out.
Click here to see the complete AVCA Men’s National Collegiate Coaches Poll.
AVCA MEN’S POW: The AVCA, evidently, makes sure there’s a new winner each week, and for the 11th time this season there’s a different national player of the week. This time it’s Omar Hoyos of George Mason, a junior outside who, in two wins over Fairleigh Dickinson, averaged 4.14 kills and hit .377.
AVCA BEACH POLL: TCU got 27 of the 28 first-place votes as the top four stayed the same. USC is still No. 2, UCLA (which got the other vote) is No. 3 and Florida State No. 4. LSU moved up a spot to No. 5. The biggest jump was by South Carolina, which moved up four spots to No. 16. No one dropped out
Click here for the complete AVCA Collegiate Beach Coaches Poll.
AVCA BEACH POW: The national pair of the week honor goes to UCLA junior Peri Brennan and graduate-student Abby Van Winkle. They went 5-0 in the March to May tournament in Gulf Shores, Alabama, losing just one set.
FAIRFIELD HIRES SOMERA: Nancy Somera is the new coach at Fairfield, one of the strongest programs in the Northeast. Somera last coached from 2014-21 at Division III Johnson & Wales. The resume of the former USC player includes being the head coach at Oregon State and South Carolina.
She replaces the winningest coach in school history, Todd Kresse, who left for San Jose State. Last season, the Stags finished 25-7, 17-1 in the MAAC.
MERCER’S SCHROEDER RESIGNS: Tough timing for the SoCon school in Georgia as Derek Schroeder resigned Tuesday. He was there since 2017 and won Southern Conference regular-season titles in 2020 and 2021.Last season Mercer finishd 10-19, 6-10 in the league. Mercer has never been to the NCAA Tournament.
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