Conference tournament men’s volleyball matches to follow tonight

The NCAA men’s volleyball postseason is finally here with an appetizer portion of matches tonight.

The postseason begins with two matches in the Midwest as No. 8 Lewis plays last-place Quincy, while Loyola and IPFW renew their budding conference rivalry as they play each other in the MIVA Tournament quarterfinals.

Check out the conference tournament matches from around the nation to follow tonight.

<

MIVA TOURNAMENT QUARTERFINALS

No. 2 seed Lewis (23-6, 9-3 MIVA) vs. No. 7 seed Quincy (17-14, 1-11 MIVA)
Match vitals:
7 p.m. in Romeoville, Ill.
Follow live: Live stats, Online video
Season series: Lewis leads 2-0 (won in three games in March and April)
What to know: Quincy one year after becoming the No. 6 seed in MIVA Tournament history to win a quarterfinals match will now attempt to become the No. 7 seed to win the quarterfinals. In order to pull off that feat, though, Quincy will need to win against a team it hasn’t beaten in recent history: Lewis. Lewis ended the regular season a nation-best 14-0 at home and won its final four conference matches to clinch a share of the MIVA regular season title. Quincy has one victory in conference play this year, but it was against the No. 1 seed in the MIVA Tournament Ohio State.

No. 3 seed Loyola (18-11, 8-4 MIVA) vs. No. 6 seed IPFW (13-14, 5-7 MIVA)
Match vitals:
7 p.m. in Chicago
Follow live: Live blog and chat, In-match Tweets
Season series: Tied at 1-1 (IPFW won in five games in February and Loyola won in four games in April)
What to know: Expect for there to be a lot of long volleys in this match as two of the top digging teams in the nation will face each other in this quarterfinals match. Loyola libero Peter Jasaitis leads the MIVA and is second in the nation with a 2.72 digs per game average, while IPFW libero JW Kieckhefer is fifth in the nation with a 2.61 digs per game average. For more on this match, check out this article in today’s issue of The News-Sentinel.