Quick hits: 5 things to take away from the weekend in college volleyball

Check out the five things to take away from the NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball matches this weekend.


Chaos in national rankings — Five of the top 10 nationally ranked teams — No. 1/1 BYU, No. 4/3 UC Irvine, No. 5/6 Hawai’i, No. 8/7 UC Santa Barbara and No. 9/8 Lewis — all lost during the weekend. This is the most top 10 ranked teams to lose in a single-weekend so far this season. Despite the losses, Lewis was the only team to lose to a unranked team as it lost in five games to St. Francis.

Stanford stuns BYU at home — No. 11 Stanford split a two-match weekend series against No. 1/1 BYU, including rallying from a one-game deficit to beat the Cougars in five games on Friday. Outside attacker Madison Hayden in the victory had a match-high 24 kills on a .462 attack percentage. In addition, All-American setter James Shaw had a match-high 54 assists and guided the Cardinal offense to a match-best .500 attack percentage in the decisive fifth game.

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Long Beach State freshmen shine — Freshman outside attacker TJ DeFalco had a combined 40 kills and nine aces in victories against Cal Baptist and No. 13 USC to keep No. 3/4 Long Beach State undefeated. Along with DeFalco, freshman setter Josh Tuaniga led the offense to more than .350 attack percentage in both conference matches.

EIVA rebounds on road — Teams from the EIVA went 3-4 in road matches versus MIVA teams during the weekend. Among the victories included both No. 10/10 Penn State and St. Francis beating Lewis, while Harvard swept IPFW. EIVA teams before this weekend were a combined 2-20.

USC still searching for first win — No. 14 USC lost on the road to No. 13 CSUN and Long Beach State during the weekend to extend its season-opening losing streak to four matches. This is the first time since 1970 that the Trojans have opened a season 0-4. In addition, USC is now in a three-way tie for last place in the MPSF.