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Check out the five things to take away from the NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball matches this weekend.
Hawai’i ends road woes — No. 4/4 Hawai’i for one of the first times this season defeated a top-10 nationally ranked team on the road as it swept a two-match series against No. 6/6 UCLA. Freshman opposite Rado Parapunov playing in place of opposite Stijn van Tilburg had a combined 20 kills, including a team-high 11 kills in the series finale. With these victories, the Rainbow Warriors secured the No. 3 seed and a home match for the MPSF Tournament quarterfinals. It also remains in control of the final at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, according to the latest Off the Block bracketology projections.
Ball State pulls off improbable tiebreaker — No. 13 Ball State did exactly what it needed to do, without a point to spare, to secure a postseason home match. In order for to earn the No. 4 seed for the MIVA Tournament and quarterfinals home match, Ball State not only needed to sweep No. 10/10 Loyola but win by a combined 20 points. Setter Connor Gross in the regular season finale helped lead the Cardinals to out-hit the Ramblers .319 to .092 and complete the sweep with a 20-point margin of victory. Ball State because of winning the tiebreaker will now play host to the No. 5 seed Loyola in the quarterfinals on Saturday instead of the match being played at Loyola — where the Cardinals have not won at since 1999.
Long Beach State wins MPSF top seed — All-American outside attacker TJ DeFalco had a match-high 14 kills on a .650 attack percentage as No. 1/1 Long Beach State swept No. 14 CSUN on Saturday to earn a share of the MPSF regular season title. Both Long Beach State and BYU finished tied for first place, but the 49ers were awarded the No. 1 seed and home court throughout the MPSF Tournament because they held the head-to-head tiebreaker.
Standings insanity in EIVA — Four schools — George Mason, Harvard, NJIT and Sacred Heart — are all tied for fourth place and the final berth to the EIVA Tournament entering the final week of the conference’s regular season. In addition, No. 12 Penn State is the only team to clinch a berth to the EIVA Tournament and has a one-match lead ahead St. Francis for first place.
Alderson Broaddus wins IVA championship — Middle attacker Myles Miller, the 2017 Off the Block/Springbak, Inc. IVA Player of the Year, had a match-high six blocks as Alderson Broaddus rallied from a one-game deficit to upset Coker in the IVA Championship Tournament finals on Saturday. The Battlers out-blocked the Cobras 14 to 7 in the championship match of the inaugural end-of-season tournament for independent teams. The win also came one day after Coker swept Alderson Broaddus in the pool-play round.