The Place for College Men's Volleyball
It’s your top five men’s volleyball story list, but with a twist.
Every Sunday during the men’s volleyball season Off the Block will post the top five best men’s volleyball stories of the week from around the nation. The list, though, is based more on how well the reporter wrote and covered the story rather than just what happened on the court.
Continue reading “The top 5 men’s volleyball stories of the week”
The madness of March has surprisingly hit men’s volleyball.
One day after No. 2 BYU lost to an unranked team and No. 6 Long Beach State lost on its home court, the two teams will look to salvage the weekend to avoid a significant drop in the polls. In addition, tonight features several interesting non-conference matches as a Hall of Fame coach attempts to get a milestone win and No. 3 Stanford returns to the court after a 14-day layoff.
Check out the top five matches to follow tonight.
Continue reading “Top 5 men’s volleyball matches to follow tonight”
It’s the biggest week of March Madness for men’s basketball but men’s volleyball is in the doldrums tonight.
With most teams having a full or partial bye week, four of the top 10 teams are in action tonight and there is one match between two ranked teams in the media poll. However, tonight also features several intriguing individual match-ups as some of the blockers in the nation will go up against the best offensive players in the nation.
Check out the top five men’s volleyball matches to follow tonight.
Continue reading “Top 5 men’s volleyball matches to follow tonight”
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”
One of the biggest non-conference weeks of the season will come to a close tonight.
Following Penn State and Lewis defeating two top 10 ranked MPSF teams in the Active Ankle Challenge, the EIVA and MIVA teams will each play another nationally ranked West Coast team tonight. Not to be overlooked in conference play, though, is a match between two of most efficient offensive teams in the nation as No. 1 USC and No. 7 UC Irvine play each other.
Check out the top five men’s volleyball matches to follow tonight.
Continue reading “Top 5 men’s volleyball matches to follow tonight”
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”
Coach Rick McLaughlin and his UC Santa Barbara team main goal entering this season was to make the MPSF Tournament — it was a lofty goal given the program’s recent history.
The No. 6 Gauchos had missed the eight-team conference tournament for the last five years — the third longest active streak in the MPSF. With six conference matches remaining, though, UC Santa Barbara (11-8, 9-7 MPSF) is in sixth place in the MPSF and poised to qualify for its first postseason tournament since 2006.
In addition, UC Santa Barbara has been ranked as high as No. 3 this season. It is also the only team in the nation to have two players, Jeff Menzel and Cullen Irons, ranked in the nation’s top 20 for kills per game average.
Off the Block conducted an interview with McLaughlin earlier this week to discuss the chances of UC Santa Barbara making the postseason and possibility of making a run deep in the conference tournament.
Continue reading “Q&A with UC Santa Barbara coach Rick McLaughlin”
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”
It’s your top five men’s volleyball story list, but with a twist.
Every Sunday during the men’s volleyball season I will post the top five best men’s volleyball stories of the week from around the nation. The list, though, is based more on how well the reporter wrote and covered the story rather than just what happened on the court.
Continue reading “The top 5 men’s volleyball stories of the week”
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”
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