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The club careers for eight incoming NCAA men’s volleyball freshmen now includes leading their program to an unprecedented fourth straight national title.
The Southern California team 949 B12 Black swept Balboa Bay 25-16, 25-21 in the Open 18 Division championship match at the USA Volleyball Boys’ Junior National Championship earlier this week in Phoenix, Arizona. Continue reading “Club team featuring eight NCAA recruits wins USA Volleyball national title”
Make it back-to-back years and in two different conference that Long Beach State outside attacker TJ DeFalco has won the top individual award.
DeFalco on Monday was named the inaugural recipient of the Big West Player of the Year. Continue reading “DeFalco wins Player of Year as Long Beach dominates Big West awards”
Jonathan Bates | Off the Block associate editor
All regular season matches between the Big West and MPSF are now in the history book. The Big West went 28-18 versus the MPSF, due in part to the 9-3 record posted by UC Irvine and the 6-0 record posted by Long Beach State. Big West teams were 16-9 at home, while 11-9 on the road.
This is the inaugural season of the Big West as a men’s volleyball conference. The addition of the Big West resulted in a split in the MPSF with six Big West schools leaving the federation during the offseason.
Check out the team-by-team breakdown of Big West schools fared against the MPSF opponents in non-conference play this season.
| UCI | LBSU | Hawai’i | UCSB | CSUN | UCSD | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| at UCLA | L | at Stan | W | vs USC | W | vs Stan | W | at Stan | W | vs UCLA | L | ||
| vs USC | W | vs Stan | W | vs GCU | W | at Pepp | W | vs CUI | L | vs CUI | W | ||
| at Pepp | W | vs USC | W | vs UCLA | W | at BYU | W | at UCLA | L | at GCU | L | ||
| at GCU | W | vs CUI | W | vs UCLA | L | at BYU | L | vs Stan | W | vs Stan | L | ||
| at CUI | W | vs UCLA | W | vs CUI | W | vs Pepp | L | at CUI | L | vs BYU | L | ||
| vs BYU | W | at UCLA | W | vs CUI | W | at USC | W | at CUI | L | ||||
| vs BYU | W | vs BYU | L | at UCLA | L | vs USC | W | ||||||
| vs Stan | W | at Pepp | L | at Stan | L | ||||||||
| vs UCLA | L | ||||||||||||
| vs Pepp | L | ||||||||||||
| at Stan | W | ||||||||||||
| at USC | W | ||||||||||||
| Overall | 9-3 | 6-0 | 5-3 | 4-3 | 2-3 | 2-6 | 28-18 | ||||||
| Home | 4-2 | 4-0 | 4-2 | 1-1 | 1-1 | 2-3 | 16-9 | ||||||
| Away | 5-1 | 2-0 | 0-1 | 3-2 | 1-2 | 0-3 | 11-9 | ||||||
| Neutral | 1-0 | 1-0 |
So much for any concerns about the No. 3/3 UCLA offense being out of sync following a bye week.
All-American setter Micah Ma’a guided the offense to more than a .500 attack percentage in two of the three games as UCLA swept No. 11 UC Santa Barbara 25-22, 25-15, 25-18 on Wednesday in Los Angeles. Continue reading “Video: Ma’a leads No. 3 UCLA to dominant sweep of No. 11 UCSB”
The toughest schedule in the nation so far this season belongs to UCLA.
The Bruins were No. 1 in the season’s first official strength of schedule rankings that the NCAA released earlier this week. Continue reading “UCLA tops latest strength of schedule rankings”
The longstanding series for Pepperdine against UC Santa Barbara and UC Irvine will both remain intact for the upcoming season, despite no longer being in the same conference.
Pepperdine as part of recently releasing its 2018 schedule that it agreed to a home-and-home series with both of the new Big West men’s volleyball teams.
Throughout the majority NCAA men’s volleyball history, Pepperdine, UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara all have been members of the same conference. The Gauchos and Anteaters, though, as Big West schools and the conference adding men’s volleyball departed the MPSF at the conclusion of the 2017 season.
Pepperdine and UC Santa Barbara remains one of the longest annual series in college volleyball dating back to 1971. In addition, the Waves and Anteaters have played each other every year since 1987.
The Waves will play home matches against the Anteaters on Jan. 13 and the Gauchos on Jan. 20 as part of a three-match homestead to open the season. It also will concluded each home-and-match series with road matches versus UC Irvine on Feb. 14 and UC Santa Barbara on Feb. 21.
These will be the only Big West teams that the Waves play in the first season following the MPSF split.
Both Pepperdine and UC Irvine finished last season ranked in the top 10 of both the national coaches poll and national media poll.
The Waves return a majority of starters from last year’s team, including All-MPSF outside attacker David Wieczorek. Wieczorek was among the national leaders last season with a 3.86 kills per game average and was voted the Off the Block/Springbak, Inc. Fan Choice National Player of the Year.
Pepperdine also will have a new head coach for the upcoming season. David Hunt was promoted for assistant coach to head coach following the offseason retirement of Hall of Fame coach Marv Dunphy
UC Irvine ended last season advancing to the MPSF Tournament semifinals and narrowly missed the final at-large bid to the six-team NCAA Tournament. The Anteaters will have to replace multiple All-American starters from last year’s team but return Freshman All-American middle attacker Scott Stadick.
UC Santa Barbara joins the Big West after finishing last season in ninth place in the MPSF and did not qualify for the conference tournament for the first time in almost five years.
Along with these non-conference matches, Pepperdine will have home matches against Princeton on Feb. 3 and Loyola on March 10. It also will travel to Virginia in January for a non-conference tournament with matches against the Ball State and the host school George Mason.
Among the former conference opponents not featured on Pepperdine’s upcoming schedule includes Hawai’i, CSUN and the defending MPSF champions Long Beach State.
This will be the first time since 1970, the inaugural season of volleyball as a NCAA sanctioned sport, that Long Beach State and Pepperdine will not play each other.
The recent split of the MPSF has already benefitted Lewis with a program record amount of home matches against West Coast opponents.
Lewis as part of recently unveiling its 2018 schedule announced that it will play non-conference home matches against Long Beach State, USC, CSUN and UC Santa Barbara during the upcoming season. Continue reading “Lewis to play 2018 home matches vs. Long Beach, USC, CSUN, UCSB”
The championship showdown between Ohio State and BYU on Saturday will be the seventh time in college men’s volleyball history that the NCAA Tournament finals has featured a rematch from the previous season.
Check out the history of rematches in the finals since the men’s volleyball NCAA Tournament started in 1970. Continue reading “History of the rematch in NCAA Tournament finals”
A lot can still happen as MPSF teams scramble in the final week of the regular season to secure their conference tournament seed.
Check out Off the Block special contributor Jonathan Bates’ breakdown all the possible scenarios for seeding to the MPSF Tournament. Continue reading “MPSF Tournament possible seeding scenarios to know”
Bring on the postseason — well almost — for No. 11/10 USC.
In a showdown between two teams tied for eighth place and the final berth to the MPSF Tournament, USC swept No. 15 UC Santa Barbara 27-25, 28-26, 25-21 on Friday in Los Angeles. Continue reading “Video: USC sweeps UC Santa Barbara, gains control of final postseason berth”
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