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There is a new team atop the national rankings for home attendance.
Hawai’i finished the 2015 season with a nation-best 3,671 home attendance average to snap BYU’s three-year streak of leading college men’s volleyball teams in attendance.
The Rainbow Warriors beat-out the Cougars for the top spot by averaging about 350 more people per home match. Both Hawai’i and BYU were the only teams to average more than 3,000 per home match and two of the three teams in the nation to average more than 1,000.
Along with the nation’s best attendance, the Rainbow Warriors had the nation’s highest attendance for a single-match this season with 6,846 people at their MPSF Tournament quarterfinals home match. Hawai’i swept Long Beach State in that postseason match en route to reaching NCAA Tournament for the first time in more than a decade.
UC Irvine, Pepperdine and USC all finished in the top five for home attendance averaging at least 890 people per home match.
The two-time defending NCAA champions Loyola led all non-West Coast schools and the MIVA with an 888 home attendance average.
Penn State was in the nation’s in the top 10 and had an EIVA-best 817 home attendance average, while Mount Olive had a 244 home attendance average to lead the Conference Carolinas.
A majority of teams also had an increase in their home attendance average this season compared to last year.
Of the 19 teams that had an attendance increase, Hawai’i saw the biggest jump averaging more than 700 people per home match. In addition, IPFW, USC, Grand Canyon, St. Francis and Lewis all had their home attendance average increase by more than 200 people.
2015 NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball home attendance averages
1. Hawai’i — 3,671
2. BYU — 3,328
3. UC Irvine — 1,114
4. Pepperdine — 892
5. USC — 890
6. Loyola — 888
7. UCLA — 864
8. Long Beach State — 860
9. Lewis — 852
10. Penn State — 817
11. Ball State — 812
12. IPFW — 783
13. Stanford — 572
14. Grand Canyon — 526
15. Ohio State — 492
16. St. Francis — 475
17. CSUN — 413
18. UC Santa Barbara — 377
19. Cal Baptist — 367
20. Princeton — 354
21. George Mason — 353
22. UC San Diego — 286
23. NJIT — 254
24. Mount Olive — 244
25. Quincy — 234
26. Harvard — 195
27. Pfeiffer — 185
28. Lindenwood — 167
29. McKendree — 167
30. Belmont Abbey — 155
31. Barton — 142
32. Coker — 111
33. Emmanuel — 105
34. King — 104
35. Sacred Heart — 99
36. Charleston — 98
37. Holy Names — 90
38. Erskine — 83
39. Alderson-Broaddus — 83
40. North Greenville — 77
41. Limestone — 70
42. Lees-McRae — 48
Home attendance average growth from 2014 to 2015
1. Hawai’i — +715
2. IPFW — +291
3. USC — +245
4. Grand Canyon — +241
5. St. Francis — +225
6. Lewis — +209
7. Penn State — +174
8. Belmont Abbey — +100
9. UCLA — +89
10. Ball State — +88
11. NJIT — +77
12. George Mason — +74
13. UC Irvine — +71
14. McKendree — +69
15. Coker — +48
16. Barton — +34
17. Pfeiffer — +30
18. Harvard — +15
19. Lindenwood — +7
20. Erskine — -6
21. King — -21
22. UC San Diego — -22
T-23. Mount Olive — -33
T-23. Quincy — -33
T-25. Cal Baptist — -34
T-25. Lees-McRae — -34
27. CSUN — -44
28. Princeton — -45
29. Ohio State — -46
30. Stanford — -62
31. Pepperdine — -75
32. Sacred Heart — -89
33. Limestone — -106
34. BYU — -132
35. Loyola — -144
36. Long Beach State — -167
37. UC Santa Barbara — -206