Long Beach State climbs to No. 1 in national media poll

Long Beach State for the first time this season is atop the national media poll.

The 49ers received all but two first-place votes to jump one spot to No. 1 in the new Off the Block/Springbak, Inc. National Media Poll released Tuesday.


Long Beach State moved into a three-way tie for first-place in the MPSF during the weekend after sweeping USC to extend its winning streak to five matches. Freshman outside attacker TJ DeFalco also leads the MPSF and is fourth in the nation with a 4.48 kills per game average.

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BYU was the only other school to earn first-place votes in the national media poll and finished at No. 2. In addition, UCLA after holding the No. 1 ranking for almost a month dropped to No. 3 following a home upset loss to UC Irvine last week.

Along with these teams, Stanford and Hawai’i round-out the top half of the national media poll.

The Off the Block/Springbak, Inc. National Media Poll is the only national rankings in NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball solely determined by media members. The 10 teams receiving the most votes are ranked in National Media Poll, while other schools earning votes but finishing outside of the top 10 are considered teams receiving votes.

OFF THE BLOCK/SPRINGBAK NATIONAL MEDIA POLL (Week 6)
1. Long Beach State — 97 (8) points
2. BYU — 88 (2) points
3. UCLA — 80 points
4. Stanford — 72 points
5. Hawai’i — 49 points
6. Penn State — 38 points
7. Ohio State — 36 points
8. Loyola — 30 points
9. Pepperdine — 26 points
10. UC Santa Barbara — 25 points
Others receiving votes: Ball State 6; UC Irvine 3