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The defending NCAA champions are atop a key criteria category used to determine the NCAA Tournament field.
UCLA was ranked No. 1 in the season’s first men’s volleyball RPI that the NCAA released on Monday.
A team’s RPI ranking is calculated using a mathematical formula that includes its winning percentage, strength of schedule and opponents’ strength of schedule.
The Bruins have a nation-best eight victories against teams ranked in the top-10 of the RPI. It also has the second-best strength of schedule in the nation.
UCLA edged out second-place Grand Canyon by 0.0918 points to earn the top spot in the RPI rankings. Along with UCLA and Grand Canyon, Long Beach State, Hawai’i and UC Irvine round out the top five of the rankings.
An updated RPI rankings will be released each Monday throughout the regular season and conference tournaments. The final RPI rankings before the eight-team NCAA Tournament will be unveiled on Selection Sunday.
RPI rankings (March 18)
1. UCLA – 0.66404
2. Grand Canyon – 0.65486
3. Long Beach State – 0.63958
4. Hawai’i – 0.62982
5. UC Irvine – 0.61944
6. BYU – 0.61141
7. Stanford – 0.59922
8. Ohio State – 0.59886
9. Pepperdine – 0.59284
10. Loyola – 0.58730
11. Penn State
12. Purdue Fort Wayne
13. Ball State
14. USC
15. McKendree
16. Harvard
17. Lewis
18. Daemen
19. George Mason
20. Princeton
21. UC San Diego
22. UC Santa Barbara
23. Saint Francis
24. Lindenwood
25. Lincoln Memorial
26. NJIT
27. North Greenville
28. CSUN
29. Belmont Abbey
30. Maryville
31. Long Island
32. Concordia
33. Sacred Heart
34. Merrimack
35. Queens
36. Mount Olive
37. Charleston
38. D’Youville
39. Tusculum
40. Fairleigh Dickinson
41. Quincy
42. Missouri S&T
43. Erskine
44. Thomas More
45. King
46. Emmanuel
47. Fort Valley State
48. Edward Waters
49. Barton
50. St. Thomas Aquinas
51. Dominican
52. American International
53. Roosevelt
54. Lees-McRae
55. Central State
56. Kentucky State
57. Roberts Wesleyan
58. Morehouse
59. Benedict
60. Menlo
61. Vanguard