A new season in college men’s volleyball also means plenty of new players — freshmen and transfer students — for each team in the nation.
Predicting how well a player will do in his first season with a new team is always a challenge. With the NCAA men’s volleyball season starting this week, though, there are several candidates who could become the 2012 AVCA Newcomer of the Year.
Check out the top 10 preseason favorites to win the 2012 AVCA Newcomer of the Year award at the end of the regular season.
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Pepperdine is projected by Off the Block to be No. 10 in the preseason national rankings.
Off the Block throughout December will reveal its projected men’s volleyball preseason top 10 national rankings and will profile a top-10 team each day. The Off the Block projected preseason rankings were created independently of the AVCA Coaches Poll and the Volleyball Magazine Top 10 Media Poll.
The college men’s volleyball season begins on Jan. 3 and concludes with the Final Four in May.
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A top national high school recruit will be Pepperdine’s starting setter as a true freshman for the upcoming season.
Pepperdine Hall of Fame coach Marv Dunphy said Tuesday that Matt West will be the Waves’ starting setter for the team’s season-opener in January.
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Non-conference matches against USC and Pepperdine and a rematch against Penn State highlights the 2012 George Mason regular season schedule that the team released Tuesday.
The Patriots finished last season in second place in the EIVA Tait Division and advanced to the conference tournament semifinals. George Mason has four starters returning for the upcoming season, including All-EIVA outside attacker Mark Jones.
Check out the five things to take away from George Mason’s schedule for the 2012 season.
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A rematch between two Hall of Fame coaches and non-conference matches against Lewis and Penn State highlights the 2012 Pepperdine regular season schedule that the team released Saturday.
Pepperdine finished last season in ninth place in the MPSF and missed the conference tournament for the first time in its program history. The Waves have five returning starters, including outside attacker Maurice Torres who ended 2011 in the nation’s top 10 for kills per game average.
Check out the five things to take away from Pepperdine’s schedule for the 2012 season.
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A former All-American and professional European champion will be part of the Pepperdine coaching staff this upcoming season.
Pepperdine men’s volleyball head coach Marv Dunphy announced Friday that he hired Lauri Hakala to be an assistant coach for the 2012 season.
Hakala, a native of Finland, played outside attacker for Hawai’i from 2005-07 and was named a First-Team All-American outside attacker in 2006. In addition, as a senior Hakala averaged 4.35 kills per game — the fifth best single-season average in the Warriors’ program history.
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A former multiple All-American and NCAA champion received one of the highest honors for a Pepperdine athlete.
Former Waves men’s volleyball player and college assistant coach Troy Tanner was formally inducted into the Pepperdine Hall of Fame on Sunday.
Tanner was a three-time All-American outside attacker and setter during his college career from 1983-87. After redshirting as sophomore in 1984, Tanner returned to the court and helped guide the Waves to back-to-back NCAA championships in 1985 and 1986.
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Ten current college men’s volleyball players will have a chance to represent the United States at an international tournament later this month.
USA Volleyball last week revealed its 19-player preliminary roster for the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico.
UC Irvine led all schools with three current players — outside attacker Carson Clark, outside attacker Jeremy Dejno and middle attacker Scott Kevorken — selected to the initial roster.
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A former Pepperdine and Rutgers-Newark men’s volleyball player will join the Loyola coaching staff for the upcoming season.
The Loyola athletics department announced Wednesday that Mark Hulse was hired as an assistant coach for the 2012 season.
Hulse graduated from Pepperdine in 2009 after a four-year college career and most recently was the head coach of the D1 Chicago Volleyball Club, a nationally competitive 18-year-old boys’ team.
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