Volleyball Today: NCAA, AVCA, hurricane havoc, Athletes Unlimited, event in India
In this edition of Volleyball Today, we have NCAA updates, the AVCA top 25, hurricane havoc for two North Carolina schools, Athletes Unlimited and a big event in India.
NCAA volleyball Tuesday
There are 21 NCAA Division I matches Tuesday, just one involving a ranked team when No. 22 Dayton goes to Duquesne. The Flyers, who have won 24 Atlantic 10 matches in a row, are 14-1, 4-0 in the A10. Duquesne is 11-5, 2-2. Also in the A10 VCU is at Davidson.
Conference USA has three teams atop the standings and they’re all in action as Western Kentucky is home for Middle Tennessee, UTEP is home for New Mexico and Liberty is at FIU.
Colorado State, at 4-0 the only Mountain West team unbeaten in league play, plays the only conference match when the Rams are home for Wyoming.
UC Riverside is at UC Davis in the Big West, and there are four matches in the Southland, including the two teams at 4-0 as Southeastern Louisiana is home for New Orleans and Stephen F. Austin goes to Lamar.
The two MAC matches have Buffalo at Akron and Ball State at Miami.
High Point of the Big South has an unusual mid-season non-conference trip when it plays at Brown of the Ivy League in Providence, Rhode Island, before going to New Hampshire of the America East on Wednesday.
NCAA volleyball Monday
There were four matches Monday, three in the SWAC, as Southern beat Grambling in five, Prairie View swept at Mississippi Valley State and Jackson State swept visiting Texas Southern. In the WAC, Grand Canyon swept visiting California Baptist as Tatum Parrott had 14 kills, hit .407, and had an assist, nine digs and a block.
AVCA top 25
The top 11 teams stayed the same. The first change after that was Kentucky, up a spot to No. 12.
Pittsburgh got all 61 first-place votes.
The biggest jumps were by USC, up five spots to No. 16, and TCU, also up five spots to No. 17.
The biggest fall was by Florida State, from No. 16 to 21st.
No one dropped out but Washington at No. 24 and Auburn at 25th traded places.
Click here for the complete AVCA Division I Women’s Volleyball Poll.
For comparison, here is a link to the VolleyballMag Super 16 Media Poll.
UNC Asheville, App State deal with post-Helene
While Hurricane Milton has already caused postponements and cancelations in Florida, a couple of volleyball teams in North Carolina had their lives turned upside down by Hurricane Helene.
The UNC Asheville volleyball and men’s and women’s soccer teams are now living 130 miles to the east at UNC Charlotte. UNCA, which has won six in a row and is 6-2 overall, has not played since winning in five at Charlotte on September 17. Three matches have been postponed so far. The Bulldogs are scheduled to play Radford on Friday in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
App State, 8-5 overall and 2-0 in the Sun Belt, has stayed home in Boone, North Carolina, but hasn’t played since September 27. Its home matches last weekend with Louisiana were canceled.
Coach Sarah Rumely Noble said her team practiced just three days last week, because “our main arena has turned into a Red Cross shelter, so we can not be in there.”
While school is canceled until next Wednesday, the volleyball team goes on the road to play back-to-back matches at Old Dominion on Friday and Saturday, “trying to have as ‘normal’ a week as possible,” coach Noble said.
The Mountaineers have been volunteering at the main distribution center in Boone.
“My team loved it,” said Noble, who went there every day last week. “It felt like they were doing something productive. It was hard work, though, that’s for sure.”
Athletes Unlimited wraps up first week
After the first three matches of the first week of play, Bethania De La Cruz is the overall leader with 1,066 points. Brittany Abercrombie is second at 1,050, with a huge lead over third-place Kayla Caffey (795).
Click here for the recap of the first match, when Abercrombie had 15 kills and 12 digs as Team De La Cruz-Mejía beat Team Hentz 74-59.
Click here for the recap of the second match, when Madi Kingdon Rishel had 16 kills to lead Team Valentin-Anderson to a 70-63 victory over Team Nuneviller.
40,000-plus at volleyball event in India
The FIVB reported that more than 40,000 children recently attended the mass participation Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) Volleyball Foundation Festival in India.
According to the FIVB, “The event took place at the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) and KISS Athletic Stadium, featuring 60 outdoor courts that hosted fun-filled volleyball activities for the children. Up to 480 participants played simultaneously on these courts. In addition to the outdoor courts, volleyball activities took place across multiple venues on the KIIT campus, including indoor halls and a multi-purpose gymnasium.”
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