The Center of Effort Challenge has vast potential for a late-season shakeup at the top of the college beach volleyball national poll and could even give us a No. 1 vs. No. 2 mega-dual.
Loyola Marymount coach John Mayer discusses how international talent has helped lift his program to prominence.
We also run down the rest of a busy weekend schedule and share the weekly honor roll of decorated pairs.
Loaded lineup for Center of Effort tourney
The potential fallout in national rankings and NCAA Championship seedings from the Center of Effort Challenge this weekend are profound, since the Nos. 1 through 4 teams in the latest AVCA poll grace a field of eight in San Luis Obispo, California.
The competition Friday and Saturday will play down from first to seventh places, meaning that next week’s rankings could, for example, see a new No. 1 if undefeated TCU were to falter. Teams that figure to land highly favorable first-round matchups in the upper half of the 17-team single-elimination draw for the NCAA Championship May 3-7 might just see that script flipped with some unfavorable results.
So in the second-to-last week before six of the nine conference tournaments that will determine the automatic bids to the Big Beach Dance in Gulf Shores, Alabama, the Center of Effort event truly will be the epicenter in college beach volleyball. Conference tournaments in the Big West, Atlantic Sun and Southland are next week.
The Center of Effort at Cal Poly’s Swanson Beach Volleyball Complex will include a pool-play phase and a championship phase with matches for first, third, fifth and seventh places.
The first pool: Unanimous No. 1 TCU (28-0), No. 3 UCLA (26-2), No. 19 Pepperdine (15-7) and unranked Cal Poly (11-19).
The second pool: No. 2 USC (21-1), No. 4 Florida State (27-4); No. 6 Loyola Marymount (21-4) and No. 11 Long Beach State (19-11).
Each pool will play a round-robin, then pair off in crossovers based on the finishes in pool play: 1 vs. 1, 2 vs. 2, 3 vs. 3 and 4 vs. 4 to determine first, third, fifth and seventh places, respectively. Duals involving Coly Poly’s team will be available on ESPN+ and other duals will be streamed on the Bally Live app, which the AVP has announced has been made compatible with Android devices.
This format creates the tantalizing possibility for fans and the NCAA selection committee of a No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown that could have a huge impact at the top of the NCAA draw on May 3-7. TCU has rumbled to…
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