International Volleyball

ETSU, Navy American win first postseason matches; breaking down the Power 5

ETSU, Navy American win first postseason matches; breaking down the Power 5

American’s Esma Sipahi back sets to Lilou Stegeman in their Patriot League win over Bucknell/Scott Fields photo

East Tennesse advanced in the SoCon Championship and Navy and American moved on in the Patriot League as NCAA Division I women’s volleyball postseason play got underway Tuesday.

In this report, we have the recaps, the AVCA news of the week, and what you need to know in the Power 5 conferencees — the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC — as their respective regular seasons head into the final 10 days.

There have already been three coach firings — two on Tuesday — and we have the info.

First a look at Wednesday’s schedule.

There are three Big 12 matches and all involve ranked teams. Texas, the No. 7 team in the VolleyballMag.com Super 16 Media Poll, is home for Iowa State; AVCA No. 17 Kansas is home for No. 23 Baylor; and No. 21 Houston, which has won seven in row, longest streak in the Big 12, is home for surging TCU. 

In the SEC, VBM No. 10 Arkansas goes to Ole Miss and Auburn is at Mississippi State.

The lone Big Ten match has Ohio State at Illinois.

There are six Missouri matches, including league-leading Northern Iowa, which already won the regular-season title, home for second-place Drake.

There’s MACtion as teams jockey for tourney position, but not top-seeded Western Michigan, which plays at NIU. WMU (27-2, 17-0) has won 17 in a row.

The Ohio Valley race, coming down to the wire, has five matches. Eastern Illinois is a game up on Southeast Missouri and is home for Western Illinois, while SEMO is home for Lindenwood.

In The Summit League, South Dakota — which beat South Dakota State in five Tuesday — and Omaha are tied for lead at 12-4 and Kansas City and Denver are at 11-4. Kansas City is home for St. Thomas and Denver plays host to Oral Roberts. If both win, good luck with that four-way tiebreaker to decide seeding for the conference tournament that begins Sunday.

The Sun Belt Championship gets going in Foley, Alabama, as Arkansas State plays Georgia State and App State plays Louisiana-Monroe.

Want to watch? We have the conference-by-conference schedule with viewing links for any match that is being shown in our VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings.

AVCA POLL: Like the VBM Super 16, there was plenty of movement this week. Nebraska stayed No. 1, but Stanford moved up two spots to second, Wisconsin dropped to No. 3, Louisville is up a notch to fourth, and Texas dropped two spots to No…

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