GCU new No. 1 in NCAA men’s volleyball; BA tops ConfCarolinas

Catching up on NCAA men and the Pro Volleyball Federation for the past few days:

Grand Canyon, the nation’s only unbeaten team, is No. 1 in the AVCA men’s volleyball poll for the first time.

Belmont Abbey has a one-game lead over Erskine and North Greenville in Conference Carolinas.

And the Atlanta Vibe leads a pack of four atop the PVF.

Let’s start with Thursday, which shows five Division I-II men’s matches, including the battle of Los Angeles when No. 4 UCLA goes to No. 11 USC in the MPSF. UC Santa Barbara of the Big West, which has fallen out of the top 20, goes to the MPSF’s Concordia Irvine.

There are two MIVA matches, with No. 14 Lewis at No. 7 Ohio State and No. 13 Loyola Chicago home for Purdue Fort Wayne. And in the NEC, No. 20 Daemen is at D’Youville.

There are two PVF matches with the Omaha Supernovas (5-3) at the Atlanta Vibe (4-2) and the Vegas Thrill (2-5) at the San Diego Mojo (1-3).

AVCA TOP 20, POW: GCU (13-0), coming back-to-back home victories over USC, moved up a spot into first and got 13 of the 23 first-place votes. GCU had been No. 2 for the first time, so this is its highest ranking. Long Beach State (13-1) got 10 of the first-place votes but dropped to No. 2. Hawai’i, UCLA and UC Irvine stayed 3-4-5.

Click here for the complete AVCA National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Poll.

The AVCA national player of the week is Kory Grant of Mount Olive. The sophomore outside averaged 4.2 kills per set and hit .565 in two Conference Carolinas wins last week and is the first MO player to win the honor since 2017.

NCAA MEN: In matches Tuesday, Belmont Abbey (10-2, 6-1) beat visiting North Greenville (6-5, 5-2) in four to break a tie at the top of Conference Carolinas and Erskine (9-5, 5-2) kept pace as it swept at Emmanuel (5-12, 2-5). Concordia Irvine (6-5) of the MPSF beat visiting Charleston (8-7) of the EIVA in four behind 24 kills from Ties Cornelissen, who had four errors in 35 attacks to hit .571 and had two aces, a dig and two blocks.

In Wednesday action, No. 18 UC San Diego of the Big West (7-8) beat Charleston (8-8) in four, McKendree (8-6, 5-3) hit .402 and swept Lindenwood (5-9, 2-5) in the MIVA, and No. 10 Pepperdine (11-5) of the MPSF won in five at the Big West’s No. 16 CSUN (8-7). Cole Ketrzyski had 13 kills and Cole Rasic 12 in the 25-19, 20-25, 25-22, 17-25, 15-12 victory.