NCAA men’s volleyball quarterfinals begin; surging Mojo win in 5 in PVF

In this report:

— The NCAA’s National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship begins Tuesday at Long Beach State with four quarterfinal matches.

— The San Diego Mojo came away with a five-set victory over the visiting Orlando Valkyries and are one step closer to capturing the fourth and final Pro Volleyball Federation playoff spot.

— And the NCAA’s National Collegiate Beach Volleyball Championship begins Friday in Gulf Shores, Alabama, as top-seeded USC goes for its fourth title in a row.

NCAA men

The matchups at The Walter Pyramid, which can only be seen on NCAA.com:

11 a.m. Pacific — No. 1 UCLA (24-5) vs. No. 8 Fort Valley State (17-8)
1:30 p.m. Pacific — No. 4 UC Irvine (19-10) vs. No. 5 Penn State (23-6)
5 p.m.  Pacific — No. 2 Long Beach State (25-2) vs. No. 7 Belmont Abbey (21-4)
7:30 p.m. Pacific — No. 3 Grand Canyon (25-4) vs. No. 6 Ohio State (22-8)

The AVCA announced its All-American teams, two squads of 12 players each that are led by Long Beach State and GCU. Click here for the AVCA story and All-American teams.

Click here for more about the tournament and a team-by-team breakdown:

Click here for our Zoom previewing the tournament with Bay to Bay’s Arielle Houlihan, Loyola Chicago coach John Hawks and Pepperdine coach Jonathan Winder:

Pro Volleyball Federation

San Diego, which has won four of six and six of its last nine matches, beat Orlando 25-18, 19-25, 25-15, 18-25, 15-11.

Here are the standings after Monday:

The next match is Wednesday when Orlando goes to Vegas. Columbus is at Atlanta on Thursday.

Each team plays 24 matches. The Vibe, who have clinched the top playoff spot, have two matches left. Omaha has four, Grand Rapids four, San Diego five, Columbus still has seven to play, Orlando three and Vegas four.

In San Diego’s victory, Willow Johnson led with 17 kills, nine digs and five blocks, three solo. Ronika Stone, her former Oregon teammate, added 13 kills and had two assists, seven digs and three blocks, one solo. Shara Marie Venegas Medina had 15 digs and seven assists. San Diego has won five five-set matches, most in the PVF.

Orlando got 13 kills each from Adora Anae and Shainah Joseph and 11 from Kaz Brown, who had three digs, two aces, and six blocks, three solo. Setter Carly Graham had 43 assists, 14 digs, two…