NCAA volleyball: AVCA update, men’s slate, hires and who’s also playing basketball

In this NCAA volleyball update, we have the AVCA news of the week, what’s on tap for the men, a Division I head-coach hiring and a new Division I assistant, and a fun note about volleyball players who have hit the hardwood.

AVCA TOP 20, POW: Long Beach State got 17 of the 24 first-place votes and stayed No. 1, followed by Grand Canyon, which got five of the votes and remained No. 2. Hawai’i, still No. 3, got the other vote. UCLA stayed at No. 5 and Stanford is still No. 5.

After that there was a little shuffling, including BYU moving up two spots to No. 6. UC Irvine stayed at No. 7, Ohio State dropped two notches to eighth, Penn State is still No. 9, while Loyola Chicago moved up three spots to No. 10. 

Independent Lincoln Memorial is back in, this time at No. 19, and Purdue Fort Wayne dropped out.

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

The AVCA national player of the week is Hawa’i senior outside Spyros Chakas. The Green averaged 5.43 kills per set in a four-set win and then a sweep of visiting Stanford. Chakas hit .550 and also averaged 1.57 digs.

WEDNESDAY-THURSDAY MEN: There are six NCAA Division I-II men’s matches Wednesday, including two MPSF openers when No. 4 UCLA (9-3) plays host to No. 11 Pepperdine (9-3) and No. 12 USC (8-4) is at Concordia Irvine (5-1).

There’s a MIVA match when No. 10 Loyola Chicago (7-6, 2-1) goes 44 miles to the southwest to No. 13 Lewis (7-4, 2-1).

The Big West’s No. 16 CSUN (7-5) is home for Hope International, King (1-8) of Conference Carolinas plays at No. 19 independent Lincoln Memorial (7-3) and Roberts Wesleyan (4-6) of the ECC is home Division III St. John Fisher (13-1). 

Thursday shows five more matches, including two in the MIVA when No. 14 Ball State (9-7, 2-1) is home for Purdue Fort Wayne (7-5, 1-2) and Queens (6-7, 2-2) is at McKendree (5-4, 2-1).

The Big West’s No. 18 UC Santa Barbara (4-9) plays at Division III Cal Lutheran (11-3), No. 20 UC San Diego (3-8) of the Big West is at the SIAC’s Central State (0-12) and Dominican (3-6) of the ECC is home for Division III Bard (4-4).

UNC ASHEVILLE HIRES MARANTE: The North Carolina school hired Danielle Marante, who has been the head coach at Division II Tusculum the past five seasons. Her team won the South Atlantic Conference tournament and lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. She previously was an…