Poll Position Mirrors Standings

Top 5 teams same in Top 15 poll as MPSF standings

March 8, 2007

By Ray Dise

Special to CSTV.com

	RAY DISE Ray owns and operates CVU.com and regularly contributes volleyball content to CSTV.com. E-mail here!

        ---   Column Archive   --- VOLLEYBALL 12/16: Penn State Wins Title In Near Historic Fashion 12/14: History Meets When Stanford And Penn State Take Floor 12/13: Cal's Banner Year Ends In A Flash 12/13: This Feels Familiar 12/12: They're Something, All Right 12/5: Magee, Paolini Hit Big For Longhorns 11/28: ABC's Of The NCAA Tournament 11/20: First Time Callers 11/15: Ducks Flying High 11/7: Big 12 Gives Back 10/31: Streaks Were Made To Be Broken 10/24: The Numbers Game 10/18: Elite Company 10/10: SFA Puts Winning Streak On Line vs. Rival 10/3: Going Streaking 9/26: Conference Races Heating Up 9/18: And Then There Were Four 4/26: Semifinals About To Take Shape 4/19: Tournament Time in Conference Action 4/12: NCAA Tournament Quickly Approaching 3/29: UCSD Looks to Drop Underdog Tag 3/22: Carthage Seeing Red 3/16: Spring Breaking 'Em In 3/1: BYU Does It With Two 2/23: Touching On The Top 5 2/15: Candidates Galore For Awards 12/17: Nebraska's Run Represents A Movement 12/15: Historic Meeting In Omaha 12/14: Thompson Rides Into the Sunset 12/14: Red-Letter Day For Nebraska 12/13: Stanford Has The Players To Win Title 12/9: Two Storied Programs Meet, Stanford Downs Texas 12/8: Texas Starts Wisconsin Season, Finishes it Too 12/8: Despite Being Bay Area Rivals, Stanford Beats Cal in Texas 12/8: A Stat Lover's Paradise 11/30: Tournament ABCs 11/16: Banner Long-Overdue For Carnesecca Court 11/9: Top-Ranked Huskers Hanging Tough 11/2: Gearing Up For Conference Tournaments 10/26: In or Out 10/20: Aggies Are Digging Their Way In The WAC 10/13: National Roundup 10/5: Building Toward A Sooner National Title 9/29: Moore Success in Eugene 9/7: Revival of the Mustangs 8/31: Some (Sun) Devil 8/18: Man Down But Back For More 12/22: Silver & Tin Pure Gold FOOTBALL 1/02: Long List of Longhorn Skill

A look at the top five teams in the latest Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) standings will reveal a less-than-shocking fact - those teams are also the top five teams in the latest CSTV/AVCA Division I-II Men's Top 15 Coaches Poll.

The MPSF has long held the dominant position in men's collegiate volleyball even though the MPSF has only been in existence since 1992.

No. 1 Pepperdine (14-1 overall, 11-1 MPSF), second-ranked UC Irvine (19-3, 13-3), No. 3 Brigham Young (13-4, 9-3), fourth-ranked UC Santa Barbara (14-6, 10-5), and No. 5 UCLA (11-8, 9-7)  hold down those top five slots with the second five teams (CS Northridge (9), Pacific (8), USC (13), Long Beach State (12), and Hawai'i (14)) also being ranked.

Those top five slots could shuffle after this weekend's action with Pepperdine on the road to face Hawai'i, BYU on the road facing UCSB, and UCLA at UC Irvine. The top five teams are all coming off of a win while the Waves are leading the way having won 11 straight.

BYU Freshman Robby Stowell was named MPSF Player of the Week for his performance in matches against USC. Stowell had 35 kills in seven games over the two matches hitting .538. Stowell registered five blocks in each of the two matches but on Saturday had his best hitting match of his short career with a .727 (17-1-22) performance.

The Molten/Volleyball Magazine poll sees the top four the same as the coaches, however differs on who are the fifth through seventh teams, choosing the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA) and Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) leaders, Penn State and Ohio State, ahead of UCLA in the fifth and sixth spots, respectively.

In the EIVA, Penn State (9-2 overall, 5-0 EIVA) leads George Mason (5-5, 3-2) and Princeton (5-5, 3-2) in the race for the EIVA Tait Division crown. Juniata (9-4, 4-3), the No. 1 team in the AVCA Division III Men's Top 15 Coaches Poll, is in fourth, percentage points behind the Patriots and the Tigers.

Springfield College (14-6, 5-1 EIVA), the nation's No. 4 Division III team, and New Jersey Institute of Technology (9-4, 5-1) lead the chase in the EIVA Hay Division with a two-and-a-half match lead over Harvard (6-3, 3-3). Springfield has had an up and down week, losing to EIVA fourth-place team and Division III No. 5 NYU (9-11, 2-2) in four games only to rebound and defeat Division I Rutgers-Newark in five games.

The EIVA names Players of the Week for both the Tait and Hay Divisions with Juniata's Jeremy Barndt as the Tait Division winner and Brady Weissbourd of Harvard as the Hay winner. Barndt had 24 kills, an ace and five blocks, to register 27.5 points in the Eagles match against East Stroudsburg while also hitting .821.

Weissbourd helped the Crimson defeat New Haven with 14 kills, four aces, a dig and four blocks while hitting .521.

Ohio State (15-1, 4-0 MIVA) has a slim half-match lead over No. 15 Ball State (10-6, 4-1) in the MIVA Shondell/Dunlap Division heading into their Friday match in Columbus. No. 11 Loyola-Chicago (14-3, 4-2) and No. 10 IPFW (9-5, 4-3) are within striking distance of the leaders.

Division III No. 3 Carthage College (12-7, 4-0 MIVA) also has a slim lead over its competitors in the MIVA Coleman Division, leading No. 8 Clarke College (11-11, 3-1) by half of a match.

The MIVA can name Players of the Week for both divisions of the association, however this week, none was chosen for the Coleman Division.

Ohio State's junior setter Daniel Mathews was named Player of the Week for the Shondell/Dunlap Division after averaging 17 and 18 assists per game in two matches respectively this past week. Mathews had a career high 72 assists in a four-game win over George Mason and had 51 assists in a sweep at Rutgers-Newark. Mathews is the nation's leader in assists per game average with 14.07.