NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball postseason action Wednesday includes the MIVA and EIVA semifinals and MPSF quarterfinals and the continuation of the inaugural SIAC tournament.
Tuesday, Emmanuel and Mount Olive both won five-set matches to advance to Friday’s Conference Carolinas semifinals.
And Vanderbilt, the SEC school located in Nashville, finally is going to add women’s volleyball. The first season will be in 2025.
MIVA — The semifinals pit top-seeded Ball State (21-3) against visiting fourth-seeded Lewis (16-11) and sixth-seeded Purdue Fort Wayne (16-12) vs. host Loyola Chicago (18-8).
Ball State swept Lewis in both their regular-season meetings. Loyola swept PFW in their first meeting and then beat the Mastodons in four. The MIVA championship match is Saturday. The winner gets an automatic NCAA tournament bid.
EIVA — Host Penn State (23-3) has dominated the league. The top-seeded Nittany Lions await the winner of the Wednesday’s match between fourth-seeded Princeton (12-12) and fifth-seeded Saint Francis (PA) (15-12). In the other quarterfinal, sixth-seeded George Mason (13-14) plays third-seeded NJIT (15-10) with the winner facing Harvard (12-12).
Saint Francis beat Princeton in four in their first match, but the Tigers swept when they played again. NJIT swept Mason in their first meeting, but Mason won the rematch in four.
MPSF — Top-ranked UCLA (21-3), the home team for the tournament, awaits the lowest-seeded survivor between second-seeded USC (21-6) vs. No. 7 Concordia (10-15), No. 3 Pepperdine (16-9) vs. No. 6 BYU (8-16), and fourth-seeded Grand Canyon (16-11) vs. No. 5 Stanford (12-13).
This season, USC swept Concordia in both their meetings, Pepperdine lost in five to BYU and then swept the Cougars, and Grand Canyon swept Stanford and beat the Cardinal in four.
The semifinals are Thursday and the title match is Saturday.
CONFERENCE CAROLINAS — Friday’s semifinals are set when top-seeded North Greenville (18-5) plays Emmanuel (15-13) and Mount Olive (15-6) plays second-seeded King (17-11).
Fourth-seeded Emmanuel defeated fifth-seeded Erskine (13-18) 25-22, 23-25, 23-25, 25-22, 15-10 and is in the semifinals for the first time in program history. Gustavo Cavalcanti led with 26 kills, an assist, five aces, two blocks and nine digs. Carlos Guerrero had 17 kills, an assist, an ace, three blocks and six digs. Emmanuel hit .246 and had six aces and 20 errors. Erskine, which hit .161 and had four aces and 11 errors, got 17 kills from Kacper Rybarczyk, who hit .303 and had an assist, two aces, four blocks and eight digs …
Third-seeded Mount Olive beat No. 6 Belmont Abbey (14-6) 20-25, 25-19, 25-20, 23-25, 15-10. Mount Olive hit .274 an had five aces and 17 errors. Tobi Azeez led with 20 kills as he hit .421 and had two assists, three aces, a block and four digs. Trevor Terser had 19 digs and two assists. Matteo Miselli had 26 kills for Belmont Abbey to go with an ace, two blocks and eight digs. BA hit .228 and had two aces and 20 errors.
In the regular season, North Greenville beat Emmanuel in four in both their meetings, and Mount Olive beat King in five, but then lost to the Tornado in four.
SIAC — The new league does not get a bid to the NCAA tournament but is playing a double-elimination tournament in Rock Hill, South Carolina.
Tuesday, fourth-seeded Benedict swept fifth-seeded Kentucky State, third-seeded Fort Valley State did the same to No. 6 Morehouse, top-seeded Central State beat Benedict in four. Then second-seeded Edward Waters beat Fort Valley State in five.
Action continues Wednesday when Morehouse plays Benedict, KSU plays Fort Valley, the winner face off, and then Central State plays Edward Waters. The tournament concludes Thursday.
VANDERBILT WOMEN — One of the great mysteries in college volleyball has long been why Vanderbilt, an elite academic institution in Nashville and a member of the Southeastern Conference, hasn’t fielded a women’s team since the short-lived program was disbanded in 1980.
Tuesday Vandy announced that its first season will be in 2025. Read the Vanderbilt news release and watch the news conference here with the announcement by Vice Chancellor for Athletics and University Affairs and Athletic Director Candice Lee.
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