Hawai’i, which won the 2021 and 2022 NCAA men’s titles, finally opens its season Thursday.
We’ve got the latest AVCA Poll and a women’s hiring.
THURSDAY: It’s the season opener for both Hawai’i and Ball State, which returns the travel favor this season. In 2022, Hawai’i of the Big West played two matches at Ball State of the MIVA and, dealing with a depleted roster, lost them both. We profiled Hawai’i and its two Greek standouts earlier this week.
There are four other Division I-II matches Thursday.
Loyola Chicago of the MIVA plays host to King of Conference Carolinas, CSUN of the Big West plays host to Edward Waters of the SIAC, Mount Olive of Conference Carolinas plays independent Tusculum, and LIU plays Limestone in a battle of independents. LIU won in four on Wednesday at Queens.
Want to watch a match? If it’s being shown, and two of those are, we have the viewing links in our VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings.
AVCA POLL: As mentioned, Hawai’i opens its season Thursday, but even without playing the Rainbow Wahine remained No. 1 in the AVCA Men’s Division I-II Coaches Poll.
The top six stayed the same. Princeton dropped out of the top 15 and BYU moved in at No. 13.
Click here for the complete AVCA Poll.
ESPERO’S MEN’S REPORT: VolleyballMag.com’s Rob Espero interviews NCAA men’s coaches each week. On this week’s Zoom roundtable, he talked to four coaches, Dan Friend of Lewis, UC San Diego’s Brad Rostratter, George Mason’s Jay Hosack and CSUN’s Theo Edwards.
Click here to watch and subscribe.
SJSU TABS KRESS: Todd Kress, who has had tremendous success at Fairfield in Connecticut, is changing coasts. Kress was announced Wednesday as the new coach at San Jose State. That opening was created when Trent Kersten went to Loyola Marymount.
Kress was the winning MAAC coach ever and won the conference title 10 times during two stints at Fairfield. He coached there from 1995-98, was the head coach at Northern Illinois, Florida State and Buffalo, before returning to Fairfield 10 years ago.
Fairfield went 25-7 in 2022, 17-1 in the MAAC. The Stags were upset by Quinnipiac in the conference tournament final.
San Jose State went 21-9, 14-4 in the Mountain West. The Spartans lost to Utah State in the MWC tournament championship match.
Thera are still a handful of Division I jobs open, including North Carolina (we interviewed Joe Sagula after announced his retirement this past Monday) and Michigan.
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