Hawaii, Long Beach State finish 1-2 as BWC dominates final volleyball poll

May 10—Two titles are undisputed adhering to Hawaii’s sweep of Long Seaside Point out on Saturday.

Two times just after saying its second straight nationwide championship, the Rainbow Warriors ended up voted the unanimous No. 1 in the closing Countrywide Volleyball Affiliation /American Volleyball Coaches Association Men’s Division I-II poll of the year.

Very long Seashore Condition followed the Warriors in the poll unveiled Monday as the Large West reaffirmed its position atop the meeting hierarchy in last week’s National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship in Los Angeles.

The Big West has claimed the countrywide winner each calendar year (not counting 2020’s midseason cancellation ) due to the fact the convention additional men’s volleyball to its lineup for the 2018 season. Prolonged Beach front Point out won the 2018 and’19 championships and UH captured the two titles since.

As these, this 12 months also marked the 2nd time in all those four seasons that the league had members end 1-2 in the AVCA poll, and most of the important figures in Saturday’s title match at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion are slated to return subsequent period.

“We know we have some excellent players and actually everybody that’s contributing to our group ideal now—I consider for each teams—are back all over again upcoming year, ” UH coach Charlie Wade explained soon after the Warriors’ sweep of the Beach front on Saturday. “So the Massive West will be at the leading of men’s collegiate volleyball the moment once more.”

The Large West placed five of its 6 groups in this year’s ultimate Best 15 poll, with UC Santa Barbara ending at No. 8, UC San Diego at No. 10 and UC Irvine at No. 13.

The Mountain Pacific Sports activities Federation also experienced five groups in the poll, led by No. 4 UCLA. No. 3 Ball Condition topped the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association’s 4 representatives. No. 6 Penn Point out was the lone Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association member in the poll.

Hawaii (27-5 ) concluded at No.1 for the third time in the record of the poll, becoming a member of the 2002 and 2021 groups. It was also the program’s 19th appearance in the Best 5 of the last poll.

Tale carries on

Immediately after getting voted No. 1 in the preseason poll, the Warriors held the best position for the season’s first 4 weeks. They slipped to No. 3 soon after dropping two matches at Ball Point out in late January, then to No. 4 adhering to a decline at UC San Diego in early March. They held steady for 7 weeks right before jumping back again to No. 1 next a sweep of Extended Seaside Point out (21-6 ) in the Significant West match final, obtaining 11 of 19 initially-location votes.

They done their operate at a repeat with wins about North Greenville, Ball Point out and Extended Beach State in the NCAA Match.

UH and Very long Seaside Point out break up their 4 meetings this time, and Saturday’s match marked the ninth postseason conference between the teams. UH took a 5-4 direct in the postseason collection with the 25-22, 25-21, 25-20 earn. LBSU retains a 50-47 edge all round.

“I believe what it claims a lot more than something is the quality of the two of these packages in excess of time, ” Extended Beach Condition coach Alan Knipe explained on Saturday. “There’s a ton of faces that have altered on both of those sides of the internet, but the high quality of volleyball is definitely, genuinely large by a large amount of youthful gamers out there in their to start with practical experience taking part in in the championship.

“I think it bodes definitely nicely for the Significant West and men’s volleyball in the course of the country. These two systems have been doing some genuinely large items, and I assume there will be a whole lot of huge matches to arrive.”