Men's Volleyball Weekly Release No. 16
FIRST SERVE
It’s Big West Tournament Time
The second annual Big West Men’s Volleyball Tournament is set to go April 18-20 at the Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu.
Long Beach State is the two-time Big West regular season champion and top seed in the six-team field. The Beach are also the reigning national champions and Big West Tournament champions. Repeating on host Hawaii’s home court with four other nationally ranked squads in the bracket, and the potential prospect of facing a sold out, pro ‘Bow crowd with the title on the line, will be a recurring piece of conversation all week.
Thursday’s first round matchups feature No. 3 seed UC Irvine against No. 6 seed UC San Diego, followed by No. 4 seed UC Santa Barbara versus No. 5 seed CSUN. The same two first round matchups occurred in 2018 at LBSU’s Walter Pyramid, except the seeds were reversed for CSUN and UCSB.
Top-seeded LBSU will battle the winner of UCSB and CSUN in one Friday semifinal, while No. 2 UH will challenge the winner of UCI and UCSD. The championship match is slated for Saturday at 8 pm HT (11 pm PT). All matches will be streamed on BigWest.TV and available via Spectrum Sports on the islands.
Perfect Prognosticators
The final 2019 regular season standings mirrored the preseason predictions of the six head coaches in their poll released on Dec. 28.
All six coaches correctly picked Long Beach State to win the title – with Hawai‘i, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, CSUN and UC San Diego following in succession.
A Season Of Streaks
Some impressive streaks this season have gone by the wayside and some are still current entering the league tourney.
• Hawai‘i went 14-0 inside the Stan Sheriff Center this season and has won 15 straight at home dating to last season.
• Long Beach State has won a school record 41 straight home matches dating back to March 26, 2016 – the second-longest in NCAA history – and behind only the record 83 UCLA won consecutively from 1975-82. LBSU is the host of this year’s NCAA Tournament.
• UH saw two outstanding streaks come to a halt recently. The ‘Bows started the season 25-0 – the 25-match win streak ranked sixth-longest in NCAA history – before losing to Long Beach State last week. UH saw its NCAA record 74-set win streak snapped on April 6 at home against No. 3 UC Santa Barbara.
• UCSB owned a school rally-scoring era record (since 2001) winning streak of 12 straight that lasted nearly two months. The win streak vaulted the Gauchos all the way up to No. 3 in the AVCA poll, the program’s highest ranking since 2015.
TOURNAMENT NOTES
Shout Out At The Stan
Big West Tournament host Hawai‘i hopes to replicate the crowd scene witnessed at its final regular season home match on Senior Night April 6 against UC Santa Barbara. A sellout crowd of 10,300 – the first in 22 years – watched the ‘Bows improve to 14-0 at home this season with a four-set win. Hawai‘i is the NCAA leader in attendance, both in terms of total attendance (64,528) and average attendance (4,609).
Terrific Trio
Long Beach State’s senior trio of Kyle Ensing, TJ DeFalco and Josh Tuaniga all have collected major hardware during their collegiate careers. Ensing joined the club on Monday when it was announced he had earned Big West Player of the Year honors. DeFalco claimed Big West Player of the Year recognition in 2018 and was the AVCA National Player of the Year in 2017. Tuaniga garnered AVCA National Player of the Year status in 2018. The trio has helped the Beach compile a cumulative record of 105-14 in three-plus seasons.
Welcome Back, Schneidmiller
UC Irvine missed the presence of sophomore outside hitter Joel Schneidmiller as the team went 1-5 during his six-match absence. The ‘Eaters endured a five-match losing streak after he hit .455 with 14 kills in a win at No. 10 BYU on Mar. 9. But the All-Big West First Team selection returned to the lineup last week in back-to-back wins over No. 3 UC Santa Barbara, as he posted a combined 31 kills on .434 hitting. Despite missing the six matches, Schneidmiller is No. 4 in the Big West with 44 service aces, and just two off of DeFalco’s conference-leading 46.
No Backing Down
Twenty of UC Santa Barbara’s 26 matches this season have been against AVCA Top-15 opponents and the Gauchos posted an 11-9 record against them. The Gauchos have lost six of their last eight matches, but all six losses came against the top three tourney seeds in LBSU, UH and UCI.
Kalchev Nears 200 Ace Mark
CSUN senior Dimitar Kalchev enters the tournament with 198 career service aces, needing two more to become just the eighth player in NCAA history to accumulate 200.
Last Time Out
In its two regular season meetings with UCI, UC San Diego won a total of three sets and took the Anteaters to five sets on the road. The Tritons were tied at 13-13 in the fifth set before UCI went on to win, 16-14.