NCAA Men’s Volleyball Tournament Preview
The field of seven has been announced and the NCAA Men’s Volleyball Tournament is set to begin on Sunday.
Hawaii gets set to shoot for a three-peat having won the championship match in straight sets each of the past two seasons.
While the Rainbow Warriors ended the year with an impressive 28-2 record and a Big West Championship, they aren’t the number one overall seed.
That title belongs to the UCLA Bruins who enter the tournament with a 29-2 record and a MPSF Tournament victory defeating Stanford in straight sets for the title.
The Bruins are on a major hot streak having won their last 12 games only dropping three total sets during the streak.
UCLA’s run dates back to mid-March as its last loss came against Hawaii which has also been on an impressive streak.
The Rainbow Warriors have won each of their last 11 matches which started back with that UCLA match.
Both teams will receive an automatic bye to the semifinals as the tournament’s top two seeds.
One of the losses for both teams came at the hands of the No. 3 seed in the tournament, the Penn State Nittany Lions.
The blue and white are fresh off an EIVA Championship victory over Princeton having won the match in straight sets.
Penn State entered with a 26-3 mark but suffered a big blow during the tournament.
All-EIVA First Team middle blocker Toby Ezeonu went down with an injury and it’s unclear if he will play in the tournament.
The Nittany Lions will face the winner of the Ohio State and King matchup in the quarterfinals.
Ohio State enters after a MIVA championship victory against Ball State, the No. 3 seeded Buckeyes upset the top-seeded Cardinals in four sets.
The Buckeyes are on an 11-game winning streak which includes a victory against the Nittany Lions, the last time Penn State has lost a game.
They take on the King Tornado as the Division 2 program gets set to make just its second tournament appearance in program history.
As the No. 3 seed in the Conference Carolinas Tournament, the 16-15 Tornado edged out a five-set win in the championship against top seed North Greenville with a 15-12 win in the fifth set.
The other matchup already set to go in the quarterfinals features Long Beach State and Grand Canyon.
Long Beach State is not far removed from back-to-back tournament victories in 2018 and 2019.
That success was nearly replicated in last season’s championship match but it ended in a loss to the Rainbow Warriors.
Long Beach State’s stay in the Big West Tournament ended early following a straight-set loss to UC Irvine.
That dropped their record down to 20-4 on the season but was still enough for one of the two at-large bids in the tournament.
The other spot went to their opponent in the Grand Canyon Antelopes, who will make their NCAA Tournament debut.
Grand Canyon did so after finishing with a 22-7 record and a run to the MPSF semifinal falling to UCLA.
Logan Bourandas is a senior majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email lxb5412@psu.edu.
