Pro Volleyball Federation news and recaps; AVCA, NCAA beach, NCAA men updates

In this report, we catch up on the Pro Volleyball Federation — which announced the site of its inaugural championship series — NCAA beach, USA Volleyball summer national teams and NCAA men.

Pro Volleyball Federation

Not surprisingly, the first-year league will play its semifinals and final in Omaha in May.

From the PVF news release:

Pro Volleyball Federation has announced that its first championship will take place in a city that supports professional volleyball like no other in the United States – Omaha, Nebraska. The semifinals on May 15 and title match on May 18 will take place at the CHI Health Center and be broadcast nationally on CBS Sports Network.

The home of the Omaha Supernovas has already established the attendance standard for professional volleyball in America, with four of the top five U.S. attendance records coming this season – including all of the top three marks.

STANDINGS: Atlanta holds a one-game lead in the win column over Omaha. 

1. Atlanta Vibe (9-4)
2. Omaha Supernovas (8-4)
3. Grand Rapids Rise (6-5)
4. Columbus Fury (5-5)
5. Orlando Valkyries (5-8)
6. Vegas Thrill (5-9)
7. San Diego Mojo (3-6)

WHAT’S AHEAD: On Wednesday, Columbus is at Atanta. Thursday, Grand Rapids is at Omaha. Friday shows Orlando at Columbus and there are two matches Saturday as Vegas is at Omaha and San Diego at Atlanta.

RECAPS: Atlanta, San Diego and Grand Rapids won matches since our last report. 

On Sunday, Columbus beat the Vibe 25-22, 27-29, 25-21, 25-23 as Reagan Cooper had 24 points on 22 kills, an ace and a solo block. She also had 14 digs. Asjia O’Neal had 17 kills, an ace and four blocks, one solo. Samantha Drechsel had nine kills, nine digs and seven block assists. Valeria Leon had 16 digs and four assists and new setter Tori Stringer had 51 assists, 10 digs, five blocks — one solo — two kills and two aces.

Anna Lazareva led Atlanta with 19 kills, two aces, seven digs and three blocks, two solo. Leah Edmond added 17 kills, an ace, nine digs and four blocks, three solo. Shelly Fanning had 10 kills, two aces, and nine blocks, three solo. Jehlarova Magdalena had four kills, two digs and 11 blocks, three solo. Setter Marlie Monserez had an ace and two kills to go with her 50 assists and 16 digs and Morgan Hentz had 14 digs …

San Diego swept Vegas 25-21, 25-23, 25-16. Temi Thomas-Ailara led with 16 kills and added two aces, seven digs and four blocks, one solo. Ronika Stone had nine kills and four solo blocks, Lindsey Vander Weide had nine kills, 13 digs and two solo blocks, and Valeria Papa had 11 digs, six digs and two blocks assists. Nootsara Tomkom had 41 assists, six digs and three block assists.

Gabby Gonzales led the Thrill with 10 kills, eight digs and a block assist … 

Tuesday, Grand Rapids beat the Thrill 25-22, 24-26, 25-17, 30-28. Emiliya Dimitrova led with 21 kills, six digs, two assists and seven blocks, two solo. Claire Chaussee had 16 kills, an ace, three assists, 11 digs and two blocks, one solo. Marin Grote had nine kills with no errors in 18 attacks, an ace, three digs and six blocks, three solo. Ashley Evans had 50 assists, 13 digs and seven blocks, three solo. 

Vegas, which pulled off the only reverse sweep in the league, was so close to forcing a fifth set. Khat Bell had 25 points on 20 kills, an ace and four solo blocks. Bell also had an assist and 16 digs. Kenna Sauer had 11 kills, two aces, five digs and two blocks, one solo. Kylie Murr had 22 digs and five assists and Alisha Glass Childress had 48 assists, 10 digs, a kill and four blocks, two solo.

PVF POW: The Columbus Fury’s O’Neal, the star middle who led Texas to the NCAA title, is the league’s player of the week. She’s the first middle to win the award. O’Neal, who has been injured much of the early part of the season, had 13 kills in a win over Grand Rapids and then 17 while hitting .556 against Atlanta.

NCAA beach

AVCA TOP 20: The top six teams — all of whom will be at No. 10 LSU’s Death Volley Invitational on Friday and Saturday – stayed the same.

They are, in order, USC, UCLA, Stanford, TCU, Florida State and Cal.

Cal Poly moved up two spots to No. 7, followed by Long Beach State, Loyola Marymount and LSU. No one dropped out.

We’ll have more on the incredibly loaded tournament at LSU on Thursday. Click here for the complete AVCA Collegiate Beach Poll.

AVCA POW: The AVCA national pair of the week is TCU’s Hailey Hamlet and Anhelina Khmil. Hamlet, a junior from New Braunfels, Texas, and Khmil, a sophomore from Ukraine, dropped one set at No. 1 in wins over FGCU, FIU, Washington and Arizona State.

USA Volleyball

College-coaching names you know will be leading USA Volleyball national teams this summer.

The women’s U21 national team, which plays in the NORCECA Women’s Continental Championship in Toronto, including BYU’s Heather Olmstead as head coach and Stanford’s Alex Dunphy and Nebraska’s Jaylen Reyes as her assistants.

The U19 squad that will play in the Girls Continental Championship in Honduras as Texas A&M head coach Jamie Morrison as the head coach and Minnesota head coach Keegan Cook as one assistant and LOVB’s Michelle Chatman as the other. 

And the Women’s Collegiate national team includes Chris McGown of Gold Medal Squared as head coach and LOVB’s Suzie Fritz and five-time Olympian Danielle Scott as assistants. 

Click here for the USA Volleyball news release.

NCAA men

WHAT’S AHEAD: There are six matches on the schedule Wednesday, none involving ranked teams. In Conference Carolinas, the four matches show first-place Belmont Abbey at Emmanuel, the teams tied for second-place going at it as Erskine trying to close the two-game gap at North Greenville, Mount Olive at Barton and Lees-McRae at King.

In the SIAC, Fort Valley State plays Morehouse and the SIAC’s Edward Waters goes out of conference to face Warner of the NAIA.

There are three MIVA matches Thursday, including No. 8 Ohio State at No. 18 McKendree and No. 12 Ball State at No. 14 Lewis. Queens plays at No. 13 Loyola. Emmanuel of Conference Carolinas is home for independent Tusculum and in the ECC Dominican plays at St. Thomas Aquinas.

AVCA TOP 20: Long Beach State stayed a unanimous No. 1, but UCLA moved up a spot to No. 2 and UC Irvine did the same to No. 3. Fourth-ranked Grand Canyon is up a notch, while Hawai’i is down three spots to No. 5. No one dropped out.

Click here for the complete AVCA Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Poll.

AVCA POW: The AVCA national men’s player of the week is BYU outside Luke Benson. In back-to-back five-set wins over Pepperdine, Benson, a junior from Newbury Park, California, averaged 4.7 kills per set, hit .412 and averaged a half a block per set. 

RECAPS: In Monday’s only match, Lincoln Memorial (18-5) swept Missouri S&T (10-12) in a battle of independents. LM hit .531 as it got kills from six players, eight with no errors in 10 attacks by Justin Sharenaker … The same teams went at Tuesday and the result was the same. Sharfenaker again had eight kills and so did Eliel Salva Torres … 

Also Tuesday, Central State (4-21, 2-3) swept its SIAC match at Kentucky State (3-12, 2-3). Nine Central State players had kills, eight each by Tyrone Sands and Nicholaus Gooden-Brooks … the NEC’s Sacred Heart (8-14) swept at the ECC’s American International (2-13) as 10 of its players had kills … Two Conference Carolinas teams won non-league matches as Barton (11-9) swept Virginia Wesleyan and North Greenville (10-8) beat independent Tusculum (6-19) in four. NG’s Diego Rosich had 15 kills, hit .344 and had six digs … and independent Maryville (20-5) won in four at the MIVA’s Quincy (5-16).