One other UCLA-USC showdown looms giant Thursday because the NCAA seaside volleyball common season winds down.
It comes on the heels of UCLA’s 3-2 victory over the Trojans this previous Saturday within the loaded Middle of Effort Problem at Cal Poly. UCLA has received two of the three conferences this season between the highest two groups within the AVCA Collegiate Seashore Ballot.
Talking of which:
AVCA prime 20, POW
AVCA COLLEGIATE BEACH POLL: The highest 4 — UCLA, USC, Stanford and Florida State — stayed the identical, however Cal Poly jumped two spots right into a tie with FSU. It ties the very best rating in Cal Poly historical past.
TCU dropped one notch to No. 6. Lengthy Seashore State stayed seventh, Cal remains to be No. 8, however Loyola Marymount moved up a spot to No. 9, buying and selling locations with No. LSU.
The subsequent 5 are Hawai’i, Washington, Arizona State, FIU and Georgia State.
Numbers 16-20 are Stetson, Grand Canyon, FAU, Arizona and South Carolina, which moved in whereas Texas A&M-Corpus Christi — off final week — dropped out.
Click on right here for the AVCA prime 20.
PAIR OF THE WEEK: The AVCA gave a nod to the small colleges this week in honoring Hanni Johnson and Amanda Ollinger of Division II Colorado Mesa. Johnson, a 5-fot-9 senior from Anchorage, Alaska, and Ollinger, a 6-1 graduate pupil from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, who performed basketball — not volleyball — for Iowa from 2016-20. She performed volleyball in highschool. Johnson and Ollinger went 4-0 final week for this system situated in Grand Junction, Colorado, with out dropping a set. The Mavericks took third on the AVCA Small Faculty Seashore Championships in Tavares, Florida.
Colorado Mesa had this function final week about Ollinger and teammate Cedar Bellows.
Middle of Effort Problem
The massive gathering final weekend was in San Luis Obispo at Cal Poly’s Middle of Effort and top-ranked UCLA, which has received 19 duals in a row, went 4-0 to enhance to 28-4. Since dropping three of their first 4 duals, the Bruins have misplaced solely to Stanford 5 weeks in the past. At Cal Poly, they needed to go the gap in all 4 of their matches, successful 3-2 every time in opposition to Loyola Marymount, Florida State, Cal Poly and USC.
Towards USC, the match was tied 2-2 when UCLA’s courtroom 5 pair of Tessa Van Winkle and Jaden Witmarsh beat USC’s Madison Goellner and Mabyn Thomas 14-21, 21-17, 15-10.
USC’s Megan Kraft and Delaynie Maple received on courtroom 1 and Grace Seits and Ashley Pater received on courtroom 4. UCLA’s Devon Newberry and Peri Brennan received on courtroom 2 and Kenzie Bower and Jessie Smith received on courtroom 3.
UCLA leads the all-time collection 24-19 and this marked the thirtieth time they performed in a No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup.
USC (27-4) beat Pepperdine 4-1 and went 5-0 in opposition to each Lengthy Seashore State and TCU.
Stanford (24-3) received 5-0 3 times at dwelling, beating San Francisco, Arizona and Pacific. The Cardinal has received six in a row.
FSU (27-7) beat Cal Poly 3-2, misplaced to UCLA, misplaced to LMU 4-1, and completed with a 4-1 win over Pepperdine.
TCU (25-7), which has misplaced 5 of its final 11 duals, beat Lengthy Seashore State, swept Pepperdine, received swept by USC and misplaced 4-1 to Cal Poly.
Cal Poly (23-5) went 2-2 at its dwelling tourney. The Mustangs misplaced to FSU, beat LMU 4-1, misplaced to USC after which completed with its victory over TCU.
Lengthy Seashore State (23-7) completed with a 3-2 win over LMU (22-11) which went 1-3.
Across the nation
Cal (18-10) beat visiting Sacramento twice, thumping the Hornets 5-0 each occasions. The Bears misplaced only one set in 10 matches.
LSU (20-9) cruised to 4 5-0 victories at dwelling, beating Jacksonville, New Orleans, Louisiana-Monroe and Southeastern Louisiana.
Washington (16-11) performed on its dwelling sand at Alki Seashore and went 4-1. After sweeping Oregon and Boise State and beating Georgia State 3-2 on Friday, the Huskies beat Oregon once more, this time 4-1, earlier than dropping 3-2 to Georgia State. It got here right down to courtroom 5, the place GSU’s Courtney Smith and Ayla Johnson prevailed. Georgia State is 19-11.
South Carolina (17-11), which moved into the highest 20, beat Stetson 3-2, misplaced to FIU 3-2, beat FGCU 4-1 and misplaced 3-1 to FAU.
This week
Thursday, at USC’s Merle Norman Stadium, the place you possibly can watch from the storage construction and look down and see all of the courts, UCLA performs Loyola Marymount at 10 a.m. Pacific earlier than enjoying the Trojans once more at 12:30. USC then performs LMU. All three matches can be proven on the Pac-12 Community’s USC Dwell Stream.
Stanford on Friday performs host to Grand Canyon and Washington earlier than dealing with Cal and UC Davis on Saturday. Cal performs GCU, Washington and the house crew on the Stanford gathering.
Florida State is off earlier than going to the CCSA Match in Huntsville, Alabama, April 26-27, and so is TCU, idle till enjoying within the Convention USA Championships in Youngsville, Louisiana, April 25-27.
Cal Poly is headed to New Orleans and performs Southern Miss, Tulane, UAB and Louisiana-Monroe.
Lengthy Seashore State performs back-to-back matches at dwelling Saturday in opposition to Cal State Los Angeles.
LSU goes to South Carolina the place the sector consists of Coastal Carolina, South Carolina, Jacksonville and Georgia State.
LMU not solely performs UCLA and USC on Thursday, on Saturday it’s dwelling for CSUN and Arizona.
Hawai’i is off till the Massive West Championship April 25-26 at Lengthy Seashore State.
Arizona State is at Arizona on Thursday earlier than coming dwelling Friday to play the Ottawa College Spirit from close by Shock, Arizona.
Stetson is dwelling Friday for FAU and North Florida.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi performs within the eight-team Southland Convention Championship Friday and Saturday at Third Coast in Houston.
