Friday Volleyball At Its Finest

Another great beginning to a packed weekend. Apparently there are some other college sports matches too.

Ohio State Athletics

So far, schools with Men’s Volleyball programs are 0-2 in the NCAA Men’s March Madness tournament. BYU (6) lost in a bracket-busting manner to Duquesne (11). Meanwhile, the Cinderella Coaching story of the tournament ended when Long Beach (15) lost by 20 points to Arizona (2). Grand Canyon (12) is now the last remaining volleyball school in the tournament. They will face Saint Mary’s (5) in the last game of the day.

In case you are wondering, there are 6 teams on the Women’s side of the basketball tournament with Men’s Volleyball teams.¹ Okay, enough about basketball. That’s not why you are here!

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Three Intriguing Matches

1. Belmont Abbey at Mount Olive - The top two teams in the Conference Carolinas will be going at it. Using their home court, Belmont was able to sweep UMO earlier this season, but VBelo sees this as a potentially tough match. This one has some big post-season implications.

2. Sacred Heart at Fairleigh Dickinson - This is one of the closest VBelo matches of the day. These are two tough teams looking to move up their conference standings. FDU may be on a losing streak right now, but a good home-court conference match can turn things around really quickly.

3. Daemen at Saint Francis - That’s right, another NEC match! The top two teams in the conference are looking for a big win. Both are undefeated in the NEC, but only one team will stay that way after today. The NEC continues to show their competitiveness and make a strong case for their inclusion in the National Championship in the very near future (hopefully next year).

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Match Recaps

MIVA

Ohio State (42%) def. Ball State (58%)
3-0 (25-18, 25-16, 25-18)

Lewis (65%) def. Queens (35%)
3-1 (21-25, 25-11, 25-23, 25-14)

Loyola Chicago (93%) def. Quincy (7%)
3-0 (25-15, 25-16, 25-16)

MPSF

Grand Canyon (94%) def. Concordia (6%)
3-0 (25-16, 25-16, 25-19)

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Match Projections

Big West

CSU Northridge (3%) vs Hawai'i (97%)

ConfCarolinas

North Greenville (67%) vs Barton (33%)

Belmont Abbey (40%) vs Mount Olive (60%)

Emmanuel (74%) vs Lees-McRae (26%)

Erskine (56%) vs King (44%)

IVA

Thomas More (45%) vs Missouri S&T (55%)

MPSF

BYU (36%) vs Pepperdine (64%)

Grand Canyon (95%) vs Concordia (5%)

NEC

Daemen (35%) vs Saint Francis (65%)

Sacred Heart (56%) vs Fairleigh Dickinson (44%)

Merrimack (18%) vs Long Island (82%)

SIAC

Benedict (18%) vs Fort Valley State (82%)

Edward Waters (93%) vs Morehouse (7%)

Edward Waters (93%) vs Morehouse (7%)

Non-conference

Dominican (64%) vs Wentworth Tech (36%)

Tusculum (7%) vs George Mason (93%)

1. Ohio State (2), Stanford (2), Southern California (1), Princeton (9), UC Irvine (13), UCLA (2)