Top 5 Battle Royale

It's almost unfair to have these types of matchups before the national tournament.

Sacred Heart with the big upset sweep over NJIT. | Josh Gee/Sacred Heart Athletics

Four of the top 5 teams in the AVCA poll will be playing each other today. The only team who will escape the carnage is Grand Canyon. Long is looking to stay undefeated but they will have to get past the experience and talent of UCLA. We will also get to see part 2 of Staford and Hawaii. Although Stanford is without the services of their star OH, Will Rottman, they are still formidable. These matches could easily be a preview of the semifinals or even finals of the NCAA tournament in May.

---

Three Intriguing Matches

1. Mount Olive at King - A conference opening match for both programs. VBelo has this as the closest match of the day. Both of these teams have realistic goals of getting the Conference Carolinas bid to the national tournament. This is a recipe for excitement.

2. Lincoln Memorial at Princeton - These are both highly underrated teams. Sure, VBelo has this as a close match, but I just love the things these programs are doing for the sport. Sure, upsets are fun, but these teams are building consistent improvement in their squads.

3. Ball State at McKendree - Since seeding will be even more important for this year’s MIVA tournament, every match matters. Both the Cardinals and the Bearcats have the personnel to make a major splash this year. I love fun programs and the MIVA is chock-full of them.

4. UCLA at Long Beach & Stanford at Hawaii - I couldn’t not pick these matches. They are just too good! But I wanted to highlight matches that get less airtime than these big ones. But they are intriguing so I can’t leave them out, for obvious reasons.

---

Match Recaps

MIVA

McKendree (47%) def. Quincy (53%)
3-0 (26-24, 25-17, 25-17)

NEC

Daemen (84%) def. D'Youville (16%)
3-0 (25-22, 28-26, 25-16)

Non-conference

Pepperdine (58%) def. UC Santa Barbara (42%)
3-2 (13-25, 25-22, 25-23, 20-25, 15-9)

Concordia (50%) def. UC San Diego (50%)
3-0 (25-17, 25-13, 25-23)

Dominican (61%) def. Mount Saint Vincent (39%)
3-0 (25-13, 25-19, 25-13)

Sacred Heart (19%) def. NJIT (81%)
3-0 (25-18, 25-22, 25-21)

BYU (85%) def. Long Island (15%)
3-0 (25-23, 25-22, 25-16)

---

Match Projections

ConfCarolinas

Barton (56%) vs Lees-McRae (44%)

Mount Olive (48%) vs King (52%)

MIVA

Ball State (67%) vs McKendree (33%)

Ohio State (68%) vs Loyola Chicago (32%)

Purdue Fort Wayne (57%) vs Queens (43%)

Non-conference

Stanford (13%) vs Hawai'i (87%)

Master's (3%) vs CSU Northridge (97%)

UCLA (59%) vs Long Beach (41%)

Emmanuel (53%) vs Tusculum (47%)

St. Thomas Aquinas (3%) vs Daemen (97%)

Saint Francis (34%) vs Charleston (66%)

Merrimack (35%) vs Harvard (65%)

Lincoln Memorial (41%) vs Princeton (59%)

Central State (45%) vs Maryville (55%)

Talladega College (16%) vs Missouri S&T (84%)