VBelo Daily: April 26, 2025
🏆Championship Saturday🏆 Six tickets to Columbus on the line but all eyes will be on the Big West for insight into the the at-large bids.
Today is a day long in the making. With 6 automatic qualifiers being handed out today, we will learn so much about the national tournament in just a handful of hours. Teams have had this goal in their minds for months and now it is time to leave it all on the court. The projections are in, but when the stakes are this high, the best players reach another level.
To make matters more dramatic (in not a great way), we had the first upset of the postseason with national tournament implications. With UCLA losing to Pepperdine in the MPSF semifinals, the at-large conversation got more stressful.
I’m no bracketologist but I actually think we know the two at-large bids.
Big West Runner-up: Both Long Beach and Hawaii (in that order) will make the tournament. Their resumes and the overall strength of the Big West have earned them spots in Ohio.
UCLA - I keep looking at numbers and I just don’t see the committee
This means the first team out is UC Irvine. This breaks my heart and I genuinely hope I am wrong about this. This UC Irvine deserves to be competing for a national championship. Maybe I’m not ready for a Henno-less NCAA. Or maybe I just believe Kniffin’s defense of his team’s chances. Regardless, I want to see this team competing. Volleyball deserves that and the NCAA is going to keep the best teams from making it to Columbus this year.
Yesterday's Scores
Big West
#1 Long Beach (89%) def. #10 UC San Diego (11%)
3-0 (25-18, 25-23, 25-17)
Long Beach is headed for the Big West finals after hitting .400% on the match. Moni Nikolov now has 90 aces on the season, good enough for second most in a season…ever.
#3 Hawai'i (52%) def. #4 UC Irvine (48%)
3-1 (25-21, 15-25, 25-21, 25-23)
Henno is now tied for the most career aces in D-I history with 255. In the end, Adrien Roure, a fellow Frenchman, powered Hawaii to victory with his 18 kills (.441%)
ConfCarolinas
Belmont Abbey (75%) def. Barton (25%)
3-0 (26-24, 25-21, 25-23)
Belmont Abbey, behind the 14 kills of Caden Day, is headed to the Conference Carolinas championship.
#20 Mount Olive (82%) def. North Greenville (18%)
3-0 (25-16, 25-20, 25-23)
Can Mount Olive be stopped in the Conference Carolinas? Signs point to no. The Trojans hit .389% as they add another sweep to their 2025 resume
MPSF
#5 Southern California (67%) def. #11 Stanford (33%)
3-1 (23-25, 25-23, 25-22, 25-19)
When you have two pin hitters who hit 16+ kills and hit .400%+ you win. Just trust me on this one. The 17 team blocks for USC sure helped too. The Trojans have their eyes set on that MPSF championship and a trip to Ohio.
#7 Pepperdine (23%) def. #2 UCLA (77%)
3-2 (19-25, 25-22, 15-25, 25-23, 16-14)
Ryan Barnett just kept the Waves’ hopes alive to make it Columbus. He led all players with 21 kills (.447%) and made the NCAA selection committee’s job that much harder.
NEC
Daemen (44%) def. Long Island (56%)
3-2 (23-25, 25-20, 25-15, 15-25, 15-7)
The postseason is made for moments like this! Daemen advances in a 5-set thriller behind a strong serving performance and a well-balanced attack.
Saint Francis (89%) def. Fairleigh Dickinson (11%)
3-1 (25-21, 25-19, 24-26, 25-18)
Saint Francis dominates from the service line (12 aces to 3) as they are one step closer to the first NEC AQ.
Championship Match Projections
🏆Big West Championship
#1 Long Beach (62%) vs #3 Hawai'i (38%)
🏆Conference Carolinas Championship
Belmont Abbey (42%) vs #20 Mount Olive (58%)
🏆EIVA Championship
Penn State (42%) vs #19 Princeton (58%)
🏆MIVA Championship
#15 Ohio State (38%) vs #6 Loyola Chicago (62%)
🏆MPSF Championship
#5 Southern California (47%) vs #7 Pepperdine (53%)
🏆NEC Championship
Daemen (25%) vs Saint Francis (75%)
A strong Saturday of Volleyball. 4 of the 6 are on ESPN + or B1G Ten Network. Enjoy the day.