Happy New Year! After writing a bit about the organizational structure of NCAA men’s volleyball, I’m now interested to explore the teams themselves that we’ll be hearing about over the coming weeks and months. For the sake of brevity, simplicity, and (honestly) meaning, I’ll simply discuss the teams from the three major conferences. First, a rundown of the first AVCA Top 15 poll of the season (only goes to 15 in men’s):
1. UC Irvine (all 16 first-place votes)
2. BYU
3. Stanford
4. Pepperdine
5. Lewis
6. UCLA
7. Long Beach State
8. Penn State
9. USC
10. Loyola-Chicago
11. Ohio State
12. Cal State Northridge
13. UC Santa Barbara
14. George Mason
15. California Baptist
This post and the next two will give a brief rundown of each team in the MPSF, MIVA, and EIVA, in order of each team’s position in the league’s preseason coaches’ poll.
The team leading the way is UC Irvine, the defending national champions and, as you read above, the unanimous preseason #1. The Anteaters gave significant playing time to two setters last season, Chris Austin and Daniel Stork, both of whom return from the national championship team. While they lost their very top scorer to graduation, 6’6″ French import Kevin Tillie, a 2012 first-team All American (ironically enough), and junior outside Jeremy Dejno will no doubt still put points on the board. Make no mistake, this is still probably the best hitting team in the nation. Blocking would seem to be a bit of a question mark, as two of the team’s top three blockers from last season have departed, though there’s little doubt 6’9″ junior Scott Kevorken will improve upon his .85 BPS from last year. Remember how I’ve said before that strong offensive teams will sometimes have deceptive defensive numbers, not truly telling how strong they are in that phase of the game? Even with a .354 team hitting percentage last year (!!!), the Anteaters still managed to out-dig their opponents on the season. Will Thomas and Michael Brinkley split time at the libero position. Their dig totals from last season would be considered paltry in the women’s game, but digs just aren’t quite as important in men’s volleyball.
Surprisingly, though BYU didn’t get any first-place votes in the national poll, they did get two in the MPSF poll. Coaches can’t vote for their own team (they rank the other 12), so they were sure to get UC Irvine’s vote, but someone else also had them number one. The big star for the Cougars is no doubt returning first-team All-American, junior outside hitter Taylor Sander. As a sophomore last year, he got nearly 5 kills per set, in slightly reduced playing time as he battled a hand injury. One has to also be interested in the development of Puerto Rican Josue Rivera, who in his freshman year played as much as anyone on the team. He wasn’t a terrifically efficient or prolific scorer, but simply by playing so much he wound up the team’s third-leader in kills. That’s gotta mean something for this year. The Cougars graduated their primary setter from last season, so it’s unclear who will run the offense this year. Ryan Boyce returns from last year’s team, having seen occasional playing time, but Boyce is himself a senior. May not make sense to set yourself up to have to do this all over again next year. Neither of the other two setters on the roster, sophomore Tyler Heap or freshman Robbie Sutton, had any playing time last year.
Pepperdine were just 14-15 last year, so it’s interesting that they’re picked third in the MPSF this season. Senior outside hitter Maurice Torres leads the way, with nearly four kills per set last season. Hitter/blocker Matt Tarantino will need to pick up the slack left by the graduation of Matt Pollock, who averaged more than a block per set last season. The Waves may have the most experienced sophomore setter in the nation, as Matt West started every match his freshman year and played every set. He had more than 1,300 set assists last year and no other Wave had more than 22, suggesting he never once came out of rotation at any time during the entire season. 6’7″ outside hitter Josh Taylor didn’t play quite as much as a freshman as West did, but he too racked up some valuable experience en route to being the team’s second-leading scorer. Certainly it seems to me that this could be a really good team in 2014.
The Stanford Cardinal are picked fourth in the preseason poll. This is a big team – the only players on the roster shorter than 6’2″ are the players listed as liberos. Despite that size, though, the Cardinal were actually out-blocked by their opposition a year ago. Having lost their top scorer to graduation, it’s probably junior outside Brian Cook who will most light up the stat sheets for Stanford this year. Fellow junior outside Steven Irvin will look to improve upon his three kills per set total from a season ago. But Stanford have a lot of holes to fill from last year. As mentioned, their top scorer is no longer with them, but just the same their top blocker, digger, and only setter from the 2012 season. Setting duties probably fall to fourth-year junior Chandler Kaaa, but he’s no more experienced than either of the two freshman setters on the roster, at least not in terms of last year’s action.
UCLA hope to be playing at home at season’s end, as they’re the hosts for this year’s NCAA tournament. This is a versatile offensive team – four different Bruins averaged over two kills per set last season, but the highest of them was at 2.63. Despite that, they still managed to outscore the opposition over the course of the year. Junior outside Gonzalo Quiroga is, however, the lone returner from that quartet. And with Weston Dunlap and Kyle Caldwell, first-team All-Americans both, gone to graduation, the Bruins have significant gaps to fill. Fourth-year junior Connor Bannan played just one match last year, but it seems it would fall to him to run the offense this season. Aside from Quiroga, returning libero Evan Mottram, and fifth-year senior Scott Vegas, who played 45 sets without accruing any significant statistics, no one on this UCLA team had significant playing time in 2012, so it’s hard to say who will lead the way this year.
The experience issues aren’t quite so pronounced for Long Beach State, but they’re there all the same. Taylor Crabb returns as the 49ers’ most prolific and second most efficient scorer from 2012, but he’s quite undersized to play outside (just 6-foot even), leading a squad that was in fact out-killed in 2012. They’ll make some hay at the net, with towering (6’8″) middle Jeff Ornee no doubt giving opposing hitters fits. The 49ers return their lone setter from 2012, junior Connor Olbright. Olbright, Crabb, and Ornee are the three returning players who were somewhat regular starters in 2012. Crabb’s brother Trevor is a year older and 4 inches taller, but did not see very much playing time last season.
Last season’s NCAA final proved home court advantage isn’t everything, as USC were clobbered in three sets by UC Irvine despite the match being at the Galen Center. The Trojans lose last year’s AVCA Player of the Year Tony Ciarelli, and with him nearly one-third of the total swings taken by their offense. They also have to say goodbye to Steven Shandrick, he of a block per set and a .437 hitting percentage in 2012. So backbone-of-the-offense hitting is a bit of a question mark this season. But the Men of Troy may have the best blocker in the nation on their roster, with 6’8″ Robert Feathers returning from a freshman campaign in which he posted an outstanding 1.60 BPS that you have to imagine is only bound to improve. These Trojans are a young team, with occasional 2012 starter Maddison McKibbin the only senior on the roster. The return of second-team All-American Micah Christenson at the setter position gives them a measure of stability. And as if to match their female counterparts, the Trojans may also have the nation’s best libero, as Henry Cassiday is the only returning back-row specialist in the country to have garnered All-American honors a year ago (second-team, in his case).
The Matadors of Cal State Northridge are #8 in the MPSF preseason poll. This is a team that struggled in 2012, going just 12-18 and being statistically outdone by the opposition in each and every phase of the game for the season all together. The Matadors had three setters with significant playing time in 2012, seemingly an uneven three-way split of a 6-2, though only sophomore Travis Magorien returns from that squad. JuCo transfer Alex Jones and redshirt sophomore Ryan Mason give them the option to have another setter-palooza in 2013. Junior outside Brandon Lebrock is the team’s best returner at a scoring position, though he’ll have to do a fair bit better in 2013 than he did last year if the team has any plans of out-performing their preseason rank. Senior middle blocker Jared Moore averaged over a block a set last season, and he’ll look to keep that level of productivity up this year.
The USCB Gauchos were a pretty gruesome 7-19 a season ago, so to be picked ninth in the 13-team MPSF might actually be an upgrade for them. They had just one senior a season ago, so they’ll surely have experience on their side this year. Senior (this year) outside hitter Miles Evans is the Gauchos’ leading scorer, at three and a half kills per set last year. Redshirt sophomore Kevin Donohue checked in with just under three KPS, a figure that could easily improve this season. The Gauchos will need to find some sort of answer on offense to be sure, as they hit just .196 as a team last year and were out-killed by nearly a kill and a half per set. Oliver Deustchman didn’t see all the action at setter last year, but his counterpart isn’t with the team this year (transferred, perhaps), so he probably will this year, or split time with a freshman. 6’8″ Jonah Seif is one of the two freshman setters on the roster, but I doubt he’ll stay at that position (who ever heard of a 6-foot-8 setter?). Speaking of height, 6’9″ middle blocker Ryan Thompson will have to do a better job maximizing his physical gifts, as his .80 BPS total from a year ago really isn’t good enough for someone who hardly has to even jump to present a block.
And now the new kids on the block – California Baptist. You ask me, they could do worse than debuting at #10 out of thirteen in the conference. As a brand-new member, they’re strictly-speaking ineligible for the postseason, though that likely won’t matter. The Lancers return their top scorer from 2012, Aaron McCalmont, as well as their top blocker and second-leading scorer Kristopher Johnson, and their primary setter Connor Metcalfe. The team’s leader, however, is probably Brazilian Levi Cabral, who for reasons I’ve been unable to find didn’t play last year (medical redshirt, perhaps?) and enters this year just 24 kills shy of the school’s career record. He’ll get that no later than the team’s third or fourth match, to be certain, and possibly sooner. The one thing to bear in mind when looking at this team’s 2012 performance is that while they were ahead or close to even in most categories, much of their schedule a year ago was D-III and NAIA teams. They’ll have no such luxuries in 2013.
University of the Pacific are picked eleventh. They were 8-20 last season despite being a decent hitting squad (.244, a tick under 12 KPS). This means that even in the men’s game, where defense is less important, the Tigers stood out as a poor defensive squad. Top scorer Taylor Hughes, he of three and a half kills and nearly a block per set, returns to the lead the way. Middle blocker Christian Ahlin also played in all 28 matches for Pacific last season and stands to improve his offense output. Junior libero Javier Caceres actually has one of the better digs per set totals from 2012 that I’ve seen in writing this rundown, but evidently one man can’t do it alone, as the Tigers were more than a dig per set the lesser of their opposition in 2012 and were out-hit and out-scored by a substantial margin.
The Hawaii Warriors, as this men’s squad is known (pick a nickname and settle on it, would ya, Hawaii?) are second-from-last. Losing Steven Hunt to graduation hurts badly, as Hunt took more than a third of Hawaii’s total swings in 2012 and posted a better than 4 kills per set mark for the season. The Warriors do return the second-leading scorer from a year ago, but JP Marks had only a little better than half of Hunt’s output and total swings. Junior middle blocker Nick West is the most experienced returning player, having been in every set last season. Only Hunt and a departing libero did likewise. Hawaii were outplayed in every facet of the game in 2012, and losing their best player means they won’t likely reverse that fate in 2013.
Somebody had to be last, and that somebody is UC San Diego. Against this caliber of competition, it’s really a losing proposition from the outset for the Division II Tritons. Senior outside hitter Carl Eberts is the leader, coming back from a three-and-a-quarter kills per set 2012 season. Junior middle blocker Sebastian Brady was the most efficient scorer with a .332 attack percentage, but he didn’t really do much at the job which gives his position its name, averaging a pedestrian .77 blocks per set. Fellow junior middle Fred Stahl did better there, at nearly a block per, but the Tritons were still out-blocked by the opposition by more than a block per set. They were actually nearly equal in hitting to the opposing side in 2012, and with both Eberts and second-leading scorer Vaun Lennon back for 2013, there’s reason to believe they might edge ahead there. The Tritons also return both setters that saw consistent playing time a year ago, Mike Brunsting and Garrett Dempsey. But it’s an awfully tall hill to climb to expect them do much of anything in the MPSF this year.
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