UCLA is the new beach No. 1!
Loyola Marymount makes a big jump to No. 2; USC, TCU and Stanford fill out the first five spots in the AVCA coaches poll
The fallout from the upset-filled Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Beach Classic hit the AVCA's NCAA beach-volleyball coaches poll and, as I figured, perennial power UCLA rightly moved into the No. 1 spot.
Most likely on the strength of their head-to-head victory over Loyola Marymount in Honolulu, the Bruins (5-1) were chosen as the top team on 22 of of the 29 ballots cast for the first weekly poll based on results and climbed two positions from the spot they occupied on the preseason coaches list.
LMU (5-1) leapfrogged from seventh to second in the poll released on Tuesday afternoon and picked up five first-place votes. It's the highest ranking in program history for the Lions, who finished third in the 2021 NCAA tournament.
Four-time defending champion USC (4-2) tumbled out of the No. 1 spot to third after losing to Loyola Marymount and Stanford but defeating UCLA and TCU. They were tabbed as No. 1 by one voter.
TCU (3-3) fell from second to fourth and Stanford (3-3) stuck at No. 5.
The voters apparently penalized Cal Poly for not playing on the season's opening weekend. The Mustangs got one first-place nod but dropped from fourth to sixth. Florida State (5-0), which beat Louisiana State in Mississippi, checked in at No. 7 with Long Beach State (2-0), which topped California in Malibu, at No. 8. Cal (3-1) was ninth and LSU (4-1) 10th.
The Top 10 shook out pretty much the way I predicted it would, except my unofficial ballot kept Cal Poly fourth, had Long Beach State over FSU and put undefeated Florida Atlantic ninth with Cal 10th.
After ranked victories over Georgia State, Washington and Florida International in Tampa, FAU (4-0) made a significant jump to 12th from 16th. The voters gave the benefit of the doubt, apparently, to Arizona State, which went 1-5 in the meat-grinder at the Duke, keeping the Sun Devils at No. 11. Ditto for Hawaii (0-6), which was ratcheted down a notch to 13th.
The remainder of the AVCA Top 20 teams: 14. Texas (5-0); 15. Georgia State (2-2); 16. Washington (2-2); 17. FIU (2-2); 18. Grand Canyon (4-0; 19. North Florida (4-0); 20. Stetson (4-0).
THE COMPUTER SAYS: For the sake of comparison, here is the Top 10 from TruVolley's computer rankings: 1. UCLA; 2. TCU; 3. Loyola Marymount; 4. Stanford; 5. USC; 6. Cal Poly; 7. Long Beach State; 8. Cal; 9. Texas; 10. FSU.
TruVolley also has released its list of the best beach pairs. Its Top 5 are: 1. Daniela Alvarez-Tania Moreno (TCU); 2. Malia Gementara-Taylor Hagenah (Long Beach State); 3. Maggie Boyd-Sally Perez (UCLA); 4. Peri Brennan-Natalie Myszowski (UCLA); 5. Brooke Rockwell-Ruby Sorra (Stanford).
The Top 15 pairs according to TruVolley's computer program are pictured below.
ROARING LIONS: The AVCA on Monday named Loyola Marymount's Tanon Rosenthal and Giuliana Poletti-Corrales as its national Collegiate Beach Pair of the Week. They went 6-0 at the 5s without dropping a set during the hugely competitive round-robin on Waikiki.
Rosenthal is a 6-foot redshirt freshman and a former Fab 50 recruit whose dad, Mike, was an NFL offensive lineman, playing for the New York Giants from 1999-2002 and the Minnesota Vikings from 2003-06.
Grad transfer Poletti-Corrales sat out the 2024 season after competing with distinction for Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (AVCA Top Flight winner at the 1s in 2022) from 2020-23. The 5-11 native of Paraguay represented her country on the sand in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
