My uninformed view of college men’s volleyball rankings

This past weekend I went to watch then-No. 6 Stanford play No. 10 Hawaii on both Friday and Saturday. It was pretty awesome to watch. Stanford won both matches, sweeping Hawaii on Friday and winning their first 5-set match of the season on Saturday. Even though Hawaii and Stanford were tied in the MPSF before the weekend, it was obvious that Hawaii was the underdog going into the match. Hawaii was coming off a loss at home to No. 8 Irvine, and Stanford had just swept No. 5 Pepperdine and No. 9 USC on the road.

Having been inspired by recent posts by Off the block and the Net Set, I also wanted to share my thoughts on the current rankings and teams. It’s not meant to be an exhaustive list, nor is it in any particular order.

1. Loyola. Even though I have never seen this team play, I am extremely skeptical of Loyola’s No. 1 ranking…I have no idea why coaches rank Loyola so high, for the simple reason that they never play anybody good (namely, any team in the MPSF). Granted, I’m biased and completely uninformed, but I’m just surprised nobody mentions this. I mean, maybe they’ve played some MPSF teams in the beginning of the season, but that means nothing by this point. The No. 2 team in the MIVA is Lewis, which is ranked outside the top 10, so what competition does Loyola really have?
2. Stanford. I feel like I know this team the best since I have seen them play the most. As a Cal alum it pains me to say that Stanford is clearly one of the top teams this season, and they have what it takes to win against any team. I don’t know why 6’8” setter James Shaw doesn’t get more props, because he’s the best setter I have seen all season. I’m not sure what his stats are, but I think I’ve seen matches where he has 5 kills just from dumping the ball over on two. It’s almost comical how unprepared teams are against that. On the other hand, Stanford seems to suffer from excessive service errors at inopportune times. If they fix that, this team would be hard to beat.
3. USC. I just can’t take this team seriously after they lost 25-15, 25-14, 25-22 to Stanford at home last weekend. I also haven’t seen any standout performances from setter Micah Christenson, who was selected to be on the USA Men’s National Volleyball Team. The only bright spot on the team is freshman outside hitter Lucas Yoder, but overall USC is not a team that I see winning the MPSF or getting into the NCAA tournament.
4. Hawaii. Sigh, Hawaii…the talent is there, but the execution was a bit lacking. There were too many service errors in the Stanford games, and overall Hawaii is not consistent enough as a team.
5. UCLA. I feel badly for UCLA right now since they are obviously off their game, having been plagued by inconsistency and injury the last few weeks. It’s unfortunate that MVP Gonzalo Quiroga most likely won’t see his team go anywhere in the postseason.
6. BYU. I was at the BYU-Stanford game and noticed that all the players hugged the coach when they were being introduced by the announcer. That was fascinating to me since it’s not something I’ve seen in any sports event, ever. Other than that, BYU’s record speaks for itself…it’s definitely the team to beat this season.
7. UCSB. I also can’t take this team seriously; they were easily swept by Stanford a few weeks back. I heard somebody else describe them as a schizophrenic team this season, and I’d tend to agree.

I don’t have much of an opinion on Pepperdine or Long Beach State since I haven’t really seen them play, but I will be monitoring their matches the next few weeks.

Oh, and I should mention the schedule of the remaining matches at Stanford (free!). I hope to make the Pepperdine game, but none of the other matches look that interesting…Stanford will easily beat Pacific and Cal Baptist, and since they just embarrassed USC on the road I expect them to handily win that match-up.