The biggest climb in this week's AVCA Coaches Poll goes to Long Beach State, a team that put together a pretty impressive January when you look back on it. With the exception of a very early season loss to UC San Diego, their only losses came from highly ranked UCI. They lost to the Anteaters twice during the month, in three and in five sets. This week Long Beach moved up four spots to No. 3.
February has started off very strongly for the 49ers as they upset No. 1 BYU in Provo last weekend in five sets. Junior outside hitter Dalton Ammerman led the way with a career high 21 kills.
BYU remains in the No. 1 spot this week despite the loss, but they have to share it with UCI who took about half of the first place votes. UCI was off this week after a very busy January, but they will head up north to face off with No. 4 Stanford on Friday in Palo Alto.
The Cardinal is just back from a trip to Hawaii where they split two five set matches with the Warriors. UH is finally on the map after being left out of the top 15 for the first four weeks despite beating UCLA once and Pepperdine twice so far this season. Hawaii joins the list at No. 13 and UC San Diego dropped out of the rankings.
Cal Baptist continues to surprise folks. They beat Northridge last week in four sets. They will host No. 6 UCLA this week in Riverside. Here are the rest of your matches to watch for this week.
Matches to Watch:
Tuesday, February 5th
No. 12 Cal Baptist @ No. 15 UCSB
Wednesday, February 6th
No. 5 Pepperdine @ No. 3 Long Beach State
No. 8 USC @ No. 10 CSUN
Thursday, February 7th
No. 15 UCSB @ No. 1 BYU
No. 6 UCLA @ No. 12 Cal Baptist
Friday, February 8th
No. 1 UCI @ No. 4 Stanford
No. 8 USC @ No. 3 Long Beach State
No. 5 Pepperdine @ No. 10 CSUN
UCSD @ No. 11 Pacific
Saturday, February 9th
No. 6 UCLA @ No. 1 BYU
No. 1 UCI @ No. 11 Pacific
UC San Diego at No. 4 Stanford
No. 9 Ohio State @ No. 7 Penn State
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