Tawa’s High School Volleyball Dots: Prestonwood gets revenge; Thunder clap back
This is “Dots,” VolleyballMag.com’s weekly look at 10 things in high school volleyball, past or present, that interest me and hopefully will interest you. Look for Dots every Tuesday until the last high school state championship in November. • Last Friday, four national powers played in...
Team Edmond dominates first week of AU; Edmond, Hentz, Linnehan, Hilley next captains
What was Leah Edmond’s reward for putting together the most dominant team statistically in Athletes Unlimited’s volleyball history? She had to bid farewell to a crew that instantly clicked and hunker down to draft a new squad. Team Edmond rewrote the record book in numerous categories during...
“I didn’t think that was possible”: Six USA teams claim top spot in pool at World Champs
TLAXCALA, MEXICO — The messages that lit up my phone on Monday night were virtually indistinguishable than the ones on Sunday, when Miles Evans and Chase Budinger flipped the men’s World Championship field upside down and inside out with a single blowout win over Ukraine. “Did...
Road to Paris: Canada, Brazil will join USA, Japan, Poland, Germany in Olympics
Canada celebrates clinching an Olympic bid/Volleyball World photo Even though they’d already clinched their spot in the 2024 Paris Olympics, the USA men finished strong in the Road to Paris Volleyball Qualifier. Coach John Speraw played mostly his second team Sunday in a 25-19, 22-25, 19-25, 25-23,...
Rutgers’ Schweihofer, UCF’s Maurer join the NCAA volleyball Zoom
Rutgers beat a ranked team for the first time ever when the Scarlet Knights knocked off Minnesota on Saturday. UCF is off to a 14-2 start and is 5-0 in its first Big 12 season. We had Rutgers coach Caitlin Schweihofer and UCF head coach Jenny Maurer...
Movement after top 5 in VolleyballMag.com Super 16 Media Poll
The voters didn’t mind that Washington State lost in four to visiting Stanford on Sunday in an epic Pac-12 battle. In this third week of the VolleyballMag.com Super 16 Media Poll, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Stanford and Washington stayed 1-2-3-4. For that matter, Oregon is still No. 5. And then...
Stanford tops WSU in big Pac-12 battle; Oregon, Louisville, Pitt, GT, Arkansas, Rice win
Washington State’s Pia Timmer goes over the Stanford block/Dean Hare, WSU Photo Services Third-ranked Stanford won an intense battle at No. 4 Washington State to take over sole possession of first place in the Pac-12, which now has four teams a game back tied for second. Georgia...
Sink or swim: Pool chances for each USA team at Beach Volleyball World Championships
TLAXCALA, MEXICO — Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes didn’t need to be in Tlaxcala on Sunday afternoon. Didn’t need to take the 30-minute Uber from Apizaco, where their pool — Pool C — is competing. But a change of scenery is nice. So there they...
Chase Budinger, Miles Evans moving on at World Champs in late-night stunner
TLAXCALA, MEXICO — Chase Budinger and Miles Evans piled it on. Had to. Had to run the score up as much as they possibly could against Ukraine’s Sergiy Popov and Eduard Reznik in the final round of pool play at the Beach Volleyball World Championships. A...
High-flying No. 13 Arkansas, fueled by “small, mighty people,” has won 12 in a row
Arkansas coach Jason Watson addresses his team/Arkansas Athletics “I may be the tallest, but the people around me make me feel small because they’re mighty. I have some small, mighty people around me.”— Arkansas middle Zoi Evans This story actually has a back story, but ultimately it’s...
Rutgers stuns Minnesota; Citadel is 18-0; Wisconsin, Nebraska, Penn St. win; Lamar!
Ali Ruffin serves as plenty of The Citadel classmates look on/Brian Stone photo If you read these NCAA Division I women’s volleyball roundups regularly, you know there haven’t been too many times when we’ve led with Rutgers, The Citadel and Lamar. But here you go. Rutgers beat a...
Klineman-Harward win first match at Beach Volleyball World Championships
Alix Klineman and Hailey Harward made a successful debut Saturday at the Beach Volleyball World Championships in Mexico. Inside the bull ring in Tlaxcala, the Olympian Klineman, just four months from having a baby, and new partner Harward, seeded No. 38, knocked off 11th-seeded Germans Svenja...
USA women go 1-1, men 1-2 as FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships begin
All matches will be streamed live, with replays available, at Volleyball World TV. Use “VOLLEYBALLMAG” for a discount. The USA pairs that hit the sand Friday in Mexico had mixed results in the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships. On the women’s side, third-seeded Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes opened...
Paris bound! USA men sweep Serbia to clinch spot in 2024 Paris Olympics
Paris bound! The USA men after beating Serbia to clinch their spot in the 2024 Olympics/Volleyball World photo The USA men will join the USA women in Paris. Not that there was much doubt that both teams would be in the 2024 Olympics, but the men clinched...
Upset of the year: How Ricardo Galindo, Isaias Aguirre stunned Brazil’s Evandro and Arthur
Ricardo Galindo dives for a ball at a NORCECA/NORCECA photo TLAXCALA, MEXICO — Ricardo Galindo waved his hands, commanding the few thousand fans crammed into the Apizaco Bullring to get on their feet, to unleash the spirited and cerveza-fueled cheers Mexican beach volleyball fans have become...
Auburn sweeps Florida; Pitt tops GT; Marquette beats Creighton; Stanford, WSU, Oregon win
Stanford’s Elia Rubin attacks at Washngton/Stephen Burns photo Auburn’s up-and-coming program pulled off an upset with national implications when the Tigers stunned No. 6 Florida, winning in Gainesville for the first time. The sweep on Friday night also marked a breakthrough victory against a top-10 opponent by...
Surprise! Gambia drops and Chase Budinger, Miles Evans get late World Champs bid
TLAXCALA, MEXICO — They were in but they weren’t. Through the Great Instagram Grapevine, Chase Budinger and Miles Evans had heard, via Ed Keller, their good friend and makeshift coach for this week’s Beach World Championships, that the team of Sainey Jawo and Jahara Koita of...
Texas, K-State, The Citadel win; busy NCAA volleyball Friday on tap
Madisen Skinner of Texas hits off the Kansas block/Emma Andrus, Texas Athletics Texas, the No. 8 team in the VolleyballMag.com Super 16 Media Poll, beat AVCA No. 17 Kansas in four and visiting Kansas State beat AVCA No. 18 Baylor in five as the Big 12...
Anderson, USA men close to clinching Olympic bid with win over Slovenia
The USA men after beating Slovenia/Volleyball World photo The veteran did it again and now the USA men are probably a victory away from clinching a spot in the 2024 Paris Olympics. Matt Anderson, the 36-year-old opposite, had 14 kills, two aces and a team-high eight digs...
Beach World Championships begin Friday in Mexico with huge Olympic implications
The first matches on the 2022 Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour took place at the Plaza de la Constitucion in Tlaxcala, Mexico/Vollyball World photo The 2023 Beach World Championships begin on Friday in Mexico, in a sprawling, three-city, 10-day festival of beach volleyball that will spread...