NCAA volleyball: AVCA update, men’s slate, hires and who’s also playing basketball

In this NCAA volleyball update, we have the AVCA news of the week, what’s on tap for the men, a Division I head-coach hiring and a new Division I assistant, and a fun note about volleyball players who have hit the hardwood.

AVCA TOP 20, POW: Long Beach State got 17 of the 24 first-place votes and stayed No. 1, followed by Grand Canyon, which got five of the votes and remained No. 2. Hawai’i, still No. 3, got the other vote. UCLA stayed at No. 5 and Stanford is still No. 5.

After that there was a little shuffling, including BYU moving up two spots to No. 6. UC Irvine stayed at No. 7, Ohio State dropped two notches to eighth, Penn State is still No. 9, while Loyola Chicago moved up three spots to No. 10. 

Independent Lincoln Memorial is back in, this time at No. 19, and Purdue Fort Wayne dropped out.

Click here for the complete AVCA National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Poll.

The AVCA national player of the week is Hawa’i senior outside Spyros Chakas. The Green averaged 5.43 kills per set in a four-set win and then a sweep of visiting Stanford. Chakas hit .550 and also averaged 1.57 digs.

WEDNESDAY-THURSDAY MEN: There are six NCAA Division I-II men’s matches Wednesday, including two MPSF openers when No. 4 UCLA (9-3) plays host to No. 11 Pepperdine (9-3) and No. 12 USC (8-4) is at Concordia Irvine (5-1).

There’s a MIVA match when No. 10 Loyola Chicago (7-6, 2-1) goes 44 miles to the southwest to No. 13 Lewis (7-4, 2-1).

The Big West’s No. 16 CSUN (7-5) is home for Hope International, King (1-8) of Conference Carolinas plays at No. 19 independent Lincoln Memorial (7-3) and Roberts Wesleyan (4-6) of the ECC is home Division III St. John Fisher (13-1). 

Thursday shows five more matches, including two in the MIVA when No. 14 Ball State (9-7, 2-1) is home for Purdue Fort Wayne (7-5, 1-2) and Queens (6-7, 2-2) is at McKendree (5-4, 2-1).

The Big West’s No. 18 UC Santa Barbara (4-9) plays at Division III Cal Lutheran (11-3), No. 20 UC San Diego (3-8) of the Big West is at the SIAC’s Central State (0-12) and Dominican (3-6) of the ECC is home for Division III Bard (4-4).

UNC ASHEVILLE HIRES MARANTE: The North Carolina school hired Danielle Marante, who has been the head coach at Division II Tusculum the past five seasons. Her team won the South Atlantic Conference tournament and lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. She previously was an assistant at Marshall and played at Tampa, where she was a four-time Division II All-American.

Marante takes over a team that finished 8-20 last season, 2-12 in the Big South. She replaces Amber Haver, who coached there one season. UNC Asheville has never been to the NCAA Tournament.

TEALER TO VANDY: Former Kentucky standout middle Azhani Tealer is going to be an assistant at Vanderbilt, the new program that starts play in 2025, and still get to play pro volleyball.

Tealer, a middle on the Wildcats’ spring 2021 NCAA title team, finished at Kentucky last season. She was drafted by the Orlando Valkries of the Pro Volleyball Federation and remains on that team’s practice squad. Tealer played under Vandy head coach Anders Nelson, who was a longtime Kentucky assistant.

FROM VOLLEYBALL TO HOOPS: At least two NCAA Division I women volleyball players have joined their respective schools’ basketball programs this winter.

Emily Holterhaus of Northern Iowa, a 6-foot-2 first-team All-Missouri Valley Conference outside hitter who led the Panthers in kills, joined the basketball team in early January and has played in seven games. She’s hit 6 of 12 shots (1-4 on 3-pointers) and all four of her free throws to go with six rebounds. 

Injury depleted TCU women’s basketball team desperately needed bodies and volleyball’s Sarah Sylvester answered the call in late January. The 6-3 sophomore middle is believed to be the first TCU athlete in the Big 12 era to play both sports. Sylvester, who led the Horned Frogs with 138 blocks — 13 solo — was fifth on TCU’s volleyball team last fall with 80 kills. She’s played eight minutes in five basketball games and hit a free throw against Oklahoma last week for her only point. 

Plenty of other volleyball players have also played basketball. 

Five-time Olympian Danielle Scott, for one, played both sports at Long Beach State and was close to being a WNBA player.

2008 Olympian Kim Willoughby, like Scott from Louisiana, was not only a volleyball star for Hawai’i, but played two seasons of basketball for the Rainbow Wahine.

Natalie Williams was a star in both sports at UCLA in the early 1990s and is now the general manager of the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces. Williams won NCAA titles in volleyball in 1990 and 1991 and in 1992 and 1993 won the then Honda Broderick Award for player of the year. 

Kristin Fokl (now Kaburakis) was a four-time volleyball All-American at Stanford who won three NCAA titles and also won the Honda Award in 1998. She was also a basketball All-American who played in the WNBA and professionally internationally.

BYU made it all the way to the 2014 NCAA volleyball championship match with a team led by 6-7 basketball player Jennifer Hamson. She led BYU, which lost to Penn State in the NCAA final, in kills in 2014 and was third in blocks. She played two years in the WNBA. 

Another former BYU player, Alohi Robins-Hardy from Hawai’i, is a member of the Philippines national team and played basketball at BYU.

Peyton Williams played both sports at Kansas State. She was a basketball star for the Wildcats from 2017-20 and the 6-4 middle played three seasons of volleyball. In 2019, she was fourth on K-State’s team in kills and second in blocks.

Maggie Mendelson, who recently transferred from Nebraska to Penn State???, played sparingly the past two seasons for the Nebraska volleyball team. In the 2022-23 basketball season, the 6-5 middle played in 22 games, scoring 43 points to go with 48 rebounds. She was recruited to Nebraska as a two-sport athlete but is expected to play just volleyball at Penn State. 

We know there are more. Please feel free to add them in the comments section.

Enjoying our coverage? Help keep free volleyball journalism free by both becoming a VBM Sustaining Member and signing up for our newsletter. 

NCAA volleyball: AVCA update, men’s slate, hires and who’s also playing basketball Volleyballmag.com.