MVB Ranked No. 1 in AVCA Pre-Season Poll

The UCLA men's volleyball team is ranked first in the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Division I-II Top-20 Pre-Season Poll released on Wednesday. Coach John Speraw's defending National Champion Bruins posted an overall record of 31-2 a year ago and captured the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation regular season and tournament championships. This is the fifth time in the last six years that the Bruins have been voted into the No. 1 or 2 slot in the AVCA pre-season poll (No. 2 in 2023, 2022, 2020, 2019; No. 9 in 2021). UCLA received all 23 first-place votes in today's poll.

Nine of the AVCA's Top 10-ranked teams appear on the Bruins' schedule for 2024 and will meet UCLA for a total of 15 matches this season. The ranked match ups include home contests against No. 15 UC Santa Barbara (Jan. 25), No. 4 UC Irvine (Feb. 2), No. 2 Long Beach State (Feb. 10), No. 13 Pepperdine (Feb. 14), No. 12 USC (Mar. 2), No. 5 Ohio State (Mar. 9), No. 8 Stanford (Mar. 29-30) and No. 7 Grand Canyon (Apr. 5-6).

On the road, the Bruins will square off against No. 16 Lewis (Jan. 11), No. 10 Loyola-Chicago (Jan. 13), No. 4 UC Irvine (Jan. 31), No. 2 Long Beach State (Feb. 9), No. 13 Pepperdine (Feb. 17), No. 9 BYU (Feb. 23-24) and No. 12 USC (Feb. 29). In addition, No. 5 Ohio State (Jan. 19) and No. 6 Penn State (Jan. 20 and Mar. 8) will challenge UCLA at neutral sites.

The Bruins are slated to open the 2024 season on Thursday, Jan. 4 in Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom in the HBCU SoCal Challenge against Fort Valley (Ga.) State and Morehouse College (Atlanta, Ga.) in a doubleheader slated to begin at 5 p.m.

The 2024 NCAA Men's Volleyball Championship is hosted this season by Long Beach State. USC will host the 2024 MPSF Tournament with the winner securing the league's automatic NCAA Tournament berth.

2024 AVCA Pre-Season Men's Volleyball Poll – Jan. 3
Rank        School (first-place votes)-Points
1. UCLA (23 first place votes) 460 points
2.            Long Beach State 429
3.            Hawai'i 414
4.            UC Irvine 374
5.            Ohio State 356
6.            Penn State 344
7.            Grand Canyon 325
8.            Stanford 283
9.            BYU 276
10.          Loyola-Chicago 250
11.          Ball State 220
12.          USC 188
13.          Pepperdine 175
14.          Princeton 159
15.          UC Santa Barbara 121
16.          Lewis 111
17.          CSUN 102
18.          Charleston 54
19.          Lincoln Memorial 44
20.          George Mason 32

Also receiving votes on at least two ballots: Purdue Fort Wayne 26, UC San Diego 25,
Long Island Brooklyn 7, NJIT 7, St. Francis (Pa.) 3

Recent Results

Upcoming Events

MVB Ranked No. 1 in AVCA Pre-Season Poll

University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics

MVB Ranked No. 1 in AVCA Pre-Season Poll

Related News

Related Videos