USC’s Jack Deuchar hits past the BYU block of Luke Benson, left, and Gavin Julien/Andy J. Gordon photo Jack Deuchar went off for a career-high 30 kills and sixth-seeded USC knocked third-seeded BYU out of the MPSF Championship. It sets up Thursday’s semifinals at USC pitting the Trojans vs. top-seeded UCLA and Wednesday’s two winners, Grand Canyon vs. Stanford. There was a huge upset in the EIVA semifinals as last-place and sixth-seeded Charleston not only beat third-seeded Princeton, but swept the Tigers. Charleston plays second-seeded George Mason on Thursday, while top-seeded Penn State get ..read more

As the Beach Pro Tour season has settled into its early-season stride, hitting consecutive stops in Brazil and another in Mexico, something still felt amiss. Namely, the best players. Almost all of them. Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth have played just four matches this season, Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes six. Miles Partain and Andy Benesh haven’t played at all. Their last appearance was in the Beach Pro Tour Finals in December. The spring months have been a test of patience thus far for those seeded directly into the main draws of Elite16s. Champagne problems, to say the least. These are the pai ..read more

Most Wednesdays during the club season, VolleyballMag recognizes a Dream Team of eight girls club volleyball players (15s to 18s age groups) who were standouts the weekend before. Players are selected EXCLUSIVELY from nominations. To nominate, coaches will need to get on our bulk email list (info at bottom). The team, most weeks, consists of the following: Setter or S/RS Setter, S/RS or RS OH OH MB MB Libero DS We include our eight-player Dream Team below, as well as others we considered, based exclusively upon nominations received. This week, we add a third middle because no DS nominations we ..read more

HERMOSA BEACH, California — In the spring of 2015, Mathias Berntsen and Anders Mol, cousins united by blood as much by a hereditary passion for the sport of volleyball, sat down and mapped out the future. There was much to discuss. The members of Norway’s senior national team at the time were aging out. After the 2016 Olympic Games, the future of their country’s success would fall on the shoulders of a handful of unproven teenagers, in a federation with little infrastructure and a resume not long with success. “We sat down and said we have to do something,” Berntsen said. “We didn’t have a sys ..read more

UCLA’s Merrick McHenry, hitting over the GCU triple block, is the MPSF player of the year/Andy J. Gordon photo Sixth-seeded King upset third-seeded Erskine and fourth-seeded Mount Olive came back to beat fifth-seeded Barton in five as  the Conference Carolinas Championship got underway Tuesday. More tournaments begin Wednesday, including the MPSF, EIVA and NEC as NCAA Division I-II men’s postseason play is in full swing in anticipation of Sunday’s eight-team bracket announcement. Conferences also handed out postseason honors and we’ve got the final AVCA regular-season top 20 in this repor ..read more

In a beautiful scene on Alki Beach, Boise State’s Anika Christensen, who is from nearby Gig Harbor, hits against Georgia State as teammate Aris Vetter looks on/Stephen Burns photo Another UCLA-USC showdown looms large Thursday as the NCAA beach volleyball regular season winds down. It comes on the heels of UCLA’s 3-2 victory over the Trojans this past Saturday in the loaded Center of Effort Challenge at Cal Poly. UCLA has won two of the three meetings this season between the top two teams in the AVCA Collegiate Beach Poll. Speaking of which: AVCA top 20, POW AVCA COLLEGIATE BEACH POLL: The top ..read more

Michigan Elite had a second straight great weekend This is “Dots,” VolleyballMag’s weekly look at 10 things in club volleyball, past or present, that interest me and hopefully will interest you. Look for Dots each week through Junior Nationals this summer. • In Louisville last weekend, the JVA’s annual showcase event, the JVA World Challenge, convened. More than 900 teams descended on the Derby City, a massive number for a tournament, smack dab in the middle of qualifier season, that was not a national qualifier. • Three of the Open divisions we cover were contested at the World Challenge, wit ..read more

The race for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games officially began in February 2023 in Doha, Qatar, with the Volleyball World Elite16. The 2024 season began the first week of March back in Doha, and the final event of the Olympic qualification cycle will be the Ostrava Elite16, which ends on June 9. We’ll be providing these updates for the Beach Volleyball Olympic rankings throughout the next two years. Within an hour or so after Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner won gold at the Guadalajara Challenge, the messages came pouring in: Did that seal the deal? Are Crabb and Brunner going to the Paris Olympics ..read more

The response/reaction to the 2024 VolleyballMag Girls Beach Fab 50 and Underclassmen to Watch lists has been impressive, particularly when it comes to the non-senior prospects list. Keep in mind, both the Fab 50 and Underclassmen to Watch lists were voted on by a panel of NCAA women’s beach coaches and prominent club beach coaches. VolleyballMag.com had no input on who made the lists other than to initiate the nomination/voting process and to assemble the final product that has generated so much interest. On a positive note, this year produced the largest voting panel in the history of this en ..read more

Savino Del Bene Scandicci celebrates its first Italy finals trip/Filippo Rubin, LVF photo This is our weekly update on USA women playing professional volleyball around the world. The women’s professional seasons are winding down around the world and, as leagues finish, many players are heading home to prepare for the busy summer ahead (Volleyball Nations League and the Olympics). Plenty of American are still deep into their playoffs, especially in Italy where six-time defending-champion Imoco Conegliano plays Scandicci in the finals: Switzerland NUC Viteos opened the Swiss League finals series ..read more