NECVA POLLS HOME
JERSEY CITY, NJ…Baruch College is the No. 1 ranked team in the North East Collegiate Volleyball Association Top 10 poll for the third consecutive week and for the second straight week, received every #1 vote. The unanimous conference leader has now won 14 consecutive matches and the Bearcats, sporting a 22-2 record, downed Philadelphia Biblical University, Sacred Heart University and Newbury College last week, sweeping PBU and Newbury. Baruch received all 100 possible points.
Rivier College (19-4), winners of six of its last seven, is No. 2 in the poll after posting 3-0 wins over Newbury and Lasell College. The Raiders, up from third last week, received 86 points.
Vassar College (13-6), after being .500 earlier in the season, has won seven in a row and climbed into a tie for third place in the poll with 70 points. The Brewers downed Bard College and Ramapo College last week to gain 11 points in the poll. Philadelphia Biblical (14-4) is now tied for third with Vassar. The Crimson Eagles (14-4) were tied for fifth last week before posting wins over Stevenson University, Medaille College and Newbury, with only a road loss at Baruch.
Endicott College (16-4) has won 10 straight matches. However the Gulls, twice winners last week, had nowhere to move with the top four teams also winning important matches. Endicott is fifth again this week, and received 58 points for the second straight week.
Medaille College (14-7) had the most movement in the poll, sliding from second to sixth. The Mavericks lost 3-1 matches to Newbury, PBU and Sacred Heart at the Baruch Quad, and dropped from 88 to 54 points.
MIT is seventh again this week, although the Engineers (17-6), winners of 10-of-12 overall, did gain 14 points, up to 40 overall, after a 3-2 win against Emmanuel College. Ramapo College (12-6) is eighth again this week. The Roadrunners had losses to quality opponents last week—Vassar and Sacred Heart.
Newbury (14-7) and SUNY New Paltz (10-8), which received votes last week, climbed into the Top 10—at ninth and 10th, respectively. The Nighthawks lost to Baruch and PBU but downed Medaille; New Paltz was idle.
Dropping out of the poll were both 2009 conference finalists, Stevens Institute of Technology and Nazareth College, each of whom graduated a majority of their starting lineups from last season. Stevens was eighth last week. The Ducks (9-8) are not in the Top 10 for the first time in the history of the rankings. Meanwhile, Nazareth is not ranked for the first time since April 4, 2005. However, Stevens, Nazareth and Emmanuel all received votes.
The NECVA will release its weekly Top 10 Poll each Tuesday, leading up to the 2010 NECVA championship, April 9-11, in Hyannis, Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
|
RK
|
AVCA
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TEAM (#1 VOTES)
|
RECORD
|
TOTAL PTS
|
LAST WEEK
|
LAST WEEK POINTS
|
|
1
|
#4
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Baruch College (10)
|
22-2
|
100
|
1
|
100
|
|
2
|
#6
|
Rivier College
|
19-4
|
86
|
3
|
70
|
|
3t
|
#9
|
Vassar College
|
13-6
|
70
|
4
|
59
|
|
3t
|
#7
|
Philadelphia Biblical
|
14-4
|
70
|
5t
|
58
|
|
5
|
#10t
|
Endicott College
|
16-4
|
58
|
5t
|
58
|
|
6
|
#8
|
Medaille College
|
14-7
|
54
|
2
|
88
|
|
7
|
RV
|
MIT
|
17-6
|
40
|
7
|
26
|
|
8
|
#13t
|
Ramapo College
|
12-6
|
22
|
8t
|
25
|
|
9
|
RV
|
Newbury College
|
14-7
|
19
|
RV
|
12
|
|
10
|
#13t
|
SUNY New Paltz
|
10-8
|
13
|
RV
|
11
|
Dropped Out: #8t Stevens Institute of Technology, #10 Nazareth College.
Also Receiving Votes: Stevens Institute of Technology (9-8), 11; Nazareth College (8-8), 4; Emmanuel College (15-7), 3
Note: Points represent total out of 10. A team voted No. 1 on a ballot receives 10 points, No. 2 receives 9 points, No. 3 receives 8 points, and so forth.
ABOUT THE NECVA:
The North East Collegiate Volleyball Association, the largest known single-sport conference in the United States, is in its 16th year of competition during the 2010 season as a leading Division III men’s volleyball conference. Founded in 1995 as the Metro Conference, it became known as the NECVA in 1998. Currently comprised of 44 colleges and universities stretching from New Hampshire to Virginia, Albertus Magnus College, Daniel Webster College, Emerson College and St. Joseph’s College (Brooklyn) joined the conference for the 2009 campaign. New teams in 2010 include Regis College and Sage Colleges.
The league is divided into five smaller divisions: CUNY (8), GNAC (7), Metro (10), New England (9), and Western (9) with one associate member. Each week, schools from the five divisions nominate athletes and then vote for the divisional Player and Rookie of the Week awards. The conference sports information office then selects the NECVA Player and Rookie honors from each of these five divisional winners.
The NECVA holds an annual 16-team conference tournament each April with the top two schools in each division and six at-large selections earning berths. The NECVA champion receives one of four automatic bids to the Molten Division III Final Four in April.
2010 POLL VOTERS:
Tim Byram, Endicott College (NE Division); Paul Dill, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (NE Division); Patrick Dorywalski, Stevens Institute of Technology (Metro Division); Bill Gorman, Wentworth Institute of Technology (NE Division); Keith Koch, Medaille College (Western Division); Craig Kolek, Rivier College (GNAC Division); John Neves; Baruch College (CUNYAC Division); Ira Thor, NECVA Assistant Commissioner for Athletic Communications/New Jersey City University; Don Vanderbeck, Ramapo College (At-large voter); Cal Wickens, Nazareth College (Western Division); Chris Wright, Emmanuel College (GNAC Division).