No. 5 Grand View became the first team in the country to defeat St. Ambrose this season.

PARKVILLE, Mo. –After spending the last six week’s in the No. 2 spot of the NAIA Men’s Volleyball Top 10 poll, Park University made the jump to No. 1 for the first time this season, announced on Monday afternoon by the national voting committee.

The Pirates have won four straight matches, including a four set victory at No. 3 Missouri Baptist last Wednesday night. Park is 9-2 overall and 4-0 in MAMVIC West action.

Park will face No. 4 ranked Missouri Valley College this Tuesday, Feb. 21 on the road at 7 p.m.

Falling out of the top spot for the first time this season is No. 2 St. Ambrose. The Fighting Bee’s are 15-1 on the year after suffering its first loss of the season last Wednesday at No. 6 Grand View in five sets (26-24, 22-25, 25-22, 24-26, 10-15).

SAU did take down No. 10 ranked Clarke University at home on Valentines Day in three sets to improve its MAMVIC East record to a perfect 7-0.

Despite the home loss to Park, Missouri Baptist stayed at No. 3 this week. The Spartans defeated No. 4 Missouri Valley at home on Thursday night in four sets to improve to 11-6 overall and 4-2 in the MAMVIC West.

Speaking of Missouri Valley, the Vikings stay at No. 4 this week, after its loss to MBU. But before that road loss, MVC had won 8 of its last nine matches and have a challenge this Tuesday against No. 1 Park at home.

With the huge win over No. 1 St. Ambrose last week, Grand View jumped a spot to No. 5 this week. The Vikings have two pivotal conference matches coming up, as they travel to No. 3 Missouri Baptist this Friday night and they take on Hannibal-LaGrange the next afternoon at 1 p.m

Grand View is 8-5 on the year, but has struggled in the MAMVIC West with its 1-3 conference record.

No. 6 ranked Graceland University fell back just one spot this week, after its three set victory over Hannibal-LaGrange on Saturday.

No. 7 Hope International, No. 8 Warner University, No. 9 Cardinal Stritch and No. 10 Clarke University all hold the same spots that they held a week ago.

Hope had a nice week of action, taking on NCAA Division I University of Southern California (USC), losing in three sets to the Trojans.

But Hope handled its business against Johnson and Wales, defeating the Wildcats twice last week and the Royals defeated the University of California-Santa Cruz in three sets.

Cardinal Stritch went 2-0 last week with a four set win over St. Xavier and a three set victory over Robert Morris. The Wolves now currently stand at 12-8 overall and a stellar 8-1 in MAMVIC East play.

No. 10 Clarke went 2-1 last week with a three set loss at No. 1 St. Ambrose on Valentines Day, but took down Lourdes University twice on Friday afternoon, the first match was over in three sets, while it took four sets to take down the Gray Wolves in match number two.

2012 NAIA Men’s Volleyball Top 10 Poll (Feb. 20, 2012)

1. Park (Parkville, Mo.)
2. St. Ambrose (Davenport, Iowa)
3. Missouri Baptist (St. Louis, Mo.)
4. Missouri Valley (Marshall, Mo.)
5. Grand View (Des Moines, Iowa)
6. Graceland (Lamoni, Iowa)
7. Hope International (Fullerton, Calif.)
8. Warner (Lake Wales, Fla.)
9. Cardinal Stritch (Milwaukee, Wisc.)
10. Clarke (Dubuque, Iowa)

-MAMVIC-

PARKVILLE, Mo. – Cardinal Stritch University’s Noah Mader, Missouri Baptist’s Robert Esser and Missouri Valley’s Steven Valdez earned NAIA Player, Setter and Libero of the Week honors respectively on Monday afternoon.

Mader averaged 3.14 kills per set in two victories for Cardinal Stritch last week. He also averaged a stellar 1.57 blocks per set and hit .562 in wins over St. Xavier and Robert Morris.

This is the second Setter of the Week award for Esser this season. The Gilbert, Ariz., native averaged 11.25 assists and 1.25 kills per set.

Esser led the Spartans to a 1-1 record last week with a win over No. 4 Missouri Valley and a four set loss to then No. 2 ranked Park University.

This is the first Libero of the Week award for Valdez. The 2011 MAMVIC West Libero of the Year recipient averaged 4.25 digs per set and on 19 passing attempt Valdez had no errors.

 

-MAMVIC-