The NCAA News - News and Features

April 27, 1998

National Collegiate Men's Volleyball

Hawaii, Penn State, UCLA stand ready to claim men's volleyball title

Event: 1998 National Collegiate Men's Volleyball Championship.

Overview: Host Hawaii is on a hot streak after winning five consecutive matches against UCLA, Brigham Young and Stanford. The Rainbows are led by newcomer middle blocker Andre Breuer, who is among the nation's leaders in kills (5.80) and blocks (1.94) per game. Senior Naveh Milo is second in the nation in digs with 3.18 per game .... Perennial power Penn State has represented the East region the last seven years at the championship. The Nittany Lions are led by Tony Mazullo .... UCLA is ranked No. 1 with a 21-3 record after starting the season 16-0 .... Pepperdine is ranked third and is led by George Roumain, who continues to lead the country in kills per game at 7.54 ... Ohio State is looking to make its first trip to the tournament since 1993. The Buckeyes are ranked a school-high No. 2. Rene Esteves averages 4.22 kills and 1.47 blocks per game while hitting at .461. Sophomore Angel Aja sets a balanced attack for the Buckeyes, who lead the country with a .366 team hitting percentage.

Field: The championship field includes four teams -- one each from the West, Midwest and East regions and one selected at large.

Dates and site: The semifinals and championship match will be April 30 and May 2 in Honolulu.

Television coverage: The championship game and the first semifinal game will be shown live on ESPN2. The second semifinal game will be shown tape-delayed on ESPN2.

Information/results: The fax-on-demand telephone number is 770/399-3060 (passcode 1915); request numbers are 1673 for bracket/schedule, 5322 for semifinal results and 5323 for championship-match results. Game scores and pairings also will be available on the World Wide Web at www.ncaa.org. Championship results will be published in the May 11 issue of The NCAA News.