While the coaches continue to lean heavily toward MPSF champions Long Beach state as the best team in men’s college volleyball, the BYU Cougars continue to steal the hearts (motherboards?) of the computerized polls in the latest RPI rankings.
BYU holds stead at #1 for the second-straight week, and in fact very little happened to change the computer’s opinion of the top teams in the country as the post-season rapidly approaches.
The top 5 in the latest RPI rankings all remained unchanged. The first change came in the form of the MIVA’s second-best team, Lewis University, jumping UCLA for the #6 spot after beating Ball State and Fort Wayne last week. The human voters still favor a late-surging UCLA.
The computers continue to believe that Penn State is largely underrated by the coaches, placing the top team in the EIVA at 8th as compared to 13th from the voters. Pepperdine, meanwhile, is given too much credit according to the computers – who slotted the Waves down to 13th in the latest RPI rankings, as compared to 8th where the coaches have them. The coaches’ voting is proablyinfluenced by Pepperdine being a rung higher in the MPSF standings than USC, and thus needing to have the same relative order in national polling.
Full April 9th RPI Rankings are below:
| RANK | SCHOOL | CONFERENCE | RECORD | ROAD | NEUTRAL | HOME | NON DIV I | Last week | AVCA |
| 1 | BYU | Mountain Pacific | 23-3 | 10-1 | 0-0 | 13-2 | 0-0 | 1 | 3 |
| 2 | Ohio St. | MIVA | 27-2 | 11-1-2017 | 0-0 | 16-1 | 0-0 | 2 | 2 |
| 3 | Long Beach St. | Mountain Pacific | 24-3 | 7-3 | 4-0 | 13-0 | 0-0 | 3 | 1 |
| 4 | Hawaii | Mountain Pacific | 24-4 | 7-4-2017 | 0-0 | 15-0 | 2-0 | 4 | 4 |
| 5 | UC Irvine | Mountain Pacific | 19-6 | 10-3-2017 | 1-0 | 8-3-2017 | 0-0 | 5 | 5 |
| 6 | Lewis | MIVA | 22-6 | 10-4-2017 | 0-0 | 12-2 | 0-0 | 7 | 7 |
| 7 | UCLA | Mountain Pacific | 17-9 | 6-5-2017 | 1-0 | 10-4-2017 | 0-0 | 6 | 6 |
| 8 | Penn St. | EIVA | 17-10 | 6-6-2017 | 1-1 | 10-3 | 0-0 | 8 | 13 |
| 9 | Stanford | Mountain Pacific | 13-12 | 4-6-2017 | 4-0 | 5-6-2017 | 0-0 | 10 | 9 |
| 10 | Loyola Chicago | MIVA | 16-11 | 4-6-2017 | 1-0 | 11-5-2017 | 0-0 | 9 | 12 |
| 11 | Ball St. | MIVA | 18-9 | 5-5-2017 | 3-1 | 10-3-2017 | 0-0 | 13 | 11 |
| 12 | Southern California | Mountain Pacific | 14-13 | 4-8-2017 | 0-1 | 10-4-2017 | 0-0 | 11 | 10 |
| 13 | Pepperdine | Mountain Pacific | 10-11 | 5-6-2017 | 0-0 | 5-5 | 0-0 | 12 | 8 |
| 14 | Grand Canyon | MIVA | 17-10 | 8-6-2017 | 0-0 | 7-4 | 2-0 | 14 | 14 |
| 15 | Barton | Conference Carolinas | 19-5 | 8-4 | 0-1 | 10-0 | 1-0 | 17 | |
| 16 | Saint Francis (PA) | EIVA | 13-14 | 6-7-2017 | 2-2 | 5-5-2017 | 0-0 | 16 | |
| 17 | George Mason | EIVA | 13-12 | 4-8-2017 | 1-0 | 8-4 | 0-0 | 15 | |
| 18 | King (TN) | Conference Carolinas | 26-3 | 10-2-2017 | 0-0 | 12-1-2017 | 4-0 | 18 | |
| 19 | UC Santa Barbara | Mountain Pacific | 10-16 | 1-9-2017 | 1-0 | 8-7-2017 | 0-0 | 21 | |
| 20 | CSUN | Mountain Pacific | 12-15 | 2-7-2017 | 3-2 | 4-6-2017 | 3-0 | 19 | 15 |
| 21 | Princeton | EIVA | 11-12 | 3-10-2017 | 1-1 | 7-1-2017 | 0-0 | 23 | |
| 22 | NJIT | EIVA | 13-10 | 5-9-2017 | 0-0 | 5-1-2017 | 3-0 | 22 | |
| 23 | McKendree | MIVA | 11-18 | 5-11-2017 | 1-2 | 5-5-2017 | 0-0 | 25 | |
| 24 | Sacred Heart | EIVA | 13-10 | 1-7-2017 | 0-0 | 12-3-2017 | 0-0 | 27 | |
| 25 | Mount Olive | Conference Carolinas | 16-8 | 8-4-2017 | 0-2 | 7-2 | 1-0 | 26 | |
| 26 | UC San Diego | Mountain Pacific | 7-19 | 2-10-2017 | 0-1 | 4-8-2017 | 1-0 | 20 | |
| 27 | Harvard | EIVA | 9-12 | 3-7 | 0-0 | 6-5 | 0-0 | 24 | |
| 28 | Concordia (CA) | Independent | 18-12 | 2-7-2017 | 2-1 | 2-4 | 12-0 | 28 | |
| 29 | Limestone | Conference Carolinas | 11-10 | 4-6-2017 | 0-0 | 7-3-2017 | 0-1 | 30 | |
| 30 | Lindenwood (MO) | MIVA | 5-18 | 2-10-2017 | 0-2 | 3-5-2017 | 0-1 | 31 | |
| 31 | California Baptist | Mountain Pacific | 7-21 | 2-12-2017 | 1-0 | 4-9-2017 | 0-0 | 29 | |
| 32 | Quincy | MIVA | 7-21 | 2-7-2017 | 1-3 | 2-8 | 2-3 | 32 | |
| 33 | Fort Wayne | MIVA | 5-23 | 2-12-2017 | 0-2 | 3-8-2017 | 0-1 | 33 | |
| 34 | Coker | Independent | 14-10 | 5-6 | 0-0 | 6-4-2017 | 3-0 | 34 | |
| 35 | Belmont Abbey | Conference Carolinas | 9-16 | 3-7-2017 | 0-1 | 6-8-2017 | 0-0 | 37 | |
| 36 | Charleston (WV) | EIVA | 12-15 | 5-6-2017 | 0-0 | 1-9-2017 | 6-0 | 35 | |
| 37 | Lees-McRae | Conference Carolinas | 10-15 | 4-7 | 0-2 | 6-6-2017 | 0-0 | 39 | |
| 38 | North Greenville | Conference Carolinas | 8-17 | 3-10-2017 | 0-0 | 5-7-2017 | 0-0 | 36 | |
| 39 | Alderson Broaddus | Independent | 6-16 | 3-8-2017 | 1-0 | 1-6-2017 | 1-2 | 40 | |
| 40 | Erskine | Conference Carolinas | 4-20 | 1-10-2017 | 0-3 | 3-7-2017 | 0-0 | 38 | |
| 41 | Emmanuel (GA) | Conference Carolinas | 7-19 | 2-11 | 0-0 | 4-7-2017 | 1-1 | 42 | |
| 42 | Lincoln Memorial | Independent | 10-17 | 0-8 | 0-1 | 4-5-2017 | 6-3 | 41 | |
| 43 | Pfeiffer | Conference Carolinas | 0-19 | 0-9 | 0-0 | 0-9 | 0-1 | 43 |
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