Coastal Carolina plays host to UNC Wilmington on Tuesday and, sadly, it will be without coach Jozef Forman.
Just nine matches into his 12th year at the school in Conway, South Carolina, Forman resigned Monday, saying he is needed in his native Hungary to help his elderly parents.
The announcement came on a day with only one NCAA Division I women’s volleyball match, when No. 6 Texas swept Rice.
Tuesday’s schedule features a showcase match when No. 4 Nebraska visits No. 5 Stanford. NCAA.com has a preview of/research on the match, which is on ESPN at 9 Eastern.
Other Tuesday matches as the pre-conference season winds down this week include No. 3 Florida at Florida State, No. 20 Kansas home for Oral Roberts, Illinois at Bradley, Western Kentucky at Austin Peay, Boston College home for Rhode Island, NC State home for Charlotte and San Jose State at Saint Mary’s.
Want to watch? We have the conference-by-conference schedule with viewing links for any match that is being shown in our VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings.
AVCA TOP 25: The top five teams — Wisconsin, Louisville, Florida, Nebraska and Stanford — stayed the same.
Texas moved up a spot to No. 6, trading places with Oregon.
Pittsburgh moved up one spot to No. 8, followed by Minnesota and Georgia Tech.
Washington State continues to inch up, jumping two more spots to No. 11. The biggest drop was by Ohio State, four spots to No. 19. Iowa State moved in at No. 23 and Dayton is in at No. 25, ranked for the first time since 2016.
Hawai’i and Marquette dropped out.
Click here for the complete AVCA Division I Women’s Volleyball Poll.
Rice’s Izzy Rawlings sets at Texas/Rice photo
TEXAS SWEEPS RICE: The Longhorns of the Big 12 improved to 4-2 with a 25-16, 25-21, 25-15 win over Rice of the American Athletic (4-4).
Madisen Skinner led with 19 kills and had four errors in 36 attacks to hit .417. She added a block and two digs. Her teammates combined for 25 kills, seven by Bella Bergmark in nine errorless attacks. She had four blocks. Asjia O’Neal had four kills, three aces, four blocks and four digs. Ella Swindle had four kills, 33 assists, two aces, three blocks and five digs. Her team hit .283.
Danyele Courtley had 10 kills for Rice to go with two blocks and four digs. Cindy Tchouangwa had nine kills, a block and three digs. Rice hit .140.
FORMAN LEAVES CHANTICLEERS: In a Coastal Carolina news release, Jozef Foman said, Forman said:
“I went back to Hungary to help my elderly parents during a family medical emergency situation after the first week of preseason practice. I realized during that time that they needed my constant support.
“After my 11 wonderful and championship years here, it was one of the most difficult decisions in my life to leave Coastal. However, after thinking about the best interests of the players, team, and University, and being responsible for our program, I am stepping down and opening the opportunity for the administration to move forward with new leadership to support Chanticleer volleyball.”
We assume that associate head coach Ronaldo Pacheco will take over as interim head coach.
Forman had a record of 221-93 in his first 11 seasons coaching the Chanticleers, which included trip to the NCAA Tournament from 2014-2017. This season, Coastal Carolina is 4-5, which includes a victory over TCU and a five-set loss to Maryland.
Foreman’s resume includes being an assistant at Baylor and Mississippi State before becoming the head coach at New Orleans from 2007-09. He was an assistant at Auburn before taking over at Coastal Carolina in 2012.”
We are saddened that Coach Forman has to depart CCU and thank him for elevating the status of our volleyball program during his tenure,” Matt Hogue, CCU’s vice president for intercollegiate athletics, said in a news release. “We will certainly miss his leadership and passion for his student-athletes and the pursuit of championships. However, we understand that family comes first, and our thoughts and support are with Jozsef and his family. We have full confidence in our staff to successfully coach and complete the season now underway.”
13 UNBEATENS REMAIN: Not surprisingly, that includes the top four ranked teams, 7-0 Wisconsin, 8-0 Louisville, 7-0 Florida and 7-0 Nebraska. Only one other ranked team, No. 10 Georgia Tech at 7-0, is undefeated.
Also unbeaten are Arizona State (9-0), Cal (9-0), Virginia Tech (9-0), Wyoming (9-0), Eastern Illinois (9-0), App State (9-0), The Citadel (9-0) and Brown (7-0).
AVCA POW: Morgahn Fingall, the Tennessee graduate-student right side who was the SEC player of the week, is the AVCA national player of the week. She had 40 kills, averaging 5.71/set and hit .421 in wins over Loyola Chicago and Marquette. She also had 10 digs, seven blocks, two aces and an assist.
Worth noting is Maggie Li, the freshman outside for Cal who is from Beijing. She is the Pac-12 freshman for the third week in a row. Li had 61 kills and 50 digs in four victories to go with six aces and six blocks.
