After handing top-rated St. Ambrose its first loss of the season last week, the Grand View men's volleyball team moved up one spot this week to No. 5 in the NAIA Top 10 Poll announced today.

The Vikings (8-5, 1-3 MAMVIC West) have two pivotal conference matches coming up this week. The men travel to No. 3 Missouri Baptist Friday night and take on Hannibal-LaGrange Saturday afternoon before returning home on Thursday, March 1, against Graceland in league play at 7 p.m.

Just a month into its first season, the already nationally-ranked Viking men's volleyball team pulled off its biggest feat yet – an upset of the No. 1 team the nation, St. Ambrose.

The Fighting Bees came into tonight's match with a perfect 14-0 record. No. 6 Grand View was all business from the get-go, jumping out to an early 9-3 lead in game one. The Vikings held the lead until SAU tied it up at 24-all. The Bees won the final two points on a kill and a GV hitting error to win game one 26-24.

The Vikings remained composed throughout game two. The two teams traded point for point the entire match with neither team leading by more than two points until GV won the final three points of the match to win 25-22.

Watch tonight's men's volleyball match between No. 6 Grand View and No. 1 St. Ambrose. Click here for live stream.

The Viking men's volleyball team dropped one spot to No. 6 in this week's NAIA Men's Volleyball Top 10 Poll released on Monday. GV went 1-2 last week  with losses to two other top 10 opponents in No. 2 Park and then No. 6 Missouri Valley. The Vikings picked up the win over Clarke.

GV (7-5) next hosts top-ranked St. Ambrose in non-conference action on Wednesday in Des Moines. Match time is 7 p.m.

 

Lawrence Villafania's 22 kills led the No. 5 Grand View men's volleyball team to win over MAMVIC East Division opponent Clarke on Saturday afternoon in Des Moines.

The Vikings defeated the Crusaders in four sets (25-22, 22-25, 25-25, 25-21) to improve to 7-5 overall.

Also contributing to the GV offensive attack were V.J. Gonzalez and Nikola Vukicevic with 10 kills apiece. Trevor Sullivan added nine kills and two solo blocks. Kyle Hanagami tallied 40 assists.

The Vikings finished with 57 team kills, hitting .240 for the night, and 61 team digs led by Hanagami (13).

The men are back at home on Wednesday against St. Ambrose. Match time is 7 p.m.