From FIVB to Norceca to NCAA, firsts and upsets were the norm across the board this past week in the volleyball world.

Angie Akers, playing with Tyra Turner, won her first FIVB medal in Sanya, China.

In the same event, top-seeded AVP stars Jen Kessy and April Ross suffered a stunning finals loss--an outcome producing a first for Switzerland.

In an NCAA upset, UCLA defeated Stanford for the first time since 2000.

Here are the hottest happenings from the volleyball world this past week:

FIVB

Simone Kuhn and Nadine Zumkehr became the first female team from Switzerland to win an “open” beach volleyball tournament gold medal. Ranked 15th, Kuhn and Zumkehr toppled reigning world champions Kessy and Ross in a 17-21, 22-20, 15-13 final.

In the women’s bronze medal match, fortunes reversed for the underdogs as No. 3 seed Angie Akers and Tyra Turner scored a 21-15, 21-15 win over Italian qualifiers Greta Cicolari and Marta Menegatti.

While two American women’s teams earned medals in Sanya, the men’s draw produced much different results. Two new partnerships, Matt Fuerbringer/John Mayer and Curtis Jackson/Mike Morrison, joined season-long partners Matt Olson/Kevin Wong and Brad Keenan/Nick Lucena, but all four teams failed to finish in the top ten in the final men’s FIVB event of 2009.

First place went to Reinder Nummerdor and Richard Schuil of the Netherlands. They rebounded from a second-round defeat to win their last seven matches, including a victory over Fuerbringer/Mayer. Nummerdor and Schuil defeated China’s Penggen Wu and Linyin Xu in the final, 21-13, 21-14, to capture the gold medal.

For the bronze medal, Spain’s athletic duo of Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gavira scored a 17-21, 21-12, 15-10 victory over the surprise 16th-seeded Russian team of Yury Bogatov and Serguei Prokopiev.

The FIVB season comes to a close this weekend with a women’s-only event in Phuket, Thailand, where last season Kessy and Ross defeated Nicole Branagh and Turner in a three-game gold medal match.

Norceca

Norceca (North, Central America and Caribbean Volleyball Confederation) put on its final beach volleyball tournament of the year last weekend in Nicaragua, where this time Puerto Rico’s women pulled off the upset. Sixth-seeded Yarleen Santiago and Dariam Acevedo played a near-perfect tournament and in the final match defeated Costa Rica’s Nathalia Alfaro and Ingrid Morales, 22-20, 21-19.

In the men’s final, Mexico’s Aldo Miramontes and Juan Virgen won their fourth title of 2009 with a 21-15, 18-21, 15-10 win over Jamaica’s Mark Lewis and Danny Wilson.

NCAA

No. 11 UCLA won a five-game Halloween thriller over fourth-ranked Stanford at Maples Pavilion in Palo Alto, snapping an 18-match losing streak to the Cardinal. The win gave head coach Andy Banachowski his 1,100th career victory. Game scores were 25-18, 34-32, 19-25, 21-25, 15-11. The Bruins face rival USC at the Galen Center this Friday at 7 p.m.

Ohio State also came home with a huge win Saturday night by sweeping 7th-ranked Minnesota, 25-20, 25-19, 25-15, Saturday night.

For the rest of the top ten, victories came as expected:

No. 1 Penn State secured a 25-14, 25-16, 25-17 sweep over No. 7 Minnesota on Friday night for its 88th consecutive win. The Nittany Lions are now tied for fourth place for Division I NCAA winning streaks. John Wooden’s UCLA basketball teams won 88 straight games from 1971-1974. Miami men's tennis notched a record 137 straight victories from 1957-1964.

2nd-ranked Texas swept 8th-ranked Nebraska, 25-22, 26-24, 25-19.

The 3rd-ranked Rainbow Wahine of Hawaii cruised past Nevada, 25-16, 25-20, 25-17, in Reno, Nev.

The 5th-ranked Washington Huskies are now alone in first place in the Pac-10 standings following their 25-23, 28-26, 25-18 victory over Arizona State. Stanford’s loss dropped the Cardinal into a tie with UCLA for second.

No. 6 Illinois continued its hot streak on Halloween night, rattling off its ninth consecutive win with a straight-sets victory (25-21, 25-19, 25-14) over Purdue.

No. 9 Iowa State used 11 kills from Rachel Hockaday to defeat Colorado, 25-21, 25-14, 25-16, Saturday afternoon at the Coors Event Center. Iowa State is riding a school-record 10-match winning streak.

Capping off the top 10, the 10th-ranked Florida Gators defeated Mississippi State in a hard-fought match, 25-23, 27-25, 25-22.

International Beach Developments

With NCAA-sanctioned collegiate sand volleyball on the immediate horizon, beach training facilities and coaching will soon be a top priority. When searching for a model to emulate, Western Australia’s brand new Perth Beach Volleyball School (PBVS) provides a strong example.

Created by Adrian Lee, Marty Suan and Rory Reed, one aspect of PBVS targets Western Australia’s most talented beach volleyball players in an effort to cultivate their talent and propel them to the next level of elite athletics. In a similar way, student-athletes will be pursued and educated on American sand once scholarships nationwide are up for grabs.

For more information on Perth Beach Volleyball School, visit pbvs.com.au.