2022 Tournament Preview (Week 2)

We turn our attention to the second week of the schedule and the tournaments where the Region X teams will head and the opponents they will face. Immediately, we see that the ASC (with their new schedule format implemented last year) has some issues as four teams will already start conference play. These teams are Sul Ross State, McMurry, Howard Payne and Hardin-Simmons. One of the first real articles I wrote on the website was “Why I hate the Northwest Conference” and it sounds more serious than it was intended. The gist of the article was that the NWC only plays the first two weeks of the year out-of-conference before bunkering down. It really doesn’t allow us a sense of how good they are and we don’t have a lot of data points when regional rankings come out. With the ASC moving to a home and away schedule when their conference went to 10 (and now 9) teams, a number of schools have taken things to an even worse extreme by playing only one weekend out-of-conference. I’m really to the point that programs that can’t give us two weeks of out-of-conference play should be excluded from at-large consideration come tournament time. Over in the SCIAC, both Caltech and Redlands will start up conference week two while Occidental appears to be not playing at all. That’s 7 teams I’m “hating” right now. Again, I understand the issues with geography and budgets. It just doesn’t mean; however, I have to be understanding and rational all of the time.

That means there are 30 Region X teams playing in tournaments week two (if you include UC Santa Cruz). Here’s where they will be.

Augsburg Invitational (Host Augsburg)

Augsburg, Gustavus Adolphus, Pacific Lutheran, UW-Eau Claire and UW-La Crosse

I very nice tournament PLU has found themselves in week two. We have the defending national champions along with another preseason ranked team of mine in Gustavus Adolphus. I mentioned last week that Augsburg had a 0.500 record but was still a very strong team although they are losing a bunch of statistics from graduation this season. La Crosse is the other team and they are always solid after coming off a 20-win 2021 campaign.

Colorado College Invitational (Host Colorado College)

Colorado College, Friends University and Illinois College

Ugh. Not the greatest coming into Colorado Springs for this tournament. These tournaments are so important for the Tigers to keep down their traveling expenses (one of the highest in the nation) but I’m not sure if they are worth it unless better teams can be brought in. Illinois was 11-15 last season and Friends is an NAIA school.

East/West Challenge (Host Emory)

Cal Lutheran, CMS, Emory, Johns Hopkins, Trinity, Tufts, UT-Dallas and WashU

One of the best tournaments all year and just a great concept that has been expanded to 8 teams this year. The core five are Cal Lutheran, CMS, Trinity, Emory and WashU. The other three are newcomers this season and it will be interesting to see if this is a permanent lineup or if they’ll be some flexibility moving forward. What this tournament offers is Strength of Schedule (SOS). Win or lose, you will strengthen your SOS to the point that it really doesn’t matter that much if you only get one win on the weekend. It’s so hard for the west teams to come away with a strong SOS, which is why this tournament is so important for them. I would love to see this concept used by other strong regions/conferences/teams. What if we pulled four strong Texas programs and matched them with four strong programs from another region and alternated travel each year? Scheduling becomes easier and you boost your SOS. As far as this tournament, I have three teams from my preseason rankings, including my #1 in CMS, but you’ll probably see 6 of these teams in the AVCA rankings, at least. It appears the 8 teams are split in groups of four so those teams will only play within their group. First group looks to be CMS, Emory, Trinity and Johns Hopkins. Second group is Cal Lutheran, Tufts, UT-Dallas and WashU.

First Responder’s Tournament (Host St Thomas)

Holy Patriot, Mary Hardin-Baylor, St Joseph (ME), Schreiner, Simpson, St Thomas and Whitman

Holy Patriot is a new university out of Beaumont playing in the NAIA. St Joseph (9-22) is out of Region I and Simpson (8-15) is out of Region IX. UMHB should have a relatively easy time of it for the second straight week although St Thomas will be a tough out. The rest of the teams should be pretty close in talent.

Hendrix Tournament (Host Hendrix)

ETBU, Hendrix, LaGrange and Lyon

Lyon is exploring DIII membership so their matches will not count in the standings. LaGrange only had 5 wins last season so this is really all about ETBU and Hendrix and that match should be a good one. What this tournament and some others on this list show is that we just have too many schools that want to host and too few that can travel.

Millsaps/Belhaven Invitational (Host Millsaps and Belhaven)

Belhaven, Centenary, Concordia, Dallas and Millsaps

I believe Concordia will dominate this competition but for the most part these teams are pretty even. Belhaven finished at the bottom of the ASC last season and will be moving conferences this season. Millsaps was a 10-win team last season.

Oregon Trail Classic (Host Pacific)

Austin College, George Fox, Lewis & Clark, Linfield, North Park, Pacific, UC Santa Cruz and Willamette

This tournament is hosted by one of the Oregon NWC schools each year as they try to bring teams in to reduce their travel budget. This year they were able to bring in three schools and each is pretty good. Both Austin and North Park were 20-win teams last year but UC Santa Cruz was probably the best of the three and was regional ranked in Region VI. Not a bad collection of teams although I’m sure they would have loved one more non-NWC team to be entered. I’d really like to see one of more of these Oregon schools challenge Whitworth and PLU for the title each year as I think it will only improve the success of this tournament. One (kind of) problem with this tournament is the formation of the Whittier Tournament. They both kind of compete for the same schools in a sense. The NWC would love for the SoCal teams to come up but the SoCal teams really want the Oregon schools to come down week two. Going back to the East/West Challenge concept, seems like something could be worked out here. What if, every year, everyone drives to UC Santa Cruz for a big NWC/SCIAC Tournament? UC Santa Cruz will promise to put air conditioning in their gym. Who says no?

Rhodes Classic (Host Rhodes)

Huntingdon, LeTourneau, Rhodes, Spalding, Westminster (MO) and Wilmington

I was about to write this article and I couldn’t find LeTourneau anywhere. Their coach was nice enough to clue me in and I felt stupid for not checking Rhodes’ schedule as the program typically heads out this direction week two. Speaking of conflicts earlier, Hendrix, Millsaps/Belhaven and Rhodes are all competing for teams this week, too. We do have a lot of conferences represented in this one as Huntingdon (15-16 last season) is out of the USA South, LETU (17-10) is out of the ASC, Rhodes (9-15) is out of the SAA, Spalding (11-13) and Westminster (14-16) are out of the SLIAC and Wilmington (4-24) is out of the OAC. Anyway, a lot of teams right around the middle and you have to feel that LETU would normally feel good about their chances in this one. They did have a big statistics loss number so this will be a great test for them as they get ready for conference.

Transy Invite (Host Transylvania)

Illinois College, Saint Benedict, TLU, Transylvania and Whitworth

Saint Benedict is coming off a poor year but returns pretty much everyone. Still, the best teams in this tournament will probably be Transy and Whitworth (both in my preseason Top 25). Illinois College was 11-15 last season so definitely a mix of talent on these teams. Another big opportunity for Whitworth if they are going to score reputation points nationally. TLU could also make some noise and shouldn’t be overlooked in this group of teams.

Wesleyan Tournament (Host Wesleyan)

Aurora, Roger Williams, Southwestern and Wesleyan

A small tournament but I have three teams out of my Top 25 in this one. Whomever comes out of this with three wins is going to pretty much secure an NCAA Tournament at-large berth (if needed). Wesleyan was a Regional Final team from last season while Aurora lost in the first round to CMS. Roger Williams is probably the team most don’t know much about. They were 11-11 last season but also had 8 seniors on the team.

Whittier Tournament (Host Whittier)

Chapman, La Verne, Pomona-Pitzer, Puget Sound and Whittier

We conclude with a tournament that didn’t fully make. Puget Sound is the only non-SCIAC team so they will play a full slate of matches but the SCIAC teams will come up short, unfortunately. As I mentioned in the Oregon Trail Classic write-up, we really need to get these two tournaments coordinated. Whittier is also hurt because they are squeezed between the PCC in week one and the Cal Lutheran Tournament in week three. These SCIAC teams are really good opponents for some out-of-region team if they can make the trip. Shame it didn’t happen this year.

As for my initial plans, I have a wedding to go to  this weekend. Congratulations to Andie Alford who played libero for the Southwestern Final 4 team. She unfortunately didn’t consult with me on the date of her wedding. My birthday is the following day so if the seas part and there is a flight open to Atlanta (East/West Challenge) then maybe I can swing it as my wife can’t complain about it. Odds are I’ll be streaming bits of each tournament at home.