D3VbWest Top 25 (10/14/2024)

We are into the dog days of rankings where little changes as teams are bunkered down in conference play. Yes, the UAA will mess us up because they are so deep but that’s about it.

Note – I don’t normally publish this, but there are actually 1,260 live voters that create these rankings. Juniata received 1,259 first place votes. MIT received the other first place vote.

Note – The MIT voter has been shot. We have started a nationwide search for a new voter.

Here is what we’ve got this week:

My rank, (my previous rank, AVCA rank), record; key results; Points/Set.1 (1, 1) Juniata 17-0, W: Susquehanna, Wash & Lee; 18.8. 2 (2, 4) MIT 17-0, W: None; 18.02. 3 (3, 3) Johns Hopkins 18-2, W: Gettysburg, Stockton; 18.17. 4 (4, 6) Emory 16-1, W: CMU, Chicago; 17.89.  5 (6, 7) UW-Oshkosh 19-4, W: None; 17.49. 6 (5, 2) Hope 16-2, W: Swarthmore; 18.02. 7 (7, 5) UW-Whitewater 16-2, W: North Park; 18.48.  8 (8, 10) Millikin 22-3, W: Calvin, Swarthmore; 17.56.   9 (9, 12) Marietta 14-0, W: Otterbein; 17.27.  10 (13, 8) WashU 18-4, W: NYU; 17.67.  11 (10, 9) East Texas Baptist 17-1, W: None; 18.08. 12 (14, 24) Colby 16-1, W: Middlebury; 17.00. 13 (16, 15) La Verne 14-3, W: CMS; 17.88. 14 (11, 14) Case Western Reserve 17-3, W: None L: NYU; 15.42. 15 (15, 19) UW-Platteville 19-3, W: None; N/A. 16 (18, NR) Centre 14-4, W: None; 15.96.  17 (19, 11) Claremont-M-S 13-4, W: None L: La Verne; 17.87. 18 (20, 18) Chicago 18-4, W: None L: Emory; 17.24. 19 (21, 17) Washington & Lee 19-1, W: Bridgewater, Susquehanna L: Juniata; 17.03. 20 (22, 20) Ithaca 14-3, W: None; 17.90. 21 (17, 16) Southwestern 15-2, W: None L: Colorado Col; 16.88. 22 (23, 22) Trinity 13-6, W: None; 17.03. 23 (12, 13) Northwestern 12-6, W: None L: UW-Eau Claire; 15.83. 24 (24, NR) William Smith 14-2, W: None; 16.97. 25 (25, NR) Gettysburg 16-2, W: None L: Johns Hopkins; 16.72.

Dropped:  None

No adds and no drops. I had a number of teams listed to add but I really didn’t want to drop anyone so no room in the inn, as they say.

The team I came closest to dropping was Northwestern. Abby Glanzer hasn’t played for 2 weeks and they are not the same team without her. I’ve moved them down significantly as I thought I was going to bring in UW-Eau Claire (but no room). I just wanted to give the team another week to see if she appears. I assume an injury so let’s hope everything is well there.

Another team I struggled with was Southwestern. I am way too close to them, I know, so it’s hard to correctly evaluate them. I’ve seen them play amazing volleyball this season but not in the last 2 weeks. They also have injuries they are working through. I needed to move them down but they still have that win over Trinity.

Alright, let’s go down the list.

Juniata is the unquestioned number one this year. Nice win over W&L. They may have broken out into a sweat in that match. Only 3 set losses this year, so far. No question with MIT number 2. I mean I just like the Top 10 so no need to go through each team and say the same thing. I did take Oshkosh out of timeout from last week and move them ahead of Hope (who they have beaten). Other than that, the only change was moving WashU into the Top 10 bumping out ETBU. WashU was being held up by Northwestern a bit but otherwise this is where they belong.

ETBU starts off the next 10 and it’s a good spot for them. Colby could be better than this or worse. La Verne had a nice win over CMS so they move up a bit. They looked good, which always messes up my analytical look at things. CWRU took a loss to NYU so they drop a few spots. I was looking to bring NYU back in the rankings, but (you know) no room in the inn.

I still have Centre in the rankings and in a good position. Maybe they should be lower but just not sure about these teams in the teens and beyond. CMS is right behind due to their head-to-head loss to Centre. They actually came up a couple of spots with their loss to La Verne. Why? No clue. That’s just where they were when I got done. Maybe Chicago and W&L could have been moved ahead of Centre and as I write this, I’m thinking about it. Since, I didn’t backspace all of that, I left them where they were. Lots of thought goes into this, you know.

Ithaca has a win over Trinity. The two SCAC teams come next and then Northwestern. William Smith and Gettysburg don’t move because they really didn’t do anything to warrant it. I still think both are deserving of being ranked.

Like I said, I had a list of teams to consider bringing in but (all together) no room in the inn. If I had the motivation, maybe I clean the slate and start over and see what happens.