D3VbWest Top 25 (10/15/18)

Here are the rankings for the seventh week. The Top 25 is my ranking for the nation. I will be doing a West Region rankings once the NCAA updates their SOS calculations (hopefully tomorrow).

D3VBWest Top 25 (10/15/18)

My rank, (my Week 6 rank, AVCA rank), record, key results last week1 (1, 1). Calvin 19-1 W: Ohio Northern; L: Thomas More. 2 (2, 4). Wittenberg 16-2 W: None. 3 (3, 6). Juniata 16-3 W: None. 4 (8, 7). Thomas More 22-2 W: Calvin; L: Hope. 5 (6, 3). Johnson & Wales (RI) 22-1 W: None. 6 (14, 12). Emory 17-5 W: Chicago, WUSTL; L: Berry. 7 (4, 8). Chicago 24-3 W: Carnegie Mellon; L: Emory. 8 (18, 16). Hope 20-4 W: Thomas More, Ohio Northern. 9 (19, 20). Berry 17-2 W: Emory. 10 (5, 9). Washington (Mo.) 18-5 W: Carnegie Mellon; L: Emory. 11 (7, 2). Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 18-3 W: None; L: Cal Lutheran. 12 (9, 17). UT-Tyler 19-1 W: Mary Hardin-Baylor. 13 (10, 13). Illinois Wesleyan 15-5 W: None. 14 (11, 10) Trinity 18-4 W: None. 15 (12, 5). Colorado College 23-2 W: None. 16 (13, 15). UW-Eau Claire 20-2 W: None. 17 (15, 11). Gustavus Adolphus 21-2 W: St. Thomas. 18 (20, 24). Mary Hardin-Baylor 19-2 W: None; L: UT-Tyler. 19 (21, NR). Carnegie Mellon 16-7 W: None; L: WUSTL, Chicago. 20 (23, 23). Christopher Newport 18-3 W: None. 21 (24, 22). UW-Whitewater 19-4 W: None; L: G. Adolphus. 22 (16, 14). Pacific Lutheran 15-3 W: None; L: Pacific. 23 (NR, NR). Saint Benedict 20-5 W: None. 24 (25, NR). St. Thomas 18-7 W: None; L: Gustavus Adolphus. 25 (NR, NR). Bowdoin 18-1 W: None. Dropped out: Ohio Northern [17] and Concordia (Wis) [22].

Other teams under consideration…I brought two teams in and really didn’t have any others that I gave serious consideration to after that.

I moved Saint Benedict and Bowdoin into the rankings. Saint Benedict has a questionable loss on their resume but it’s hard to have St. Thomas on there and not the Bennies. I have no clue on Bowdoin or really any of the New England teams other than JWU. They are beating the teams on their schedule and for that they get rewarded.

Lots of shuffling this week at the top which pushed some teams down that probably didn’t deserve to drop. Emory not only won their UAA matches this weekend but they swept them all. Of course, they dropped a 4-set match at Berry earlier in the week, which kind of caused the shuffling.

I really like the Top 17 teams as a group and it’s hard to order them. UT-Tyler probably stands out as a question to some but they do have the IWU win from the first match of the year. They also played CMS to 5-sets in their only loss so where they don’t have a lot of quality wins; it’s hard to move them lower.

Calvin remains at the top despite their first loss. There is just too much good on their resume to drop them at this time. Despite their loss to Hope, Thomas More proved they can beat anyone in the country.

I still have Hope and Berry stuck at the hip but their two impressive wins moved them both up 10 spots this week in my rankings.

Regional rankings come out Wednesday. I hope to have my West Region RAC ranking prediction out tomorrow.