D3VbWest Top 25 (10/18/21)

Round seven for the rankings and this is the last one that really matters, not that they mattered in the first place. We’ll have the AVCA Top 25 tomorrow but then we’ll get the release of the regional rankings on Wednesday. The regional rankings are used for NCAA Tournament selection so those are the ones that really matter. This first week will be alphabetical, which is new due to a pilot program implemented by the NCAA. The main reason is that not all of the criteria is available for the first week and it can be misleading. Not a lo of upsets this week so I don’t anticipate a lot of movement but that’s why I do the heavy lifting! Remember that a key result is a win over a team in the Top 25 or one that I’m considering for my Top 25. All losses are key results.

My rank, (my Week 7 rank, AVCA rank), record, key results last week1 (1, 2) Claremont-M-S 18-0; W: None. 2 (2, 1) Johns Hopkins 22-0; W: None. 3 (3, 5) Wartburg 22-0; W: Loras. 4 (4, 3) Trinity 23-2; W: Southwestern. 5 (5, 4) Hope 18-2; W: None. 6 (6, 6) Calvin 20-2; W: None. 7 (8, 11) Juniata 20-1; W: Chris Newport. 6 (9, 14) Ohio Northern 17-1; W: None. 9 (10, 12) UW-Eau Claire 22-3; W: UW-La Crosse. 10 (11, 9) UW-Whitewater 20-1; W: UW-Stevens Point. 11 (12, 22) Otterbein 19-2; W: None. 12 (13, 7) Colorado College 22-3; W: UC Santa Cruz. 13 (14, 20) UC Santa Cruz 17-2; W: None; L: Colorado College. 14 (15, 16) Southwestern 19-2; W: None; L: Trinity. 15 (16, 17) Northwestern 20-3; W: None. 16 (7, 10) NYU 17-1; W: None; L: Carnegie Mellon. 17 (17, 8) Mary Hardin-Baylor 19-0; W: None. 18 (22, 13) Emory 17-3; W: Berry, Chicago. 19 (18, 15) Berry 17-2; W: None; L: Emory. 20 (21, 19) MIT 20-1; W: None. 21 (19, 21) UW-Stevens Point 20-5; W: None; L: UW-Whitewater. 22 (20, NR) Wittenberg 15-6; W: None. 23 (23, 25) Gustavus Adolphus 18-4; W: None. 24 (24, 23) Bethel 17-4; W: None. 25 (NR, 24) Tufts 15-4; W: Middlebury. Dropped Out: Chicago (25)

As I expected, not much movement this week. First 6 teams remain the same. NYU takes a big hit with their Carnegie Mellon loss and drops out of the Top 10. Their other wins are fine but nothing spectacular and their statistics are just okay. I had to decide about whether to drop them right before or after the cluster of Region X teams (and UCSC) and went with neither putting them at the back right before UMHB. The reason was that I couldn’t put them before Southwestern because they beat Carnegie Mellon in 4-sets. Thin margins between the teams once I get to 12.

Dropping out was Chicago who took losses (both sweeps) from Carthage and Emory. They now have 8 losses on the year but their schedule is a good one. Still, I decided to give the spot to Tufts who is playing better and has a win over Trinity. I thought about moving Tufts ahead of MIT but they play this week so that will be decided for me soon.

I still have CMS as my number one team based on their outstanding statistics. I have zero problems with people having JHU there because of their outstanding schedule that they’ve played. CMS gets Calvin, Hope and Ohio Northern on the road this weekend so that will probably help JHU’s chances in my eyes because I can’t see how CMS wins all of those matches. I should also point out that JHU is going for the DIII record in consecutive wins this weekend.

UW-Whitewater sneaks into the Top 10 taking the place of NYU with Otterbein right behind in 11^th. I still like the ordering of CC, UCSC and Southwestern. UCSC narrowly lost to CC away this weekend and Southwestern narrowly lost to Trinity at home this weekend. Of these three teams, I think Southwestern is actually better but going by results and statistics that’s not the case.

Emory gets a bump with their wins over Berry and Chicago. I just think the UAA is down a bit this year, which is why you see NYU and Emory where they are and why you see Chicago dropped this week.

I hope to have my Region X Top 7 out today or tomorrow (prior to the official release of the regional rankings).

As a reminder, Ricky Nelson does a Top 10 each week, which you can find at his site. We still disagree on the top team (I have CMS and he has Johns Hopkins) and we again don’t agree on the same teams overall. Ricky has Colorado College in while I have Ohio Northern. We both moved NYU out of the Top 10.