D3VbWest Top 25

Let’s start this Top 25 off by saying there isn’t anyone in the world that can in anyway form or fashion put together a DIII Volleyball Top 25. Then, of course, there is me.

Alright, I admit this Top 25 isn’t worth anything, either. With a number of schools missing out in 2020 and spring 2021 and with the others only getting in a portion of the matches they normally would, we really don’t know what each team has got going into the fall. Add on top of that, we really don’t know the rosters for most of these schools because players have the option of coming back for a 5^th year. Normally, I would know the statistics accumulated by players the previous year and then see which teams were losing which players and then add some D3VbWest magic and come up with a pretty good list. (Pretty good in the sense that you should never go and look at previous Top 25 lists I’ve done and compare them to the actual results.)

I decided to press forward because frankly this isn’t 2020 anymore. The Coronavirus has been eradicated. People all came together to fight a common cause and then translated those efforts to fight other common problems we all face. Everyone now has clean water and pollution and climate change is a thing of the past. We all have shared beliefs and goals and frankly the world is a better place. And with these facts in mind, I present you the perfect Top 25 list:

D3VbWest Top 25

1. Carthage

2. Calvin

3. Berry

4. Hope

5. Trinity

6. Johns Hopkins

7. Colorado College

8. Emory

9. CMS

10. UT-Dallas

11. Otterbein

12. Mary Hardin-Baylor

13. Ohio Northern

14. Juniata

15. St. Olaf

16. Babson

17. Wis.-Oshkosh

18. Washington-St. Louis

19. Chapman

20. Muskingum

21. Saint Benedict

22. Bowdoin

23. Ithaca

24. Your Team

25. Whitworth

I obviously didn’t spend a lot of time researching because there just isn’t the data out there to research. I did go through each of these teams plus a number more trying to figure out anything I could and that did impact the rankings a bit. Some teams like Chicago and Chris Newport and Johnson & Wales among a few others just couldn’t convince me enough to keep them up on the list. But maybe I should backup a bit and talk about how I came up with the original teams to consider.

I pulled my initial list from the 2020-21 AVCA Top 25 and then included about 55 teams from the Massey Rankings. Since a number of teams didn’t play in 2020, I then went back to the AVCA 2019 rankings and pulled any teams from there that I missed. Finally, I then went through any team that has ever been ranked and looked for teams that were obvious misses. That last step was important because it made me consider most of the WIAC along with Washington-St. Louis, Ithaca and a number of New England teams. I then went through my list and focused on the schools that have had success in the past more than the others. I got to around 30 schools and shut it down. I ended up adding a few more schools as there were about 7 or so schools I just couldn’t rank.

As you can see from the process, the dark horse school isn’t going to be represented too well. I’m going chalk. You may notice that the West or X Region is well represented. I make no apologies. It’s in the name. I do want to give a shoutout to those schools that have their 2021 rosters out. It made things so much easier but these were few and far between unfortunately.

As for my reasoning for the ordering, I’m not going to go in depth because there was no depth to this. On the other hand, here were some notes I wrote down as I went through the ordering.

Too boring to put Calvin first so going with Carthage. Surprised they have 5^th year senior Haley Horner coming back. They played well in the spring and should be in the top 5 this year, at least. Calvin looks pretty much intact. How do you stop Heidi Westra? Shout out to my Vikings as they look intact, too. SAA should be interesting this year. (Editor’s note – I’m going to regret NOT considering Birmingham-Southern. That wasn’t an ordering issue, it was they didn’t make my initial list issue. Did I mention there isn’t much depth to this?) Hope looks really good coming back, too. They split with Calvin in the spring so this looks like another fun year for those two schools. Trinity is losing their outsides but who knows as they’ve done a 5^th year senior in the past. Tough schedule will have them ready for the NCAA Tournament where others may get surprised by the level of competition when they get there. (Update – Trinity just posted their roster. All of their seniors are coming back. They are loaded for a national championship run.) I wrote about Johns Hopkins here. They should have at least one 5^th year senior back and if Simone Bliss also comes back this ranking will be too low. Did you know Colorado College still doesn’t have a coach announced? They are losing an outside and a fabulous setter. Still, can’t bet against their history. No idea on Emory and anyone else would be lower. With that said, they always reload and always seem to be in the Top 10. Like Emory, we have CMS as an unknown entity. They will be good but they lost a lot in 2019 and assuming their seniors graduated will have lost their middles. Still, you don’t make money betting against CMS out of the Top 10. I don’t think UT-Dallas had any seniors so a very good team returns. They could still be second best in conference but I liked their schedule more. Otterbein looks to have their main returners coming back. They won the OAC title in the spring. Mary Hardin-Baylor is losing a really good outside but they’ve got a lot of talent and just won the ASC title. Their schedule isn’t a hard one so there could be some discrepancy between an AVCA ranking and a regional ranking with them this year. Ohio Northern is always good. Went 13-3 in the spring. (Editor’s note – This is when I added Muskingum to my list because I noticed Ohio Northern had lost twice to them in the spring.) Juniata is an unknown. Their setter should be back but they probably lose their best hitter. St. Olaf has a lot returning and did well in the spring. Babson is another unknown but they get most of their hitting back, I think. They will need to replace their setter. I went through a lot of WIAC teams and figured at least two would be in these rankings. I just couldn’t pull the trigger and with the conference not playing the spring I just didn’t know what to do. Then I heard my leader. Hazy at first and then slightly stronger. After a few moments, I understood. “Oshkosh”. Here you go, Ricky. Washington-St. Louis didn’t play in the spring and wasn’t ranked in 2019. I just figure they can recruit and will put it together to find the rankings this year. I do love me some Chapman and they have a good schedule this year. Just need to perform. I’m hoping their two big seniors get to finish their year in the NCAA Tournament for the first time. Things got murky at this point. Muskingum is here but they are losing their best hitter and setter. Saint Ben gets a spot just in case the Weiss sisters come back for a 5^th year. If they do then this is way too low. Hey Ned! Seems like you’ll have some hitting back so Bowdoin for the win here. (In other news, I really struggled finding New England schools to include. They just all seemed to be losing a lot of talent and, of course, they didn’t play in the spring.) Ithaca didn’t play so really no clue here. If Reagan Stone comes back for a 5^th year, then this is too low. I just figure Ithaca will probably be ranked. I had Wittenberg here until the end but I just don’t know about that team since the coaching change. Instead, I went with “your team”. Which school is “your team”? Well, it’s your team. If you heard yourself inside your head say “your team” then it’s your team. This doesn’t work for anyone else. Just you. Congratulations for making the rankings! Finishing off the rankings is Whitworth because I think they played really well in the spring and should return most of those players.

One other note is that Bethel suffered a rankings penalty and therefore I was unable to include them. I just couldn’t find their statistics on their website. What gives? I wish I could have done something here but the powers to be and all that, you know. Hands were tied. Nothing I could do. Blame the man.

If nothing else, this ranking is meant to restore some normalcy to the upcoming season. We need to get our process going and keep pushing forward.