D3VbWest Top 25 2025-Wk1

Alright. Starting over with the first (real) Top 25. This is always the hardest to put together. As a reminder, we knew nothing weeks ago when we did the preseason rankings so we should always start from scratch. Sure, we can use 2024 numbers if they agree with what we see or how the stats look this season but the 2025 data points (results) should be the primary source of these rankings. I’m writing this before I take a second cut and I honestly can say I have no idea about my Top 5. It’s wide open. Let’s have some fun.

Here are my rankings:

My rank, (my previous rank, AVCA rank), record; key results; Points/Set.1 (24, 6) UW-Oshkosh 3-0; W: Salisbury; 19.5. 2 (12, 4) Johns Hopkins 3-0; W: Babson; 18.8. 3 (20, 14) East Texas Baptist 4-0; W: UWEC; 16.27. 4 (25, 3) Hope 2-0; W: Ohio Northern; 19.17. 5 (NR, 2) UW-Whitewater 3-0; W: Chris Newport; 17.91. 6 (1, 7) La Verne 3-0; W: St Olaf; 16.64. 7 (3, 17) Colby 0-0; DNP; N/A. 8 (9, 9) Washington & Lee 4-0; W: Centre; 15.92. 9 (11, 5) Emory 3-0; W: None; 18.44. 10 (2, 22) UW-Eau Claire 3-1; L: ETBU; 17.38. 11 (6, 13) UW-Platteville 2-1; W: Trinity, NYU L: Millikin; 16.18. 12 (7, 10) Trinity 2-1; W: NYU, Millikin L: UWP; 17.22. 13 (10, 8) MIT 3-0; W: None; 17.22. 14 (13, 19) Illinois Wesleyan 3-0; W: Chicago; 17.36. 15 (17, 1) Juniata 3-0; W: Swarthmore, Cortland; 16.75. 16 (NR, RV) Otterbein 4-0; W: Carnegie Mellon, Gettysburg; 16.67. 17 (22, 15) Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 3-0; W: St Olaf; 18.67. 18 (NR, 11) WashU 4-0; W: Carthage; 17.89 19 (NR, 16) Marietta 4-0; W: Clarkson; 18.15. 20 (8, 21) Christopher Newport 2-1; L: UW-Whitewater; 17.0. 21 (4, 23) NYU 1-2; W: Millikin L: Trinity, UWP; 15.27. 22 (14, RV) Franklin & Marshall 3-0; W: None; 18.3. 23 (18, 18) Ithaca 3-0; W: None; 18.27. 24 (16, RV) Carnegie Mellon 2-1; W: Gettysburg L: Otterbein; 15.62. 25 (NR, RV) Berry 3-0; W: Transy; 16.6.

Dropped Out: Millikin (5), Gettysburg (15), Smith (19), Calvin (21) & William Smith (23)

(Key Results are wins against teams on my Watch List or any loss.)

Let’s talk about the teams I dropped from my preseason rankings. Millikin may have had the second-best win in the nation by beating UW-Platteville and their losses are to ranked NYU and Trinity but they just looked wrong at times when I watched them. They have some issues on the back line that will probably be corrected and, when that happens, will shoot up the rankings. To be clear, they were also very good at times. I still like Gettysburg and their two losses are to ranked team but I just have too many teams that need to get in so out they go. Smith took two losses and one of those was to Mount Aloysius, which is their only win so far. I didn’t see them play but lots to figure out there. Calvin took a loss to Dubuque who did  not make my rankings. I just don’t have the room for them right now. William Smith did nothing wrong going 4-0. I still like them. I just didn’t like their 16.09 Points/Set number so I replaced them with someone that also went undefeated and had a slightly better number.

As for the teams that missed out, there are a lot of them. My watch list stands at 58 teams right now. Teams in bold font that didn’t make my 25 are St Ben, VWU, Montclair State, Dubuque and Coe. A number of others who are undefeated didn’t get a full look simply because none of their wins stood out and this article has to be out today.

Now for the teams that made it with my reasoning. I almost had ETBU first but their Points/Set number is a tad low. With that said, they played some of the best competition this week and had maybe the best win of the week (over UWEC). They looked really good and have plugged in a first-year at OH2 that looks great. In the end, I decided to slot them third behind Oshkosh and Johns Hopkins. Both of those teams had a nice win and both have an excellent Points/Set number. Same argument for those two can be made for Hope who had a win over ONU and have a huge P/S number. Rounding out my Top 5 is Whitewater who took down a team I really liked in Chris Newport. Prior to the season, I was worried about all of these teams but each seems to have found replacements to keep their excellent programs chugging along.

La Verne was my preseason number 1 but they struggled at times and don’t seem as automatic as I’d like. Tough win over St Olaf but it really shouldn’t have been that close. Colby didn’t play so they fall a bit but I still like them. Washington & Lee didn’t have the best Points/Set number last year and that continues here. They had an excellent win over Centre who is going to be very good so no reason to move them much from where I had them. Not sure about the competition Emory had but their Points/Set number is good and they are always strong. Finishing up the Top 10 is my first team with a loss in UW-Eau Claire. They were every bit as good as ETBU losing in 5-sets.

At 11, I dealt with the mess that was the Trinity Tournament. Both UWP and Trinity finished 2-1 against great teams but UWP has the head-to-head win so I slot them ahead of the Tigers. Honestly, if either team had gone undefeated, I probably would have had them #1 overall. No issues with MIT. They didn’t really play anyone. IWU had a nice win over Chicago and a good P/S so no reason to really move them around. Juniata is a tough one for me. I watched a few sets of theirs over 3 matches. They are good. They are not great, yet. I basically slotted them behind teams that I thought would beat them. I didn’t get to watch Otterbein but two very good wins gets them into my rankings. CMS jumps a bit after an easy St Olaf win. They also have an impressive P/S number. They could have gone higher in the rankings. I really thought WashU would lose to Carthage, but they held them off and went undefeated. They need to be in the Top 25. I thought Marietta would struggle more than then have early. Another team that needed to be in the rankings after proving to me that their graduation losses weren’t crippling. I still like Chris Newport and they remain in the rankings at 20.

The last five were difficult. NYU played great teams and looked really good at times. This is definitely an eyeball ranking. No issues with F&M. It’s just that others teams played better opponents. Same can be said for Ithaca. Carnegie Mellon just hangs on to a spot with that low Points/Set number. Their Gettysburg win keeps them in. Berry gets my final spot. Wins of good teams in Transy, Wittenberg and Wartburg were the deciding factor for me.

The problem with ranking week one is that we have no cross play. If you look at the NPI rankings, it’s reflected there, too. All we can really do is rank the individual tournaments. Starting tomorrow, teams will cross-pollinate and things will become clearer. (Before they get muddy again when we have too many matches to ponder.) It does help a bit to have watched a bunch of volleyball and, frankly, I probably watched more DIII volleyball this weekend than anyone else, but I’m still pretty much clueless.

The AVCA will come out with their rankings tomorrow. In case you missed it, I have dropped the NPI Rankings.

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