D3VbWest Top 25 (9/2/19)

Once again I will publish my Top 25 each week prior to the AVCA results (due out tomorrow). At the bottom of this post I will also rank the West Region teams until we get into the regional rankings time frame in which case I’ll be posting that separately. Following the rankings below, I’ll provide you with wit and witticisms because I know you’ve come to expect it.

D3VBWest Top 25 (9/2/19)

My rank, (my Preseason rank, AVCA rank), record, key results last week1 (7, 1) Emory 3-0 W: JWU(RI). 2 (2, 2) Calvin 3-0 W: Ohio Northern. 3 (22, 17) Trinity 4-0 W: UMHB, St. Ben. 4 (3, 8) JWU (RI) 3-1 W: None; L: Emory. 5 (5, 3) Juniata 2-1 W: Eau Claire; L: Chris Newport. 6 (11, 19) Berry 3-0 W: Ithaca. 7 (10, 4) UW-Eau Claire 2-1 W: Chris Newport; L: Juniata. 8 (15, 22) Christopher Newport 2-1 W: Juniata; L: Eau Claire. 9 (19, RV) UW-Stevens Point 2-1 W: DePauw, Chicago; L: UT-Dallas. 10 (6, 9) Chicago 3-1 W: DePauw; L: Stevens Point. 11 (18, RV) Carthage 4-0 W: None. 12 (NR, RV) Augsburg 3-1 W: CMS; L: Cal Lutheran. 13 (1, 5) Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 2-1 W: St. Olaf; L: Augsburg. 14 (NR, NR) Clarkson 4-0 W: Colorado College. 15 (4, 7) Colorado College 3-1 W: None; L: Clarkson. 16 (9, 6) Wittenberg 2-1 W: Ohio Northern; L: Transylvania. 17 (16, 25) Saint Benedict 3-1 W: UMHB; L: Trinity. 18 (12, 11) Ithaca 2-1 L: Berry. 19 (13, 16) UW-Whitewater 3-0 W: None. 20 (17, 23) Ohio Northern 2-2 W: None; L: Calvin, Wittenberg. 21 (20, RV) Birmingham Southern 4-0 W: None. 22 (21, 12) Wesleyan 0-0 W: None. 23 (NR, RV) Johns Hopkins 3-0 W: None. 24 (NR, 18) Gustavus Adolphus 4-0 W: Aurora. 25 (8, 15) Mary Hardin-Baylor 2-2 W: None; L: Trinity, St. Ben. Dropped out: Washington-St. Louis [14], Aurora [23], DePauw [24], Babson [25]

Those that follow me know that the preseason poll goes out the window with real results. It’s time to see what happened this past week and then make judgments on that rather than still use perceptions caused by last year. One big problem is the injuries that have impacted a few teams in the rankings. For the most part, I’m not going to factor that in because I’m sure I don’t know them all. It’s not fair to factor in injuries to CMS, Colorado College and Wittenberg and leave out another team where I don’t have the information. When the players get healthy then their results will improve and the rankings will sort itself out. One more item on “key results” and that is I really don’t have a good definition of it. I try to limit wins to ranked teams or teams I considered for the rankings. So, you’ll notice I didn’t list wins over IWU as “key results” because although they were ranked by the AVCA I never considered them. Once regional rankings come out, I then try to use that as a guide. You may also notice that I really tried not to reward teams that were ranked or sitting just outside my rankings for playing an easy schedule. Week one isn’t the time for easy out-of-conference matches if you are serious about being ranked. It just seems crazy to me to reward these teams and move them up over those that played tougher schedules and took a loss.

Looking at the teams that dropped out and I probably like DePauw the best. I think WUSTL will be better and will probably be ranked at the end of the year just because they are WUSTL and that program is so good. I thought Aurora would struggle but then there were rumors that their best player was returning for a 5^th year (she had another year of eligibility) but it didn’t happen. My initial ranking was assuming she wasn’t there to begin with but they struggled more than even I thought. DePauw almost stuck in the rankings but I kept UMHB instead. Babson didn’t play anyone of note and there are just too many teams that did to keep them in the rankings this week.

As for the newcomers, Augsburg dropped a match to Cal Lutheran but then went on and had a good tournament that included beating CMS in 5-sets. I wanted to reward them with a placement above CMS so they are the highest newcomer to the rankings. Same sort of thing with Clarkson as they took down Colorado College. I liked Johns Hopkins prior to the year and they did nothing to dispel that so I found a spot for them. I didn’t like Gustavus Adolphus prior to the year but they had some nice wins so maybe I was wrong and they get a spot. If Aurora had only lost to them then Adolphus would have been much higher on the rankings but the Aurora win really doesn’t mean anything right now.

For the returners on the list there was a lot of movement, which I think makes sense for the first real ranking based on matches. Emory jumps in to the first spot based on their win over JWU. Calvin stays at #2 and I could have moved them to #1 but the JWU win was more impressive in my mind. Trinity jumps the most this week going from 22 to 3 as they had nice wins over UMHB and Saint Benedicts. Did I move them up too much? It’s possible but I also liked their Minnesota-Morris win and if I’m wrong they will move down in weeks to come. JWU drops just one position as, again, I liked the wins from the teams above them better. Juniata rounds out the top 5 staying where they were despite the loss to Christopher Newport. Those two teams and Eau Claire all beat each other so I grouped them kind of close together as I had already liked them all. Berry jumps into the top 10 based on their Ithaca away win. Stevens Point and Chicago round out the top 10 despite the UT-Dallas loss for Stevens Point. Point did beat Chicago and DePauw so I think this was more of a blip but tons of credit to UT-Dallas on that win.

Outside the top 10 I got to see Carthage in person and was very impressed. I expect they will rise into the top 10 in weeks to come. Wittenberg gets punished for their Transylvania loss and Ithaca is probably moved back too far but I had some groupings I wanted to maintain. Whitewater just didn’t play anyone and paid for it by dropping 6 spots but they will rise once their real schedule kicks in gear.

As for my West Region Rankings, here you go:

West Region Top 8 (9/2/19)

1. Trinity

2. CMS

3. Colorado College

4. UMHB

5. Pomona-Pitzer

6. Pacific Lutheran

7. Whitworth

8. UT-Dallas

I usually use this ranking to mimic the regional rankings but there isn’t enough data for that to make sense. For now, I’m just going on results and then feel.

If you go back to my West Region rankings almost a month ago, I have removed Cal Lutheran, Chapman and Puget Sound with Pomona-Pitzer, Pacific Lutheran and Whitworth. Cal Lu is just too up and down for me to rank right now. I really wanted to see Chapman take down either St. Olaf or Augsburg and they didn’t, which means they are going to be hard to regionally rank. Puget Sound lost to Pacific Lutheran so that pecking order seemed clear.

Pomona-Pitzer went 4-0 on the weekend and should be rewarded. This coming week will be interesting to see what happens as the Sagehens really have a chance to lock down a regional ranking spot. Pacific Lutheran also went 4-0 and took down the Loggers so respect. I got to see Whitworth dismantle Southwestern in person and that gets them on the list. Southwestern was going to be ranked before that loss based on their play against Carthage (even though they lost). UT-Dallas holds in the 8^th spot. Great win against Stevens Point but need more consistency from the team.