D3VbWest Top 25 (Final)

Tomorrow the AVCA will release their Top 25 so I probably should get mine out today. In past years there were always one or two New England teams in the Elite 8 that would then show up high in the Top 25 even though their one claim to fame was winning the easy regional gifted to them by the NCAA. That didn’t happen this year. I don’t have all of the normal stuff below for the rankings as we got to see them all play over the last three weeks. I do understand that, despite the best efforts of the Selection Committee, the regionals were not equal so expect to see more teams from the tougher regionals that also performed at a high level during the season.

D3VbWest Top 25

1. Juniata 35-0

2. Hope 32-3

3. Claremont-M-S 26-6

4. UW-Oshkosh 37-2

5. Johns Hopkins 28-5

6. NYU 33-5

7. Northwestern 32-5

8. Trinity 31-5

9. UW-Whitewater 28-5

10. Emory 26-3

11. Berry 27-6

12. Transylvania 27-7

13. La Verne 25-5

14. Covenant 35-3

15. Cornell College 23-8

16. WashU 24-10

17. Wesleyan 24-2

18. UW-Stevens Point 23-11

19. Mount St Joseph 24-3

20. Ithaca 27-5

21. Gustavus Adolphus 26-7

22. Mary Washington 30-5

23. MIT 31-5

24. East Texas Baptist 26-4

25. Case Western Reserve 22-9

Dropped Out (from Week 10): North Park (8), Ohio Wesleyan (16), Calvin (17) and Springfield (25)

My top 8 are from the championship and I’m not sure I’ve ever done that before. Seems obvious but that’s what happens when the Elite 8 are finally filled out with the elite. I really struggled with the ordering between 3 and 6 and I’m definitely biased to what I saw in person this past week. I thought on the first day (quarterfinals) that Hope and Johns Hopkins might have been the best two teams in the nation just from their match and comparing it to the other 3 matches. I also struggled with Oshkosh. Their body of work has them third but they were not competitive in the quarterfinal so I can’t have them higher than CMS in my mind. If you have a different order 3 through 6 then just know I’m fine with it (assuming you needed my approval, which frankly, you do).

Let’s backup to the front.  Juniata is obvious. They led from wire-to-wire this year. That doesn’t happen very often and, in fact, does anyone know if it’s ever happened? Hope had four 5-set matches in the tournament so they didn’t dominate like Juniata did but credit is given where credit is due.

I already talked about 3 to 6. You can argue CMS is too high because they played on their home court and I get it. But the further I dropped them back then the further UWO went with them. UWO pushed CMS to the third spot. I probably like Johns Hopkins more than most but they were impressive to me. I also saw them in person earlier in the season and they looked good then, too. The Blue Jay wall is one I’m willing to die on. I know NYU should probably be 3^rd or 4^th but I couldn’t do it. They simply didn’t have the firepower of the first 5 teams. Who knows what Trinity could have done with Maddie Fate healthy? They definitely didn’t back down from Juniata and I could have swapped them with Northwestern but I liked Northwestern a lot more for most of the season so they got the edge.

After the championship teams we have a group (or tier) that I really like from 9 to 12. I thought about having Berry ahead of Emory as I thought their injury had a more significant chance of impacting their result against Trinity than Emory’s did. Still, Emory beat Berry earlier in the year when both were healthy (as far as I know).

Starting at 13, things get fun. You had to be impressed with La Verne’s run and they took a set against UWO on their home court. Kudus for Covenant for almost upsetting Emory again this season. Cornell surely benefited from hosting but they were a tough out. WashU was a tough placement but I saw them in person this year when they looked to be one of the best.

With Wesleyan, I have no clue. Most years they would have been an Elite 8 team but the committee did the right thing and put Johns Hopkins with them. You should always have to earn the Elite 8 and for the first time the committee was able to do that. I’d love to see Wesleyan travel and make a national name for themselves. Maybe this will prompt that to happen.

I heard UW-Stevens Point didn’t think they were getting an at-large bid and had packed it in. They obviously don’t read the site because they were an obvious selection. They then went out and beat CWRU in 5-sets and then lost to Hope in 5-sets. They played great but they were up and down this season. But remember, it’s easy to discount the Region VIII teams when they lose but they are often losing to outstanding teams that aren’t regionally ranked.

The teams from 19 to 22 are all good teams and I won’t fight anyone on their ordering.

I have more of an idea with MIT as they traveled to Trinity this year. For the tournament, they hosted and got destroyed by CMS in the regional final. Maybe you can put them a few places higher and I’m sure the New England voters in the AVCA poll will do that.

Props to East Texas Baptist. They beat North Park in the first round and I had them in my Top 10. They then took La Verne to 5-sets. They didn’t play a tough schedule but they showed that they probably would have done well if they had. Let’s make that happen in 2024!

Struggled with the last team. CWRU played UW-Stevens Point to 5-sets in round one. I could have put Pacific Lutheran there but I liked CWRU more than Carnegie Mellon (the team they beat). Calvin was probably the easy choice but they just weren’t Calvin this year. Getting swept by Gustavus Adolphus was the final straw for me. North Park could have also been there as a reward for a fine season.

As for the teams that dropped out, the hardest was North Park but they lost in 4-sets to ETBU who are barely in my rankings. Ohio Wesleyan would have probably been out of my Week 11 rankings if I had done them. I talked about Calvin already and Springfield didn’t distinguish themselves in the tournament.

As a reminder, Ricky Nelson has his final Top 10 out, which you can find at his site. He has UWO over CMS, which I’m sure is a reward for an outstanding season. He has NYU over CMS but I would have taken CMS in that matchup on a neutral floor. I liked JHU more than he did. Overall, we have the same Top 10 just in a different order.

Oh, I almost forgot. Hitting Percentage. Juniata finished the year with the highest hitting percentage in the nation. Hope was 9th. The only two Elite 8 teams not in the Top 11 were Trinity (18) and UW-Oshkosh (19).