D3VbWest Top 25 (Final)

The AVCA will come out with their final rankings this Tuesday but here is my take on the season. One thing you’ll notice in the AVCA voting is that a lot of coaches will just go by the regional and Elite 8 results. I think this is funny because they are basically saying that the regionals were all created fairly, which they are not. I will also lean on the results but try to take a more intelligent approach to this exercise. Now, I’m not saying I’m smarter than the AVCA voters but I can’t stop you from thinking it.

My rank, (my Week 11 rank, AVCA rank), record, NCAA Finish1 (7, 8) UW-Eau Claire 35-3; Champion. 2 (3, 5) Calvin 33-4; Runner-up. 3 (2, 3) Claremont-M-S 31-2; Semifinalist. 4 (10, 4) Wartburg 29-1; Regional Finalist. 5 (6, 7) Juniata 32-2; Semifinalist. 6 (4, 2) Trinity 34-3; Quarterfinalist. 7 (1, 1) Johns Hopkins 31-1; Regional Finalist. 8 (11, 12) Berry 28-3; Quarterfinalist. 9 (5, 6) Hope 25-5; Regional Finalist. 10 (8, 10) NYU 28-2; Regional Finalist. 11 (17, 24) Otterbein 25-6; Regional Finalist. 12 (13, 15) Northwestern 30-4. 13 (16, 11) Colorado College 30-6. 14 (14, 13) Emory 25-6; Regional Finalist. 15 (NR, NR) Tufts 21-6; Quarterfinalist. 16 (15, 14) Southwestern 25-6. 17 (9, 9) UW-Whitewater 27-3. 18 (18, 19) Gustavus Adolphus 27-6. 19 (19, 21) Bethel 23-7. 20 (12, 16) Ohio Northern 22-6. 21 (23, NR) Wittenberg 22-9. 22 (21, 18) MIT 29-4; Quarterfinalist. 23 (25, NR) Susquehanna 24-7; Regional Finalist. 24 (22, 25) Bowdoin 23-5. 25 (20, 22) UW-Stevens Point 26-8. Dropped Out: Christopher Newport (24)

I’m not sure anyone needs to hear me explain anything about this, but I’ll pick and choose a couple of decisions.

I really thought after the Wartburg match that CMS was going to win this thing. Calvin played great to beat them and then they “only” played good in the finals. Credit to Eau Claire for really picking up their play when they needed it the most. I would have liked to see them go through Calvin or Trinity in the quarterfinals but the reseeding process is what it is. In the end, Eau Claire played three really wonderful matches in the three matches where it was needed. Not sure any seeding changes make the results any different.

Wartburg at 4 may be confusing, I guess. I really thought that match against CMS was special and for the entire Elite 8, I was comparing teams against Wartburg. Most came up short. Calvin’s effort against CMS would have beaten them. UWEC’s effort against Calvin would have beaten them.

I still don’t know what to make of Juniata. Does Trinity beat them? I don’t know but I gave the edge to the Eagles in this one based on how they played UWEC. I still like Johns Hopkins. They played a bad match against Tufts but I take them on most nights against most of these teams. I did some rearranging around the Colorado College ranking. I liked their Ohio Northern win. I gave some credit to Emory, who I haven’t been high on all year, for making it to the regional final but they really didn’t beat anyone and then got swept by Berry. Some credit for Tufts as they do have the ability to beat top teams but that was a deceptively stinker of a match they put up in the Elite 8. I didn’t see the offense and it seemed like UWEC was being told to beat themselves.

The rest is sort of there for you to look at. I did remove Chris Newport who lost to UT-Dallas in the first round of the tournament. I think UTD did improve on the season but that’s a match you have to win. Tufts was the team I brought in for obvious reasons. I was a little surprised I didn’t remove or insert anyone else.  

As a reminder, Ricky Nelson does a Top 10 each week, which you can find at his site. We have the same Top 10 teams but in a different order.