Friday, Nov 15 Match Day!

Updates: Once again, we have the Region X matches and matches that could impact the at-large window. There are a number of more matches that could impact the window but just listed the main ones. The UAA Tournament will have two matches for both CMU and Chicago. Both are important. I’ll update where I think it’s needed.

Tournament links are included in the Conference name.

Check out the article that dropped yesterday on the Regional Host Bids.

2024 NPI Rankings have been updated. There is a change in the Top 8 and in the at-large window.

LETU handling HPU so far. SCAC has just started. I’ll be on the road soon so use links.

We all had Schreiner over Trinity in the first set, right? HPU ties it up with LETU.

OMG!!!! No one told me that half of the SCAC Tournament is at Dallas and the other half at Austin College! WTF! Dwayne!?! I guess I’ll watch the CC/St Thomas match instead of the Southwestern/McMurry match. How funny and sad for me. We really need a website that stays up on this stuff and knows where Southwestern is going to play. Sigh.

LETU did get he 4-set win over HPU. They will get ETBU. Who the heck knows where they will be playing? Centenary? Geez.

In the surprise of the day, TLU lost in 4-sets to the host, Austin College. That is shocking. I thought TLU had a decent chance at winning this tournament.

No surprises in the UAA Tournament so far. Both the #1 seeds win. Chicago and CMU are playing now with CMU up 1-0.

Surprise – NYU just took set two on WashU. They are tied 1-1.

St Thomas is a world beater early on. 9-1. CC on their heels.

Southwestern takes the first set without me against McMurry.

CC ties the set at 13s. Good volleyball being played here. I don’t think UST has an attack error, yet.

Ariana Willis can simply fly. A small oppo that can pound.

22-22 and Audrey Cataline is hitting negative. Crazy what St Thomas would do with their best hitter going off here. The serving game of CC is top notch.

26-24 CC in a set that St Thomas may regret dropping.

Southwestern proves they don’t need me. Up 2-0 in a close second set. The right sides are dominating for SU right now (Marks and Kuras).

A kick save by UST is ignored by the up referee. I mean, they weren’t going to get the point but you blew your whistle way too early. Poor form not to reverse the call. CC then served out. Don’t mess with the volleyball gods.

24-19 UST and they just hang on to win 25-23. All tied at 1-1.

Southwestern gets the sweep. Emily Marks with 15 kills.

Chicago beat Carnegie Mellon but they have to play two more matches. They will get Rochester first in a must-win for them. Chicago seems safe for an at-large now. NYU lost to WashU.

25-17 UST. They go up 2-1. Scary moment with CC setter Annie Steger taking one off the face. Hard hit ball. She looks okay. CC will need to get this to a fifth set in order to move on.

Kelli Miller getting to play a bit for CC and I’m her biggest fan. Let’s go Kelli!!!!!!

CC timeout trailing 13-9. UST is playing great. Best of the year from the. Right time for them. Bad time for CC. Still time for the Tigers.

Nice comeback from CC. They lead 16-14 and force a timeout.

22-21 UST and the last timeout for CC.

24-21 UST. Match Point 1. Match Point 2. Timeout. 24-23 Match Point 3 for UST. Boom! Another SCAC upset.

The three best teams coming into the SCAC Tournament were Trinity, TLU and CC. Two of those teams are gone. Bean and Bodunrin with 12 kills each. 50 assists for Kendall Howard and Mia Medina combined.

Clarkson takes the first set over William Smith.

Talking with the St Thomas players. They say they are super hyped and their next opponents should be shaking in their sneakers. 🙂

Latvians are saying that Carnegie Mellon is the last team in right now. That assumes Millikin needs an at-large, however. CMU cannot afford a loss to Rochester.

Salisbury takes down Mary Washington in 4-sets. Rebuilding season for Mary Washington.

SCAC had a note that this was the first semifinal appearance in the SCAC for St Thomas. Congrats.

William Smith wins the second set and it’s all tied up 1-1.

Calvin taking care of Albion. They will be a cut-line team but they need this win. William Smith is down 2-1 but leading in the fourth.

Santa Cruz up early against CNU.

Great energy at the AC/TU match. From both sides.

UMHB takes set one from HSU.

Calvin with the sweep. William Smith forces a fifth set. If that hasn’t happened yet…it will.

Colby gets the sweep while William Smith wins in 5-sets.

Trinity took the first set but AC is leading late. UHMB up 2-0 on HSU.

25-23 Austin College. Tied 1-1.

From the Latvians:

After the UAA games, Calvin,  and the Wm Smith match, the last three in are:   Stevens Pt, Calvin and Carnegie Mellon And the first three out are:   Eastern, Southwestern and Middlebury. To the nearest 10th,  Stevens Pt, Calvin, and Carnegie Mellon are all 59.5.

Trinity takes set three. Some interesting calls helped a bit. TU also leads big in set four.

We had to step away as someone got hungry.

Trinity gets an easy set 4 win and takes the match. Great showing by AC today. Trinity into the finals.

We made it back for the UST/SU match. Whew. I’ll try to update what’s been going on. The SCAC announced the awards while I was at dinner. Congrats to Maddie Fate (TU) for winning Player of the Year. I think I predicted all three major award winners. (Pat on the back.)

Middlebury up 2-0. They are a bubble team. Puget Sound took the first set over PLU.

SU takes the first set against UST.

UST storms back 25-9. That was not pretty unless you’re a Celt. SU service receive was an issue but great defense by UST. They have the momentum.

25-23 UST. They are up 2-1. PLU wins in 4 sets against UPS.

SU/UST going 5. Late net call goes to SU.

SU get the turn 8-2.

15-11 SU. They play Trinity tomorrow.

Long drive back to the house but back at it. I was pretty sure I was going back to Sherman tomorrow (or was it Dallas?) to watch the finals but that drive has me reconsidering. Just a long drive time and so many updates.

Before I get to what I missed today (and then put together the schedule for tomorrow), let me give a shout out to Colorado College, St Thomas, Southwestern, Trinity and Austin College. I got to see three wonderful matches today and a ton of good volleyball. Watching on the streams can detach you from the beauty of the sport at times. It can also detach you from the dark side of the sports…namely injuries. So many walking wounded from each team. All I can say is take care of yourselves and come back strong (if able). Your sacrifice is greatly appreciated.

The UAA matches sort of turned out the way we thought. CMU is on the hot seat but I think the others are fine. Last update I got was that CMU was last team in right now. Not great that they may take another loss and it will be interesting if the UAA keeps these placement games in the future.

Sad for UC Santa Cruz. They jumped on CNU in the first set but couldn’t get the win.

I will say again how impressed I was with St Thomas in their match with Colorado College. CC didn’t lose that. St Thomas won it.

WashU beat CWRU in the 2/3 seed match. Emory will play Wash U in the finals.

Hendrix (6 seed) beat Millsaps in the SAA Tournament. William Smith got that 5-set win over Clarkson and are probably in the tournament now. That NYU/Brandeis match went 5-sets. Brandeis was really good this year but the UAA isn’t getting 6 teams in the tournament.

Colby’s win puts pressure on Oshkosh to win tomorrow to keep that Top 8 spot.

Great match between HSU and UMHB that went 5-sets. UMHB Coach Mark Pryor was not on the sidelines and I know he had a medical issue. Everyone please stop down for a second and send positive thoughts, vibes, prayers to him and his family.

Watched the good first three sets between AC and Trinity. AC played with a lot of passion and looked great. Trinity was just too tough but great game.

Hunter, the 1 seed in the CUNYAC, lost today to John Jay. Congratulations to John Jay as our first NCAA Tournament team. Right now, they are the favorites!

Johns Hopkins took down Gettysburg. Not to fear, Gettysburg will be in as an at-large.

Swarthmore beat Franklin & Marshall in the 2/3 match. F&M will be in the tournament. Swarthmore (if they can’t beat JHU) will probably not be.

Maddie Badger played for Puget Sound. Yay! Unfortunately for them, they lost to PLU. They will play Whitworth who swept George Fox tonight.

Middlebury got a much needed win against Wesleyan. That may be enough to put them in as an at-large.

As for the Southwestern/St Thomas match, there were probably too many attack errors on both sides but a ton of great hits and defense. UST finished with 8 more Points due, in large part, to a huge set two win. I think Southwestern was helped in the 5th set because they could use substitutes more, which really seemed to help.

One more thing…on a sad note…were all of the seniors who’s career ended today. I much prefer watching on the stream then seeing them in person. Ouch. Just kills you and I wish all of them could make the tournament. Again, thank you for all of the wonderful memories!

I will update the NPI when I get it. It will probably be tomorrow.

NCAA Scoreboard Ricky’s site has a page with all of the conference tournament links.

(NPI numbers are from yesterday.)

Clarkson 2 William Smith 3Video / StatsAlbion 0 Calvin 3Video / StatsWilliams 0 Colby 3Video / StatsWesleyan 0 Middlebury 3Video / Stats

UAA Teams on the bubble (play two matches each):

Chicago (60.33) – Beat Carnegie Mellon and then lost to Emory. They will play CWRU tomorrow. Carnegie Mellon (60.04) – Lost to Chicago and then beat Rochester. They will play NYU tomorrow.

Region X Matches:

Random Thoughts: I believe I’ll be up at Austin College today. I may even bring the (hot) wife. I don’t think we’ll make the 10:30 matches, unfortunately. Yoga conflict. Please feel free to come and yell at me if you wish. If the (hot) wife attends then remember your options:

• “You must feel so lucky to be married to such an incredible man.”

• “Can you even put in words how amazing it is to be married to him?”

• “What is it like being married to the Mother Teresa of DIII volleyball?”

Remember, she does not read the website. Oh, and feel free to ask her how exactly she broke her face this week falling down.

We’ve got matches from 4 of our 5 conferences but I show the Saturday matches just to save some time for tomorrow’s schedule. For the most part, the high seeds should win.

I think the HSU/UMHB match in the ASC will be special. Really could go either way.

It’s a shame that the UCSC match is at Chris Newport. They had success against them this year so let’s see if that continues. Tough place to win.

I do think PLU and Whitworth win tonight in the NWC. Look to see if UPS has Maddie Badger playing. They will need her.

I really hate missing those 10:30 matches in the SCAC. I think Trinity should have an easy time of it but that TLU match could be interesting just because AC is at home. Not sure they’ll be able to get the students to that one since it’s in the morning. Both of the 1 pm matches could be closer than expected. If TLU and Trinity win then their 4:30 match will be a classic.