Friday, Nov. 5 Match Day!

Updates: I didn’t include the Mills College and UCSC matches in my rundown. Sorry about that. Mills College was just swept by Salisbury. UC Santa Cruz will now play Salisbury in the semifinals.

TLU takes the first set against Austin College.

WashU lost to Carnegie Mellon today and that will end their chances at an NCAA Tournament bid. First time the team will miss out since 1986!

Big win by TLU in the second set. They now lead 2-0. Tough hill for Austin College to overcome. Winner plays Trinity tomorrow.

Another big set by TLU and they get the sweep.

UCSC is playing Salisbury and are down 1-0. They need to win to have any hopes at a tournament bid. You can watch it here.

A UCSC supporter has a sign but didn’t write “D3VbWest.Com” on the back. Missed opportunity. UCSC playing in masks but Salisbury isn’t. Can’t remember when it hasn’t been consistent, but I’m sure it has in other matches.

Salisbury goes up 2-0 after a UCSC comeback falls short. Big hole for the Slugs to climb out of here.

Wow. Switching between UCSC and UMHB/Sul Ross. UMHB wins the first set by 2 and UCSC starts the reverse sweep that they need winning by 2 in extra play. Long rallies and great digs. Salisbury is staying in system all of the time and that’s a huge problem for the Slugs. Some of the serves look really tough, too. The UMHB match looks to be a good one, too.

UMHB wins the second set. UC Santa Cruz is eliminated in 4-sets.

Southwestern is up so I’ll be offline for a bit. Go Bucs!

Southwestern wins set one. UMHB with the sweep.

Southwestern wins in 4-sets. They get Colorado College tomorrow.

UTD wins set one. Comets up 2-0.

UTD with the sweep. We’ll get UTD and UMHB tomorrow for the finals.

Just have the NWC matches left. All of the regional ranking matches are also done. See below for my thoughts.

Whitworth finishes an undefeated conference season. Congratulations!

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Instead of doing the ranked matches below, I’m going to list the teams that are regionally ranked as that’s really more of a concern right now. The following regionally ranked teams have already been eliminated from their conference tournament: Messiah, Susquehanna, Elizabethtown, Keene St., Plymouth State, Augsburg, Emerson, Smith, Kean, Pomona-Pitzer, UW-Stevens Point and UW-Oshkosh.

Of these teams, Plymouth State was a #1 seed so that conference has gone from being one where a regionally ranked team would win to a conference were that will no longer happen. Plymouth State is not highly regionally ranked so I don’t think they take a spot away at this time.

In my mock, from the teams above, I had Susquehanna and UW-Stevens Point getting an at-large. UW-Oshkosh was a team that just missed out. I don’t think their losses changed their chances.

Regionally ranked teams playing today that are not from the West Region:

BSC 3 Millsaps 0 NYU 3 Rochester 0 Emory 3 Brandeis 0 Carnegie Mellon 3 WashU 2 Chicago 3 Case Western 2 Mary Washington 3 Mount Mary 0 Calvin 3 Albion 0 NYU 3 Carnegie Mellon 1* Emory 3 Chicago 0* Bowdoin 3 Hamilton 0 Wesleyan 3 Connecticut Col. 0 Berry 3 Rhodes 0 St. John Fisher 3 Elmira 0 UC Santa Cruz 1 Salisbury 3RIT 1 St. Lawrence 3 Ithaca 1 Clarkson 3* Cortland 3 New Paltz 0 Washington & Lee 3 Bridgewater 0 Hope 3 Trine 0 Tufts 3 Williams 0* Gust. Adolphus 3 St. Olaf 0* Wartburg 3 Dubuque 0 Southern Virginia 3 Covenant 1 Brockport 2 Geneseo 3Randolph-Macon 2 Va. Wesleyan 3*Christopher Newport 3 Mary Washington 2* Middlebury 3 Amherst 3*Cornell 3 Monmouth 0 Bethel 3 Hamline 1*

With all of the political correctness going around when does “Mount Mary” get a name change? (Joke. My apologies to my Catholic followers.)

* Both teams are regionally ranked.

From today, Carnegie Mellon is out of their tournament. They are a bubble team who I think won’t get a spot. Chicago is also out. I think they make it but this team does not look good at times when I watch them. UCSC lost to Salisbury and I think that eliminates them from an at-large bid. They are too far down in the regional rankings and this loss only hurts them. The RIT loss is really big and could lessen the at-large bids. Tough loss for Brockport. Don’t think this loss matters but not good. The Randolph-Macon loss is big and it really hurts their at-large chances. In my mock, I had Middlebury going but not Amherst. Does this mean they both go now? The ranking by that region will be huge.

Random Thoughts: We’ve got the ASC Tournament continuing and the SCAC Tournament starting. The NWC enjoys their penultimate day of their schedule. As a reminder, the conference preview page can be found, here.

Tournament Predictions (Current Record: 3-1)

Sul Ross State/UMHB – The Cru beat Sul Ross State in both matches this year and both were sweeps. On the flip side, the Points/Set numbers are virtually identical so the Lobos can play with UMHB but for whatever reason haven’t been able to do it. I think this will be closer than those sweeps but the Cru win. Pick -> UMHB.

LeTourneau/UTD – UTD won both matches against LETU this season and have a nice Points/Set advantage. I just think the Comets get up for this matchup and will ultimately win this one. Pick-> UT-Dallas.

Austin College/TLU – These teams split their season series but TLU just beat the ‘Roos this past weekend. It should be mentioned that the match was played at TLU so that advantage will not be in place at Trinity. These teams have almost identical Points/Set numbers so no advantage there, either. I’m going to go with the hotter team and that’s TLU. They are 5-3 in their last 8 matches while Austin College is 2-6. Pick -> TLU.

St Thomas/Southwestern – I can’t look at Southwestern and be fair. Being a pessimist (also know as a realist), I see potential losses for my Pirates in every match. It’s a painful way to go through the season that’s for sure. Southwestern did beat St Thomas in both matches this season but one went to 5-sets. Southwestern has a 3 Points/Set advantage so they have to be the pick but I think that first set will be important. If St Thomas can get their foot in the door, they are hard to kick out. Pick -> Southwestern.