Friday, Oct 11 Match Day!

Updates: Attempted the theory that elves would write this article if I forgot to do it. Didn’t work. I will look at more national matches after yoga. Namaste.

Here are the matches with 55 NPI teams playing each other:

Not making that list is Tufts at Trinity (CT) (NPIs are 54.20 vs 57.97). Ned’s projections have Tufts winning this, and frankly, if they actually do have a chance at an at-large, I’d say this is a must win.

What the frack, St Thomas. No Live Stats? Caught the first set late. Basically, Dormady versus Cataline. 26-26 with Cataline (St Thomas) going back to serve. CC wins 28-26. Let’s catch up on the others matches:

HSU took set one against UMHB. ETBU won set one over LETU. UTD is up 1-0 on Howard Payne although Live Stats says ETBU. TLU took the first set against McMurry.

It’s interesting when the NCAA scoreboard has the wrong start times. Like UST/CC is wrong. When I notice this, despite the match going on or even being done, it won’t update stats.

Pink Out Night at ETBU, I think. Cancer sucks!

ETBU up 2-0. I went back to look at that LETU hit at 24-23 and it looked in. Call went to ETBU for the set win.

HPU wins set two. Now 1-1 in that match. The rest are now 2-0 although UST/CC is still on-going.

NCAA Scoreboard live stats for UST/CC is now working. I guess once it hits the incorrect start time, the stats display?

CC wins set two 25-22 on a service ace.

ETBU gets the sweep over LETU. Graycee Mosley with 20 kills and just 1 attack error.

UTD up 2-1 on HPU. TLU gets the sweep of McMurry. Brylie Nedd led both teams in kills with 11.

HSU with the sweep over UMHB. Abbi Allen with 12 kills hitting 0.550.

Granddaughter Laynee Beam with the kill to give UST a 25-23 set three win. CC still leads 2-1.

HPU wins set four 27-25 to force a fifth.

It doesn’t count but nice win for HPU. CC takes down St Thomas 3-1.

Tough loss for Bowdoin (sorry Ned). Reverse sweep works for Middlebury.

The seven late matches are about to go off. I will be watching Chapman/Oxy.

Whoa. Where are the CMS Ladies who broadcast? We’ve got two guys doing the job tonight. Live Stats for the CMS match has them playing Chapman. Second time tonight we have the wrong teams in the Live Stats. Need to fire the camera person. We’ve got a strobe effect going on that makes this almost unwatchable.

I like it when there is a commercial because the stream normalizes and my seizures stop.

Stream is going down and up. Maybe they are trying to fix this mess. The stream is like it was being broadcast in 1910. Just jumps like one of those old movie machines at Disneyland with the hand crank.

Meanwhile, La Verne wins set one 25-13. La Verne’s block was huge that set. ULV hit 0.423. They made only 1 attack error.

CMS found something that worked. Just overpass to Mya Ray and she’ll hit it out. Let’s see if they go back to that.

CMS needs to start hitting line. They are getting stuffed if their angles are not perfect. Passing is also an issue.

I am impressed with the penetration over the net La Verne is getting on the blocks. More middle attacks or McGovern attacks could loosen it up but right now the Leopards are just sitting on the pins.

Well, so much for my middle idea. Last couple of plays have resulted in blocks or errors. I did send an email to FloSports to correct the stream so no worries as they said they would get back with me within 24 hours.

PLU came back in the first round and won 26-24. I’m not watching it, but when I checked in earlier I thought Whitworth was up by a few points late. Cal Lu won the first set against PP and are winning the second. Surprising.

La Verne up 2-0. They hit 0.351. CMS played better but were rather lucky to be within 6 at the end. La Verne had 5 blocks in the second set. CMS has yet to have a block.

When looking at the results for the high NPI matches I posted above, all of the teams with the higher NPI won except for HSU/UMHB. If La Verne wins, then the only ones not to win were the West teams.

A middle slide to attack Mya Ray solo did not work. CMS really needs to drive the middle. If it doesn’t work then fine.

Whatever happens, Mya Ray should have one less error and one more kill. Tied at 19 in set three.

Figured out the stream issues were with the Roku app. Switched to computer and it’s fine.

23-21 CMS.

25-22 CMS. Not a lot of kills for ULV in that set. They got to 22 with blocks and aces (9 combined). Still too many hitting errors for CMS. ULV will hit better in the fourth. Can CMS reduce their errors? Can they get a block?

Whitworth 28-26 in the second set. Tied 1-1 in a match that looks great from the Live Stats page. CLU 2-0 over PP. Chapman with the easy sweep.

PP wins set three.

La Verne is doing a great job of moving the blocker on the front row setter to help the middle. Very effective as the CMS passing is off the net.

And we have the first block for CMS tonight.

And a second block. La Verne still up big.

18-10 La Verne. The point at 17-10 was not good from CMS. Lots of pressure applied by the Leos.

Hayden Lin (CMS) has been in the action for CMS. Stats don’t show it but nice work for the DS.

21-14 ULV with Ray moving to the front. I don’t think she’ll rotate back.

Narrators Voice: She did not.

25-18 La Verne. They win 3-1. No one could have predicted that.

Willamette, George Fox and Puget Sound all had pretty easy wins tonight in the NWC. PLU and Whitworth are ongoing. It’s 2-1 Whitworth and they are leading big in the fourth. I will flip that on in a second. Chapman had easy work of Oxy. Pomona-Pitzer is leading in the fourth as a win would force a fifth and a chance at the reverse sweep.

Do we not have a rich alumnus or alumna from PLU that can get them a bigger gym so we can have better camera angles?

PP with the set four win. All tied at 2.

Back to La Verne/CMS and it’s easy to praise Mya Ray. She’s really good. But, shout out to Zacky Coaston who had 9 kills hitting 0.471 with 9 block assists. Ray’s line was 18 kills, hitting 0.267 with 3 aces and 3.5 total blocks and 11 digs.

Whitworth with the 3-1 win. PLU lost set two and three by 2 points each. These teams are close and in the past this would have probably been a match for the championship. With the tournament, less pressure on a loss like that. Lauren Kremer for Whitworth had a great night. 10 kills hitting 0.321 with 7 digs and 3.5 total blocks. Ella Jimenez (yawn) led both teams with 20 points.

Cal Lu gets the turn. They lead 8-7.

Back and forth but Pomona-Pitzer gets the reverse sweep. Samantha Grabb with 17 kills for the Sagehens.

NCAA Scoreboard

Random Thoughts: The SCAC is running two pods this weekend. The first is at St Thomas while McMurry is hosting the second. The ASC has a full slate of matches and the SCIAC and NWC are doing the same. Great matches tonight, too.

I think UMHB at HSU should be a great match. Give me HSU at home.

I don’t think LETU has enough to beat their rivals tonight but you always have to be careful with rivalry games. ETBU is still strong.

UTD heads down to Howard Payne for a match that doesn’t count.

Only two matches in the SCAC as they have a full slate tomorrow and Sunday. CC plays at St Thomas and normally I’d say CC has this. They are not the same this season it seems but St Thomas was struggling before two wins against Centenary. I honestly have no idea here. TLU at McMurry should be a TLU win.

Willamette has won two straight and should get a third against Linfield tonight. Puget Sound should have too much for Whitman. George Fox should be too much for L&C.

Whitworth has won 6 straight while PLU has won 7 straight. Both are undefeated in the NWC and lead the conference. Tonight’s match will keep things going for one and disappoint the other. I like PLU at home but I’ve picked Whitworth in this conference so give me the Pirates in an NWC classic.

The match of the night on a night with big matches is La Verne at CMS. Georgia McGovern already has 6 attempts before the match has already started! (You can’t get all of the jokes if you don’t read all of my stuff.) Let me give CMS some bulletin board material…La Verne wins in 4-sets. If I’m wrong, I think that will give CMS a 2 match lead in the conference. I would recommend everyone with FloSports tune in for part of this one. CMS will need a big night from Dede Carranza and their blockers to slow down the Leopards’ attack.

Cal Lutheran has been a little up and down but they will need to be way up against Pomona tonight. I think PP has this one. Chapman and Oxy are the final match and I think Chapman wins this. I do think Oxy will step up and get a win or two in conference and this would be the night to prove that statement right.