Friday, Oct. 8 Match Day!

Updates: Austin College and Saint Thomas didn’t disappoint.

Good to see Isabella Vasquez in the box score for Colorado College!

Trinity starts their round of New England matches. Endicott proving tough early.

TLU with the sweep. Just like we drew it up, Trinity drops the first set against Endicott. Endicott has some nice hitters.

Trinity with a strong bounce-back as they take set two.

Johns Hopkins struggles in their first set but pulls out a close one.

Trinity 28-26 in the third set. I just noticed that Funk is also out for Trinity. So they are without both of their starting middles.

Endicott comes back with a strong 4th set after being down early. Trinity responds with a strong 5th set to take the match. Trinity now has to turnaround and play Babson.

Some one needs to tell Austin College they are allowed to win in less than 5-sets.

Watched a bit of the Trinity/Babson match. Trinity wins in 4. So hard to tell what is what but Endicott looked better than Babson. Thought their hitters were better and defense was good. But, maybe just a good day for Endicott and a poor one for Babson?

I don’t understand Concordia this season.

CMS handles Chapman in 3-sets. CMS looks to be on cruise control in the SCIAC.

Up to date as of a little before 11 pm. Puget Sound is in a 5th set. A couple of more might go that way.

No rank upsets today. I didn’t get to watch the evening matches. Wife got in the way tonight.

Puget Sound with a strong 5th set for the win. Caltech forces a 5th.

Lewis & Clark fights off 2 match points and takes set 4. Interesting camera angle for this one. Long distance.

La Verne and Whitworth get the 5-set wins and that finishes the night.

Nationally ranked matches not involving the West Region:

#1 Johns Hopkins beat Salisbury#1 Johns Hopkins beat Carnegie Mellon#4 Hope beat Kalamazoo #9 UW-Whitewater beat #23 WashU#12 Juniata beat Muskingum (6 pm)#15 Berry beat Millsaps #16 Northwestern beat UW-Superior #21 UW-Stevens Point beat North Central

Random Thoughts: Cover photo is HSU senior right side/middle Kristen Armstrong.

Tons of matches this weekend with Trinity getting a tour of the Boston area and hopefully the hosts will be accommodating.

We’ve got half of the SCAC playing conference this week. I like the St Thomas/Austin College match and, of course, we have Colorado College going twice. I don’t think they will be challenged today but it’s a wonderful way for a team lower in the standings to make a name for themselves. The TLU/Austin College match should be fun, too.

Trinity will be at Babson for two matches. They will play two more tomorrow. Today they get Endicott and Babson. Endicott is a late replacement for Wellesley because that school was not allowing spectators and Trinity parents do like to travel. Babson is nationally ranked so this will be really interesting to see how they do against Trinity. I consider the Tigers one of five teams in the nation that are a tier above the rest. I really see this trip as a no-lose for Trinity as they’ve already made their mark this season. It’s really a no-lose for the four teams playing Trinity because they will all be underdogs. I do think if the teams don’t do well then it’s a problem for the New England schools in general. If Trinity was to lose or the matches are close then I think it’s a problem for the West Region. It’s about perception in my mind. Of course, perception isn’t a selection criterion.

HSU will host Concordia who swept them earlier in the year. Concordia has three really good players and if they are on then they are tough to beat. HSU is playing well so this could go 5-sets.

UMHB/McMurry would be interesting in the past but I’m not sure the War Hawks will put up much of a fight in this one. They are at home so prove me wrong.

Nine matches at 9 pm makes for a late night.

The Banana Slugs swept Cal Lu earlier in the year and I don’t think the result will be that much different tonight.

Pacific/Willamette should be a close one. George Fox at Puget Sound could also be close.

Whitworth is undefeated in NWC play but their second half of the schedule is tougher due to the road matches. This is still the first half of that schedule but a road match against Lewis & Clark can’t be overlooked. This is an upset waiting to happen.

If Chapman wants to get back in the at-large discussion then they need to beat CMS tonight. I don’t think they have it in them but this is a huge match.

Nationally, not a lot on the calendar as I think there are some fall breaks out there. I threw in some video links to the matches that interest me.