Friday, Sept 5 Match Day!

Scoreboard:

NCAA Scoreboard

West Schedule:

ASC ScoreboardC2C ScoreboardNWC ScoreboardSAA ScoreboardSCAC ScoreboardSCIAC Scoreboard

Matches I’m Watching Nationally (Times are CDT & links provided to schedule or tournament page):

WashU at UW-Oshkosh 2 pm – Where I wanted to be today (but always happy where I am). What a great match to start things off.

Centre at Otterbein 2 pm – This match is looking a lot tougher for Centre after one week in.

Tufts at Salisbury 3:30 pm – A couple of nice matches here for Tufts. Glad they are testing themselves here. Should be a good one.

Whitworth at Pomona-Pitzer 4 pm – Pomona-Pitzer has four important West matches this weekend but this will be the toughest.

Springfield at Haverford 4 pm – Haverford is hosting a nice little tournament this weekend. Includes Springfield (duh), Scranton and Lynchburg. It will be interesting who comes out of this undefeated.

CMS vs Emory 4:30 pm – Big time match here. Remember that the East/West Challenge didn’t make this season but here you have two teams that normally play in that facing off. (It’s the East/West/North Challenge this year!

St Olaf vs Dubuque 4:30 pm – This one is interesting because Dubuque is undefeated and Olaf went 2-2 at the PCC playing West Coast teams. As a region, we are rooting for Olaf the rest of the way.

Hope at Denison 5 pm – Denison is undefeated at home. Nice test for Hope to see what they have. A sweep here means they are going to be really good again. A win for Denison probably gets them ranked (in October…the AVCA moves slow).

Trinity at Chris Newport 6 pm – Nice tournament at Newport with this being the best match-up. Two teams I really liked and are in my Top 25.

Marietta at Juniata 6 pm – Win #101? Or will the streak end here?

UW-Eau Claire at Chicago 7 pm – I think Chicago will be down this year and I’m high on UWEC. This could prove me wrong on two counts.

Whitworth at La Verne 8 pm – Another good test that ULV should pass easily. Just like St Olaf last week. Uh oh.

Updates:

Getting a late start. We’ll miss some if not all of the noon match. Go ahead and start the tournament without us. I’m sure there was thought to hold off until we got there but I’m all for the greater good.

Well, we made it to Georgetown just in time to see the last two points of the Puget Sound sweep over TLU. We were pulling for the Bulldogs to win a set or two on the way down but it was not to be.

In the hotel and here are some updates…Simpson moves to 4-0 with a win over Carleton. UMHB beat Concordia 3-1. Ozarks beat non-DIII Central Baptist. They move to 2-0 and still have never lost in their program’s history. They are also really tough on the Baptist having beat Williams Baptist Tuesday.

Trinity took down William Paterson in 4-sets. Gordon beat Oglethorpe in a sweep. WashU took set one from Oshkosh which is interesting to me. Close in the second. I’m still trying to figure out how good some of these power teams are with their graduation losses. Otterbein had a really easy set one win over Centre. It shouldn’t be that easy…unless Otter is just really great. We’ll be heading back over to the gym in a bit. Slow update day.

UWO takes set two and three. The third set ended with a WashU win but they were out-of-rotation. Oshkosh used that and then came back to win the set.

Watching IWU take on TLU in the gym. IWU has some height. IWU has so much movement on defense. It’s a man-up with the setter. Ball goes to the TLU outside then the left-front (IWU outside) rotates back pushing the libero to middle back. (They play straight up when a middle or oppo attack comes their way.) Taylor French (IWU) has one of the better serves in DIII. TLU always has a good backline but the IWU service is giving them problems late in set one. IWU also brings the heat so trouble for TLU in set one.

Easy set one win for Tufts over Salisbury. See if that continues. Bridgewater is up 2-1 on CNU. Another interesting result. Otterbein gets the sweep of Centre – 13, 15, 25. That’s two really easy set wins.

WashU up 24-21 in the fourth set needed the win to tie the match. They lose the next 5 points (again) for a 24-26 loss (again). Just more experience for UWO?

Here in the IWU/TLU match, the TLU libero served for both middles (I assume). Scorer caught it. Point taken away as TLU won that point. Instead of 9-8 TLU, it became 9-8 IWU. The strange thing is the referee made the middle return serve. The libero couldn’t come in. I guess because she never was out? Seems like losing the point was the penalty. TLU got a double penalty. And, yes IWU served the middle for an ace. (I’m thinking this was the wrong call. Any referees out there want to chime in?)

For the record, Don Flora (Southwestern Coach) thought it was called incorrectly. Mark Massey (Puget Sound Coach) who has 50 years of experience, didn’t know.

Taylor French and Lauren O’Brien (both IWU) have 10 aces between them in this match so far.

Wesleyan joins the team that have now played a match. They beat Wheaton. HSU with the sweep of UMass-Dartmouth. Nicely done. That the first loss for Dartmouth.

IWU gets the sweep of TLU. TLU hung for times but IWU is just really good.

Blue Harvest is a good restaurant suggestion if you find yourself in Georgetown. Happy hour chicken nachos for $7.

Back in the gym for Puget Sound/Southwestern Round II. Bad news for UPS is that Nicolette Raduziner did not make the trip (medical). She was huge in their PLU match and will be greatly missed in this one.

25-14 first set goes to Southwestern. Pretty much everything was working for them as they hit 0.448 as a team. Emory up 2-1 on CMS with CMS leading the fourth late. Centre gets the sweep of Stevenson pretty easily. Albion beat Ohio Wesleyan 3-1. Albion is undefeated while that was OWU first loss.

25-22 here as Southwestern tried to give that away but held on. Maddie Badger (UPS) had a nice set with 6 kills. Emily Marks (SU) can’t miss and is hitting 0.800 right now.

Haverford 3-2 over Springfield. Both teams with just one loss now. Whoa. CMS takes set four with the 5th set now at 15-15. CMS had a nice lead late in this one but Emory came back. La Rocco (Emory) has a million kills in this match. Dang. Emory with the 19-17 win. Great match. Kate La Rocco the star in this one.

Emily Marks 14th kill gets the sweep for Southwestern. She hit 0.565 from the right side…well…and the left at times. Puget Sound played better as the match went along but couldn’t figure out how to stop Marks.

Late updates today. Sorry.

Back at the hotel. Time to play catch-up. Let’s look at the matches I wanted to watch:

• Oshkosh beat WasU 3-1. A little luck involved as described above.

• Otterbein beat Centre 3-0. Great win for Otter.

• Salisbury beat Tufts 3-1. Tufts surprised Salisbury in the first set but Salisbury won the next three.

• Whitworth swept Pomona-Pitzer. Whitworth looks like they are going to be in the mix in the NWC.

• Haverford beat Springfield 3-2. Springfield is always in the mix for the NCAA Tournament so nicely done Haverford.

• Emory 3-2 over CMS. Wrote a bit about this above.

• Dubuque 3-2 over St Olaf. I was interested in this one because Olaf played in the PCC last week. Dubuque still undefeated.

• Denison 3-2 over Hope. Whoa. Big time upset. Denison is undefeated.

• Trinity swept Chris Newport. 18, 17, 18. Nice win for Trinity.

• Juniata 3-1 over Marietta. JC just keeps on doing it. 101!

• UW-Eau Claire 3-1 over Chicago. Lost the first set but then cruised.

• Whitworth/La Verne in progress. It’s 1-1.

Story time before I start updating the “West”. I was handing out gifts to my Southwestern granddaughters and some of the new players/parents didn’t know they had an adopted grandfather. WTF? I’m not disappointed in them. I’m disappointed in the returners. Shame!

Looking at some other results before the “West”. Northwestern swept Millikin. Millikin shouldn’t be ranked right now. Bridgewater did end up beating Chris Newport in 5-sets. CNU will be dropped by me in the rankings. I’ll cover some other ranked results with the West update.

HSU was swept by JHU. Got to 20 and 21 in the last two sets so moral victory. ETBU won both of their matches easily. (Whoops. The box scores will run together on me. ETBU beat Carroll in a sweep but it was 24, 21, 25. Carroll was able to contain Mosley well (10 kills but 7 errors) but Hornsby hit 0.350. 25 attack errors for Carroll in this one.

PLU got swept by Whitewater. First and third set were close.

Austin lost both matches today. I’m very surprised by this. Berry escapes winless Elmhurst in 5-sets.

Ozarks lost their second match of the day and that’s their first loss in program history. They still haven’t lost to a DIII opponent.

Whew…got the box scores added below. Still some matches going on.

Assuming the live stats is wrong about Whittier’s team name, they lead UCSC 1-0 right now. I’m pretty sure it’s the wrong name. I mean…all of the Whittier players could have transferred over to Chapman this week but I think I would have heard about it.

La Verne just closed out Whitworth in 4-sets. They dropped the first but then won pretty easily after that. Cal Lu/Willamette hasn’t started yet…I think. If so, that will get updated tomorrow. Schreiner up 2-0 on L&C. Looks like ULV’s Mya Ray had 23 kills on 0.487 hitting. Seems like she’s back to her normal self.

Schreiner with the sweep. Two left. Update tomorrow.

(Next day) Updated a note on Carroll above. Added the two missing results. Whittier off to a nice start this season.

West Results:

Puget Sound 3 TLU 0UMHB 3 Concordia 1Ozarks 3 Central Baptist College 1Trinity 3 William Paterson 1Gordon 3 Oglethorpe 0UMHB 3 Belhaven 0Otterbein 3 Centre 0Virginia Wesleyan 3 Oglethorpe 0Willamette 3 Pacific Union 0St Thomas 3 Millsaps 2IWU 3 TLU 0Chapman 3 Whitman 1ETBU 3 Dallas 0HSU 3 UMass-Dartmouth 0ETBU 3 Carroll 0Johns Hopkins 3 HSU 0Bridgewater 3 Chris Newport 2Salisbury 3 Tufts 1Regent 3 Warren Wilson 1Wash & Lee 3 Mary Washington 0Trinity 3 Chris Newport 0UC Santa Cruz 3 Chapman 0Whittier 3 UC Santa Cruz 1Cal Lutheran 3 Linfield 1Whittier 3 Whitman 1Whitworth 3 Pomona-Pitzer 0Southwestern 3 Puget Sound 0UW-Whitewater 3 PLU 0La Verne 3 Whitworth 1Cal Lutheran 3 Willamette 1Schreiner 3 Lewis & Clark 0Rhodes 3 Lyon 0Centre 3 Stevenson 0LeTourneau 3 Sewanee 1Millsaps 3 LaGrange 0Rhodes 3 Austin 1Berry 3 Elmhurst 2Carroll 3 Dallas 1Webster 3 Austin 1Concordia 3 Belhaven 0Sterling 3 Ozarks 0St Thomas Piedmont 0Hendrix 3 Webster 1Schreiner 3 Macalester 0Emory 3 CMS 2Redlands 3 Pomona-Pitzer 1

Random Thoughts:

I left the scoreboards at the top of the article today. Trying something different. This way, if you don’t want to page through my dribble, you don’t have to. The second weekend is, I think, the busiest weekend of the season. Everyone has matches this week.

As for the (hot) wife and me, we’ll be at Southwestern around noon, hopefully. As, always, remember to say hello and to tell the (hot) wife how fortunate she is to be married to me. She loves hearing that!

Pour one out for Marian this weekend. They are in the Oshkosh Tournament with a bunch of heavy hitters.

So many good matches that I didn’t list this week. Since I’ll be in a gym and a hotel room, updates will be harder.

Special thanks to all that made donations this past week. This will be the first tournament attended where I won’t lose money by going. It is greatly appreciated!

Going through the “West” conferences:

The ASC looks to be at ETBU and Johns Hopkins this weekend. HSU made the trip east so hope they have a good time out there.

• Concordia is undefeated and will take on UMHB who exist just up the freeway from them. Normally, an easy UMHB win but not sure this time.

• HSU will play the hosts today. That’s one tough matchup but if the impossible happens, it opens up NCAA Tournament possibilities. I love when coaches give that opportunity to their players. If I can be allowed to help…the JHU outsides are good.

The C2C look like their hosting a few tournaments this week.

• Both matches for CNU will be interesting as they get Bridgewater and Trinity.

• I listed that second match up top as I did with the Tufts/Salisbury match.

• UCSC gets both Chapman and Whittier. I wasn’t blown away by what I saw from the Slugs this weekend so both of these matches will be interesting and provide more clarity. Tough to make conclusions on one weekend.

The NWC looks to be in about four different states.

• Puget Sound gets both TLU and Southwestern today. It will be a rematch with Southwestern as the Loggers try to avenge their early loss. TLU took a 4-set loss to Whitworth (if I remember right) so that match will give them some insight into the strength of the other Pirate team.

• PLU is in Wisconsin and draws Whitewater. Just like that HSU/JHU match, greatness can be had today.

The SAA looks to be everywhere today. Lots of traveling here.

• Trinity gets William Paterson prior to the CNU match. This is not a push over game. They need to be ready for a tough opponent.

• I didn’t list the Centre/Stevenson match above, but a tough day of matches for Centre.

So many matches for the SCAC.

• Ozarks goes for win number 2. Are they the only volleyball program in the nation who has never lost a match?

• I’ve listed the SCAC matches that interest me already. For the most part, this should be a good day for the conference.

The SCIAC play in SoCal, Oregon and Wisconsin.

• The top match is that CMS/Emory tilt in Oshkosh.

• Redlands gets Pomona-Pitzer in a non-conference conference match. A Redlands win would give them a lot of confidence going into that season. PP really needs to hit the Bulldogs on the nose and send them back down.

The big thing I saw from the matches I watched last week is how important service receive is right now. There are so many points that are just being given away and it’s so hard to win when the other team doesn’t have to earn 25 points. Every team is trying to figure things out. I mean, you see Trinity doing great against Millikin and NYU and then making too many errors to stay with UWP. Consistency is key and which teams can find it the fastest will help in the NPI race for an at-large.

Probably not the place for this, but I’ll probably say it a lot this season…the 2025 championship is wide open. There is no favorite and there is no right answer for the #1 team. How do you get your team in the tournament and how do you get them playing the best they can? Figure that out and you may earn a ring.

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