Friday, Sept. 6 Match Day

Updates:  Made it to UTD. Forgot they have the courts next to each other if they open the stands. Get to see it all.

HSU takes set one 25-18. SU wins 25-23 as both teams hitting around 0.400.

HSU up 2-0 as they take the second set 25-21. SU getting blown out in the second. Good comeback but it ends 25-20. Tied 1-1. 8 total attack errors for both teams over two sets. It’s a hitting clinic.

HSU with the sweep. Pomona-Pitzer had a good lead in the third but gave it up. PLU takes the third and are up 2-1. Blocking is the difference.

SU up 14-5 in the fourth. 25-14. Going 5 sets.

PLU 8-6 on the turn. Great match. PLU up 11-7. Whoa. Southwestern with the win 15-12.

HSU takes first set over Aurora 26-24. Good day so far for the Cowgirls.

Awesome game so far. UT Dallas 26-24 over Trinity in the first set. Both teams look really good

HSU 25-21 in the second set. Up 2-0.

UMHB up 2-1 on Endicott.

Shout out to Pomona-Pitzer’s Laney Pope and The Hyphen for saying hello. Unfortunately neither agreed to throw the Southwestern match for me. Shout out to PLU for the swag. I was really impressed with the Lutes. They got stuck in one rotation at the end and it cost them.

Trinity evens it up. This could go 5-sets.

Aurora pulls one back but are still down 2-1.

I missed a freshman of the year candidate in UTD Catherine Croft. Six rotation outside that can bring the heat.

UMHB takes down NE Region Endicott in 4-sets.

UTD up 2-1 after taking set three 25-23.

Aurora fights back in the fourth but a service error ends it 25-23. HSU is perfect on the day.

La Verne up 2-1 on Willamette. Haley Celaya is playing this weekend for the Leopards.

JWU with their first win of the season against Rockford. 3-0.

UTD upsets Trinity in 4 sets. With Pomona-Pitzer losing earlier and PLU it seems like the West doesn’t want any undefeated teams.

Of course ETBU wins so we have at least one. Santa Cruz is another undefeated team but they are losing to CMS.

Berry sneaks past UMHB 28-26 in the first set. UMHB evens it up in the second.

SU takes game one 25-16 over Pomona-Pitzer. Trinity handling PLU on the other court.

UMHB takes the third set. Lead 2-1.

PLU holds off Trinity to even it up. 1-1. PLU now up 2-1. Another upset coming?

Pomona-Pitzer dismantles SU in the third. Still down 2-1.

Berry takes the fifth 15-13.

Pomona-Pitzer took it to a new level starting in set three. SU holds them off to win 3-1.

Trinity forces a fifth set. Lead early.

PLU wins in 5. Another loss for #7 Trinity.

First meal of the day and then back to catch UTD. I will say the difference in talent today between teams is very slight. It’s whichever team minimizes the youthful mistakes.

Back at the gym in time to see UTD drop the first set to Aurora. Uh oh. Don’t let up now.

UTD looks down. Aurora is young and a bit undersized but they are up 2-0.

I hate it when the people doing live stats don’t close out the match. I think Puget Sound got the reverse sweep on TLU. 5th set still shows 15 to 14 but it should be over.

UTD really struggled and end up getting swept by Aurora. Time to drive home.

I may have jumped the gun on that Puget Sound 5th set score. I guess it was 24-22! Box score is still wrong and says 15-14.

Lots to process today and I can already tell the Weekly Wrap-Up will be a mess again. At some level, every match I witnessed today in person was an upset. HSU took down undefeated Pomona-Pitzer. Southwestern beats ranked Pacific Lutheran. HSU then beats previously ranked #10 Aurora. UT-Dallas beats #7 Trinity. Southwestern beats Pomona-Pitzer (maybe not an upset but I had Pomona-Pitzer ranked in the West Region this week). PLU then upsets Trinity. Finally, Aurora takes down UT-Dallas in the nightcap. All of these results were just strange in a lot of ways.

Another undefeated West Region team goes down as Dallas beats ETBU in 5-sets. That leaves only Concordia and McMurry.

Just three matches left and they look messy. TLU takes the first game against Cal Lutheran. Puget Sound and Oxy are tied at 1-1. I can’t find the Whittier live stats but I’m sure something crazy is going on there, too.

10:00 a.m. (All times central)
HSU vs Pomona-Pitzer	Video	Stats	HSU 3 P-P 0
Southwestern vs Pacific Lutheran	Video	Stats	SU 3 PLU 2
11:00 a.m.
LeTourneau vs MIT	Video	Stats	MIT 3 LETU 0
Noon
#20 UMHB vs Endicott	Video	Stats	UMHB 3 Endicott 1
Rockford at JWU (Denver)	Video	Stats	JWU 3 Rockford 0
12:30 p.m.
#7 Trinity at UT-Dallas	Video	Stats	UTD 3 Trinity 1
HSU vs Aurora	Video	Stats	HSU 3 Aurora 1
1:00 p.m.
ETBU vs Central Baptist	Video	Stats	ETBU 3 CB 0
George Fox vs #12 UW-Whitewater	Video	Stats	Whitewater 3 GFU 0
Willamette vs La Verne	Video	Stats	ULV 3 Willamette 1
2:00 p.m.
#20 UMHB at #9 Berry	Video	Stats	Berry 3 UMHB 2
Concordia vs Linfield	Video	Stats	CTX 3 Linfield 0
Centenary vs Chapman	Video	Stats	Chapman 3 Centenary 0
UC Santa Cruz at #5 CMS	Video	Stats	CMS 3 UCSC 0
3:00 p.m.
Central Baptist at Belhaven	Video	Stats	Belhaven 3 CB 0
LeTourneau at #10 Colorado College	Video	Stats	CC 3 LETU 0
#7 Trinity vs Pacific Lutheran	Video	Stats	PLU 3 Trinity 2
Southwestern vs Pomona-Pitzer	Video	Stats	SU 3 P-P 1
3:30 p.m.
Dubuque vs George Fox	Video	Stats	Dubuque 3 GFU 0
4:00 p.m.
Illinois Tech vs Lewis & Clark	Video	Stats	LC 3 Illinois 1
Paul Quinn at Austin College	Video	Stats	AC 3 Paul Quinn 0
4:30 p.m.
Linfield vs #5 CMS	Video	Stats	CMS 3 Linfield 0
Puget Sound vs TLU	Video	Stats	PS 3 TLU 2
Colby-Sawyer vs Chapman	Video	Stats	Chapman 3 Colby 0
5:00 p.m.
ETBU vs Dallas	Video	Stats	Dallas 3 ETBU 2
MIT vs Willamette	Video	Stats	MIT 3 Willamette 0
5:30 p.m.
Aurora at UT-Dallas	Video	Stats	Aurora 3 UTD 0
6:00 p.m.
Sul Ross State vs Paul Quinn	Video	Stats	Sul Ross 3 Paul Quinn 1
Arlington Baptist vs McMurry	Video	Stats	McMurry 3 AB 1
Whitworth at Lewis-Clark St.	Video	Stats	LC State 3 Whitworth 1
6:45 p.m.
Concordia vs Occidental	Video	Stats	CTX 3 Oxy 0
Whittier vs Centenary	Video	Stats	Whittier 3 Centenary 1
UC Santa Cruz at Cal Lutheran	Video	Stats	Cal Lu 3 UCSC 1
7:00 p.m.
Dallas at Belhaven	Video	Stats	Dallas 3 Belhaven 1
Sul Ross State at Austin College	Video	Stats	AC 3 Sul Ross State 0
La Verne at #10 Colorado College	Video	Stats	CC 3 La Verne 0
8:00 p.m.
Mills College at JWU (Denver)	Video	Stats	JWU 3 Mills 0
9:00 p.m.
Puget Sound vs Occidental	Video	Stats	PS 3 Oxy 1
TLU at Cal Lutheran	Video	Stats	Cal Lu 3 TLU 1
Whittier vs Colby-Sawyer	Video	Stats	Whittier 3 Colby 0

Random Thoughts: A few tournaments are really late with the video and stats links. I’ll try to update as best I can but I’ll be in a gym so it will be tough. Speaking of that, I’ll be at the UT-Dallas Tournament so say hello if you are brave enough. Yellow hat, as always. Tall, as always. Goofy, most of the time.

The UT-Dallas tournament and the Cal Lu Fornia Tournament will have all four West Region conferences represented. Actually the Cal Lu Tournament will also include ACAA member UC Santa Cruz so a clean sweep there. All of this is important because it provides an opportunity for a team to gain an advantage over the other conferences if they can win out.

Interested in seeing Pomona-Pitzer play this weekend. They have 3 matches and it probably goes from easiest to hardest with HSU, Southwestern and Trinity. Now, HSU won’t be easy by any stretch but if the Sagehens struggle with them (or lose) then the rest of the weekend could be difficult.

Southwestern will play Pacific Lutheran in the 10 a.m. match (or 8 a.m. for the Lutes). Pomona-Pitzer will also have the same time issue in their 10 a.m. match with HSU. Not sure how I’m going to see both of these at the same time if they put the big screen up between the courts.

LeTourneau gets first crack at MIT playing in Colorado College. I really want this one Yellowjackets!

The noon start sees UMHB going against another New England team and I want this one equally as much. UMHB returns to the site of their regional final last year where they made it to the finals.

Trinity / UT-Dallas will be a good one and has regional ranking implications.

George Fox needs all of our love that we can send them as they take on #12 UW-Whitewater.

Berry schedules UMHB on the backside of a back-to-back in a clash of ranked teams. The Cru ended Berry’s season last year. Well scheduled Vikings.

Interested in seeing the Santa Cruz results from their matches down at Cal Lutheran. I good week will give them a great leg up in their chances for a Pool B bid.

Trinity was beat two years ago by Pacific Lutheran in the Southwestern Regional. Their chance for revenge has come today.

Southwestern plays Pomona-Pitzer at the same time. Last time they played was 2015 at Pomona on a HOT day with no air conditioning. UT-Dallas darn better have that A/C working today! This is a great SCAC / SCIAC match-up.

Aurora takes on UT-Dallas later in the day. Aurora was #10 in the preseason poll but lost 3 matches their first weekend. They have to know their at-large chances are hanging by a thread and should be a lot tougher.

Some interesting mid-level matches between the ASC, SCAC and SCIAC over at Cal Lutheran. I know Centenary is struggling with injuries and it will be interesting to see what they will be able to do.

Puget Sound in two matches they should win before things get tougher tomorrow.

Intrigued by the Sul Ross State / Austin College match. AC would normally have this easy but they have been struggling while Sul Ross has been surging.

Don’t think I missed Colby-Sawyer on the schedule. Another New England team that needs to be taken down. Get ‘er done West!