NWC RAC Member Lily Hallock

It’s hard to believe that the season is already 3 weeks old (almost) and what’s even crazier is that the Regional Advisory Committees (RAC) should be meeting in the next week or two to begin their process of creating the regional rankings. For those new to this game, the only rankings that matter in our DIII volleyball world are the RAC regional rankings. These are done by 10 committees that consist of a Chair and a member from each conference in the region. In Region X, that means a representative from the ASC, NWC, SCAC and SCIAC. We do not have a C2C representative as only one school from our region is in the conference. The rankings that come out of the 10 RACs are used on selection day to determine the at-large bids. Only the highest ranked program that didn’t get an automatic qualifier (or a previous at-large bid) is eligible for consideration. For more information on tournament selection and the RAC, please see an article I did on the subject, which you can find here.

Back to our RAC and we know that Cal Lutheran’s Kellee Roesel (SCIAC) will stay on the RAC but every other position became open this year. We’ve learned that UC Santa Cruz’s Gabi Houston (C2C as luck would have it) will become the RAC Chair and that Austin College’s Ed Garza will represent the SCAC. What we don’t know is the ASC and NWC members. Well, I’ve got one of those resolved for you as Lily Hallock who is the head coach at Willamette will become the new NWC member.

Coach Hallock was previously a coach at UW-La Crosse and is in her fourth season at Willamette so she is experienced but I don’t think she has served on a RAC before. RAC experience is interesting to me because I think only Ed Garza and Kellee Roesel have served on RACs before and this should be the first go-around for our RAC Chair. Remember, this is the person that on selection day is fighting for our teams against the other 9 Chairs. (Yes, I know NCAA, it’s not fighting. It’s cooperating with each other to get the best teams possible in the tournament.) Note to Gabi, this is not true. Fight!

I’m still missing the ASC RAC member but my money is on ETBU’s Head Coach Mallory Matthews or an administrator from one of the schools that will be remaining in the conference. This is purely a guess.

Anyway, congratulations to my new best friend, Lily Hallock, on becoming a RAC Member and I’ll keep my Latvian hackers on the job trying to figure out the ASC member.