Predictions – SCAC

I will be doing a prediction post each day this week.  Here is the order for the week:

• Monday – ASC

• Tuesday – Northwest Conference

• Wednesday – SCAC

• Thursday – SCIAC

• Friday – West Regional Rankings

SCAC

1. Trinity

2. Southwestern

3. Colorado College

4. Austin College

5. Dallas

6. Texas Lutheran University (TLU)

7. Centenary

8. Schreiner

Conference Tournament – Southwestern University

Since 1992, the SCAC champion has been either Trinity, Southwestern or Colorado College and this streak will continue this season (26 straight years!).  Now, figuring out who will continue the tradition is the tricky part.  Both Trinity and Southwestern lose outstanding setters but both squads seem to have their replacements already on the team.  Trinity returns all of their hitters, Southwestern loses a middle (but gains a transfer middle) and Colorado College lose their outstanding OH (Holtze).  After watching Holtze for 4-years you can’t come away without being incredibly impressed and I just think Colorado may struggle a little with her not on the floor.  So, in my mind it comes down to Trinity and Southwestern.  I really think there is a good chance that Trinity and Southwestern actually tie for the top spot this season, but I will go ahead and pick Trinity just because there is less to integrate to start the season.  I think by the end of the year, we could see Southwestern being the better team so I will give them the Conference Tournament.  In the end, these three teams will battle all season and a different order wouldn’t surprise me.  Austin College is my choice at #4 but they lose two of their top 3 hitters and don’t seem to be bringing in any freshman this year.  TLU also suffers some huge statistic losses in the hitting categories so I’ll keep Dallas above them.  Centenary and Schreiner typically struggle in this conference and although I think both will be noticeably better, I don’t see them breaking into that second tier of teams.

UPDATE – Schreiner has posted their schedule and it appears with the coaching change there that they also lost the bulk of the team that contributed in 2016.  Hoping for the best but they will struggle mightily this season.

UPDATE – Holy cow!  TLU has 11 incoming freshmen and now has 21 total players on their roster.  If they can hit on a few this year then they may have a chance to move up a spot or two.

UPDATE – Austin College now lists 3 freshmen on their roster.  Thought it was strange when I didn’t see any when it was first published.