Quarterfinals (11/18/21)

Updates: Here we go! Best of luck to all.

MIT played well but got beat handily in set one.

More of the same. Easy win for Juniata. MIT committed more errors in this set.

Scoring error? In the Elite 8? Maybe we need to have the manual red blue flip scores at the table. That way if they mess up on the score all of the parents can start screaming. Don’t we miss those days?

MIT is still alive! Juniata up 2-1.

Juniata wins 3-1. Congratulations!

I have to admit, this match didn’t keep my interest too much. MIT seemed to just have to players having any success. Overall, Juniata just looked better and seemed to pull out the scoring run whenever they needed it. The big part of the game that was a huge mismatch was serving. Juniata had 5 aces with no errors while MIT had no aces with 8 service errors.

Next game probably starts around 3:20 Central time.

Big runs by both sides has the first set at 21-20 UWEC.

UWEC pull it out and take set one. Kind of a weird match.

25-15 UWEC. Tufts needs to pick their play and fast. Hit 0.026 in that set. UWEC up 2-0.

27-25 UWEC and they get the sweep. Better effort by Tufts and they actually hit 0.343 (pending an update on the statistics) but still couldn’t win a set.

Minor soapbox. With both New England schools now out, I believe this makes it 20 years without a New England win in the Elite 8. Covid year so I’m not blaming anyone but I think it really hurts the New England schools when they don’t try to play elite programs. It’s fine if that area produces elite programs but they haven’t in 2 decades. When you get to the Elite 8, you are going to play an elite program but if your team is not prepared then it makes things that much tougher. If the goal is not to win a championship then fine. I just hate to see any program do well but not do what they can to put their team in the best possible position to win a championship. Bottom line, the NE teams need to travel. They need to schedule Calvin and the WIAC teams. Go west. Play on the road. Get use to the travel and what it’s like to have to pick up your game. Then we might see a different result.

CMS/Berry will probably start around 6:00 pm Central.

CMS 25-19 after being down 5-0 to start the match.

Same story, second verse. 25-20 CMS. I really don’t think CMS is playing their best game right now. Berry could be influencing that. They have a good block game going. But, this would be the time to jump on that and Berry is unable to right now.

OMG! It’s an obvious challenge. Give it to Berry and move on. I haven’t been tracking challenges. Is that the first win?

Berry with the third set win. CMS leads 2-1.

CMS comes back big and takes set four and the match.

Trinity/Calvin will start around 8:45 pm.

Last match of the night has started. Calvin with the early lead.

Some weird matches tonight. Calvin with a huge lead only to see Trinity storm back to tie it at 20-20 only to then go on a late run to win 25-20. Calvin up 1-0.

Trinity takes set two and we are now tied up at 1-1. Could we have our first 5-set match?

Crazy that we don’t have statistics for this match. Calvin up 5-0 early. All three sets have seen a team with a big lead early.

Trinity takes set three. Up 2-1.

And we have our 1st 5-set match! Calvin takes set four. If Trinity passes, they take this. Lots of issue in the service receive right now.

Big start by Calvin. Every match has had someone jump out. Not enough time for Trinity for that to happen much more.

Calvin with a huge lead but a couple of mistakes has Trinity back in this thing.

Huge net call at 8-5. Huge net call at 10-7. Leggett serving at 9-11. This is the rotation Trinity wants.

But Calvin wins the point. Huge.

Calvin 15-10. Westra with the kill. At 13-10, if Trinity could have won that point then when it got to 14, Westra would have rotated off the front. Not sure it would have mattered, but I was thinking it at the time.

Box score is out. First time to look at stats for the Trinity/Calvin match. Westra was a beast.

Sad to see Trinity to lose. Would have loved to see an all Region X Final 4 match. The Tufts seeding really messed up the pairings a bit. Still, you have to beat three good teams to win this thing and Trinity came up short. So many good players will now be gone but Trinity always has good players ready to step up. Just a really good chance with this squad to win it all but it’s so tough. Still, the core got to the Elite 8 two “years” in a row. Tough thing to do from our region.

Anyway, great match by Calvin and Westra. I have to believe CMS will be up for this match since that was their only lost. Neutral court this time. Great matchup. Juniata and UW-Eau Claire should be good, too.

Standout performances:

• Victoria Taylor (Juniata) 16 kills 2 digs 2 blocks

• Arianna Barrett (UWEC) 18 kills 1 assist 1 ace 9 digs 1 block

• Audrey Sawyer (CMS) 12 kills 0.444 1 assist 2 digs 4 blocks

• Heidi Westra (Calvin) 29 kills 0.479 1 ace 14 digs 1 block

Random Thoughts: Down to the last 8 teams in the nation and despite the reseeding process, we have some intriguing matches.

Juniata/MIT – MIT looked bad against Trinity at home back in October. They also have losses to Babson and Williams, which are fine teams but those efforts will make for quick work here. They suffered an injury to their middle, Rozario, in the Regional Final so that doesn’t help things. Their only loss was to Johns Hopkins but for most of the season I really didn’t know what to make of this team. Eventually, they had some nice wins over good teams but they never played elite teams. Kind of amazing to me that they only have one team in common and that’s Babson. MIT lost in 4-sets at Babson while Juniata beat them in 5-sets on a neutral court. So, despite the seeding, this could be a close one. On the flip side, if Junita performs well and MIT isn’t ready then this could be an easy sweep. Give me Juniata.

UW-Eau Claire/Tufts – Tufts has won 12 of their last 13 with their only loss being to Wesleyan in 5-sets. They have shown that they can beat elite teams in Johns Hopkins and Trinity. That’s something Juniata hasn’t shown us, yet. They have also lost to teams that are not at the level of Eau Claire. UWEC have won their last 13 matches but with a loss to St. Norbert on their schedule, they have shown that they can be unpredictable. It’s funny because UWEC’s wins aren’t as impressive as Tufts although they have beaten Hope, UW-Whitewater and Northwestern (and others). Tufts is not going to come into this afraid and I think anyone taking Tufts has firm logic to do so here. In the end, something seems to trip up the New England schools so my pick is UW-Eau Claire but this could go either way.

CMS/Berry – Berry had a lot of success in the Emory Regional dropping only one set (a set where they hit 0.333 and had 19 kills). They should be coming in to this with a lot of confidence but I do not like the matchup. CMS is coming off an impressive 5-set win over Wartburg where they displayed incredible hitting but also really good defense (something that hasn’t always been there this season). If they can duplicate that effort three more times then CMS is winning the championship. Now, that’s not going to happen (check that first set against Aurora) so it’s a question of whether a team can play at their peak while CMS has an off match. Give me CMS in this one.

Trinity/Calvin – This is actually a repeat of the quarterfinal match from 2019 when Calvin was the 3rd seed and Trinity was 6th. That match went 5-sets and I wouldn’t be surprised to see the same thing happening here. These teams have one common opponent in CMS. A team Calvin beat but a team Trinity lost to. The problem with the comparison is that they happened at different points in the season and Calvin was at home. This will be another great match but I think the experience of Trinity finds them through. My pick is Trinity.

I went with the favorites. Sorry. I think Tufts is the most likely to surprise, followed by Calvin. I don’t have a lot of faith in MIT or Berry winning their matches but anything can happen and who knows what injuries are out there.