Regional Finals

I got a chance to listen to the Carthage/Wash U, Whitewater/St. Thomas and La Verne/Puget Sound matches.

The Central and Midwest finals went the way I thought they would, although Whitewater had to come back from a 9-0 hole to win Game 3 over the Tommies. The Warhawks were down 10-0 to start Game 4 and couldn’t quite get over the hump. WW was down 4-1 in Game 5 and tied it at 13. WW scored the last two points to win. Schultz led WW with 23 kills.

Wash U made it sound easy over Carthage. The Bears took the crowd out of it at the end of Game 2, a 30-27 Wash U win, and never looked back, winning in 4. Five Bears reached double digits in kills. Carlino had a rough one for CC. She put down nine kills in a team-leading 41 attempts. CC hit a combined .087 in games three and four.

Juniata got back to business after a semifinal scare in which they were pushed to five games by Christopher Newport. In the final, Amber Thomas had 22 kills and Haverford hit -.027 for the match with just 19 kills in three games.

Stevens won the final of its joke regional in three over Nazareth.

Wittenberg didn’t lose a game in winning its regional. Wittenberg swept Ohio Northern in the final. Wittenberg’s Emily Bell was the only Tiger in double figures with 17 kills in the final.

Emory finished off top-seeded Trinity in four in the South final. Emory had 80 kills in the four games. Alysse Meyer led the way with 20 kills. EU had 21 kills on 32 attempts in Game 3.

Amherst defeated host MIT in four. Amherst’s Jaclyn DeMais had 27 kills on a ridiculous 70 attempts. She added 25 digs for good measure.

Out west, Puget Sound beat La Verne in five. Throughout the match the announcers kept almost apologizing for the lack of hustle displayed by both teams. But it went five games. That’s usually good entertainment. Sounded like a bummer of a match anyway.

Should be a decent second day at nationals. May as well not even go the first day. Emory could beat Wash U, but that’s about it. Here are the matchups (my predictions).

Wittenberg vs. Stevens (Wittenberg) Wash U vs. Emory (Wash U) Whitewater vs. Puget Sound (Whitewater) Juniata vs. Amherst (Juniata)

Semis: (Wittenberg) over (Wash U) (Juniata) over (Whitewater)

Final: (Juniata) over (Wittenberg)

-Ricky Nelson