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Regionals Day 4
Updates: Juniata with an easy set one win. MIT has a nice lead in their set one. It should be noted that there are three teams from New England playing in the finals today. It will be interesting to see if all three make it.
More of a struggle but Juniata takes set two. Susquehanna and MIT are currently tied at 16.
MIT 27-25. Both teams had set points. 2-0.
Consecrata Rozario (MIT) just got hurt in a non contact play. She’s been great so far.
NYU up 6-0! Good to see they are playing on the main court. The water incident from yesterday forced them to reconfigure the gym.
Juniata with the sweep over Wesleyan. Congratulations to our fourth Elite 8 team. It appears they move into the #1 spot on the reseeding list. Who had Calvin at #4 right now?
NYU 25-18 over Trinity and it wasn’t that close.
Susquehanna win 25-22 over MIT. MIT still leads 2-1. Has the Rozario injury changed this outcome?
Tufts takes set one from JHU!
Tufts with a nice lead in set two. That is one crazy old-school brace on Simone Bliss’ leg. Really smart hitter, by the way.
Scranton broadcast has so much buffering. Annoying.
MIT with a big lead in the 4th trying to close it out.
Tufts is now up 2-0 over Johns Hopkins. Is the King going to die today? Shocking result so far but this Tufts team did beat Trinity so they are proven. JHU has not been down 2 sets all year.
5 straight points for NYU and it’s now Trinity 23-22.
Second timeout works. Trinity wins 25-22. All tied up 1-1. Huge set coming up.
Congratulations to MIT. Our 5th team to make the Elite 8. I have them as the 5th seed. (That’s before the NE 2 to 3 spot increase the NCAA likes to do.)
Both Trinity and JHU are up big in their 3rd sets. JHU needs to win to stay alive. CMS and Wartburg are in a close one in the first set.
The NYU blocking game is impressive. Trinity still has a huge lead.
The king sill lives for at least one more set. Tufts lead 2-1.
Trinity up 2-1.
The Wartburg/CMS match is amazing. Melanie Williams (CMS) against the Wartburg defense in a nutshell.
Tufts with a nice lead in the 4th set over JHU.
Wartburg 28-26. Williams in her last rotation on the front row didn’t get the set. Homes was then blocked. 27 digs for Wartburg in that set. Both teams hitting really well.
Tufts up 15-7. The king needs to respond now.
The king is dead. Johns Hopkins hasn’t lost for almost two years but they did today. Congratulations to Tufts as our 6th Elite 8 team. I have Tufts 6th but the comparison with MIT was really close. The common opponent favored MIT with the old data but that could have changed.
Region X teams are in trouble. Trinity is up 2-1 but are down late in the 4th. Probably will go to a 5th. CMS is about to go down 2-0.
19-14 Wartburg (set 2) and that rally was second to none. Numerous outstanding digs by Wartburg. They lose the point but CMS has to be discouraged.
Wartburg takes the set. Up 2-0 over CMS. Wartburg is amazing right now! Trinity and NYU are in extras.
Trinity takes set four 32-30 and wins the match. Wonderful set four by these teams. Trinity gets placed 2nd. They have a head-to-head loss against Tufts but they have a common opponent advantage that evens it out if you are doing score card method. They also have a head-to-head over MIT. I moved Calvin over Berry. Ranked Results is the edge for me there.
Wartburg up 2-0 and it’s 14-14 in the third. Wartburg could do another Johns Hopkins season.
CMS comes back in a tight 3rd set. Wartburg leads 2-1. I’ve added both Wartburg and CMS below to see where they might fit.
Fourth set and CMS is up by 5 points.
Alright, I went through both Wartburg and CMS. I have Wartburg as the #1 seed. If CMS wins, they will slot in 2nd behind Juniata. Expect the two NE teams to not be seeded at the end. I have no idea why.
Wonderful match at Wartburg. Going to a 5th set. CMS needs to finish off the reverse sweep. Wartburg had the knife in but didn’t twist. Can they twist now?
Wow. Wow. Wow. CMS wins 18-16 in one of the best DIII matches I’ve ever seen. All respect to Wartburg. So impressive. Great job CMS. Two Region X teams in the Elite 8.
My final seeding order is below. I’m going to be off on SOS. Everyone got 3 wins so it doesn’t impact record. Everyone got 2 or 3 Ranked Results. I kind of hate ranking Juniata first because I think they had an easier regional. The CMS regional was insane and that last match was as good as you will see. They would be my top team. I also would split CMS and Trinity, but I don’t know if the NCAA will do that. If we weren’t reseeding, CMS would be the top seed and they would probably be playing MIT.
Just a wonderful day of volleyball. As a Region X fan, watching that 4th set by Trinity and then the entire CMS match was great. I wish Berry had an off day on Friday as I would have loved to see my Pirates in the mix. Oh well.
Standout performances from today:
Olivia Foley (Juniata) 2 kills 36 assists 6 digs
Annie Bryan (MIT) 18 kills 1 ace 1 dig 6 blocks
Jenelle Yarwood (Tufts) 12 kills 7 aces 10 digs 2 blocks
Emma Funk (Trinity) 5 kills 10 blocks
Brenna Bell (CMS) 18 kills 9 digs (last 2 kills in the match)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Later today, after all of the Elite 8 is determined, the selection committee will reseed the teams and complete the Elite 8 bracket. Based on past years, this seeding is going to be weird/strange/wrong/stupid. I think they use the selection criteria to determine it and then add one spot for a New York team and 2 to 3 spots for a New England team. Below, I’ll list the Elite 8 teams, with their final criteria in the order I think it should play out. (This is NOT the order I believe it should be.) (If criteria is used then it’s quite possible that the NCAA Tournament matches are also included but this really only impacts SOS.) I will update, as best I can, as teams make the Elite 8.
Juniata (V) 28-1 (0.966) / 0.649 / 20-1 RR
Babson & Wesleyan / Best: Wesleyan Worst: JHU / 0 Bad Loss
CMS (X) 27-1 (0.964) / 0.585 / 8-1 RR | CO(MIT), CO(Berry), CO(Calvin), CO(UWEC), H2H(Trinity), CO(Trinity)
Aurora, Bethel & Wartburg / Best: Wartburg Worst: Calvin / 0 Bad Loss
Trinity (X) 30-2 (0.938) / 0.621 / 11-2 RR | CO(Tufts), H2H(MIT), CO(MIT), CO(Berry)
Middlebury & NYU / Best: MIT Worst: Tufts / 0 Bad Loss
UW-Eau Claire (VIII) 29-3 (0.906) / 0.619 / 14-2 RR | CO(Calvin)
Gust. Adolphus & Hope / Best: Hope Worst: St. Norbert / 1 Bad Loss
Calvin (VII) 27-3 (0.900) / 0.605 / 12-3 RR | CO(Trinity), H2H(CMS)
Wittenberg & Otterbein / Best: CMS Worst: Augsburg / 1 Bad Loss
Berry (VI) 24-2 (0.923) / 0.608 / 7-2 RR |
Southwestern & Emory / Best: Emory Worst: BSC / 0 Bad Loss
MIT (II) 26-3 (0.897) / 0.621 / 12-3 RR | CO(Tufts)
Haverford & Susquehanna / Best: Bowdoin Worst: Williams / 0 Bad Loss
Tufts (I) 18-5 (0.783) / 0.620 / 7-5 RR | H2H(Trinity)
Eastern, Cortland & JHU / Best: JHU Worst: Williams / 0 Bad Loss
Top line info with team are Region, Record prior to tournament, SOS prior to tournament, Ranked Results record prior to tournament and any Common Opponent (CO) and Head-to-Head (H2H) advantages with other teams in the list. Second line info are Ranked teams beat in tournament, Best and Worst loss and Number of bad losses.
Random Thoughts: I went 12-1 yesterday so I’m 45-6 now. All of the underdogs are gone from the tournament. I think Ricky and Ned win the underdog pool at 4 points.
Finals day!
Picks for the day are Susquehanna, Juniata, Johns Hopkins, CMS and Trinity.
With those picks said…I think they are all close contests. JHU would be my best bet. I would have said CMS but I really liked Wartburg’s game against Colorado College.
Best of luck to the remaining teams!
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