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Saturday, Aug 30 Match Day!
Updates: It appears that a topic of conversation during our preseason rankings has cropped up again. Hannah Smith who played at Virginia Wesleyan was reported to have transferred to Salisbury but it appears that she has stayed at VWU. I guess the pending name change to the university really had an impact. Anyway, that makes Salisbury worse and VWU better.
There have already been a number of matches completed this fine morning. One team to watch out for this season is St Mary’s (IN). They moved to 3-0 with a win over Hiram this morning. They were a below 50 NPI team last season but look to be improved. Ohio Wesleyan has also moved to 3-0 with a win over Brockport. Muskingum also at 3-0 with a 5-set win over Alleghany.
(9:40) George Fox and Southern VA have started. GFU lost the first set and are down in the second. Schreiner is up 1-0.
(9:50) I had a note on the Calvin match today that with their schedule, they really can’t afford to lose matches against a lot of teams on their schedule. Well, they lost to Dubuque yesterday so maybe I should have warned them earlier.
(10:30) I listed all of the matches from the “West” below. I’ll fill in with boxscores as they happen. I probably will not highlight players but we’ll see how much time I have. I’m still trying to work through what is possible. For these first 3 weeks, with few in-region matches, there are just a ton of matches.
(10:40) Juniata handled Cortland pretty easily in their first set. Nick Noll and Howard Payne are undefeated. Watched a bit of the UMW/WS match. William Smith took the first but Mary is leading the second.
(11:15) I have the Trinity/NYU match on and something weird happened at 2-2. I believe I saw a lines person motion outside the antenna against NYU. I believe the down ref blew their whistle noticing the lines person and motioned point for Trinity. I believe I saw the up ref acknowledge the down ref and motion point for Trinity. So, the result is point NYU. So strange. I don’t think the initial call was right. There does look like there was a net on NYU but after the whistle. I’m not sure what Trinity did that was bad there except for existing. (So, no issue from me.) There are a ton of wacky scores on the NCAA Scoreboard. Like incomplete second sets. Cortland took the second set from JC but JC takes the third. Juniata is definitely not the #1 team in the country but they are still dangerous. Whether they are a Top 25 team is going to be close. I need more data points.
(11:30) The UPS/Southwestern match doesn’t show up on FloSports. Weird. Now it’s there. HPU is leading in their second match of the day trying to go 4-0 on the season. Is it time we discuss breaking this team up just to be fair to DIII? Williams Smith up 2-1 on UMW. Willamette up 2-1 on Webster. Concordia is now 3-0 on the year. Still no stats making its way from Austin College to the NCAA Scoreboard.
(12:23) Trinity looks like they are going to sweep NYU. Nice statement match for the Tigers. It will be hard to keep them out of my Top 5. Juniata ended up winning in 4-sets. Emory had an easy sweep over St Kate. Coe beat Northwestern in 4-sets. Calvin wins in 4-sets. Those were some of the more interesting matches nationally from this morning.
(1:37) I cannot take Southwestern volleyball much longer if they are going to send me through the ringer every match. They win in 4-sets but a very close match. Emily Marks basically took every swing at the end and delivered. Really good match from Maddie Badger (UPS). These teams will meet again next week at Southwestern.
(NPI UPDATE) The unofficial unofficial NPI Rankings up to the minute!
MIT 62.96
Emory 62.29
Dubuque 61.36
ETBU 60.13
A bunch of teams at 1-0 and at 60.0
(1:50) ETBU/CC on the tube. ETBU won set one but CC winning big in the second. I believe ETBU is throwing down dance moves on the court after points. Chris Newport struggling with the Coast Guard. This is truly a naval battle. Centre is taking on W&L right now, too. I need to get that game up. How does Centre at home playing W&L not have an announcer. CMS had an easy time over St Olaf while La Verne struggled with them yesterday. Intriguing.
(2:06) I just tweeted out a short clip from the Centre/W&L that made me laugh. Carthage beat Loras in 4-sets. Chapman and CWRU are going to a fifth set. There is something about getting to 32 points when playing extras that is special. A number of sets these past two days have ended at 32. Oh, W&L took the first set against Centre.
(2:30) Nice 5-set win for Chapman over CWRU. In other news, just heard that CMS complained about the St Olaf jerseys. They were illegal because the number didn’t contrast with the jersey color. It had a border around the number but this was deemed illegal a few years back. If there is no contrast between the jersey and the number then you are at risk of losing a point to start the match. Readers from a couple of years ago will remember that CMS got hit with this so they take no prisoners now.
(3:30) Nice win for LETU over St Kate. Great 4-0 start for Concordia. I’ve been watching PLU/GAC which is tied 1-1 but Adolphus is about to go up 2-1. I’ve also got Oshkosh/Salisbury on the stream. Oshkosh is up 1-0 and leading in the second. Down at Trinity, Millikin beat Platteville in 4-sets. Now I had Millikin ahead of UWP in my rankings but based on their first two matches, Millikin didn’t look like a ranked team. I have no clue what happened here but they obviously found something. If UWP beats Trinity then I’ll officially be totally clueless. W&L did get their sweep over Centre. They look to be for real this season…again. Another strange one is Smith sweeping William Paterson. They were 0-2 yesterday. Another team that hates Fridays, I guess. Oh…I missed this one…IWU gets the sweep over Chicago. IWU is going to be really tough this season.
(3:50) I was looking at conference records. This would be from earlier today (some matches count but not all). ASC had only 1 loss. The SCIAC also only had 1 loss at the time of the data pull. The UMAC only had 1 win. It was by Northwestern and I know they lost today. WIAC was 11-3. UAA was 11-7 so maybe UAA will slip a bit this season.
(3:57) A lefty middle for Salisbury is always fun. I will say that the camera work at this tournament is sickening. I mean…it makes me sick. They are doing close shots and panning the camera. Just a blurred mess when they do it. They need more pull back shots when the action is going. Two cameras would be great but they are just trying to do too much. Gustavus Adolphus beats PLU in 4-sets. They get Southwestern next. Good weekend for Berry. Certainly better than last year! They beat Witt, Transy and Wartburg. All good opponents.
(6:13) Note to my Pirates. Serve in. So, Trinity is losing to Platteville. Something in the water down there. Down 2-0 and down in the third set. Someone has to make the Millikin/UWP result make sense to me.
(6:16) Pirates with the ace. If you continue to serve long and finally get a deep serve in then they are going to let it go. I see the strategy now. GAC won the first set BTW. That’s why I’m not in the best of moods right now. Saw that WashU came back on Carthage to win in 5-sets. I thought Carthage was going to win that one. WashU lost a lot but still can battle.
(6:22) Ugh. GAC up 2-0. It will be a good week for them. (Narrator’s voice: But not as good as he thought.)
(7:17) Just a few matches to go this evening. Southwestern has come back to tie the match 2-2 and is looking for the reverse sweep. SU has switched from a 5-1 to a 6-2 lineup and having some success. Trinity did end up losing to Platteville. Both teams went 2-1 while NYU and Millikin went 1-2. More data points needed for all four teams. ETBU might be the most impressive squad to me right now. Going 4-0 in that tough CC tournament. St Olaf ends up beating PP and they go 2-2 at the PCC.
(7:37) At no time did I think Southwestern was going to lose this match. Geez. Reverse sweep for my Pirates. GAC and SU both go 2-1. PLU will try to get there with a win over Puget Sound who are looking for their first win. These two always do something special when they play. Colorado College just beat UW-Stevens Point. They went 2-2 in their tournament. UWSP went 1-2.
(NPI UPDATE) The unofficial unofficial NPI Rankings up to the minute!
Albertus Magnus
VTSU-Johnson
Otterbein
Wheaton (IL)
Stevens
No all matches included from today. I’m just happy for VTSU-Johnson.
(8:41) Another round of updates. I have the PLU/UPS match on. Winless UPS is, obviously, ahead 1-0. Sewanee still to play. St Thomas and HSU just started. Both teams are 3-0. UPS is up 8-1 in the second. PLU needs to get going here. It does need to be pointed out that Juniata won both of their matches today. That brings them up to 100 straight wins! Yes, they do hold the DIII record. Penn State holds the overall record at 109. I sure hope someone held up a piece of paper with 100 on it like Wilt Chamberlain did when he scored 100 in a game. Other notes…Johns Hopkins beat Babson in 4-sets.
(9:28) Puget Sound with an easy sweep of PLU. Strange. I mean UPS is good but PLU played well up to this match. All I know is that the NWC will be fun this season. St Thomas / HSU is now on the tube with UST leading 1-0.
(9:38) Started on the Weekly Wrap-Up that will drop tomorrow. On the tube, HSU has tied up St Thomas at 1-1.
(10:00) I think the last of the updates will be done tomorrow. HSU is going to win set three and go up 2-1 over St Thomas. Sewanee was up 2-0 last I looked.
(10:04) I lied. So, as I put my computer away and pulled my head up to really watch this match, I noticed that UST was without Audrey Cataline. She’s on the bench. Not good. I went back and saw where she got hurt. Yikes! I do not approve of this. I hope it’s nothing that will keep her out for long. I will say that a fun player to watch from UST is Ariana Willis. She’s a pin hitter that claims to be 5’7″. I hope to see a match in October down in Houston and I’ll be bringing my tape measure. She’s a high flyer that is a bundle of energy on the court. She looks like a kid that just drove her parents crazy because she couldn’t sit still. Back to the match and HSU won the 3rd set but UST is leading in the 4th.
(Next Day) Sewanee with the sweep and St Thomas with the 5-set win. HSU had 85 Points to UST’s 70. With Cataline hurt, and how HSU performed that’s a match HSU should have won. As always, in these cases, it comes down to errors and HSU made too many.
Today’s West Results:
Howard Payne 3 Arcadia 0Howard Payne 3 New England Col 0ETBU 3 UW-Stevens Point 0ETBU 3 Colorado College 1UMHB 3 Adrian 1HSU 3 Schreiner 1UMHB 3 Alverno 0St Thomas 3 HSU 2Regent 3 Mary Baldwin 1Salisbury 3 Thiel 0William Smith 3 Mary Washington 1Chris Newport 3 Coast Guard 1Scranton 3 Mary Washington 0St Mary’s (MD) 3 Warren Wilson 0UW-Oshkosh 3 Salisbury 1NC Wesleyan 3 Regent 1Greensboro 3 Warren Wilson 0UC Santa Cruz 3 Lewis & Clark 0Southern Virginia 3 George Fox 0Willamette 3 Webster 2Covenant 3 George Fox 0Southwestern 3 Puget Sound 1Whitworth 3 Carleton 0Bluffton 3 Willamette 1Pacific 3 Warner Pacific 2Gust. Adolphus 3 Pacific Lutheran 1Occidental 3 Lewis & Clark 0TLU 3 Whitman 0Northwest 3 Whitworth 2Puget Sound 3 Pacific Lutheran 0Concordia 3 Rhodes 0Trinity 3 NYU 0Concordia 3 Millsaps 1Oglethorpe 3 MUW 2Austin 3 Rhodes 0Wash & Lee 3 Centre 0Berry 3 Wartburg 0Meredith 3 Sewanee 2Oglethorpe 3 La Grange 2Austin 3 Millsaps 2Southwestern 3 Gust Adolphus 2Centre 3 Wilmington 0UW-Platteville 3 Trinity 0Sewanee 3 Huntingdon 0Hendrix 3 Belhaven 1Schreiner 3 Adrian 0LeTourneau 3 La Grange 2McMurry 3 Roanoke 1St Thomas 3 Alverno 0LeTourneau 3 St Kate 1McMurry 3 Methodist 1Hendrix 3 Lyon 1Arcadia 3 Dallas 0Dallas 3 New England Col 0Centenary 3 Wiley 1Colorado College 3 UW-Stevens Point 1Pomona-Pitzer 3 Buffalo State 0Cal Lutheran 3 Buffalo State 0CMS 3 St Olaf 0Chapman 3 CWRU 2Redlands 3 Occidental 0CMS 3 Lake Forest 0Hope Int’l 3 Caltech 1La Verne 3 CWRU 0Caltech 3 West Coast Baptist 0St Olaf 3 Pomona-Pitzer 0
Schedules:
Matches I’m Watching Nationally (Times are CDT & links provided to schedule or tournament page):
Southern Virginia/George Fox 9 am – Southern Virginia won their conference last year and played tough in the Emory Regional. I’d love to see GFU take this one.
Juniata/Cortland 10 am – Just fascinated with what JC will bring this season. What do we do if they finish the weekend without dropping a set?
St Catherine/Emory 10 am – Should be a good test for Emory. Slight chance for an upset here.
NYU/Trinity 11 am – Back at it with the Trinity Tournament. Every match could be listed here. Heck, maybe I did that? (I’m seeing different times for this match.)
Coe/Northwestern 11 am – Both programs are always really good. This should be a great test for both squads.
Calvin/Central 11 am – Calvin put together a really NPI friendly schedule that may not challenge them enough to my likings. Matches like this are must wins all year for Calvin. Central is going to be good. Calvin should win BUT they have to win, too. More pressure.
Southwestern/Puget Sound 11:30 am – Big match for both teams. No longer a Region X issue, however, with Southwestern moving to Region VI. Still, a match both should want and some expectations that they can win. I think both teams should do well this year so a win here brings extra NPI points.
St Olaf/CMS Noon – I have CMS ranked but I could see St Olaf getting the “upset” here. If CMS is going to challenge for the SCIAC and/or an at-large bid, they must win these matches.
Chapman/CWRU Noon – One of the bigger opponents Chapman will face this season. Let’s make this happen!
Loras/Carthage Noon – Loras returned their squad. Carthage was better last season but how good will Loras be this season?
Chicago/IWU 12:30 pm – I don’t have Chicago ranked. I think IWU could really be great this season. This will tell me how wrong I am.
ETBU/Colorado College 1 pm – Rinse and repeat for both teams. Tough weekends. Great tournament.
Millikin/UW-Platteville 1:15 pm – I really struggled with their ordering in my rankings. I only needed to wait 2 days for them to tell me.
Washington & Lee/Centre 1:30 pm – So good. Centre could easily surprise in this one.
Smith/William Paterson 2 pm – Both really good last season. Another match that is so important in our NPI world now.
CWRU/La Verne 3 pm – Leos really need to go undefeated this weekend. Make me proud.
UW-Oshkosh/Salisbury 3 pm – Intriguing. Oshkosh lost a lot but will still be good. Salisbury lost a bunch but got a good transfer in.
ETBU/UW-Stevens Point 3:30 pm – Just a really tough slate of matches for ETBU this weekend.
Gustavus Adolphus/Southwestern 3:30 pm – I’m going to be annoyed if I don’t make it up there this weekend.
UW-Platteville/Trinity 5 pm – I’m going to be annoyed if I end up here instead but leave early to catch a flight and miss this match.
Pomona-Pitzer/St Olaf 5:30 pm – I really want to see the Sagehens come out strong this year and take names. Chirp!
Pacific Lutheran/Puget Sound 8 pm – No clue who is going to win the NWC this season but this will give us an insight. These two contenders play a non-conference-conference match.
Random Thoughts:
I’m still writing this on Wednesday. Travel plans are still up in the air. Remember, whether I make the Puget Sound Tournament or the Trinity Tournament, if you see me with my (hot) wife, please come up and tell how lucky she is to be with me.
In the ASC, outside of ASC, no one is really playing a match of interest.
Well…the St Thomas/HSU match should be a good one. St Thomas was a bit down last season while HSU was a bit up.
ETBU seems to have an extra match (against Superior) in the NCAA Scoreboard. That will not be played.
Some fun C2C games today. I mentioned some above.
William Smith/Mary Washington will be fun. Hopefully, the two get along and it ends in marriage.
Mary Washington also gets Scranton today so big tests for them.
Same for the NWC. Mentioned some games above.
Willamette gets a couple of matches that should be close.
George Fox draws Covenant in a match against a conference winner last year.
Pacific Lutheran will get Gustavus Adolphus in their tournament. Not sure you know this, but PLU co-hosts the Puget Sound Tournament.
Great matches again for the SAA. Just a lot of good teams in this conference.
I think I mentioned all of the Trinity matches above.
Millsaps/Concordia will tell me how far back Concordia has come this season.
Wartburg/Berry should be a good one. Wartburg is always tough.
I had a note yesterday about our largest conference with 12-teams but failed to mention the conference name. If you’ve been stumped since yesterday, I’m sorry. It’s the SCAC.
Millsaps/Austin College should be another test for both teams. Millsaps was pretty good last season. Of course, so was AC.
Reminder to beat New England teams when they come West.
Schreiner/HSU should be a good match against two teams that could be very close to each other this season.
I don’t think I mentioned the CC/UW-Stevens Point match, but a great one to end that tournament with today.
The SCIAC stayed close to home this first weekend and will finish up today.
Two tough matches for PP today. Draw Buffalo State and St Olaf.
Part of me wishes to see Melanie beat Kurt today. A mean a small part of me. Like the pinkie toe toenail kind of small.
As mentioned yesterday, the Match Day is much different than past years. I hope everyone finds the matches they want to stream without me. I’ll see how it went this weekend and adjust, if needed.
Happy Volleyball!
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