Saturday, Nov 9 Match Day!

Updates: I snuck in an article yesterday. Take a look here.

I thought Otterbein might be in the window this morning but it’s Eastern. Right now, we have Eastern needing an at-large with Messiah being the 1-seed in their conference. Messiah is outside the window. So, if you read my article from yesterday, this is now a second conference like the CCIW. There may actually be two extra spots if the high NPI team wins their conference. First team out is Otterbein. Second team out is Southwestern. Gallaudet has moved within the window but are expected to win their conference. Whittier has moved into the 59 range. They have La Verne left today and then probably a rematch in their tournament.

Big win for Centre taking down IWU in 4-sets. IWU will need to win their conference. Centre may have created enough of a cushion in case they lose their tournament. Centre is around 60.38 with that win. They had dropped below 60 yesterday. I finals loss against Berry (let’s say) puts them at 59.59 or so. Ugh…so close.

Stockton’s win over Salisbury only takes them up to mid-57s. Cortland with a surprise sweep over Ithaca. Shouldn’t hurt Ithaca and Cortland probably will not need the at-large.

Smith’s loss to MIT takes them from just above 60 to just below.

Austin College gets to 20-wins and all is right in the world. Concordia not doing a great job making sure the Live Stats work. They have a great banner for it. But, to paraphrase Seinfeld, “You see, you know how to create the Live Stats link, you just don’t know how to display the stats in the Live Stats. And that’s really the most important part of the Live Stats: the stats.” Today, I’m able to get it to flash the stats before the banner comes back. Tried two different browsers.

Not listed in the High NPI is William Smith/Rochester. Rochester with the upset. That’s almost a 10 point NPI upset. That puts William Smith at 61.18 but still safe in the at-large window. These are the results that have me shaking my head at how NPI values teams.

Southwestern had a slim chance at an at-large but saw teams above them lose. Now second team out, they are tied with McMurry 1-1. In set three they have dropped 8 straight points and are on the verge of going down 2-1. A loss to McMurry eliminates all chances at an at-large. McMurry is so good at hitting the back corner. The very first thing I would teach all middles. Also the second, third and last thing.

TLU and McMurry up 2-1 in their matches. A McMurry win would be another large NPI upset on the day (almost 10 points).

Sometimes the ones you care about the most need some tough love. Southwestern 3-2 over McMurry.

Franklin & Marshall giving everything Johns Hopkins could want but are still down 2-0.

Babson looks like they will lose to Springfield. That would drop them to around 59.58. I think there are going to be 10 teams at 59.58.

ETBU with a tough 5-set win over Hendrix.

Checking on the SCAC tiebreaker. I thought TLU would have the tiebreaker on SU since they swept them while losing in 5-sets. But, set record doesn’t appear as a tiebreaker. (My information could be outdated.) The tiebreaker would be record going down the standings and SU would win it based on their win over Trinity. TLU made up the difference with their win over CC. Both are #1 seeds but Trinity has a better conference record. We’ll see what the SCAC says.

Very impressive win by Millikin over WashU.

William Smith losing to Susquehanna in the 5th set. Stay tuned. A loss by William Smith, combined with their previous loss today, takes them down to around 60 NPI.

Boom! Susquehanna takes down William Smith. Interestingly, the play before it was over, it should have been over. A William Smith player had a foot out of bounds when the ball was served. Down referee appeared to be looking at it but no call.

A 3-set triple-double is incredible difficult. Georgia McGovern (CMS) almost got one. Missed out by 1 dig. Or missed it by 7 kills. She had 25 assists with 10 service aces. Crazy. CMS with the win.

We had a comment about whether Whitworth needed to win tonight assuming they took a loss in the tournament and whether they would still get an at-large. The answer is they probably need to win tonight. Two losses is hard to absorb with their schedule because they really don’t have a lot of quality wins. I mention this because PLU won the first set and are leading in the second.

Cal Lutheran took the first set against Chapman. Remember, CLU needs to win to tie Chapman for the last tournament spot. The problem is that they need a sweep or they lose in the tiebreaker. The third tiebreaker is “points for/points against”. They actually have a column for this on the conference standings but I think that is the set record. So, does it mean set record in conference (CLU would win it) or actual points? No idea who leads in points.

Since PLU just won the second set, let’s do the math. Whitworth would drop to around 60.97 with a loss tonight. A win over George Fox in the first round and then a loss to PLU (let’s say) would get the Pirates to 59.72 (estimated). That’s probably good enough but really tight.

Cal Lu take the second set. Chapman just needs one set tonight. Hasn’t happened, yet. La Verne is not messing around with Whittier; up 2-0.

Whitworth got the memo. They take set three.

The CLU announcer sounds a bit like John Mulaney (comedian). Has the same inflection in his voice at times. CLU uses their last timeout at 13-12. Interesting. I feel like CMS coach Kurt Vlasich could be down 24-0 and still have at least one of his timeouts left.

Chapman is up 24-22 and take a timeout after a couple of CLU points. Remember, a Chapman set three win puts them down 2-1 but I think gives them the 5 seed and into the conference tournament. La Verne with the sweep. They are the 2 seed.

25-23 Chapman. Congrats to Chapman for making the SCIAC Tournament. Please wait for official word from your conference.

Whitworth winning big in set four. Looking for a reverse sweep.

Well…sad news a bit with Lewis & Clark getting swept by George Fox. They go winless this season.

The SCAC has come out with their slightly confusing tournament bracket. Southwestern did get the tiebreaker on TLU and will be the Colorado College bracket. TLU will be in the Trinity bracket. What’s interesting in that is that Trinity and TLU are the two best teams in the SCAC right now. Schreiner will draw Trinity as the second wildcard. St Thomas will draw Colorado College as the first wildcard.

CLU may be out of the tournament but they are laying it on Chapman who is in. Currently 19-2 in the fourth set.

Whitworth/PLU in a fifth set.

Whitworth gets the turn at 8-4.

CLU win and lose at the same time.

Whitworth gets the reverse sweep and secure a spot in the NCAA Tournament. Even with a loss in the tournament, they will get an at-large bid.

Just one match left in the regular season. Redlands is up 2-0 on Caltech.

One thing I forgot today was that the NESCAC started their tournament today. They play their first round on the higher seed’s floor and then play the semis and finals next week. The big news is that Tufts lost to Williams. I thought they might have the best chance against Colby. Middlebury, Wesleyan and Colby advanced along with Williams.

And we are done. Redlands with the sweep. Wrap-Up tomorrow and then we focus on the conference tournaments.

NCAA Scoreboard

Here are the High NPI matches (55+ vs 55+) tonight:

Region X Matches:

Random Thoughts: Everyone seems to be playing on our last day of the regular season.

We’ve got some matches over at Hendrix that includes a couple of ASC teams.

We’ve got the SCAC pod at Concordia.

We’ve got the SCAC pod at Southwestern.

Full slate for the SCIAC.

Full slate for the NWC.

McMurry joins over at Southwestern and plays the host and Trinity. Welcome. Just a lot of SCAC games that will decide positioning/seeding. I think the big change is whether TLU or Southwestern will get the 2 seed in the Gold Division.

Two big matches in the SCIAC with Chapman and Cal Lutheran fighting for the last tournament spot (writing this before matches on Friday). Also have Whittier/La Verne for that 2 and 3 seed.

In the NWC, we have Whitworth/PLU which could be a preview of the tournament final. (I know I wrote this about Puget Sound/Whitworth yesterday but they both work.)

And that’s about it for the important matches. Of course, for a number of seniors it doesn’t matter who you are playing. It will be their last match of their career.

For the High NPI matches, we’ve got a few. Numbers are through Thursday so they don’t include yesterday’s matches. A La Verne win probably gets them an at-large spot if they need one. Neither Babson or Springfield can afford to lose their match. I don’t think a Smith loss to MIT will change anything for them. The big match is IWU/Centre. Really a must win for both teams with respect to at-large. Both are 1 seeds in their conference.