Saturday, Oct 12 Match Day!

Updates: I almost forgot to do this again! I’ll add more in the morning.

Since I just noticed that the NPI numbers I can access have been update through Thursday, here are some changes to the at-large teams. We had Bridgewater College, Otterbein and Trinity (CT) in the last three at-large slots. They have been replaced by UW-Eau Claire, Springfield and IWU. Otterbein is first team out right now.

Alright…rushed morning for me but SU/AC is on the tube.

Live Stats are not up for this match. This seems to be a St Thomas problem. You can access a live box score through the NCAA Scoreboard. I’m seeing both Lily McWhorter and Payton Shiflet on the court for SU so they may finally be healthy.

Doing live stats is such a tough job and errors are part of it. Crazy how important they are for awards and the such. With that said, seeing Payton Shiftlet get a kill and it going to a different player still causes me to shake my head.

25-15 SU and that’s after a little late run by AC. Austin gifted the set with too many errors. First half SU was not playing well but still had a nice lead. Played a lot better in the second half.

The Latvians were busy this morning as they have updated the NPI through yesterday. No changes to the teams but the order has been changed. Last 6 in are Trinity (TX), UW-Eau Claire, IWU, NYU, Calvin and Springfield. Cut line is 58.48. First three out are Lasell, Otterbein and Endicott. (I know some of those have Pool A bids in theory.)

I’m sure I knew that Southwestern’s Carly Berkman was Lance Berkman’s daughter but I sure don’t remember it. That makes Lance my son. (Sorry…Lance was a MLB player for the Astros.)

Announcer keeps saying Carly Berkman has fewer kills then she does. He’s like 4 off, which is a lot. I wonder what he’s looking at?

25-13 after 8 straight points. SU up 2-0. AC still hitting negative for the match. They also have no blocks, yet. SU playing defense really well.

We have the first block for AC. SU up 5-1 in the third but AC has closed it up. Now, 10-7 Austin leading forcing a SU timeout. AC playing better and trying to make this a match.

SU now up 18-14. The announcer’s stats are so different than the NCAA stats page. I guess the box score will tell the tale. No Live Stats from St Thomas, yet.

Convincing win for SU as they take the third set 25-17. Carly Berkman with 14 kills despite what the announcer says. I will say that Austin College was missing both Rita Araya and Rachel Sadler. They are two of their leading points getters. So, not an unexpected result with that in mind. The NCAA box score linked below shows Lily McWhorter with 5 solo blocks. That didn’t happen as some block assists were incorrectly scored.

Trinity and UST have kicked off. I can’t see much of the crowd and they only sit on one side there, but it looks crowded. Live stats is working so there is that. Both teams aren’t missing right now.

25-20 St Thomas. UST hit 0.463 while Trinity hit 0.342. No attacking errors for UST, which is wild.

Second set and it’s 7-0 Trinity. UST can’t do anything right.

25-18 Trinity. All tied at 1-1. The lines woman on the Trinity side just fell asleep during the match. Ball was out from Trinity and everyone looked at her and she motioned in. Took a couple of breaths for the motion. Kind of funny. Up referee overruled her. Trinity played worse in the set (but still good) and won big. UST was really bad hitting 0.

Salisbury is playing UC Santa Cruz right now so I got one of their matches right. The other will be listed too early.

Juniata beat a 55.13 NPI team 6, 9 and 9. Yikes.

Other West matches are Schreiner up 1-0 (very close set), Concordia up 1-0, Howard Payne up 1-0 (over UMHB) and Salisbury up 1-0 over UCSC.

Trinity up 2-1. So, Trinity played almost the same as set one statistically but UST didn’t play great…just good and the result was 25-17. Really strong offensive output by Trinity today.

The UST announcer is saying that St Thomas needs to find their offense. They are hitting 0.241 against Trinity for the match. That’s not the problem. The problem is Trinity needs to start making errors (forced or otherwise). Can’t beat Trinity in three sets if they are going to hit over 0.300.

22-19 in the fourth set. Trinity has been in control but UST making a small run. Now or never for the Celts.

In the other matches, Schreiner up 2-0, Concordia/McMurry 1-1, UMHB/HPU 1-1, UCSC/Salisbury 1-1. The UTD/HSU match should start shortly but the other 2 pm matches will be late.

Trinity wins 3-1. Courtney Pope with 15 kills. Makenzie Logan with an efficient match and getting 14 kills.

Schreiner with the sweep. McMurry up 2-1 on Concordia. UMHB up 2-1 on HPU. Salisbury up 2-1 on UCSC. UTD up 1-0 on HSU.

Did I talk about the McMurry/Concordia match? I don’t think I said how important this is for their wildcard spots into the conference tournament. I think it may come down to one of these teams so whomever wins has the advantage in record and tiebreaker.

UMHB wins 3-1 over Howard Payne. Kendall Harrington did the hard part (13 kills) but could only come up with 4 digs so no triple-double.

We have proper Live Stats for SU/CC! Yay!

Concordia forces a fifth set. Salisbury beats UCSC 3-1.

SU/CC is tied 23-23 in the first. CC is playing really well. A couple too many attack errors have SU in this one although SU is also playing well. CC is at 19 Points/Set right now so they’ve earned virtually all of their points.

SU takes the final 2 points and the first set. They also averaged 19 Points/Set. High quality defense from both teams. Very impressed with CC’s play. I need that to stop.

McMurry 17-15 in the fifth. Huge game for them. Remember this result at conference tournament time.

Good day to be a middle at St Thomas. Stats guys are only giving out block solos and they are going to the middles. No block assists. Take that you silly pin hitters.

Chris Newport/UC Santa Cruz has started.

CC is winning set two but their errors are keeping SU close. SU hitting negative in this set.

CC wins set two 25-19. We’ve lost live stats, but very poor set by SU and really CC didn’t play great, either.

Set three starts with 3 CC aces and a net call.

CC leading 8-0 as an SU timeout is called. The service receive is not a thing for SU right now. Another CC ace before SU gets their first point.

CC up 2-1 in dominating fashion. SU is only hitting 0.048. After 19 Points in the first set, they have only 17 Points earned over the next two. UTD/HSU are in a fifth set.

Chris Newport had 2 set points but UCSC runs off 4 straight points for the set one win.

47 attacking errors between CC and SU midway through the fourth set. SU has a lead trying to force a fifth.

SU wins set four to force a fifth. I wish I could tell you that SU dominated but they did just enough and were helped by CC errors. CC probably should already have this match won. If one of these teams figures out how to play like they can, then the fifth set will be quick.

Washington & Lee are doing pretty well against Juniata. Still lost set one but they got to 21 points.

UTD beats HSU in 5-sets.

SU gets the turn at 8-7.

Don Flora with his second yellow card of the match. Complaining about bad calls is not allowed, I guess.

UCSC up 2-0 on CNU. This would be a big NPI upset.

CC wins in 5-sets. Not a great match but CC deserved it. This will also be a big NPI upset. A bit of a break for me. I’ll pick it up later tonight.

Nice win by UCSC against Chris Newport. That will be a big NPI upset match. We’ll be looking at those in the Wrap-Up this week.

Concordia is struggling with Dallas. They should win but a struggle.

Nice job by a short-handed Austin College to push Trinity to a fifth set and almost take it.

CMS with a 4-set win over Redlands. Georgia McGovern gets her first triple-double of the season. Monster game for her.

All of the late matches are going on.

Nice work by McMurry this weekend. They were playing at home so they had an advantage but beating both Concordia and Schreiner really gives them an inside track for making the SCAC Tournament. The last wildcard is probably between those other two teams.

La Verne having an easy time with Pomona. PLU is struggling with Whitman but up 2-0. Pacific and Lewis & Clark are tied 1-1. Cal Lu had an easy sweep of Oxy. GFU up 2-0 on Linfield. Whitworth up 2-0 on Puget Sound.

All sweeps except for Pacific/Lewis & Clark. Pacific leads 2-1 in that one.

Pacific gets the 3-1 win. Interesting to note that in our big NPI matches (below), the high NPI team won each match. Only 2 sets went the other way in all of those matches. NPI for the win, I guess.

NCAA Scoreboard

I’ll push this to the bottom today and keep any updates between here and the top. Here are your NPI matches where both teams are 55 NPI and above (NPIs are through Thursday):

Region X Matches:

Random Thoughts: I have never seen such a cluster as trying to figure out when UC Santa Cruz plays today. They will play twice; once against Salisbury and once against Chris Newport. I’ve seen 4 different times for each match. I’ve seen the orders reversed. I really have no clue when they play. I listed one at 1 pm and the other at 2 pm. If you are a Slug fan, I will keep you in my prayers.

The day starts off with the Blue and Gold Division leaders in the SCAC going at it. Both teams are undefeated in conference. Yes, the power house matchup you all have been waiting for…Southwestern and Austin College. Seriously, both teams are playing well and SU is obviously ranked. This should be an SU victory but AC is always tough against my Pirates. Both teams also have tough matches later in the day so if one is looking ahead then watch out.

Trinity is at St Thomas in the next match. Should be a Trinity win. I had a coach clue me in that this will be the first time Trinity plays at St Thomas. Seems a little strange since Houston and San Antonio are just down the interstate from each other.

Oh, we do have pods going in St Thomas and McMurry for the SCAC today.

UMHB at Howard Payne take on more urgency for UMHB due to their HSU loss. HPU had a nice match win against UTD.

Colorado College plays Southwestern in another great match today. CC has been down but were able to take down the hosts yesterday. SU has been playing well but CC is always a load to play.

Austin College gets Trinity in the afternoon after both have played today. Trinity should come out ahead but these teams are closer today then in past years.

I worry about Redlands today. It’s never good to get a ranked team that just lost. CMS will want some revenge and Redlands is the only one they can do it on today.

Pomona-Pitzer at La Verne. The reverse is also true. Can PP take advantage of a team that has to be on a high after their win at CMS? PP at their best can win this. Can they do that for three sets is the trick?

The only NWC match I like is Whitworth and Puget Sound. UPS could benefit from a Whitworth let down after an away win against Pacific Lutheran. I just think Whitworth is too strong this season.