Saturday, Oct 15 Match Day!

Updates: Early morning as QPR is on at 6:30. Actually kind of good since I’ll be heading up to Austin College for the 10 am AC/SU match. I also want to see a bit of the TLU match and I’ll hang around for the St Thomas/ Centenary match later. Spotty updates until the evening.

Southwestern and TLU sweep the weekend and put themselves in line for the second spot in conference. If they both can finish 2nd and 3rd then they’ll avoid Colorado College and Trinity until the finals.

Schreiner up 2-1.

UCSC up 1-0. Santa Cruz playing Susquehanna after beating Trinity reminds me of 1980 US Olympic hockey coach Herb Brooks. After the USA beat Russia they still had to play Finland to get the gold. I can’t repeat what he told the team but it applies to the Slugs. Don’t mess this up, to paraphrase.

Time for the speech, coach. Susquehanna takes set two.

Schreiner drops the set. It’s going to a fifth.

An over pass to Paige Havel (St Thomas) is to embrace death.

UCSC takes set three. Up 2-1.

Watching in person Dallas/St Thomas. Huge match as only one will likely make the SCAC Tournament. Dallas has looked good in set one. Impressed with the serving and setting of first year Emma Parsons. Playing across front so a triple double threat. Dallas has a few match points and finally wins 25-23.

Live stats has died in the Schreiner match but I think they won.

St Thomas Coach Burt must have noticed something during the break because we’ve had two setter dumps work early.

UCSC wins 3-1. Herb would be proud. Great job this weekend.

St Thomas storms back. Tied 1-1.

Now 2-1 UST. Close set. Defense looking good for both sides.

I’d like to ban the FBK chant.

Larissa Ramirez (Dallas) did a serve that I’m not sure I saw right. Driven hard that landed just past the 10′ line. Not sure how it dove so much.

St Thomas with the win. Now the drive home.

Congrats to “Ned”. His team upset Wesleyan. Didn’t see that coming.

UT-Dallas was going for an attendance record today. The box score says they had 560 in the stands. Good crowd.

I figured out the trick with Concordia. Just get to the point where you know they are going to lose and then pick them. They beat ETBU in 5-sets today.

Northwestern and Whitewater are tied 1-1. Looks like a good one.

Pomona-Pitzer up 2-0 on La Verne. A win here could mean it’s down to Cal Lu and Pomona-Pitzer for the 2nd and 3rd spots.

Could be a really bad day for Albion. Already lost one and going to a fifth against 6-win Heidelberg.

5th set for NW/Whitewater. Get there if you can. Fourth set was 31-29.

Northwestern pulls it out. Great match. Neither team has to worry about the NCAA Tournament. I wonder if these games help on the stress side of things. I mean it helps on playing top talent. But neither team should be stressed if they lose. Does it help when it’s winner take all like in the tournament? Just thought about that. Maybe nothing does.

Albion pulls it out.

Pomona-Pitzer is playing really well of late. Get the sweep of La Verne.

Go Frogs! Nice to be good again.

Redlands up 2-1 on Caltech. Looking for their second win.

The dreaded reverse sweep for Caltech as they beat Redlands 3-2.

Edgewood upsets Stevens Point.

Puget Sound is doing well against Whitworth and PLU, who beat Whitworth, is, of course, losing to Whitman. Weird year.

That’s a tough loss for Whittier. They are fighting for a top 4 spot and that’s not going to do it.

Live stats aren’t right for Whitworth/UPS. It points to last night’s match.

Facing match point, PLU turns it around and takes set four. Going 5.

Whitworth/UPS going to a fifth, too. Having to switch between the two.

Whitman with the win. Great last rally in that one.

Whitworth has match point. Set Maddie Lee. HUGE HIT. Dug by libero Chloe Akiona-Bannan. Get ball back. Set Maddie Lee. HUGE HIT. Dug by libero Chloe Akiona-Bannan. UPS just couldn’t get the ball over and Whitworth wins. Big win for Whitworth. You have to remember that these are conference tournament matches right now because there is not real tournament in the NWC. All of these are huge. Four teams within a match of the lead right now. Puget Sound and Whitworth tied at 7-3 but Puget Sound has the tiebreaker on the second rule. As a reminder, conference tie breakers can be found here.

Not sure I’ll make it for the last match. They look like they want to go late. Use the links.

Top 25 Results

#3 Juniata 3 Randolph-Macon 0#3 Juniata 3 Bridgewater 0North Park 0 #5 Calvin 3#7 Northwestern 3 #9 UW-Whitewater 2#7 Northwestern 3 UW-Stout 1#9 UW-Whitewater 3 UW-Stout 1 Rhodes 0 #10 Berry 3#11 Wittenberg 3 Kenyon 0#12 Wesleyan 2 Bowdoin 3#14 Hope 3 North Central 1#14 Hope 3 Millikin 0#15 UW-Stevens Point 3 Aurora 0#15 UW-Stevens Point 1 Edgewood 3UW-River Falls 0 #16 UW-Oshkosh 3Hamline 0 #17 Gustavus Adolphus 3#18 Augsburg 3 St. Olaf 0#19 Albion 1 #20 Otterbein 3#19 Albion 3 Heidelberg 2#20 Otterbein 3 Heidelberg 0#24 Tufts 3 Amherst 2#25 Birmingham-Southern 3 Sewanee 2

Random Thoughts:  I think I’ll be heading up to Austin College this morning.

The SCAC pod completes their matches at Austin College this morning. The host school versus Southwestern should be entertaining.

UCSC finishes up their weekend with Susquehanna. They are currently (as I write this) beating Nebraska Wesleyan so I hope that holds up and they can take this one, too. (Update – Came back later to say, not only did they beat Nebraska Wesleyan but they also took down Trinity. Don’t mess today up.)

McMurry/Sul Ross State – Battle between two teams trying to make the ASC Tournament.

LETU/UTD – Another battle in the ASC but this one for the top spots.

Nice to see Nebraska Wesleyan making the short trip from Trinity to Schreiner to play them. Good chance for Schreiner to prove their improvements this year are for real.

Susquehanna/Trinity – Best match in the West today, I think. Trinity can’t be beat at home.

Puget Sound/Whitworth – Best match in the West today, I think. Whitworth wants revenge for their earlier defeat. UPS really in the driver’s seat if they can win again.