Saturday, Oct. 16 Match Day!

Updates: The Dallas match is streamed on their IG account. @udvball

Lots of sweeps early today.

Have a little down time right now. ETBU has now lost 4 straight in conference and their hold on a conference tournament spot is more shaky. Dallas with a needed win to keep pace for a bid in the SCAC Tournament. Southwestern got a surprising (to me) sweep of Austin College. Got to see this one in person. Austin College played really good defense and the Pirates had to work for every point. I really thought this one could go 4- or 5-sets but, as a Pirates fan, am happy with the result.

Shout out to a new honorary granddaughter in Austin College’s Oliva Linton! She claims to read every word of the blog and I don’t need much of an excuse to add anyone to the family.

I’m a little disappointed with the Southwestern volleyball first-year training. I introduced myself to Southwestern first-year DS Geneva Nedrow as her grandfather and she didn’t seem to know what was going on. Hopefully this will get resolved or we may have to revamp the training staff.

It’s homecoming at Southwestern so there were some returning greats; Brandi Campos, Jamison Duck, Megan Grimes, Kaitlyn Corbett and a young lady that looked like Lacey Strickland. I just assumed she was and hugged her. In an unrelated note, my wife is complaining that I’m hugging too many people. Hard habit to break.

LETU takes set one against UT-Dallas in a huge battle for the #2 seed in the ASC.

UTD comes back and wins the next 3 sets to take the match. That probably locks up the 2nd seed for the Comets. They have a match and a half lead on LETU and Sul Ross State and have the tiebreaker on LETU. They beat Sul Ross State earlier in the year with one match left to play with them.

I’m not crying, you’re crying! Congratulations to my 6 Southwestern granddaughters on their senior day.

Johns Hopkins winning streak is at 57.

Back in the hotel for the late updates.

UC Santa Cruz and CC did what they needed to do. Win out with one of them only losing to the other. That happened yesterday with UCSC getting the short straw.

Centenary didn’t have Alyssa Davis for the Southwestern match. Different team without her.

Dallas took a set from Trinity. I watched the end of the first set and it was pretty close with Dallas doing well. Trinity blew out Dallas in the second. I had to move over to the Southwestern court but I assume backups came in and Dallas started playing better again. No box score, yet. Still, I liked what I saw from Dallas in spurts today. As far as Trinity…yikes. Just so good at every position. The speed at which they play and the intelligence on the court is elite right now. They are bringing back a couple of injured players and I’m sure that slowed them down just a bit today but their goal is to be ready for the NCAA Tournament.

When my wife and I came up to the Trinity/Dallas match, my wife said, “Wow, she can fly.” I didn’t see the play but I knew it went outside. I replied, “Tuggle”, and it was. Like many Trinity players before her, I will enjoy it when she graduates volleyball.

Pomona-Pitzer keeps it rolling with a win over La Verne. Chapman with a big win over Cal Lu. That probably makes it a race for 2nd and 3rd between Pomona-Pitzer and Chapman. Cal Lu will need to fight off the rest for that 4th spot. Remember, only 4 teams make the SCIAC Tournament.

PLU with a big away win against Lewis & Clark. The Lutes are playing well right now.

Pacific forces a 5th set against Whitworth but the Pirates hold them off and take it in 5. With PLU winning, Whitworth needs to do the same. Remember no tournament in the NWC.

No upsets today, it appears. I will be at Southwestern again tomorrow.

Adding this after I said I was done because it deserves a mention. Schreiner got their first conference win of the year. I thought it might come against Dallas today but, instead, it came against Austin College. Really surprising, but I did think Schreiner was going to surprise someone at some point. They had three hitters with double-digit kills in Brooke Byer, Rebekah Ober and Kayla Lofland. Mia Moreno had 48 assists while running the offense. Honorary granddaughter, Olivia Linton, had 14 kills for AC but it wasn’t enough. I don’t think this loss for AC will knock them out of the 4th spot in the SCAC but TLU may have other plans as they are now really close in the standings.

Nationally ranked matches not involving the West Region:

#1 Johns Hopkins beat Muhlenberg #1 Johns Hopkins beat Clarkson #5 Wartburg beat Coe #9 UW-Whitewater beat #21 UW-Stevens Point #11 Juniata beat Ithaca #12 UW-Eau Claire beat Finalandia #12 UW-Eau Claire beat IWU #14 Ohio Northern beat John Carroll #15 Berry beat Rhodes #17 Northwestern beat Minnesota-Morris #19 MIT beat Bates #19 MIT beat Trinity (CT) #22 Otterbein beat Heidelberg #22 Otterbein beat Mt. St. Joseph #23 Bethel beat St. Catherine #24 Tufts beat Middlebury

Random Thoughts: My cover photo is Cal Lutheran senior outside Lauren Heller.

Couple of notes worth repeating. I had some issues with multiple schedule sources showing me different times/day for matches. Sorry if anything turns out wrong. If all goes well, I’ll be down at Southwestern for the SCAC Matches today and tomorrow. This means fewer comments from me and later updates. It probably also means no Weekly Wrap-Up on Sunday or something smaller in scope. Feel free to say hello if you are down at Southwestern today/tomorrow. (Assumes you can get by my wife who will be freaking out that I’ll get sick. If you are unaware, I’m immune compromised after my cancer treatments.) I’m tall, look like a cross between George Clooney and Brad Pitt assuming your eyesight is really bad and should be wearing a yellow Southwestern cap.

Much love to the student-athletes and parents going through Senior Days this weekend!

Missing a lot of video streams right now (doing this on Thursday). Hope to add to that as they become published.

The Colorado College Tournament continues today. As I write this I don’t know the outcome of the CC/UCSC match from yesterday but both teams need to win out today.

ASC continues to have some interesting matches. UMHB at ETBU should be a good one. ETBU can’t play like they did against UTD, however. Sul Ross State/HSU is huge for both teams. UTD/LETU could be for the second seed in their conference tournament. Regardless, LETU needs to win just to even up the tiebreakers as they lost to UTD already earlier in the season.

Half of the SCAC will be at Southwestern today. Austin College/Southwestern, to me, is the biggest match of the weekend if you assume Trinity is going to blow through their matches. Southwestern cannot afford a loss here and Austin College has shown they can pull off the win. Can Schreiner get their first conference win against Dallas today? The rest of the SCAC matches should go according to plan but you never know.

La Verne/Pomona-Pitzer is a big one for conference seeding. Cal Lu/Chapman is probably the big match of the day in the SCIAC as both are in the Top 4 right now.

In the NWC, I like the PLU/Lewis & Clark match as it’s a must win for both. The Whitworth/Pacific match is another tough road one for the Pirates.