Saturday, Oct 19 Match Day!

Updates: A reminder that I dropped a podcast Thursday on changes to the NPI Ranking.

We’ve got 14 High NPI matches today.

Looking at the impacts to NPI from yesterday’s matches:

• Top 8 is unchanged. Hope moved ahead of Marietta for 5th.

• UWW is now 9th, just ahead of W&L.

• Trinity is now ahead of Southwestern. Just funny how close this is.

• At-Large is unchanged, but IWU is now last in. Cut line is 59.06.

• Gallaudet is first out. Wesleyan is next and they have been charging up the rankings of late.

• Northwestern is now 49th with their loss yesterday. (Still missing Abby Glanzer.)

Just got back in time for the 1 pm matches. Southwestern, of course, is on the TV. Half of the Live Stats seem to be late.

The Live Stats challenges for St Thomas home matches have been persistent this year. Not sure why it never seems to be working.

Looks like the Dickinson/CC match will be going off later today.

Southwestern timeout at 11-15. TLU was really kept in this match early by SU errors. Now their offense is starting to click. Another TLU run fueled by their serving. Five aces so far for the Bulldogs.

TLU 25-16. Tough to watch. Bulldogs looking good hitting 0.351. 20 Points/Set for TLU in that first set. Schreiner takes set one from HPU. ETBU takes set one from UTD. Austin College wins their set one.

Hey! Live Stats is working at St Thomas. Thank you! UMHB takes their first set with LETU.

10-2 run by TLU has blown open the second set. Could be an easy sweep for TLU. Austin College goes up 2-0. I guess no problem flying around the West for matches.

19 Points/Set for TLU in set two. Both sets have been 25-16.

TLU calls their first timeout of the day. Still lead in the third set 20-18 trying to get that sweep.

AC 2-1 on St Thomas. Schreiner 1-1 with HPU. ETBU 2-0 on UTD. UMHB/LETU 1-1.

Seven straight for SU as they now lead 22-20. Annika Flora serving. Schreiner now up 2-1.

Swarthmore gets a big NPI upset with a win over Gettysburg. Gettysburg has a nice cushion in the at-large window so this shouldn’t hurt them.

We may have just seen a red card in the Southwestern match. I know Annika Flora had a yellow earlier. Live Stats just shows a point award to TLU for SU calling a timeout. LOL. TLU came back and had match point but SU fights it off and takes set three 27-25. TLU up 2-1. 19 Points/set for SU in that set although they were helped by TLU errors in that set.

UTD takes the third set from ETBU. ETBU still up 2-1. UTD can be really good and not-so-good. Impressive set win there.

Austin College win 3-1 while UMHB is up 2-1 on LETU. Laynie Kovacs had 6 aces to go along with her 26 digs in this one.

Schreiner and Howard Payne are going to a fifth set. Tough break for SU as they have to play HSU right after this one. Makes for a long day.

ETBU 3-1 over UTD. Graycee Mosley with 17 kills and 20 digs.

SU takes set four 25-21 and are looking for the reverse sweep. 18 P/S for SU and 17 P/S for TLU. This time it was the aces for SU that pushed it in their favor.

UMHB get their 4-set win over LETU. Kendall Harrington misses out on the triple-double by 3 digs. Schreiner win in 5-sets over HPU. Giana Hilliard with 19 kills and 17 digs.

Southwestern gets the turn at 8-3.

Southwestern have these floor mops/brooms that are about the size of two volleyballs. We may need to invest in a larger mop.

Each team had a match point. TLU in the third set and Southwestern in set five. SU wins 15-7 after a HORRIBLE first two sets. Christina Kuras really led the team back with her 17 kills. She hits one of the harder balls in DIII and when she limits errors, she’s hard to stop. Three others with double-digit kills; Marks, McWhorter and Berkman.

Back from checking on my kid’s cat while they travel and getting something to eat. Still a bit in shock on how Southwestern looked early versus late.

With regards to Gettysburg above, my Latvians say that if only that match existed today, Gettysburg would go from an NPI of 62.7 (through yesterday) down to 61.5. Losses, even to good teams, just kill your NPI.

Watching Dallas Stars and the Jimmy Stewart commercial came on. If my (hot) wife were here then it would simply be the Fort Worth commercial. (You got to read all of the Match Days to get the jokes.)

While I was out, CC swept Dickinson hitting 0.342 while Dickinson hit negative. Schreiner sticking up for the SCAC as they are up 2-1 on HSU. Whittier up 2-0 on Chapman.

MIT with an easy sweep of Eastern. I criticize the NE teams more than anyone (because they deserve it) but MIT looks for real. Eastern is a good team but MIT hit 0.273 for the match.

UWSP has been on a great run but WashU ends it in 4-sets today.

CWRU beats Otterbein but drops a match to Muskingum. I thought I told everyone you can’t lose!?! Latvians say that CWRU will lose around 1.5 NPI points with that loss.

Whittier gets the sweep of Chapman. That keeps Whittier 4th in the SCIAC halfway through.

HSU comes storming back to take the fourth and fifth set. Down goes Schreiner. Two 5-set matches for Schreiner today.

I’ve got Oshkosh playing Elmhurst on the TV. Looks like they are playing in a fishbowl. As a Southwestern fan (but a Ricky friend), I am torn here. SU beat Elmhurst so a Bluejay win here would be good for us.

Only one upset in our High NPI matches and that was the Gettysburg/Swarthmore match.

My two set scouting report on Oshkosh is that they are very good but just making too many errors right now. I think they would be in trouble with a better team across the net with this performance.

I’m not seeing Live Stats or a Stream for Chapman/DePauw. Begs the question if the game is really going on right now?

Third set for Oshkosh/Elmhurst and it’s 13-2. I might need to adjust my 2 set scouting report.

23-6 Oshkosh and someone just served out. I’d cut her.

Chapman did play DePauw! They probably shouldn’t have. Lose 3-1.

The UC Santa Cruz stream is worth it just to see the backdrop.

As I watch TCU football turn the ball over (again), you have to remember that turnover prone players tend to turn over the ball. Same is true with Injury prone players. They tend to be injured.

Whitworth gets the 3-1 win over Pacific. UCSC is up 2-0. PLU also gets a 3-1 win. Puget Sound and Willamette are tied 1-1.

UCSC gets the sweep. Puget Sound up 2-1. Whittier gets the sweep.

Geez. 23-14 Puget Sound. Now 24-24.

Wow. Willamette makes a great run to tie it up but then drops the next 2 points. UPS 3-1.

NCAA Scoreboard

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

Region X Matches:

Random Thoughts: What the heck, Austin College? You were just at Colorado College yesterday. Today at Houston!?

What the heck, TLU? You were just at Trinity yesterday. Today at Southwestern!? (Yeah, not the same thing.)

Schreiner drives up to HSU for two matches against ASC teams.

Crazy travel schedule for Austin College. No way they win at St Thomas, right?

TLU/Southwestern scares me. TLU looked really good at Trinity yesterday. Southwestern had their moments but too many errors. Should be a good one.

DePauw moves over to Whittier to play two SCIAC teams.

The Top 4 in the NWC are not playing each other tonight so they are all probably the favorites in their matches.

The Whittier/Chapman match is the final halfway match for the SCIAC.