Saturday, Oct 28 Match Day!

Updates: Lots of rain here in North Texas. I’m going to try to head up to Sherman but reserve the right to turn back if the conditions are too annoying.

Made it.

Southwestern match and the St Thomas match are both tied 1-1. (I think)

Both AC and SU want this. Whoever makes it in will be the toughest 6th seed the SCAC has ever seen.

Southwestern’s Middle Lily McWhorter looks like she’s trying out for Libero. Love seeing middles playing defense.

SU takes set three as does Dallas. Both up 2-1.

Referees in this match stink for both teams. Kind of impressive.

3-1 Southwestern. AC needs to win out to pass them assuming SU wins out

3-1 Dallas

Colorado College is up 2-0 on Trinity.

And they get the sweep. The SCAC is Wack.

Stayed for the Dallas/Southwestern match but will leave after set two. SU won the first and are leading the second.

Watched a bit of the TLU/Centenary match. TLU just doesn’t let up. Hard team to beat.

Back at home so I’ll start updating the box scores. Southwestern got the sweep of Dallas but it went 28-26. Kudos to Dallas first-year Mychael Singleton. She was playing outside and got 6 kills. She’s only 5’4″ but was doing great and fun to watch.

Looking at that Trinity/CC box and CC only played 7. You just don’t see that happen very often. Isabella Lipacis had another great match (15 kills and 25 digs).

Hope takes down Calvin in 5-sets. The match drew 2,578. Hope need to win the last two set, which they did each by 2 points.

Swarthmore beat Johns Hopkins in 4-sets. Swarthmore wasn’t regionally ranked but this will be a huge feather for them. It may push them to an at-large bid.

La Verne takes the first set against Pomona-Pitzer.

In a huge SCAC match, TLU is up on Austin College 1-0. If AC losses, then Southwestern will control their destiny with respect to the sixth tournament spot.

TLU gets the sweep but all three sets were close. Southwestern controls their future.

Pomona-Pitzer up 2-1 on La Verne. La Verne errors are just too many right now.

Pomona-Pitzer takes down La Verne 3-1. This probably means the two teams will end up tied with Pomona-Pitzer holding the tiebreaker. It doesn’t really matter because they will play each other in their tournament. It does probably ensure that Pomona-Pitzer stays regionally ranked. I had thought they might be dropped this week. In this match, La Verne had 77 Points to PP’s 61 so you have to figure La Verne’s loss was self-inflicted. They did end up with 37 attacking errors and 11 service errors. To be fair to PP, they had 14 total blocks so a number of those attacking errors were caused by the Sagehens.

I’m focused on the Rangers game but CMS is losing to Whittier 2-0. Not a great time for CMS to be stumbling.

Pacific is about to hurt Willamette with a sweep. What’s really strange about this one, is that Mara Murphy isn’t playing. She’s Pacific’s leading hitter.

Of course, Puget Sound is struggling with Whitman. Maybe the fourth spot goes to the one that doesn’t mess up the most.

Wow. Whittier with the sweep over CMS. That’s two conference losses in the same week for CMS. They hadn’t lost a match in conference since 2019. They hadn’t lost two matches since 2015.

Looking at the CMS stats and it just looks like a really bad match for them. You just don’t see that from them. Even Jenna Holmes had an off night. They have Caltech, Chapman and Occidental left on the schedule and none of those teams should challenge them. Then the conference tournament, which has to be wide open at this point. Honestly, all four conference tournaments are pretty wide open. The ASC may be only open to two teams but the others could go to any of the teams that qualify.

Rangers lost. 😦

Getting to watch PLU/Whitworth and they are in the fifth. Great defense on display. Announcers say it’s been a yellow/red card fest. Intriguing.

Whitman beats Puget Sound. I did my best to put UPS out there as a possible team to get an at-large bid but you’ve got to win.

Puget Sound and Willamette both have two matches left. They play each other and Willamette won the first meeting so a Willamette win on Friday gives them the last spot in their tournament. If they lose, they get George Fox the next day. Puget Sound plays Pacific on Saturday so if they get past Willamette they will be favored in that match. If both teams tie (they are 7-7) and Puget Sound wins the Willamette match then it goes to the second tiebreaker. More on that in the Wrap-Up.

Pacific Lutheran win the NWC regular season title! They beat Whitworth in the fifth set and will host the NWC Tournament. They remain undefeated in conference.

If I read the tiebreakers correctly, Whittier has clinched a tournament spot. They can be tied by Cal Lutheran but Whittier would win the third tiebreaker. I think seeding can still change but odds are they will get a rematch with CMS at CMS this time.

Random Thoughts: UC Santa Cruz plays an exhibition match tonight. I was unsure if it was a real match or not until recently. That means their regular season is over. Tonight is their Senior Night.

Speaking of Senior Night, we’ve already had a number of them and they will continue through next week. They are always bittersweet moments and you celebrate volleyball careers but also acknowledge the soon-to-be end to volleyball careers. From me, just know I thank you all for making my life a little bit better. Well, except for the Trinity seniors but they are never seniors anymore. They all tend to come back for another year.

A lot of conference tournament spots were/are up-for-grabs this weekend. Even if a spot is secure, seeding is always fluid until the last week. Reed has been dropping comments into the Match Days with his observations about this. It’s much appreciated and helps keep my writing load down.

Writing this Friday morning, I don’t know the results from yesterday. Assuming nothing crazy happens:

• The ASC has their six with Concordia and McMurry being eliminated. Sul Ross State wasn’t eligible.

• The NWC should have their three with the fourth being between Puget Sound and Willamette.

• UC Santa Cruz will be in the C2C Tournament.

• The SCAC has 5 of their 6 locked up. The last one comes down to Southwestern and Austin College and they play today. SU wins and they force AC to win out. AC wins and that should lock it up for them.

• The SCIAC has 3 spots locked up. The last spot is between Whittier and Cal Lutheran. It’s Whittier’s to lose.

The SCAC is playing two Pods today. One is at Schreiner with Trinity and Colorado College so a lot of great matches here. The other is at Austin College where TLU will try to secure the second spot and a bye in their tournament. Dallas and Centenary will be there playing spoiler. Right now, I’m planning on driving over to see the Austin/Southwestern match. I’m not sure how long I’ll stay. Normally, I’d stay for that late AC/TLU match but I’ve got the Texas Rangers to watch.

Back to Schreiner and I’ll be very interested to see how they do at home this weekend against CC and Trinity.

Colorado College/Trinity is today. Fun.

Pomona-Pitzer at La Verne is another fun one. PP won the last matchup. Will La Verne have a let down after their CMS victory?

In the NWC, huge game for Willamette at Pacific and Puget Sound at home against Whitman. Whitworth is at PLU, which will be their last chance to wrestle the top spot from the Lutes.

So, if I do head up to Austin College, I guess I just have one question. Who wants to see Decker?