Saturday, Oct 5 Match Day!

Updates: Added the St Thomas/Austin College match. Not sure why I messed up a couple of times this weekend. I know you guys think I’m perfect.

Watching QPR so missing the Trinity match but what is wrong with the Tigers? First set won by NYU 25-12. Trinity hit negative 0.095. I see that there were 6 aces for NYU. Let’s see if they can bounce back.

QPR is letting me down (again). Watched a bit of the Trinity match. They played well in the second and won 25-23 to even up the match. Stats were really lopsided in favor of the Tigers in that second set but only a 2 point win. That always scares me.

The NYU broadcast has a sideline reporter. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before.

15-8 in the third for Trinity. Timeout NYU…their second. I guess I shouldn’t have been worried.

A pretty dominate set three win for Trinity. 5 service aces for Trinity. They could have been cleaner, which is a bit scary. Sideline reporter just said that NYU is 0-3 in 5-set matches and they will have to go to 5 for NYU to have a chance.

I got a shoutout from the broadcast team! I’m famous now! Fourth set is close and is the best VB played by both teams so far.

NYU really played well (albeit too many attack errors) but it wasn’t enough as Trinity wins 25-23 and takes the match 3-1. Courtney Pope was the star in this one as she had 14 kills and hit 0.429.

My Latvians are really killing it lately. Latest NPI for Trinity (with this win) is 58.58. That should put them above the cut line but we’ll have to see tomorrow.

Southwestern barely wins set one 25-23. No Lily McWhorter for SU.

CTX comes back to win the second set. Their first set win in conference, I believe. SU doesn’t look very good today. They are missing their top middle and their top outside is hitting negative. They are still without Payton Shiflet. Still, this is a match they should win. With that said, I’ve been very impressed with the CTX defense and Brooklynne Fitzgerald.

A couple of sweeps in the noon matches. Austin College is up 2-0 on St Thomas. A tad surprising there. St Thomas not playing as well as I thought they would this season. ETBU is up 2-0 on HPU.

We have a Lily McWhorter sighting! She subs in late in the third with SU up late by 4 points.

AC gets the sweep. Laynie Kovacs gets 23 digs for AC.

SU up 2-1 as Lily McWhorter gets the kill. Each set has ended 25-23. There was a late run by CTX in set three but it came up short. CTX hitting 0.261. SU making too many attack errors and that’s why these sets have been so close.

ETBU gets the sweep. Avery Reid had 19 kills in this one.

Concordia is destroying SU in the fourth. No passing from SU. Everything CTX does hits the floor. No block from SU today, either.

This is one of the most bizarre sets I’ve ever seen. Just huge runs by both teams. It’s 21-19 CTX against SU. Carly Berkman was inserted back into the game this set but I don’t think she has a kill here. Maybe she’s just a good luck charm as she’s been in for the last run. Now at 7 straight.

Berkman with the kill. 8 straight for SU. 21-20. Berkman blocked. 22-20.

CTX now at 24-21. Will have 3 set points to force a fifth set.

SU comes back and win 26-24. It looked like CTX tried to call a timeout at the end but didn’t have one. That caused a bit of a delay but it didn’t help. SU was down 10 points (13-3) in this set, came back and then were down 9 points (21-12). Crazy set. CTX outhit SU but SU had 27 more attempts giving them 17 more kills. Too many attack errors by SU but a very scrappy CTX effort. They probably deserved more here. Emily Marks (SU) had 20 kills.

The 6 pm matches have all started. I watched the CMS/Chapman match a bit. Now watching PP/Whittier. CMS got the sweep. Caltech/Oxy are 1-1 as are PP/Whittier. Redlands are up 2-0 on Cal Lutheran and are up late in the third set. A win here moves Redlands into the Top 4 or 5 conversation. Huge improvement for this team in a short time.

I think I mention them every year but the CMS broadcast crew are so Californian. Just two ladies having a good time and trying to make each other laugh. They are simultaneous wacky and wonderful. I enjoyed coming back from a commercial with them yelling how scrappy that play was. Of course, we (the viewer) missed it all. They asked for a replay which didn’t happen. They then said we could backup the stream and watch it, which wouldn’t work. I would love it if they could walk down the street and add some words to this Pomona-Pitzer/Whittier match.

24-20 Redlands with 4 match points but it’s 24-23 as they are having an issue closing out the game. Nevermind…Kaegan Wherry gets the kill and the Redlands sweep.

Over at the NYU Tournament, Ithaca, NYU and Trinity all go 2-1 while Smith goes 0-3. All four teams were equally matched.

There are a lot of weird noises from Whittier players (?) and fans (?) when Pomona-Pitzer serves.

PP wins set three as does Caltech. Both are up 2-1 in their matches.

PP gets the 3-1 win over Whittier. Nothing is easy in the SCIAC. Whittier was above the at-large NPI cut line as of yesterday. I don’t believe that will be the case tomorrow. Paige Mountanos (PP) had 18 kills while Riley “I am” DeGroot had 19 for Whittier. Good to see Riley playing more. Unsure if she has been hurt or what was going on there.

Caltech got their first DIII win of the year 3-1 over Oxy. Alize Bakker and Brittany Rosario both had 12 kills for Caltech.

First set winners were GFU, UPS, Whitman and Whitworth.

The Trinity/NYU match still doesn’t have a box score. I wonder if it will be done by tomorrow. Otherwise, it probably will not be included in the NPI rankings. (It will once it’s completed.)

Whitworth and Puget Sound look like they are going to be nice to me. The other two matches are 1-1.

Whitworth with the easy sweep tonight. Ella Jimenez with 11 kills.

Puget Sound gets the sweep away at Pacific. Makela Pick with 11 kills.

Whitman and PLU up 2-1.

Willamette has forced a fifth. GFU is close to doing the same.

Willamette wins in 5. Olivia Cadien with 14 kills.

Our last match goes to PLU who take set five 15-13. Kailee Efros-Bohn gets the match winning kill to give her 10 on the night.

NCAA Scoreboard

Random Thoughts: Trinity finishes their NYU trip with a match against the hosts. Let’s get this win, Tigers.

We’ve got matches in all four conferences again today.

LETU at HSU will be a good one. You’d think the Cowgirls have this at home.

CC should have an easy one at Centenary.

The Austin/UMHB was cancelled. I think UMHB requested this. ETBU should have an easy time of it at HPU.

The SCIAC matches will all have some intrigue. CLU at Redlands should be a good one. Another test for Redlands. CLU would normally have an easy time here. Whittier and Pomona-Pitzer is always a fight. PP at home is especially tough. Caltech/Oxy is probably for the last two spots in the conference. Chapman at CMS is probably going to be a sweep but you never know as the teams are closer than in past years.

The NWC is also going tonight. Whitworth should have an easy time of it. Whitman/Willamette should be a close match. Puget Sound/Pacific and PLU/GFU are the fun matches. Whitworth is going to get 1st in the conference. These are the next four teams in some order fighting for 3 spots.

I missed the Southwestern match originally. Had it on Friday. SU should win easily but road wins are always tough and Concordia is good enough to make this difficult.