Saturday, Oct 7 Match Day!

Updates: Fixed some links. Southwestern runs off the first 11 points to take a big lead in set one.

The TLU streams are really bad as far as clarity goes but this referee looks to be the toughest I’ve seen in a long time on hands. Austin College had one early that looked perfect and was called. Six ball handling errors through part of the first set.

Dallas is playing really well and giving St Thomas a tough time in set one. St Thomas still leading late.

Southwestern takes set one pretty easily 25-17. Austin College only had 4 Points but ended with 8 due to a late push. Southwestern had 16 Points so not dominating. AC reduces their errors and this should be a close match. St Thomas holds off Dallas 25-22.

Both early matches are 2-1 (St Thomas and Southwestern).

If you enjoy ball handling errors when they don’t exist, this referee is king. AC player dives and sets a perfect ball to the outside only to be called for a lift. Just weird.

Southwestern beats AC who beat Schreiner who beat Southwestern. Three teams for two spots. Tiebreaker right now (I think) would have Southwestern out.

CNU takes the first set against Colorado College. Not good.

Somehow missed the Sul Ross State/UMHB match. Sorry, but I rely on the kindness of strangers and they stink.

UC Santa Cruz does have the best background of any volleyball stream. Not sure it’s close.

CC takes the second set. All tied up at 1-1. UTD having an easy time with McMurry so far (2-0). TLU handling Centenary.

CC takes the third set but CNU takes the fourth. Good thing for them that SU/AC referee wasn’t calling this match. Going to a fifth.

The NCAA scoreboard is down. Too many users. Cool.

CNU gets the turn. Scored the first four, CC scored the next three and CNU gets the next 4. 8-3 in the fifth.

HSU forces a fourth set. Playing tough.

Bummer. CNU takes down Colorado College in the fifth set and wins the match. Tough loss for the Tigers.

Hey!!!! I found this week’s AVCA Player of the Week. We know it won’t go to a good team or (more importantly) a player from a team that played good teams so, without further adieu, I present to you Bryn Athyn’s Riley Breen. Now, I’m sure she’s a wonderful person and I am using her to make a point so I apologize to her and her loved ones right here. Bryn Athyn got their first two wins of the season playing teams that have 3 wins total on the season. She had 10 kills hitting 0.391 with 3 aces and 4 digs in a 3-set win over Valley Forge and then followed it up against Wilson with 19 kills hitting 0.276 with 2 aces and 15 digs. Yes, I know the outsides from both La Verne and CMS did better this week but those were against each other and they are both good teams. It’s too logical. You are welcome, AVCA.

The margins between CC, Chris Newport and Mary Washington is very slight. Two of those teams will probably be in the NCAA Tournament. If one of the three doesn’t make it then it will probably be CC. CC and UMW are tied 1-1.

Texas Rangers win! Let’s do this!

What a great first set by Whittier but it’s still not enough to beat CMS.

What a great first set by Pomona-Pitzer AND it was enough to beat La Verne. Up 1-0. Live stats for this match is wrong, by the way.

UCSC took set one from CNU but are down set two.

PP take set two and are now leading ranked La Verne 2-0. I wish Live Stats was working for this one.

UCSC loses to CNU. Not a good weekend so far for the Slugs.

We have an upset in the West as Pomona-Pitzer takes down La Verne in 4-sets. La Verne won the third and then made a nice comeback late but PP gets it over the line 25-23 for the win. Great win for the Sagehens.

I wasn’t able to see the Live Stats for the PP/ULV match but the box score is out. Looks like a high error game for ULV. Both Gott and Ray got their kills but had 20 errors between them. That’s just too many. PP had six players with 5 or more kills so definitely a team effort there. ULV did have more Points in the match (66 to 64).

Probably something I’ll repeat tomorrow but that ULV loss really gives CMS breathing room. They can go to ULV and lose and still hold the first position. We saw today that Whittier can rise up and give them a hard time but I’m not sure there is a team outside of La Verne that can do it for three sets.

Puget Sound with a narrow escape.

Oxy gets their first conference win.

Heartbreak for UC Santa Cruz as they fall in 5.

Random Thoughts: Another full load of matches today. We also have the Texas Rangers taking on Baltimore.

Southwestern/Austin College should tell us where SU is and whether they still have a chance at a conference tournament spot.

Colorado College and UC Santa Cruz draw both Mary Washington and Chris Newport this weekend. With CC beating UCSC yesterday, it’s really important for both teams to take both matches today. Both are still in the at-large hunt.

HSU took a 3-set loss to UT-Dallas so an ETBU win is probably very likely but HSU will look to bounce back.

La Verne/Pomona-Pitzer is always a good match. I think the ULV outsides will be too much in this one.

George Fox/Willamette is the match of the night in the NWC. As I write this, Willamette is up 2-0 on Puget Sound. If they can win that match and then beat GFU, they are back in the race for the conference tournament and the road ahead is a lot tougher for UPS, PLU, GFU and Whitworth.