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Saturday, Sept 6 Match Day!
Scoreboard:
West Schedule:
Matches I’m Watching Nationally (Times are CDT & links provided to schedule or tournament page):
Hope at Ohio Wesleyan 9 am – The NCAC/MIAA crossover gives us this wonderful match. I’m not sure why more conferences don’t do crossovers?
Emory at UW-Oshkosh 10 am – Another great match from the Oshkosh Tournament (Marty Peterson Invite).
Tufts at Salisbury 10 am – I had this match on yesterday. They play two-in-a-row at Salisbury so let’s see if the results match.
Millikin at Dubuque 11 am – At the time of this writing, Dub is undefeated. Millikin played Northwestern yesterday (after struggling at Trinity) but this should give us some insight into both teams.
Calvin at Ohio Wesleyan 11:30 am – Back-to-back tough matches for OWU. This will gives us an idea on how Calvin and Hope might fare against each other, too.
Carthage vs Aurora Noon – This game is at Lake Forest. Aurora can really field a good team a lot of years and are undefeated as of this writing.
CMS vs WashU 12:30 pm – Another East/West Classic match going on at Oshkosh.
Southern Va. at Wash & Lee 12:30 pm – This should be a W&L win but maybe something close?
Berry at UW-Whitewater 3 pm – Let’s all row! I mean, they are water. This is an obvious Berry win.
Endicott at Colby 3 pm – Colby’s first real test on the year?
IWU at Southwestern 3:30 pm – Should be a good one. IWU is an outstanding team. I really think a special treat for IWU would be to head over to 600 Degrees between their two matches today. Great pizza and wings. Eat as much as you can!
Ithaca vs Marietta 4 pm – Tough one-two punch for Ithaca here. Marietta looks better than I thought going into the season. Get Juniata next.
CMS at UW-Oshkosh 5:30 pm – Fun one here. Just a great tournament.
Ithaca at Juniata 6:30 pm – I think the scoreboard has the time wrong for this one. This would be win 103 if JC can get it and have won their previous two matches.
Updates:
Late morning for me. I’ll be in a gym for most of the day and then driving home the rest of it. Few updates with most happening late.
Kean moves to 5-1 with an early morning win. Hope is beating Ohio Wesleyan 2-0. JHU woke up late, too. First son won 29-27 but the second won 25-9. I wonder if they were all drinking coffee between sets?
NPI update through yesterday’s matches:
Johns Hopkins is 8th. ETBU is 10th. Oshkosh is 11th. Crown (MN) sits last at 28.801.
The crossover will need some study. Denison beats Hope. Albion beats Denison. It’s always Hope and Calvin in the MIAA, right? No room for Albion!?! Stay tuned.
Hope beat Ohio Wesleyan in a sweep. Oshkosh took down Emory in 4-sets. LaRocco held to 11 kills and Emory had 27 attack errors.
Back in the gym watching IWU take on Puget Sound. Based on yesterday, IWU should win this pretty easily but a lot comes down to how UPS handles the IWU service game. If UPS stays in system and then can get Badger going then…just…maybe.
Puget Sound bench, “Knock knock, whos’ there? Nobody!” Came off an ace that hit the floor. So much better than “FBK”, right?
I probably do not have time to list all of the West results and boxes so more highlighting of players in the update, instead.
Smith is now 5-2 after dropping their first two matches of the season. Belhaven beat Dallas for their first win of the season. Mary Mehan led Dallas with 14 kills. Johns Hopkins with the sweep. Simone Adam with 12 kills on no errors hitting 0.444. Break up Oswego! They move to 5-0 with a win over St Joseph’s (MD). Break up Alfred St! They are now 6-0 after a 5-set win over Lycoming. Two teams that played in the PCC in SoCal week one just got their first wins; Buffalo State and CWRU. For NPI, you always want the teams you played to win.
Trinity gets the sweep of Bridgewater. Team hit 0.246 with Reagan Whatley getting 16 kills. I’m feeling really good about my preseason all-region selection for Whatley. Heck, she might be so good that Region X still puts her on their team along with Region VI.
St Thomas remains undefeated at 7-0. They take down Huntingdon with Bodunrin, Davis and Willis each in double-digit kills. Carly Lange finished with 24 digs over the four sets. Middlebury, who the AVCA had ranked and who I actually like this season lost to St John Fisher for their first loss. SJF’s only loss on the season has been Ithaca.
Back in the gym and…just…maybe…Puget Sound up 23-22 in the first set. They are handling the serve well and Skya Favor is having success. Set point on another kill from Favor. Free ball as IWU goes into the scorer’s table to retrieve but UPS can’t convert. Now IWU has set point. 26-24 IWU wins and they were a tad lucky there at the end. W&L goes to 6-0. Rose-Hulman gets the sweep over Knox and move to 5-0. Rose-Hulman is coached by Southwestern alumnus Rachel Delsi.
Things getting worse for Mary Washington as they go to 0-6. Took a bad beat to Southern Va. On the flip side, LeTourneau is now 4-1 after beating Covenant away. Aubree McCann with 15 kills and Maddy Hirneise with 31 digs.
Break up Lynchburg! They get a nice win over Haverford and move to 7-0. Bryan Snyder (W&L coach) knew something when he picked them first in the ODAC. MIT moves to 5-0. Ho hum. Tufts gets revenge for yesterday’s loss to Salisbury by winning the rematch in 5-sets today. Kiley McTaggart with 20 kills.
PLU playing in a tough one against Concordia (WI) leading 2-1. Whitewater sweeps Elmhurst for another win.
Back in the gym…and…just…maybe. The problem with UPS is that they just make a mistake when they can’t afford it and IWU will just stick a foot out and put the ball over the net. Volleyball gods want IWU in this one. Towards the end of set two and Maddie Badger gets her first kill. Two close games so if Badger gets going then advantage Puget Sound. 23-23 with a Badger kill. The two big IWU servers have finished this round. Volleyball gods just smiled on UPS. They have set point. Last set, UPS made errors to gift the game to IWU. Set point 2. Leith with the kill. Badger out but Favor didn’t come in. Strange. Oh, the front row setter is playing middle. Split hitters. It’s possible UPS just ran out of subs! Set point 3 for UPS.
29-27 for IWU. Crazy finish.
Confirmed that UPS ran out of subs. Credit the (hot) wife with spotting it. Because UPS uses a server for the middle, they burn through the subs a little quicker.
Dubuque can’t be beat as they take down Millikin in a sweep. Neb. Wesleyan beats North Park giving them their first loss. Northwestern beats St Olaf in 5-sets.
Austin College back on track with a win over Lyon. AC emptied their bench so some love going to Caroline Smith who got to play a set going 2 for 4 on attempts. Hendrix beats former SAA foe Rhodes in four sets. Brady, Bastos and Kennedy all had double-digit kills for Hendrix. Caroline Short had 22 kills for Rhodes.
The (hot) wife had to correct the score for Puget Sound. Good thing she’s here. 22-19 IWU as they go for the sweep.
It wasn’t to be here at Georgetown. Puget Sound played a tough match but get swept by IWU. All three sets were fun. Mackenzie Leith with 10 kills. Taylor French with 17 kills as the go-to player for the Titans.
The (hot) wife and I walked the square here in GT. Now back in the gym as IWU and SU get started. Should be a good one. Over in Oshkosh, CMS lost a heart-breaker to WashU in 5-sets. Brooke McKee had 24 kills in the match.
Ugh. Rough first set here. 25-14 IWU. Not enough offense for my Pirates. Defense is there. They had one moment where service receive got them. IWU is relentless so you can’t lose contact or you’re done.
Playing catch-up again. Oglethorpe moves to 4-3 with a win over Averett. Autumn Lilly with 25 assists and 14 digs and 4 aces. HSU had a nice weekend and ended it with a sweep over Colby-Sawyer. They were able to empty their bench in this one.
Once again…good idea for my Pirates to serve in. One ace for Southwestern with 5 service errors. It’s 17-14 second set for IWU. Really good play from both sides. Errors will decide it. And…boom…23-15 IWU. IWU has two great servers in Taylor French and first-year Lauren O’Brien. They apply so much pressure and it’s O’Brien with the run here. Second set 25-16 to IWU. Long road ahead for Southwestern.
Montclair State moves to 5-0 while NYU gets a win over Susquehanna who is winless on the season. Calvin gets an important win over OWU in the crossover. Uh oh. The Oswego dream is over. Hope over Wittenberg in 5-sets. Seems closer than it should be there. Carthage gives Aurora their first loss of the season.
Rinse and repeat here with IWU/SU. Close for the first 10 points or so and then IWU turns it on. Very impressed with the Titans. Defense is first-rate. Offense is quick. Pressure service. It will be fun to follow them this season. Sweep for IWU.
I’ll be heading home shortly. Use the links. Updates tonight.
Home and Oshkosh/CMS is ongoing. UWO leading 2-1. For you Ricky fans, he’s sitting with the camera on the right side of the scorer’s bench. Avoid looking directly at the back of his head because the lighting reflecting off the dome could blind.
21-21 after a CMS run. CMS has dropped two close matches and this would be there third loss in this tournament. They obviously are at the same level but NPI won’t see it that way. Something to track if CMS doesn’t complete the comeback. Narrator’s voice: They did not complete the comeback.
More catch-up. Chris Newport beat William Paterson 3-1. Much needed win for them. Alyssa Dozier had 12 kills hitting 0.344. Va. Wesleyan won both matches today to go 8-0. They gave Maryville their first lost. Down goes Lynchburg! Springfield gets the sweep. Colby moved to 5-0 with two wins today. They swept Endicott in one of those matches.
Cal Lu beat Pacific in a sweep. Kaylee Clayton with 15 kills. In that CMS loss to WashU, the two outsides (McKee and Delany) combined for 41 kills. Transy swept both Sewanee and LeTourneau. Rude. Mary Washington got their first win beating St Mary’s (MD) in a sweep. La Verne got two sweeps today. In the second match against UC Santa Cruz, Mya Ray hit 0.500 with 16 kills. Earlier Santa Cruz beat Pomona-Pitzer in 5-sets. They were led by Charlotte Skulte who hit 0.500 with 11 kills. She also had 11 block assists and one solo.
Trying to get through these and I know I’m missing some:
Schreiner in 5-sets over Willamette.
Chapman in 5-sets over Whitworth. This is a surprising result. The Olivia’s (Sampson and Harrison) combined for 25 kills.
Berry swept Concordia (WI).
ETBU swept Belhaven.
Centre swept Hanover.
Rhodes swept Webster.
Hendrix struggles with Lyon but gets the 5-set win.
Centre swept Capital.
Elmhurst swept PLU. That was Elmhurst’s first win.
Carroll over Concordia in 4-sets.
Just noticed that Juniata beat Ithaca in 4-sets. Geez. Am I going to have to give them #1 props at some point? Rose-Hulman moves to 6-0 with a win over ONU. Did Denison sell their soul for the Hope win? They lose in 4-sets to Calvin. Big win for the Knights. Of course, because the crossover made perfect sense this weekend…Wittenberg beats Albion. Witt’s 2nd win. Albion’s first loss.
Whitewater needed a reverse sweep to take down Berry in 5-sets. Last set went 16-14. Ouch. Stats were very close between the two teams.
Franklin & Marshall up to 6-0 with two wins today. Marietta up to 5-1 with two wins including a sweep of Ithaca.
Whitworth salvages the weekend with a win over Whittier. That’s Whittier’s first loss. Okemgbo Amblessed with 14 kills. William Smith up to 6-0.
I didn’t hit all of the West teams. So many matches. Still a few going on.
Whittier takes down Oxy in a sweep. Oxy almost takes the second set. This is the second time that a Whittier live stat was labeled as Chapman. Speaking of Chapman and Oxy…Chapman also swept them although Oxy held a 23-20 lead late in the third set.
Just now CC takes an easy sweep over Lewis & Clark. Scores were 15, 15 & 13. L & C lost earlier to Macalester in 5-sets. That’s one they’d like to get back. ETBU did sweep Concordia if I hadn’t mentioned it. They go to 8-0 on the season.
Sorry for the missed matches. Wrap-Up tomorrow. I have not started on it so it will be later in the afternoon.
Random Thoughts:
I left the scoreboards at the top of the article (again) today. Since I’m writing this on Thursday, I don’t know how well it went yesterday (or tomorrow, in my case).
I should be at Southwestern today assuming we made it down yesterday. Please come say hello if in the gym.
I always like pulling up the ASC schedules because there are just so few matches with only 4 in the conference.
UMHB/Carroll could be interesting. Usually a match where I take UMHB. Unsure about the Cru right now.
HSU/Colby-Sawyer – Tough tournament for HSU. I’m hoping this match caps an undefeated run but it might be the only match they win here.
ETBU/Concordia should be an easy ETBU win. CTX could surprise for a set.
UC Santa Cruz (C2C) gets both Pomona-Pitzer and La Verne. Huge test for them. Gettysburg/Salisbury will also be a good game. I had Getty in my Top 25 before a couple of losses. They need this to be considered again.
Over in the NWC, Puget Sound will draw IWU. Really tough match-up but a great chance to get some national publicity. Whitworth will draw Whittier in what should be a close match.
Trinity gets Bridgewater in their last match at CNU. Easy opponent to overlook but they are always a good team. Sewanee gets Transy on a neutral court. Transy is down this season so they have a chance. They get host Covenant later in the day. Why not take them both down?
Over in the SCAC…
St Thomas plays Huntingdon as they figure out how things will work without Audrey Cataline.
LeTourneau gets the same opponents as Sewanee today. Let’s take them both down twice then!
Austin is in Memphis playing Lyon today. If things went right yesterday, they may come out still undefeated. (Narrator’s voice: They did not go right yesterday.)
There’s never much to talk about in the SCIAC because they are the last conference I cover.
Cal Lu and Pacific could be a close match. Just not sure what each has.
Caltech is playing a couple of non-DIII teams.
Chapman/Whitworth should go to the Pirates but Chapman can surprise here.
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