Saturday, Sept. 7 Match Day

Updates:  Trinity handles Pomona-Pitzer in the first set. UTD fights off a few set points, ties it at 24. Fights off another set point. Now has a set point and gets a block for the set one win.

UMHB drops the first set against Transylvania. Uh oh. Trinity up 2-0 on Pomona-Pitzer.

UMHB drops the second set, too. Uh uh oh.

UTD and Pac Lu in a good one with UTD up 2-0. Both sets were 2 point wins.

UMHB gets swept by Transy. They are a good team but that shouldn’t happen. UTD sweeps Pac Lu. Pomona-Pitzer takes set three from Trinity.

Trinity takes set four and the match.

PLU now 2-1 on HSU. UMHB with a 4 set win over ranked CNU. Aurora now up 2-1 on Southwestern.

PLU holds off HSU and wins 3-1. Aurora plays a great match and defeats Southwestern 3-1.

I had to leave UTD early but by the look of Live Stats they and Southwestern played the worst set of volleyball in the history of volleyball. I jest but both teams hit negative with SU winning 27-25 because if you are going to play ugly you might as well go to 27.

UMHB salvaged the weekend by beating ranked Christopher Newport. Like many teams in the West Region, the Cru seem to be having trouble with consistency.

CMS takes care of Concordia and only one team (McMurry) reamins unbeaten in the West Region.

Okay…wedding shower is calling. Weird, it sounds just like my wife!?! Late updates for anything not filled out.

11:20 pm Central and I’m finally back. Updates coming.

All of the results are listed now. I couldn’t find some box scores so sorry for that. Some items that I found interested…

Liked that Linfield and Colorado College took care of their New England opposition today. Puget Sound dropped matches to both CMS and Cal Lutheran with the Cal Lu match being 5-sets. Educational matches for the young Logger team. If it doesn’t come together in the NWC this season, they still have a few years to figure it out. Whitman goes 0-2 today in their first matches of the year. Another young team that needs to keep getting better. I think UT-Dallas had the best weekend from their tournament than the other teams. Really competitive group but the UT-Dallas loss was to Aurora while taking care of three regional opponents. They are making their case for a good regional ranking. Southwestern would be national champion if the NCAA eliminated all Saturday matches. They are 4-0 on Friday and 0-4 on Saturday. Santa Cruz went 0-4 this weekend against some tough teams but their Pool B resume would have looked so much better with a couple of wins. The Wrap-Up will be tomorrow so I should probably stop babbling now. (Speaking of babbling…sorry for annoying the guy sitting in front of me today. I was talking to someone and probably voicing too many opinions.)

National upsets today:  Carnegie Mellon over #3 Juniata. #17 Hope over #8 Wittenberg. Endicott over #14 Christopher Newport. #20 UMHB over #14 Christopher Newport. Carnegie Mellon over #15 Ithaca. Transy over #20 UMHB. St. Thomas over #12 UW-Whitewater. UT-Dallas over #23 Pac Lu. Loras over #25 WUSTL. St. Norbert over #11 Gustavus Adolphus. #25 WUSTL over #11 Gustavus Adolphus. Hendrix over #24 IWU. Otterbein over #24 IWU.

That’s a lot of upsets for one day and shows you that other regions are having their issues, too. Welcome to the Top 25, Carnegie Mellon and St. Thomas (MN).

A couple of matches tomorrow (from Hawaii). Good night all.

9:00 a.m. (All times central)
Howard Payne vs Paul Quinn	Video	Stats	PQ 3 HPU 0
10:00 a.m.
#20 UMHB vs Transylvania	Video	Stats	Transy 3 UMHB 0
Pacific Lutheran at UT-Dallas	Video	Stats	UTD 3 PLU 0
ETBU at Millsaps	Video	Stats	Millsaps 3 ETBU 1
#7 Trinity vs Pomona-Pitzer	Video	Stats	Trinity 3 P-P 1
Huntingdon vs Dallas	Video	Stats	Huntingdon 3 Dallas 1
Mills College vs Rockford	Video	Stats	Rockford 3 Mills 0
11:00 a.m.
LeTourneau vs La Verne	Video	Stats	ULV 3 LETU 0
Sul Ross State vs Paul Quinn	Video	Stats	Sul Ross 3 PQ 0
Philander Smith at Belhaven	Video	Stats	Belhaven 3 Phil. Smith 0
George Fox vs UW-La Crosse	Video	Stats	UWLC 3 GFU 0
Noon
#20 UMHB vs #14 Chris Newport	Video	Stats	UMHB 3 CNU 1
ETBU vs Birmingham-Southern	Video	Stats	BSU 3 ETBU 1
William Peace vs Lewis & Clark	Video	Stats	WP 3 L&C 0
12:30 p.m.
HSU vs Pacific Lutheran	Video	Stats	PLU 3 HSU 1
Southwestern vs Aurora	Video	Stats	Aurora 3 SU 1
1:00 p.m.
Sul Ross State at Austin College	Video	Stats	Sul Ross 3 AC 2
Concordia vs #5 CMS	Video	Stats	CMS 3 CTX 0
Linfield vs Centenary	Video	Stats	Linfield 3 Centenary 1
Willamette at #10 Colorado College	Video	Stats	CC 3 Willamette 0
Chapman vs Santa Cruz	Video	Stats	Chapman 3 UCSC 1
2:00 p.m.
Simpson vs Pacific	Video	Stats	Simpson 3 Pacific 2
Central Baptist vs Dallas	Video	Stats	Dallas 3 CB 2
Marian at JWU (Denver)	Video	Stats	Marian 3 JWU 2
3:00 p.m.
Howard Payne at Austin College	Video	Stats	AC 3 HPU 0
MUW at Belhaven	Video	Stats	Belhaven 3 MUW 0
Southwestern at UT-Dallas	Video	Stats	UTD 3 SU 1
Lewis-Clark St. at Whitman	Video	Stats	LC St 3 Whitman 0
#7 Trinity vs Aurora	Video	Stats	Trinity 3 Aurora 0
3:30 p.m.
Concordia at Cal Lutheran	Video	Stats	Cal Lu 3 CTX 1
Centenary vs Occidental	Video	Stats	Centenary 3 Oxy 2
4:00 p.m.
Mills College vs Illinois Tech	Video	Stats	Illinois Tech 3 Mills 0
George Fox vs #4 UW-Eau Claire	Video	Stats	UWEC 3 GFU 0
5:00 p.m.
LeTourneau vs Willamette	Video	Stats	LETU 3 Willamette 0
Whitworth vs Lewis-Clark St.	Video	Stats	Whitworth 3 LC St. 0
Marian vs Lewis & Clark	Video	Stats	Marian 3 L&C 1
5:45 p.m.
Puget Sound vs #5 CMS	Video	Stats	CMS 3 Puget Sound 0
TLU vs Chapman	Video	Stats	Chapman 3 TLU 0
6:00 p.m.
Colby-Sawyer vs Linfield	Video	Stats	Linfield 3 Colby 2
Pacific vs Wells	Video	Stats	Pacific 3 Wells 0
7:00 p.m.
Whitworth at Whitman	Video	Stats	Whitworth 3 Whitman 0
Illinois Tech at JWU (Denver)	Video	Stats	Illinois Tech 3 JWU 2
MIT at #10 Colorado College	Video	Stats	CC 3 MIT 1
8:00 p.m.
Puget Sound at Cal Lutheran	Video	Stats	Cal Lu 3 Puget Sound 2
Whittier vs TLU	Video	Stats	TLU 3 Whittier 0

Random Thoughts: Planning on being at UT-Dallas today but have a wedding shower to go to later in the day. Wife not happy with me. Freaking wedding!

A couple of good matches for UMHB today. Then get Transylvania and then Christopher Newport. Transylvania upset Wittenberg last week. UMHB will play both ranked teams on both days on the backside of a back-to-back. Does Berry hold a grudge?

Once again the UT-Dallas Tournament offers some fun in-region match-ups. Yesterday had a shock at every turn.

I rarely talk about Mills College but I am intrigued how they and JWU (Denver) do in the tournament at JWU.

I haven’t said much about the Millsaps/Belhaven Tournament. ETBU will draw Birmingham-Southern today and I have BSU ranked.

The Hawaii Tournament starts today with three teams playing on the islands (Pacific, Simpson and Wells).

Southwestern / UT-Dallas in a rematch from the 2016 Regional Final. Did you know the broadcast of the final point where Southwestern won to earn their way to the Elite 8 is my ringtone? If any Comet parents want to hear it, I’ll be happy to give you a listen.

George Fox gets #4 UW-Eau Claire. Positive thoughts coming your way!

Say hello to WHITMAN!!!!! The last West Region team to start the season begins today with two matches. They were going to play at Trinity last week but had to pull out.

Puget Sound gets both CMS and Cal Lutheran today in HUGE NWC / SCIAC in-region matches.

Remember, every West Region team needs to beat the New England teams when you have them on the schedule. Looking at you Linfield and Colorado College.

Overall, the top end talent is at the Berry Tournament this weekend. There are a number of tournaments in the West Region that pair up teams that are close in talent so those matches are always interesting to me. They probably don’t matter in the NCAA Tournament scheme of things but they are important to the teams and their conferences.

I probably will update pretty late today with the wedding shower going on. I understand they will have rum punch so there could be a problem with the accuracy, as well. As always, if you see me over at UT-Dallas  please say hello. If you are a senior Comet parent I’ll even let you hit me (gently) for my previous comment.