Sunday, Sept 28 Match Day!

Updates: The first matches at Berry for the SAA MEGA POD are about to start. I’ve got Southwestern/Centre on the tube.

Good to see granddaughter Emma White on the Centre bench.

Live Stats not loaded, yet. Hoping I get something. And, just as I typed that…it’s there. So happy.

Southwestern took set one as did Trinity. Centre leads set two as does Millsaps in that Trinity match. Millsaps seems to be a difficult team to play at times.

Millsaps takes set two and are leading early in the third. That was the first set dropped by Trinity in SAA history. UPDATE – Live Stats has everything backwards. Gawd. Millsaps took the first set and Trinity won big in set two. Winning big (now) in set three. Again, this is all contingent on whether there was a trade before the match where every player was traded for every other player. Then Live Stats is right.

Centre had a decent lead in the first half of set two but Southwestern storms back to take it 25-19 to go up 2-0.

It appears to be raining inside the Berry gym. I guess that’s why they are always rowing. (It could be just a lot of sweat.)

Trinity gets set three and are up 2-1. Southwestern leads set three in their match. Centre just seems to struggle too much with serve receive.

I don’t think I’ve seen so many stoppages to dry up sweat as I have in this SU/Centre match.

Southwestern gets the sweep with a big set three win over Centre. Serving was a big player for SU in this one. Trinity is going to win set four and take that match, too.

The noon matches have started at the SAA MEGA POD. Berry and Rhodes each won their first set.

Over at the uaa lesser pod, NYU swept Rochester and Carnegie Mellon swept Brandeis. Emory also swept CWRU. The only match that I thought might be interesting is, indeed, interesting. Chicago is up 2-1 on WashU in what would be a pretty significant upset. NPI would have it around a 9 point difference. WashU is leading in the fourth something to tune into if you can. Of course, that assumes it’s on Court 1 because you won’t be able to see it otherwise.

Well, never mind. They put the screen up and stopped the feed with the Emory match being over. FloSports can’t be happy to miss out on most of the UAA matches this weekend. I mean what are you paying the UAA for? I mean if it’s for not showing matches, pay me, I’ll not show you matches all week long!

WashU forced a fifth set. Chicago leads in the fifth.

Chicago gets the turn at 8-4. I bet this is a fun game to watch. Anna Freeman and Leah Oyewole both have 20+ kills for WashU. 10 aces to just 2 for WashU. That seems like a big Chicago advantage. WashU hitting 0.333 as a team right now. Wow! Can’t lose hitting like that, can you?

Good to NOT see Thalita Marangon playing. She went down at the Oshkosh Tournament and I thought she was done for the season. Fun lefty opposite that can fly. I love players that can fly.

Diya Mishra (Chicago) gets her 20th kill and forces a WashU timeout at 12-10. This is the best game I’ve NOT watched all weekend. The middles have been dominate for Chicago in this match. They may want to see if they can lead them home.

Another ace for Chicago. They have 3 match points. They now have 2 match points. They called a timeout at 14-12.

Diya’s 21st kill wins it for Chicago. WashU loses a match hitting 0.347.

That’s going to compress the UAA NPI standings as WashU had a 3 point lead on CMU. Chicago should jump up but still be behind NYU. They are under 0.500 for the season but seem to still have a shot an at-large. Their uoNPI was 54.494 before this match so it will go up.

Rhodes gets the sweep of Oglethorpe.

Berry gets the sweep of Sewanee. The Ozarks/Centenary match has started with Ozarks leading in the first set. Could it be that a first year program will be better than two other teams in their conference (Blue Division)?

The jinx is real. Centenary is now leading.

Cent gets the win in 4-sets. Last match of the day is ongoing. Hendrix and LETU are split 1-1.

Wow. 11-9 LETU in the 5th set.

18-16 Hendrix in a SCAC classic. LETU had 2 match points in this one but failed to score when they needed it most.

National Games to Watch:

NCAA Scoreboard

The UAA plays today but nothing looks like a close match. Maybe Chicago/WashU? But basically, the higher NPI team should win these matches today. Now watch out for the upsets!

West Schedule:

9:30 amTrinity 3 Millsaps 1Southwestern 3 Centre 0

NoonOglethorpe 0 Rhodes 3Sewanee 0 Berry 3

1 pmOzarks 1 Centenary 3

2 pmHendrix 3 LeTourneau 2

Random Thoughts:

We’ve got SAA and SCAC matches today. The SAA finishes off the MEGA POD hosted by Berry. The Southwestern/Centre match will be the best of the lot. These two are fighting for that 3rd spot in conference.

In the SCAC, Ozarks and Centenary should finish towards the bottom of the Blue Division and this will determine a pecking order. Hendrix/LETU should be a good one. Hendrix has already beaten Austin so this would secure them at the top of the Blue Division with a win.