Tournament Previews (Week 2) 2024

Time to look at the second week of tournaments where the Region X teams will be playing. This week we have 5 schools doing their own thing. They are Caltech, Centenary, Howard Payne, Lewis & Clark and McMurry. For the last article, I looked at the NCAA Power Index (NPI) but I think that would be a little redundant at this point. Maybe a smaller article just looking at the competition this time around.

First up is the Auggie Classic hosted by Augsburg. In this one we have George Fox heading over to play the hosts, Nebraska Wesleyan, UW-La Crosse and Wartburg. I do like it when the NWC teams can get out of their area (and SoCal) and go against different teams. Remember, we had Pacific Lutheran kind of surprise people in the tournament last year and there is no reason why we can’t surprise people earlier in the year, too. Unfortunately, George Fox, who has been a really good team the last couple of years, will see a big statistical loss due to graduation so I fear this tournament will be a bit of an uphill climb for them. None of these opponents are push overs so if George Fox is going to surprise people, you’ll have to include me on that list.

My favorite tournament of the year is up next and that’s the East/West Challenge. Looks like the same teams as last year and this is a really good mix of schools. This tournament rotates through four locations (this year at WashU) and includes 8 teams playing three matches each. The West schools will be Cal Lutheran, CMS, Colorado College and Trinity. The evil East schools include Emory, Johns Hopkins, Tufts and Wash U. Cal Lutheran will draw Johns Hopkins, WashU and Colorado College. Cal Lu has struggled recently with the quality opponents they play in this tournament. They do have to replace a ton of talent this year so this may continue again here. CMS almost always goes 3-0 or 2-1 but they are also replacing a lot so it will be interesting to see what they can do against Trinity, Tufts and Emory. Trinity/CMS is always a friendly match between two fan bases that love each other. Colorado College gets Emory, Tufts and Cal Lutheran. I think Emory could be one of the best teams in the country so that Tufts match will be really important for the Tigers. Trinity may get the toughest three opponents in Johns Hopkins, CMS and WashU. I guess they avoid Emory but you can’t be surprised by any record Trinity finishes with this weekend. It will be interesting to see with the implementation of NPI whether these types of tournaments continue. They were wonderful to increase teams’ strength of schedule but now they give excellent chances at losses. My hope is that these types of teams value playing elite level competition in preparation for the NCAA Tournament.

UW-Oshkosh will be hosting the Mary Peterson Invitational and will host one of the traditional powers from the NWC in Whitworth. Whitworth will play the hosts in addition to Lakeland, North Central and UW-Stevens Point. Both of those UW schools will be really tough challenges. Whitworth is losing some talent but should do well here.

Schreiner will be travelling to the Marymount Quad hosted by Marymount. They will be playing Christopher Newport, Heidelberg and Marymount. That’s a great mix of teams and I’m sure all of them are circling the Mountaineers as a win. The thing to remember is that this Schreiner program is not the same as year’s past. They should play very tough here.

Rhodes will be hosting their Rhodes College Classic where we will be sending them Dallas and LeTourneau. The other teams attending are the hosts, Elmhurst, Millsaps and Moravian. Elmhurst is the match to be ready for as they should be pretty good again this year. They will certainly be a challenge for both teams but an excellent opportunity.

Linfield makes an interesting tournament decision by heading to the Sewanee Invitational. They will get the hosts in addition to Maryville, Spalding and St Joseph (Maine). Sewanee is probably the class of this tournament while the other schools are probably very close to each other. This will be another case where Linfield’s opponents are circling a win. Love these opportunities for the underdogs. Linfield pretty much returns everyone from a team that was on the upswing last season.

It’s going to be hard for me to pass up the Southwestern Fall Invitational hosted by both Southwestern and Concordia. Other Region X teams attending will Pacific Lutheran, Texas Lutheran, Whitman and UT-Dallas. Remember that UT-Dallas is transitioning to DII so their matches will not count for DIII opponents this season. (Update – Matches against UTD will count in the standings but will not be used for tournament selection. Their matches will also not be counted in conference. Matches against UTD will count as in-region DIII matches. This is important as teams in a region must play a certain number of matches in-region.) The only non-Region X team will be Illinois Tech. All the credit in the world to Tech who do like to travel and often make the West their destination. Based on last year’s results, Pacific Lutheran will be the team to beat in this one but this is really a tournament where everyone is going to like their chances. Interesting to see that Southwestern is playing 4 matches starting on Thursday. A few schools will also be playing 4 matches but over 2-days and not 3.

UW-Superior will be hosting the Stinger Classic, which will have Mary Hardin-Baylor flying up for competition. They will draw Hamline, Martin Luther, St Scholastica and the hosts. UMHB will be the class here and in the past, I’d say I wished that they had played tougher opponents but NPI had them as an at-large team last year so maybe they know what they are doing and were just ahead of the game as far as scheduling goes.

Good to see East Texas Baptist hosting their Tiger Invitational for the second year in a row. They should be really good this year and could be the class of Region X. (Yeah, CMS, Trinity and La Verne will have something to say about it.) This tournament has drawn Hendrix, Hardin-Simmons, Huntingdon, St Thomas and Willamette. Only Hendrix and Huntingdon are from outside the region. ETBU should blow through these teams but the other matches should be really close. St Thomas and Hendrix don’t play each other but I would have liked to have seen that match. (Of course, they play each other the week before and the week after.) A team to watch here is Willamette. They made the NWC Tournament last year and aren’t losing too much this year. What I said about Willamette can also be said for HSU but with the ASC. What I said about Willamette and HSU can also be said for St Thomas but with the SCAC. Yes, interesting mix of teams.

The final tournament in the mix is hosted by Whittier and La Verne. I’ve seen different names for this one so we’ll just go with the D3VbWest Classic. Lots of teams in this one with lots of Region X represented. We’ve got Austin College, Chapman, Edgewood, La Verne, Occidental, Pacific, Pomona-Pitzer, Puget Sound, Redlands, St Vincent, UC Santa Cruz and Whittier. Only Edgewood and St Vincent come from outside of Region X. Edgewood was really good last year and they will play La Verne in this one. Overall, Edgewood’s season schedule is also really good this year. La Verne is the class here but you can’t look past Pomona-Pitzer and UC Santa Cruz. Puget Sound will also be good along with Whittier and Austin College. Teams that will be looking to prove something will be Oxy, Redlands and St Vincent. I didn’t mention Chapman and they really could slot anywhere here but are losing a bunch of talent from their 2023 team.

Lots of good options this week. I’m pretty confident it will be Southwestern with the (hot) wife or the East/West Challenge sans (hot) wife for me. I’ll have one more article down the road on the tournaments the third weekend, which will include a few tournaments being attended later in the season.