Volleyball Eve 2025 Musings

I like to do a Volleyball Eve post because with the volleyball season approaching, I feel like the spotlight has somehow come off me and that is, of course, unacceptable.

Last year at this time, we were going through COVID issues at the house. I also remember missing the 2023 CMS Regional and Championship because of the pesky bugger. Let’s hope 2025 is bugger free for our family and yours.

When I learned that Southwestern was going to open the season at the Puget Sound Premier (co-hosted by Pacific Lutheran), I was very excited. That’s a wonderful location to visit and a fun trip. It was also where the 2016 team started their season on their way to a Final 4 appearance. Good memories. Anyway, I do most of my travel flying non-revenue (non-rev) on American Airlines. That means I can fly on any open seat if it’s available at my priority level. That perk is courtesy of my daughter who now works at the company. Well, as I sit here on Thursday morning the non-rev gods are telling me that I’m not going to Seattle. I have only a slim chance that something opens up this evening. I’ve done all of the math trying to figure out different ways to get there and although it’s possible, it’s much more likely I’ll be stuck at DFW airport or, worse, at a connecting city. Right now, the backup is heading down to San Antonio and watching the Trinity Tournament. If that happens, it’s more likely that I’ll spend next weekend at Southwestern for their tournament then heading up to Oshkosh for those matches. More to come on this.

My Match Day articles for the weekend are done and will post each day at 2 am Central. The schedule concept that I’ve sported since the inception is now gone. Too many matches to track with all of these conferences moving to the West. Please let me know what you think after this weekend. (But only if you are okay with it.)

I have updated Conference Tiebreakers Page to include both C2C and the SAA.

I have also created space for the 2025 NPI Rankings Page. Only one astute reader has noticed it so far. Nothing there to look at right now. However, both “Ned” and the Latvians are ready to go once we get some matches in the books.

Lewis & Clark Head Coach Erin Labasan was nice enough to email back when her roster was available as we missed it in the Retention article. That won’t remove them from the Hall of Shame but I will now feel bad about it. Here are their retention stats:

Original Stats Loss = 65% New Stats Loss = 65% Returners = 90%

They had a player move from the squad to Student Manager. Of course, they also had a Student Manager move to the squad. Poetic. They have 3 first-years and 2 transfers. It was a tough 2024 season for the Pios so they are definitely a team we all should be rooting for this year.

More on Lewis & Clark. They will be playing in the Santa Cruz Tournament starting tomorrow. I just really like the coaches at this one. You have my new BFF in Erin Labasan along with Oxy Head Coach Emily Foster (did a story on their program this summer), UCSC Head Coach Chad Koenegstein (first time coach after being annoying at Colorado College for a number of years) and Redlands Head Coach Savannah Cox who is coming back from some medical difficulties late last season. Savannah, I told Erin to give you a hug from me so if she doesn’t do it then it’s her fault!

You know I haven’t made fun of MIT Head Coach Paul Dill in a while. Good luck this season, Paul…things are looking up, I guess. How smart is MIT? They have an assistant coach (Jeremy Velazquez) who has a PhD in cellular and molecular pathology. Not sure how that helps running a slide but kind of a cool note. MIT has four assistants! Now I know the secret of Paul’s success…let others do it. Uh oh. Looks like another long season for Paul on D3VbWest.

I was looking at the teams that went winless last season. They were Principia, Lesley, Centenary, VTSU Lyndon, Warren Wilson and Lewis & Clark. That’s three from the “West” (including C2C member Warren Wilson). It appears that Principia is not fielding a varsity team this season as they only have a JV schedule listed. My hope for the others is a better season that includes multiple wins.

All of the Conference Previews are out. The SAA dropped theirs this morning.

Southwestern and Trinity will be in Region VI this season. That means Hendrix and Ozarks are probably Region X. I did an article on this two days ago.

I also dropped the Retention article and the All-Region Team article this week. I did update the All-Region article with additional names because my Trinity and Southwestern selections were now invalid.

My first Match Day drops in about 15 hours.

Alright folks, it’s Volleyball Eve. No one get hurt today. I’ve done this in the past but I always get new parents reading my stuff so here we go again:

My advice to all parents is enjoy this experience because you will never get this time back and it’s a blast. Not only support your daughter but make the other women on the team your daughters, too. Support them all even if one of them has your daughter on the bench. This is more than wins and losses and playing time. It’s about making memories and building relationships that will last a life time. Enjoy the other parents. Even the guy that seems to think he knows a lot and will probably create a DIII Volleyball Website. Be extra nice to that guy. Try to make every trip you can. Stream any game you can’t. I remember my daughter’s first-year and we didn’t make two trips because she didn’t play and they were going up against top tier competition. She played both weekends and this was before every match was streamed. It was tough coming back and hearing the parents say how good she did. Support your coaches! This is not club ball where you could be an idiot (but shouldn’t have been). This adventure is a privilege and not a right. You are not going to agree with everything the coach does. That is a conversation to have only with your spouse (you can also write me because I love insane volleyball talk). Remember when you praise someone on the team, you are also indirectly criticizing others that play the same position. It doesn’t make sense but other parents are sensitive to it so notice your surroundings and be positive to all of your “daughters”. These four-years are going to go by so fast. I envy all of you.