Weekly Wrap-Up (10/24/21)

After a week hiatus, the Weekly Wrap-Up is back! Before I get to the good stuff, let me go over what you may have missed this week. We had my Top 25 and Region X Rankings on Monday. I took a stab at all of the regional rankings in DIII on Tuesday and later that day the AVCA Top 25 came out. Later in the week, we had the Players of the Week and the Region Leaders. The official regional rankings came out on Wednesday so I went through those lists. If that’s not enough, I had the Points/Set article and then did a piece on former Colorado College head coach Rick Swan and what he is up to. (If you don’t like my writing then this article has a lot of pictures. I figured the Trinity parents would enjoy that.) Lots of Match Day articles and for the first time ever, two mini-Match Days because I got surprised, we had matches those days.

Before we get on with the matches, lets talk about stuff that I found interesting.

The regional rankings came out this week and the lists were alphabetized for the first time under a pilot program that should be trashed as soon as possible but probably won’t be because the NCAA does dumb things like this from time-to-time. The second regional rankings will come out Wednesday and they will be ordered per the selection criteria. They will also include the 5^th criterion, which is Ranked Results. Ranked Results is “Results versus ranked Division III teams as established by the final ranking and the ranking preceding the final ranking.” For these preliminary regional rankings, it includes the results of regionally ranked teams from the previous week. Notice that the word “results” is used to define this criterion and not “record”. When the criterion is shown, however, in the data sheets you will only see record with no understanding of how the RAC interpreted the results. In truth, I believe some RACs use “record” instead of “results”. I good example of the difference is in Region X. We have Mary Hardin-Baylor (unranked) with a Ranked record of 1-0 (determined after the rankings were published). This means they have only played one team that was regionally ranked this past week but won (against Birmingham-Southern). Compare that against Chapman who is 1-6. Their win was against Pomona-Pitzer with losses to Trinity, Southwestern, CMS, Whitworth, Northwestern and UC Santa Cruz. Which team has the advantage if comparing them only on this criterion? If you go by record then UMHB is the clear winner. If you dig into the results, you have to decide if you are going to penalize Chapman for playing a tougher slate of opponents even though they lost to them. What if you compare them to Colorado College at 6-2? Again, record goes to UMHB. Results would definitely go to CC as their two losses were Trinity and Johns Hopkins and they have a couple of better wins, in my opinion. Anyway, you can see the problem with this criterion and why it’s probably the one that makes predicting what the RACs will do next to impossible.

Speaking of the Ranked records, here is what we have for our 7 regionally ranked teams (plus UMHB) through today:

1. Chapman 1-6

Win; Pomona-Pitzer Losses; Whitworth, UCSC, Northwestern, Southwestern, Trinity, CMS

• CMS 8-1

Wins; UCSC, WashU, Trinity, Emory, Chapman, Pomona-Pitzer, Hope, Ohio Northern Loss; Calvin

• Colorado College 6-3 (Southwestern match pending)

Wins; Randolph-Macon, Ithaca, Susquehanna, Southwestern, UCSC, DeSales Losses; Johns Hopkins, Trinity (twice)

• Pomona-Pitzer 1-4

Win; Whitworth Losses; UCSC (twice), Chapman, CMS

• Southwestern 3-2 (CC match pending)

Wins; Aurora, Carnegie Mellon, Chapman Losses; Colorado College, Trinity

• Trinity 10-2

Wins; Whitworth, Emory, Northwestern, Chapman, Colorado College (twice), Endicott, Babson, MIT, Southwestern Losses; CMS, Tufts

• Whitworth 1-2

Win; Chapman Losses; Trinity, Pomona-Pitzer

• Mary Hardin-Baylor 1-0

Win; Birmingham-Southern Losses; None

I should have noticed this sooner but Belhaven’s recent slate of matches just looked wrong. They had 5 road matches over 8 days and the way they were spaced meant they probably weren’t going home during those 8 days. Remember that Belhaven (along with Sul Ross State) probably have the worst travel schedule in DIII due to their remote locations relative to the conference they play in. I reached out to Belhaven Head Coach Justin Dee and he confirmed that it was one long trip.

“2150 miles. 8 days. 5 matches. One team.” – Coach Dee

Remember that quote when you hear that teams in the northeast don’t want to travel. Coach Dee also mentioned that they have been able to do team activities and doing team building during their off days. He specifically mentioned a trip to Top Golf and one to Six Flags. Belhaven hasn’t had the best of seasons but they are certainly making the most of their difficult travel schedule and creating memories that will stay with these student-athletes forever.

Now, I did try to get Coach Dee to tell me who his most annoying player was during this trip but he refused, “I don’t find any of them annoying, thankfully.” Best of luck to the Blazers the rest of the way!

I didn’t do a National Review this week so here are the Hitting Percentages. Remember, based on history, only the Top 11 in this statistic have a chance at the national championship. Here were the Top 11 (well, 13 because of ties) as of Thursday:

ETBU looks to have clinched a spot in the ASC Tournament with their win yesterday but let’s go back to Friday for their match against Sul Ross State. If you are going to have a great match then it pretty much has to go 5-sets. Check! You also need at least one of the sets to go long. Check! Maybe two sets. Check!! Heck, maybe even three. Check!!! Okay, sure, but one of the long sets should go really long. How does 35-33 sound or even 29-27? Check! There should be great individual performances. Check and Check!! Look below for those performances and kudos to all involved in that match!

Shout out to Mara Murphy (Pacific) who set a school record with 28 kills in a 4-set match against Puget Sound!

The latest program to be impacted by the C-Word is Lewis & Clark. Best wishes for everyone’s health to the Pios!

I tweeted this out but I have a little more space here. Back in 2016 in my daughter’s senior year we had a coaching change. In came Don Flora but also joining the program was his wonderful wife and two beautiful and talented daughters. The daughters would go to a lot of the matches and they soon became my favorite part outside of the games because they would pepper with me. I’m not sure the girls ever went to school because they even made it to the Elite 8 in Oshkosh. I would always tease them that they were going to be future Pirates but they never agreed. Well, Don’s oldest, Annika, committed to Southwestern this week. She’ll become an official granddaughter although she already has daughter status in my mind. Now, I just got to keep working on the second one!

Johns Hopkins tied the DIII record for consecutive wins at 60 with their defeat of Randolph-Macon and then Christopher Newport on Saturday. They will go for the record outright on Wednesday against Washington College.

I’m often bad at what I do but I think I hide it well. No hiding this, however, as I was a little confused over Willamette’s recent performances. I normally will double-check the box scores and see if there was a reason. Well, I just realized that Natalie Klotz, one of the best outsides in the NWC if not the region, has been out since the 8^th. My assumption is that she got hurt in the Lewis & Clark match. Including that match, the Bearcats are 2-5 without Klotz playing. Hate that for her senior year but hope she makes it back over the next two weeks.

Because I sometimes learn from my mistakes, Katelyn Popoff missed the Caltech match yesterday. Hope all is good there. Popoff is another really good outside.

Top performances from the week (Doesn’t include today’s matches):

• Annika Canaba (Sul Ross State) got a triple double against Howard Payne in only 3-sets.

• Cali Carter (HSU) had 48 digs in a 5-set loss to UMHB.

• Paige Richards (Linfield) had 7 aces in a 4-set loss to Saint Martin’s.

• Dede Carranza (CMS) had 31 digs in a 3-set win over Redlands. Jenna Holmes had 17 kills in that match.

• Whittier/La Verne had a great match this week going 5-sets. Katelyn Popoff (Whittier) had 23 kills on 74 swings. Madison Smith (La Verne) had 40 digs in the match. (Most of those probably Popoff’s.)

• Caltech had a really nice match against Chapman winning in 4-sets. Dallas Taylor (Caltech) had 16 kills and has been one of the more efficient hitters in our region. Sophie Srivastava (Chapman) had a triple-double in this one as she attempts to fend off Canaba for the region lead and maybe try to overtake the national leader.

• It was a block-fest in the Pomona-Pitzer/CLU match. 40 team blocks between the two teams. Grace Fan (Pomona-Pitzer) had 7.5 and Kira Mortenson (CLU) had 8 to lead their teams.

• Alli Pierce (UMHB) had 47 assists in their 4-set win over McMurry.

• Claire Okerlund (UCSC) had 8 aces in their sweep of Mills College. The team had 20 in the match.

• McKenzie Pfeiffer (PLU) had 22 kills in a 4-set loss to Puget Sound.

• CMS averaged 19.5 Points/Set against #4 Hope. In that match, Kelsey Polhemus had 11 blocks to go with her 10 kills.

• In that ETBU/Sul Ross State mentioned above, Avery Reid (ETBU) had 29 kills in the victory while Annika Canaba (Sul Ross State) had 23 kills and a triple-double. Annie Harris (ETBU) had 9 block assists and one solo.

• Kylexus Block (Concordia) had 21 kills in their 4-set victory over LeTourneau.

• In the UTD 5-set win over UMHB, the team only had 1 block. Kind of crazy. Of course, it helped that Allison Owen had 27 kills.

• In Pacific’s 4-set win over Puget Sound Mara Murphy had 28 kills (as mentioned above, this was a school record).

• Jessi Lumsden (Chapman) had 16 kills in their sweep over Redlands.

• Georgia Mullins (Colorado College) had 17 kills and 20 points in their sweep over Schreiner. Jenny Jenks had 44 assists in the same match.

• In the McMurry 4-set win over HSU, Kaylie Vasil had 21 kills while Madison Cuellar had 32 digs.

• In the St Thomas/Southwestern 5-set match, Paige Havel (St Thomas) had 13 blocks including 11 solos! Southwestern had 5 players with double-digit kills.

• ETBU’s Avery Reid had 20 kills in their sweep of Howard Payne.

• Always hard to talk about Trinity because they spread the ball around so much that no one player seems to excel. With that said, in the 4-set win over Colorado College, Annie Rose Leggett had 13 kills and 28 digs while Avery Tuggle had 13 kills and 24 digs. Only one receiving error between the two of them in this match.

• Lauren Asato (Pomona-Pitzer) had 25 digs in their sweep of Redlands.

• Lots of rallies in the 4-set Southwestern/TLU match. Lexi Morris with 39 digs for TLU while Southwestern had 121 total digs with Ali Grona leading the team with 43.

• Cal Lu swept La Verne with ULV having 7 more kills in the match. The difference was CLU’s 12 aces and 11 blocks.

• Sophie Srivastava (Chapman) with another triple-double (14k, 26a, 19d). This time against Occidental.

Let me save the SCAC for last since they are playing while I’m writing this.

In the ASC, Mary Hardin-Baylor suffered their first defeat of the season (against UT-Dallas) but they also secured the #1 seed and hosting duties for the ASC Tournament. They have one match left against Concordia who are on fire right now. UT-Dallas will most likely end up in the second spot earning a bye but they do need to take care of business this week. They have home matches against ETBU, HPU and Sul Ross State. I believe the rest of the Top 6, as far as who the teams are, is settled although there is a very outside chance LeTourneau could fall out of the mix. With that said, they are at home for their last 3 matches and play HPU and Belhaven. The other three teams are Sul Ross State, ETBU and Concordia so only the seeding matters. I do think the ASC Tournament could be the most competitive top to bottom in the region. I could make an argument of not wanting to play any of the six, but the team going crazy right now is Concordia. If they beat UMHB this week then I think the fear will be real. McMurry has been doing better of late after going through the C-Word earlier this season. They had to forfeit 2 conference matches and you can definitely say they made a difference. HSU had UTD’s number this year so the Comets are probably glad the Cowgirls didn’t make the tournament. Overall, a strange conference season during the second strangest of volleyball seasons. I wasn’t thrilled with how the ASC teams, for the most part, concentrated only on their conference season. Part of the blame is on Covid, obviously, but the conference also went through realignment, which caused some headaches. I hope they can figure out some ways to clear up two or three weekends next year.

In the NWC, we don’t have a tournament so we have two weeks left of matches that will determine the automatic qualifier (and title winner). Whitworth is still undefeated but have four tough matches left with three on the road. Their closest competitors are PLU and Puget Sound and they get both away. PLU sits two matches back so they must beat Whitworth at home and then need someone else to help. Even then, I’ll have to dive into the tiebreakers to see what happens next. Puget Sound is still mathematically in it but need to win out and have PLU beat Whitworth. Then need PLU to lose one more match and Whitworth to lose all of their matches. So, maybe not likely? Pacific Has played better and now sit in 4^th place. George Fox and Lewis & Clark are tied for 5^th and this is after L&C had to forfeit two conference matches due to the C-Word. Willamette has struggled without Klotz and are now tied with Whitman. I keep hearing rumors that the NWC is considering a tournament and I think it’s the way to go. The problem is the same that the ASC is facing and that’s how to clear out space in the schedule. It’s tough to play home and home schedules and have a tournament weekend and have at least two weekends for out-of-conference tournaments. In the end, I just think it gives more teams an incentive to play later in the year. Right now, with two weeks left, really only Whitworth and PLU are in play and that’s not very fun. (Although you could argue it’s a lot fairer not to have the conference tournaments.)

Over in the SCIAC, they only take 4 teams to the tournament and it’s pretty clear who they will be. CMS is a virtual lock for the #1 seed and will get to host both the semifinal match and the finals if they get there. Pomona-Pitzer sits 2^nd a match and half up on Chapman but they really only have Oxy left on the schedule that you can be confident they beat. The other two teams are CMS and Chapman. Chapman just has two matches left and one is against CMS. If you assume CMS wins out then Chapman can only get to 11 wins if it can beat Pomona-Pitzer. They would hold the tiebreaker but a Pomona-Pitzer win against Oxy clinches 2^nd for the Sagehens. I think Chapman has at least the 3^rd seed locked up because, although Cal Lu can tie them, Chapman holds the tiebreaker. So, the entire Pomona-Pitzer/Chapman dynamic is who will host their semifinal match and remember Pomona-Pitzer doesn’t have a home court this year. Cal Lu has Caltech and Redlands on the schedule and I think really only have to beat one of them to clinch the 4^th and final seed. Whittier does have a chance if they win out but they have CMS on the schedule. As for the rest, you have to give credit to Caltech for a really good conference schedule as I think they have won the most conference matches in their history. Oxy had a better season than I expected. La Verne and Redlands are playing out the string at this point.

The SCAC is kind of a mess right now and part of that is the fact that I’m writing this while matches are going on including a big one between Colorado College and Southwestern. Trinity looks to have the top seed locked up. The SCAC takes 6 teams into their tournament so that means a bye for the Tigers and also means they won’t be playing either Southwestern or Colorado College until the finals. The CC/Southwestern match today will probably decide the second seed and remaining bye. The other three seeds right now are going to TLU, Austin College and Dallas but you have St Thomas, Schreiner and Centenary lurking. If any get hot in that final weekend then they can earn a spot.

Alright, CC and Southwestern is in about 15 minutes. Looks like I may spend some money here. For the upcoming week, we’ll know the first ordering of the regional rankings. We’ll also know the seeding for the three conference tournaments and we may know whether Whitworth is the first team to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. Best of luck to all.