Weekly Wrap-Up (11/05/2023)

This is the last Warp-Up folks for the season. After this, things are more fluid as we get to selection and then regionals and then a week off (what?) and then the championship. If I have something I want to write about then the Musing articles start happening again. The end of the regular season. Crazy! I always say it goes by fast and it really just gets faster every season.

For this past week, we had the normal articles. Wait. Or did we? Did you notice that I missed one of our standards? This was not on purpose. I just forgot. The AVCA Top 25 article didn’t happen. I don’t think I thought about it until doing a Match Day with one of the ranked teams later in the week and thinking, “Why don’t I remember what they were ranked this week.” Let me just say this. I am not sorry. I really hate that article at this time of the year because it doesn’t matter. Still, I need to be better. As a show of good faith from me to you, this year I will be refunding everyone’s subscription! (Unless you bought me and my extended family lunch. In that case, you are out of luck.)

Back to the week that was and the extra articles were my Regional Ranking II Predictions, the official Regional Rankings II article and our first At-Large Mock. Yes, you can see where my mind is at once the regional rankings get released. I did make some mistakes in my At-Large Mock. First, I forgot NYU. Then, I remembered Virginia Wesleyan twice. In the end, these cancel each other out as NYU gets the Virginia Wesleyan at-large bid they didn’t need. But, as a show of good faith, I am going to reimburse everyone’s subscription from the 2022 year! By the way, for these refunds, if you could just email me your credit card, name and that little security code on the back of the card, that would be helpful. (People wonder how I make money on this site, well, now you know. Oh, and let me know your current balance.)

Looking towards this week, it’s all about the tournaments. Some have already started, which I’ll touch on below. Most will end this Saturday, which makes things nice. A few will end Sunday when the NCAA Selection Committee is having to finalize their at-large bids. Ricky always does a nice summary of the tournaments, which you can find here. I will do a conference tournament page that will include the Region X conferences. This will come out Tuesday or Wednesday. We will also start seeing the conference award winners this week. I will be creating an Awards Page. Wait! I just did. I will fill this out as awards get announced.

Important PSA!!!! Coaches!!!!! Tomorrow is the last day to nominate your players for AVCA All-Region! Get this done. Not a member but have a player that should be considered? Get signed up and nominate them. Then remember to vote (I’m looking at you ASC and NWC)!

This week I’m not going over best performances. We just lost a number of seniors as their collegiate playing career have ended. These are the players on teams that did not make their conference tournament. In lieu of best performances, I’m going to go through the NCAA statistical database and list the seniors from each Region X team with a small stat line. From me, just know you have my thanks. I enjoy writing and each of you gave me something to write about. I also enjoy watching so chances are I got to see you play at some point. Again, thank you.

It was a little surprising to see that some tournaments had started already this past weekend but they did. I meant to put this in last week’s wrap-up but the NESCAC was unable to complete their schedule because of the manhunt in Maine (a few weeks back). Because of this, the conference decided to have everyone make the tournament. Teams seeded 6 through 11 had a play-in match that happened this past weekend. We had one upset with #10 Bowdoin beating #7 Hamilton. What’s interesting is that Bowdoin is regionally ranked while a number of teams higher in conference are not. They will complete their quarterfinal matches today with Tufts already having beat Trinity (CT). Other conferences that have already started are the North Atlantic and the United East. Conferences that won’t name a champion until Sunday are Allegheny Mountain, Centennial, Heartland, New England Women’s and Men and Southern Athletic. Only the Allegheny doesn’t matter as only one team will get a bid from that conference. The others could all impact at-large bids with an upset.

I love it when my mind flows as I write. There are 21 at-large bids this year, which is actually a nice number based on past years. In theory, the 21 best teams in the nation that didn’t get an Automatic Qualifier (AQ) will get a bid. In practice, that will not happen because the selection criteria is flawed. The 21 can also be impacted by that conference upset that takes down a team that will get an at-large but was going to get the AQ. In effect, it reduces the at-large bids when a team that wasn’t going to make the tournament gets the AQ over someone that will get a bid. When I did my At-Large Mock, Colby was that 21^st team. Just one major upset removes them from my mythical tournament. It’s hard to be a bubble team because so much matters right now.

I know my mind is sort of dominated by selection and the tournaments right now but I should probably mention a rumor. As we all know, the ASC is facing a tough time. They are down to five teams starting with the 2025 season with the departures of Concordia, McMurry, Sul Ross State and UT-Dallas. That will start the clock on keeping their AQ (may actually start counting in 2024 depending on UTD’s status). When you look around, there really isn’t a good solution for the remaining teams. Can they pick up someone to make their conference whole or will the teams go to a different conference or division? Well, the rumor is to watch what happens with the Coast-to-Coast Conference (C2C). They are the only conference not to play a conference schedule but they do have an AQ. They don’t sponsor football so any school that jumps will need to find a home for that sport but splitting off a football team for some of the schools will be easier than others. To be more specific on my rumor…I’ve heard one of the remaining ASC schools (that sponsors football) is looking to the C2C.

So, let’s talk about the C2C for a second with respect to volleyball. UC Santa Cruz is in the conference with no other C2C conference school within driving distance. They put together one of the toughest schedules in DIII with two flights. I think two flights would be the minimum for any Texas school in the C2C. You would still have a number of non-conference schools within driving distance to fill out your schedule. It helps that the SCAC does pod scheduling that opens up weekends. It will also help if the SAA goes to pod scheduling when Southwestern and Trinity join. (Have I mentioned that rumor about the SAA pod scheduling, yet?) The scheduling problem happens late in the regular season when tournaments are few but the SCAC just had a number of teams with an open weekend. It’s very doable and will probably boost the volleyball program. Right now, the ASC schedule constrains their volleyball teams from playing tournaments and that goes away with the C2C. The one big “IF” in this is whether the sports programs will be able to access the money needed for additional travel? Two flights are the minimum and I would say three is preferred. Stay tuned.

The WIAC is going to have a tough tournament. UW-Oshkosh and UW-Whitewater get the byes but maybe the best team in the nation (UWO) will get the winner of UW-Eau Claire or UW-Stevens Point. UWEC has beaten some very good teams of late (including UWSP). Both teams took a set from UWO during the season. There’s also something to be said for a team that needs the win versus a team that has a bid locked up.

Does anyone remember the last time Cal Lutheran didn’t make their conference tournament when it was played? Ever? We almost had a year where Southwestern and Cal Lutheran both didn’t make it.

On the flip side, Redlands won their last two matches and finished with 4 wins in conference. That’s their best finish since 2019. Can they be the Schreiner of next season?

The SCAC is going to have 11 teams playing volleyball next year. I wonder how they will handle the scheduling for that?

As for me, I’m unsure what my week looks like. I’m thinking the (hot) wife and I will drive down for the SCAC matches on Friday at Southwestern. The ASC is playing at UMHB (30 minutes away) so depending on how things go we may stop there on the way back home. I think I need to be home for the weekend because I typically sit in front of my computer writing and watching on Sunday (Selection Eve Article). I can use Saturday to prepare a bit, too. Of course, if Southwestern is going to be one of those annoying teams that perform the upset and have to play on Saturday, then I’m sure Decker could go a day without food. Right?

Let’s hit up the conferences and pay tribute to the seniors. The teams in the tournament are UMHB, ETBU, UT-Dallas, LeTourneau, Hardin-Simmons and Howard Payne. First appearance for HPU since 2016. We (DIII) say goodbye to Sul Ross State who is moving to DII. Both Concordia and McMurry missed out this season and both will be moving to the SCAC next season. Here are your seniors that we say goodbye to this week:

• Rayna Pack (Concordia) 194 Kills and 213.5 Points on the season

• Nicole Deering (Concordia) 108 kills and 119.5 Points on the season

• Adile Leal (McMurry) 447 digs and 4 awesome kills for the libero

• Addyson Tiffin (McMurry) 138 kills and 161.5 Points on the season

• Tatyana Colon (Sul Ross State) 348 kills and 81 assists on the season

• Daniella Garcia (Sul Ross State) 209 kills and 267.5 Points on the season

• Loren Garcia (Sul Ross State) 193 kills and 222.5 Points on the season

UC Santa Cruz has been off this past week but still have their C2C tournament to go. There are three tough teams in the tournament with them (Mary Washington, Salisbury and Christopher Newport). All three I had making the NCAA Tournament in my mock. If UCSC plays at the top of their game, they have a chance. Let’s do it!

Over in the NWC, we had some late drama with the fourth spot that eventually went to Willamette. Puget Sound had a great start to the year but just had some key injuries that hurt them the rest of the way. Hosting the tournament (and regretting that they voted for the tournament this year) is Pacific Lutheran who went undefeated in conference. This team had just one win going into conference but figured it out and just dominated. Congratulations. Whitworth ended up in second with George Fox in third. Both of these semifinal matches should be very competitive. The teams that are done are Puget Sound, Whitman, Pacific, Linfield and Lewis & Clark. Here are their seniors:

• Avery Allemann (Puget Sound) 185 kills and 255 Points on the season

• Katelyn Chekian (Puget Sound) 171 kills and 223 Points on the season

• Abby McLeran (Puget Sound) 168 digs and a memorable single kill on the season

• Sara Olsson (Puget Sound) 87 kills and 96.5 Points on the season

• Rachel Ryan (Puget Sound) 7 digs in limited time but did get that one kill

• Logan Winn (Puget Sound) 445 assists and 130 digs on the season

• Nicole Kelly (Whitman) 192 kills and 240 Points on the season

• Teia Magaoay (Whitman) 710 assists and 223 digs on the season

• Kenzie Martinez (Whitman) 280 kills and 301.5 Points on the season

• Claire Stipsits (Pacific) 69 assists and 182 digs on the season

• Alison Brown (Pacific) 236 kills and 250.5 Points on the season

• Emily Cheavtham (Pacific) 763 assists and 207 digs on the season

• Rhylee Corpuz (Pacific) 3 aces and 7 digs in a limited role

• Claire Johnson (Linfield) 632 assists and 116 Points on the season

• Kate Shimaura (Lewis & Clark) 420 digs and 82 assists on the season

• Izzy Willis (Lewis & Clark) 295 kills and 334.5 Points on the season

To the SCAC we go and there is Trinity sitting on top again. I guarantee that this will not happen in 2025! Texas Lutheran did what they needed to at the end and claimed the second seed and bye into the tournament. They were one point in that St Thomas match from falling to third. Heck, I think they were down 14-10 in the fifth set! Colorado College gets the third seed followed by St Thomas, Schreiner and Southwestern. Congratulations to Schreiner. I’m not sure they’ve ever made the SCAC Tournament outside of the COVID year when the number of teams was expanded. Not making it was Austin College, Dallas and Centenary. Here are their seniors:

• Riley Abernathy (Austin) 222 kills and 254.5 Points on the season

• Alyssa Holloway (Austin) 263 digs and that one kill on the season

• Granddaughter Olivia Linton (Austin) 222 kills and 126 digs on the season

• Victoria Smith (Austin) 226 kills and 276 Points on the season

• Cassie Dyoub (Dallas) 370 kills and 392 Points on the season

• April Jones (Centenary) got into 5 matches on the season

• Robin LeMelle (Centenary) 89 kills and 195 digs on the season

• Madison Schonberg (Centenary) 44 kills and 17 digs on the season

To finish this off, we have the SCIAC where everything finished nice and peaceful despite the insanity that could have happened on the last day. CMS, once again, claims the top spot but they look a little shaky against a deep and tough conference. La Verne finished second followed by Pomona-Pitzer and Whittier. Outside looking in were Cal Lutheran, Chapman, Redlands, Caltech and Occidental. Here are their seniors:

• Sadie Peete (Cal Lutheran) 256 kills and 306 Points on the season

• Kira Mortensen (Cal Lutheran) 183 kills and 246.5 Points on the season

• Tess Holbert (Cal Lutheran) 717 assists and 220 digs on the season

• Amy Buffini (Cal Lutheran) 91 kills and 308 digs on the season

• Rayne Selhorst (Cal Lutheran) 24 kills and 16 digs in limited time

• Alysha Buffini (Cal Lutheran) 118 digs and that awesome kill on the season

• Isabella Wade (Cal Lutheran) 33 digs and 2 assists in limited time

• Chloe Allen (Chapman) 79 kills and 82.5 Points on the season

• Kadie Daniel (Chapman) 38 assists and 17 digs on the season

• Marly Johnson (Chapman) 216 kills and 260.5 Points on the season

• Julin Kenison (Chapman) 304 kills and 236 digs on the season

• Amelia Nathanson (Chapman) one assist and one kill in limited action

• Natalie Spencer (Chapman) 9 kills and 4 digs in limited action

• Chanel Sud (Chapman) 72 assists and 25 digs on the season

• Kiki Stradford (Redlands) 132 kills and 184 Points on the season

• Bella Thornbury (Redlands) 6 assists in limited action

• Halle Blend (Caltech) 140 kills and 186 Points on the season

• Helen Brackney (Caltech) 65 kills and 11 digs on the season

• Carolyn Lu (Caltech) 44 kills and 12 digs on the season

• Claire Perhach (Caltech) 128 kills and 57 digs on the season

• Gabriella Twombly (Caltech) 8 kills and 6 digs in limited action

• Lizzy Kerman (Occidental) 103 kills and 147 assists on the season

That’s it for the wrap-up. Best of luck to everyone still in their tournament. I’m all for Trinity, CMS and La Verne losing this year. I think all three are in the NCAA Tournament. So, we take those three plus the ASC and NWC winner and add two more teams that weren’t going to make it and it gives us 7 teams from the West. Now we have a Region X regional! If Colorado College isn’t the team in the SCAC then the regional would be at CMS. If it’s a Texas team that wins the SCAC (let’s say…oh…I don’t know…Southwestern) then Trinity gets the regional. Of course, did any team in the West even bother submitting a regional application? Now, that would be funny. Looks like my mind is running rampant. Time to shut this down.