Weekly Wrap-Up

Weekly Wrap-Up time! I was very disappointed not to make it up to Sherman (Austin College) for the SCAC Crossover this weekend but TCU football and wedding stuff won out. Less than a month until my daughter’s wedding, which will unfortunately be on championship day. It’s always hard to do the write-up and the other behind the scenes things I keep up with on Sundays when there are matches going on. It’s quite clear that I have to be the most sympathetic person in the West Region with all of these hardships but then I got an email.

For those at Austin College this weekend you would have noticed it a little quieter as Colorado College Head Coach Rick Swan wasn’t able to attend. Their team would see the return of All-American Margo Spaethling this week as they had an important match against Trinity but no Coach Swan. It turns out he took a ball to the side of the face that ended up hurting his eye. He didn’t say who hit the ball but it had to be Jordan Mullen, right? Anyway, Coach Swan went to a doctor who sent him to a Retina Specialist who found that Rick had a detached retina! He was immediately scheduled for emergency surgery the next morning. Coach Swan says that the good news is that he should retain most if not all of his vision but he’s not allowed to travel. We’ll have to see if he’s allowed to travel when the SCAC or NCAA Tournaments come around. I certainly wish him a speedy recovery but had to joke that if he keeps the eye patch he’ll have to coach either Whitworth or Southwestern since they are the Pirates. Anyway, I guess I’ll suck it up and finish this Wrap-Up despite matches still going on.

As for the book keeping, we had my Top 25 come out on Monday with my West Regional Ranking predictions out on Tuesday. The AVCA Top 25 also came out on Tuesday but the big news for the week was the first release of the regional rankings on Wednesday. Of course, this meant I had to review the West regional rankings as well as the other regions. The consolidated version of the Players of the Week also came out and on Thursday I did an article on what the West teams can expect from the Ranked Wins criterion. I also dropped a podcast on the national regional rankings which you can find from my Podcast Page. Lots of content that I hope you caught but if not, the links are there for you to get to them now. We are now two weeks until NCAA Selection so let’s take a look at the matches from this past week and where everyone stands in conference.

In the ASC there is only one conference tournament spot available at this point. Every team only has one or two matches left in conference and we know that UT-Dallas will win the East Division and host the tournament. We also know that UMHB has won the West Division with Concordia getting the second spot. We also know that Hardin-Simmons has locked down a wildcard and I think it will be the first of the two. Finally, we know that LeTourneau and ETBU are in a fight for the second spot in the East Division while those two teams and McMurry are still in play for the second wildcard. LeTourneau has Louisiana College (3-20) left on the schedule away but a win there gives them the second spot in the East. That would leave ETBU only the wildcard going against McMurry. They have Belhaven (8-19) at home so a win seems likely. The problem for them is that McMurry has two matches left against the bottom two teams in the West and a win against either of them along with the tiebreaker will give them the wildcard. So, most likely next week we’ll see HSU playing LeTourneau for the right to play UMHB and McMurry playing Concordia for the right to play UT-Dallas. Remember that the ASC Tournament is single-elimination this season.

As for the matches from the week, we saw an important one for UMHB when they hosted Southwestern and came away with the 5-set win. Corinne Novak was unstoppable in this one for the Cru as she finished with 20 kills and only 3 errors. One issue with UMHB this season is the service receive and Southwestern had 18 service aces in this one. I still really like the Cru but this could be the Achilles heel that does them in if they make the NCAA Tournament. Belhaven played Millsaps for the battle of the hearts and soul of Jackson, Mississippi and unfortunately came away on the losing end. Belhaven’s Chelsea Creighton was efficient with 5 kills and no errors on 17 swings. Over the weekend we saw Concordia sweep McMurry and put their stamp on the second spot in the West Division. Tristyn Massey had 10 kills and 15 points in this one. They would beat HSU the next day. UMHB would beat both Hardin-Simmons and McMurry, as well, to secure their West Division regular season title. This coming week we’ll see UMHB and Concordia face off but the Cru have already locked down the regular season title. We’ll also see HSU playing Trinity while the rest of the teams finish up their conference play.

In the NWC there are 4 more matches to go for each team as they play the final two weeks without a conference tournament. Whitworth is 11-1 with a 2 match lead on Pacific and hold the tiebreaker. They just need one more win to clinch a spot into the NCAA Tournament. The next four teams are playing for pride as I don’t see an at-large bid coming from this group but the hottest team hands down is George Fox who has won 6 straight. They are two matches down from second place Pacific so that position may be out of reach but third place is in their sights. Right now that spot is held down by Puget Sound who is 8-4 followed by both Pacific Lutheran and George Fox at 7-5. The bottom four are Willamette, Lewis & Clark, Whitman and Linfield and all will be hoping to end the season on a winning streak.

This past week we saw George Fox go on the road and defeat Pacific Lutheran 3-1. They would have 4 players with double-digit kills with Liv Alexander and Bailey LeBreton doing it with only one error each. Laney Search would end the match with 46 assists while Sophia Lawrence had 26 digs. Puget Sound would get tested by Lewis & Clark before winning in four sets. The Loggers were led by Tallie Davison who had 18 kills. Tallie is an interesting story because she might be one of the best freshmen in the West Region but this was just her 3^rd match after being held out for medical reasons the entire season. Against Whitworth she would have 17 kills while the Loggers forced them to 5-sets and then would have 22 kills against Willamette this weekend. She’s basically averaging 20 points in her three matches and is someone to watch for next season. The big match of the week was Whitworth at Pacific where we saw the Boxers jump out to win the first set before Whitworth won the next three. This win basically iced the NWC title for the Pirates. Iris Tikhonov had 11 kills on 0.321 hitting adding 3 total blocks in this one. Oh, and soon to be NWC MVP Emiko Kahler had 15 kills. Another contender for that honor will be Pacific’s Jordan Zweifel who had 23 kills in this one. This week we’ll see Whitworth hosting Willamette in what should turn out to be the match that puts the Pirates in the NCAA Tournament. They will be the first team to qualify in the nation. Puget Sound will have two tough matches going against Pacific and George Fox with Pacific also playing Pacific Lutheran.

I’ll skip the SCAC for now as they are still playing but I’ll jump over to the SCIAC. I think I misstated the SCIAC standings in a Match Day report so I’ll set the record straight here. CMS is one match up on Chapman and holds the tiebreaker. They have Redlands and La Verne left and will need to win one to clinch the regular season title and securing the hosting gig for the SCIAC Tournament. Chapman has Caltech and Pomona-Pitzer left and is really just trying to win to improve their at-large resume. Cal Lutheran sits third in the standings and could really win their last 3 to go to 11-5 in conference. La Verne sits fourth and in the final tournament spot and seems likely to get to 9-7. Pomona-Pitzer had a nice win over La Verne this week and are a match back but have Cal Lutheran and Chapman on the road while hosting Whittier. I think they need to win all three of these and even then I think they lose the tiebreaker to La Verne. They’ll need some help from other teams to knock down Cal Lu and/or La Verne at least once. Whittier and Redlands sit at 5-8 and I think it’s just too much of a gap to make up as they are most likely not going to make the SCIAC Tournament. Caltech has 4 conference wins, the most ever by 3, and will hope to add to that in their remaining two matches. Occidental is still winless in conference but play some of the better teams so the chance to play the spoiler is still there.

This past week we saw Pomona-Pitzer beat Redlands in 5-sets. They were led by Naomi Chen-Mallouk who had 15 kills and 18 points. Laney and Vicky-Marie saw they read my stuff so…Laney Pope added 2 digs and The Hyphen had 10 kills in the match. Yeah, I’m just going to always report on them for the rest of the season. Whittier had a rather surprising easy sweep of Cal Lutheran and were led by Alaina Rhee who had 10 kills on 0.714 hitting! Makayla Wright missed out on the triple-double by 3 kills. Cal Lu would bounce back over the weekend taking down Chapman in 3-sets. Maci Haddad had 14 kills and hit 0.429 in this one. Back to Pomona-Pitzer as they push for the SCIAC Tournament and took down La Verne in 5-sets in a must win. I got to see the 5^th set in this one and there were a number of calls late in this one. No idea if they were good or not but it seemed like there was a touch on everything. The Hyphan had 16 kills and 22 points in this one that included 5 solo blocks. However, the real star was Laney Pope with a service ace and 4 digs. This is the final week in the SCIAC and basically the important matches are the ones with Cal Lu, La Verne and Pomona-Pitzer. Cal Lu and Pomona-Pitzer actually play on Tuesday so unless the Sagehens can win it might be all over for them before the weekend.

The regular season is over for both Mills College and UC Santa Cruz. They actually played this week with the Banana Slugs coming away with the sweep. UC Santa Cruz will play in the ACAA Tournament as they were awarded the #1 seed and will play host Valley Forge. If they win they will play either Pratt or Mount Mary for the championship. Remember that this conference does not have an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Right now, I don’t believe Santa Cruz will earn the Pool B bid given to the best independent team. It’s interesting to note that since this conference doesn’t play each other (for the most part), they determined their seeds by the Massey Ratings.

I’m writing this last because I’m waiting on the crossover results but it’s getting late so with two matches still going, here is what I’ve got. Every year it seems I’m asking the SCAC who has a tiebreaker advantage and this year it involves Trinity and Colorado College. Both only have one loss and it was to each other. Both matches were sweeps. I can’t remember if they go to set records or straight results as the next tiebreaker is going through the standings. If it is set records then Trinity would have the tiebreaker as they beat Southwestern twice but once was a sweep. Colorado College dropped a set in each match. Maybe I’ll hear something back from the SCAC before I finish this but if you are reading this then it didn’t happen. Regardless, Trinity and Colorado College are first and second in some order. Both are going to make the NCAA Tournament but only one can get a conference ring. Southwestern finished third and in order to make the NCAA Tournament they are going to have to win the SCAC. Texas Lutheran is in 4^th place right now but Austin College has two matches to go (one going on right now). Win just one and they have the tiebreaker and will get 4^th place. There’s only one more tournament spot and it comes down to Dallas and Centenary. Dallas dropped a match to JWU today which puts this spot in play but the matches going on right now could decide it. Dallas will also play Austin College later this week and we may have to wait until that to complete. St. Thomas (TX), in their first year in DIII, is taking 8^th place and I will say they were the most surprising team to me this year in the SCAC. Most teams transitioning have issues their first year but the Celts held their own. Schreiner and then JWU complete the SCAC picture this season.

Update – Dallas beat St. Thomas in 5-sets while Centenary lost to Austin College in 5-sets. That means Dallas will be in the SCAC Tournament while Centenary is eliminated. The exact order of 4 through 6 still needs to be determined. If Dallas beats Austin College on Tuesday then three teams will be tied with 9-9 records. No word from the SCAC on the tiebreaker between Trinity and Colorado College.

Update – Just saw that the SCAC reported that Trinity has the #1 seed because of a better set record against Southwestern.

This week there was the Southwestern/UMHB match that I talked about earlier. Tough loss for the Pirates but it was a match UMHB really needed. Dallas did beat TLU yesterday in a mild surprise that took 5-sets. Dallas was led by Dayjah Whyte who had 15 kills and 19.5 points. The big match was the Trinity/Colorado College match that pitted two Top 10 teams against each other. Trinity got a surprising easy victory as they swept the Tigers. The match did see the return of Margo Spaethling for Colorado College. Trinity was led by Annie Rose Leggett who had 11 kills. Two of the sets, Colorado College couldn’t get to 15 points. As I mentioned at the top of this article, however, the team was playing without their head coach for the first time. Maybe the biggest surprise of the weekend was seeing JWU take their first victory of the conference season as they beat Dallas in 5-sets. The Wildcats were led by Hope Hines and Brooke Paxton who both had 20 kills in the match. Hines also had 30 digs while Jacquelyn Ortiz had 61 assists. In the matches today, Trinity beat Southwestern in 4-sets to ensure a tie with Colorado College for the first spot. Avery Tuggle had 13 kills in this one while also digging 18 balls. As I’ve mentioned, two important matches are going on right now and I’ll update this story with the results later tonight or tomorrow.

Nationally this week, Hope was able to win their rematch with Calvin in 4-sets. This one really surprised me. Not that Hope isn’t really good but I just thought Calvin was much better. I’ve had some concerns about Hope getting into the NCAA Tournament but this should do it. Whitewater wrapped up the regular season WIAC title but then went down to Emory and lost three straight against St. Mary’s (Ind), Suquehanna and Emory. They had no business losing to St. Mary’s. We also saw Randolph-Macon beat Juniata this week. Randolph-Macon was another bubble team that I thought wouldn’t make the tournament if they didn’t win their conference. This win is a big safety net for them.

It’s looking like I might actually be in California this weekend but not for volleyball. Depending on flights and life in general will determine my plans. My best shot at volleyball would be La Verne at Redlands of all things. (I wrote that 3 hours ago and since then more wedding issues have come up. Now it’s 50/50 I make the trip. My advice…don’t have daughters. Nah, just kidding. Just have one.)