Weekly Wrap-Up (3/14/21)

If you have been following my personal story then you know the next week is going to be interesting for me. My goal right now is to still be alive and, in this space, I’ll probably write something like I’m just too tired so we’re skipping this for a week. That would be a huge win. In the meantime, I hope I’ll have plenty of time to write and watch volleyball this week. If you are following my Cancer Diary (of sorts) then let’s all hope for continued entries and funny stories about needles being injected into my spine.

From this past week, I pretty much did the normal load. I have some projects on my to do list but they honestly may have to wait until the fall season. Here are the quick links if you missed something: Region Leaders, West Region Top 10, Players of the Week, Points/Set Standings,AVCA Top 25 and a Musings article.  Thankfully for me, only 3 match days this week. Not so good was I didn’t get to see much.

Match results with national implications were plentiful this past week. Matches that were already factored into the rankings were LeTourneau beating #19 ETBU twice even though Points/Set says ETBU was the better team in the first match. Elmhurst (#8) beat #7 Carthage in 5-sets. Concordia split with #5 UMHB and P/S says Concordia should have won both. Here are the upsets that will impact the rankings this week. Loras (#21) beat #11 Cornell in 5-sets. Belhaven earned a split with #19 ETBU, which makes two matches this week where they couldn’t win with a P/S lead. Not an upset but #16 Berry swept #18 Hendrix and then beat them again in 4-sets. There are a few good matches today but I will not be checking on those. I will also mention that the OAC (which is filled with a number of good teams) got fully into the swing this week and should alter the rankings a bit if the voters are paying attention.

As I shift focus to the West Region, I’m going to keep this a little shorter this week and not dispense as much love as I normally do. One bit of news I did hear is that there is probably not going to be a NWC Volleyball Tournament this season. They don’t normally have one but I know the conference was hoping to have one this season. After watching a few points from Lewis & Clark, George Fox and Pacific, I’d love to see them go after the Washington teams in a tournament format. Oh well.

I think the ASC East Division has pretty much established it’s ordering at the top. UT-Dallas is once again the class of the division. They really haven’t been pressed and that trend continued this past week with victories over Louisiana College. LeTourneau looked like a shoe in at the 2^nd spot and then they dropped a match to Louisiana College who played very efficiently in that match (16.2 P/S). Still, this is where they should end up. ETBU has the ability to beat LeTourneau but they tend to beat themselves a bit too much. This past week they went 1-3 with losses to LETU (twice) and Belhaven. Both Belhaven and Louisiana College have shown they can rise up and surprise so we will see if they can build on that and become more consistent. They also haven’t played each other so ETBU needs to take care of their own business to stay in that 3^rd spot.

The ASC West Division has the normal three at the top in UMHB, McMurry and Concordia. Smart money has to be on UMHB but Concordia has shown the ability to play at a very high level. McMurry seems to be more consistent but I’m not sure that level can get them by UMHB. At this point, I just know these matches should be fun to watch. For the week, UMHB went 3-1, McMurry 4-0 and Concordia 3-1. UMHB and Concordia split their matches against each other. Sul Ross State sits in the fourth spot but they will have to hold off HSU for that honor. I think they will, but it’s going to be interesting. That leaves HSU and then Howard Payne to round out the standings.

The NWC (Washington) has been pretty set for awhile now. It’s going to finish Whitworth, PLU, Puget Sound and then Whitman. Puget Sound is done after playing their best match of the year against Whitworth. Whitman still has to play PLU and Whitworth and those matches will complete the schedule. I really came away impressed with the Whitworth recruiting and what they were able to add to a thin squad this year. I think PLU has to be kicking themselves for not finishing off teams they could have but nothing wrong with where they will finish. As for Whitman, they are the 5-set masters but just need to learn how to win them. Still, a really good season for a team that is building.

The NWC (Oregon) only had one match each this week and I’m a little upset I didn’t watch more of the George Fox/Pacific match. Four sets were won by 2 points. I had GFU as the best Oregon school prior to the season and I think that’s going to be proven right even though they lost to Pacific. Their firepower is impressive but they need to reduce their unforced hitting errors. A GFU/Whitworth match would be something. On the flip side, Pacific is really good, too. They need to make sure they don’t kill Jordan Zweifel who had 75 swings in their match! Fun player to watch. Pacific actually leads the division (which I made up, BTW) along with Lewis & Clark. I’m not sure how they will do against Pacific or GFU but I think those matches will keep me up at night since they won’t be sweeps. Another fun player is setter Michelle McGinn who is 5’4” but jumps out of the gym. She had 6 kills with no errors on 15 attempts in their match against Willamette. (Scoring errors may have slighted her a couple of more kills.) Willamette and Linfield are the other two teams in this conference and they play pretty well. I just think there is a gap between the top 3 and them right now.

The SCAC has just one undefeated team in Colorado College (#1 in the nation). They took down Southwestern twice this week each in 3 sets. My personal disappointment aside, they looked really good when I watched. St. Thomas dropped a match against Dallas and are now 5-1. They do have the tough part of their schedule ahead of them. Austin College and Trinity both won their matches this week and are tied for 3^rd in conference. The top 4 teams have only 5 losses between them. The bottom 5 teams have 25 losses. The scheduling to this point obviously plays a factor but right now there appears to be a have portion and a have-not portion. We’ll see the standings merge a bit moving forward but I don’t see how Colorado College and Trinity won’t be the top 2 seeds.

Alright, some important battles upcoming this week. If I don’t win mine, I just want to thank you for visiting the site. I do this because I just love writing and I love volleyball. I’ve been very fortunate my wife allowed me the freedom to do this. I have every intention of repaying her by just being a pain in the arse for the next 40 years.