Weekly Wrap-Up (9/11/22)

You have found the week 2 Weekly Wrap-Up! I’m actually writing this on Saturday in hopes that I can publish it at a decent hour on Sunday. We’ve got some stuff planned in the morning. I really like the no Sunday matches (for the most part). Nothing in the West and no Top 25 matches to worry about.

In case you missed anything this past week, there was my Top25 on Monday, the AVCA Top 25 on Tuesday, Players of the Week on Wednesday and Region Leaders on Thursday. We had a match every day this past week (except Sunday), which makes me afraid to look at this week’s schedule. It will probably be “better” as conference play will start up for the most part across the conferences. I will miss the tournaments although I know we’ll have the Cal Lu Tournament.

One of my silly joys is when someone finds the site for the first time. I don’t know exactly when it happens or who but I’ll see some very old articles get a view and I know someone is going through old pages. As you get older, you appreciate stuff like this.

It may not stand out with you guys but the website actually has a logo. It’s a very poor mash up of the four conferences in our region. Basically, I just stole their logos to use in mine. Since the creation of that logo, we’ve had the SCAC and NWC change things up a bit. (Heck, so has the AVCA.) I had both commissioners reach out to me to see if I wanted to update my logo. Frist, I was happy they weren’t upset that I stole their original logo. Second, I was like that will be more work for me and can you guarantee you won’t change your logo in the future? You know what I need? I need a graphic artist (or artist or hack) volleyball player that wants to design a new logo for me for very little money. Like no money, really. You could put it on your résumé. I could make you a granddaughter and you could get a virtual $5 check on your birthday?

I mentioned Bates College the other day in a Match Day. Emily Hayes is the coach there as she moved from Lewis & Clark a couple of years ago. She hired Natalie Klotz, who was an outstanding hitter from Willamette this year as an assistant. So, we have a little NWC in the NE, which is cool.

I’ll probably discuss it below but seeing UMHB lose two this week was a little shocking. We knew they had lost some talent but they recruit well and they were picked first in the ASC by the conference’s coaches. Both losses were away but these were matches that UMHB of old would breeze through. Coach Pryor had made some comments (and I’m paraphrasing) that the NCAA doesn’t respect the ASC, which makes it a one bid conference. I kind of understand where he’s coming from although I don’t agree with it. You never know the strength of your conference until you play. ETBU is making a statement this season although they probably will not have the schedule to get an at-large if they need it. The only way to change the perception of a one-bid conference is to schedule tough and then hope you get a few teams to perform.

CMS is crazy deep. I think they have three squads and a fourth they roll out on Sundays.

Looking at the AVCA Top 25, we had 12 of the 25 take losses this past week. That seems like a lot and it probably is but you have to remember that this is the biggest non-conference weekend. Once schools move to conference, the upsets diminish greatly.  

Looking at the schedules, we have matches Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. I like having some off days.

I can’t remember if I’ve shared this before, but here is another Rochelle family tradition. I got tired of the high cost of birthday cards (and other types of cards) a number of years back. (Side note – Most of the Rochelle family traditions come from the fact that I’m cheap.) The cards get purchased, you write something funny, it gets read and then thrown away. I finally decided that we would not do cards anymore. Instead, our family will buy the person’s favorite candy, write on it like it’s a card and give it to the person. A $1 box of Milk Duds or Hot Tamales is much more cost effective and meaningful in my mind. Anyway, I mentioned in a Match Day that I love Candy Corn and I have now received 4 bags of Candy Corn as cards for my birthday. I do make exceptions for sympathy cards as a bag of Sour Gummies just doesn’t convey the correct sentiment. “Sorry on the death of your husband but he was kind of a sour puss.” Or maybe, “Sorry to hear about your lung cancer.”, on a box of candy cigarettes. (I feel I’m allowed to do cancer jokes.) I’ve got a lot of these but one day my (hot) wife is going to start reading this stuff and I can only apologize for so long.

Alright, let’s get to the matches as I pick and choose from this week’s contests.

When we think of great Region X teams, we often look at the Tigers. That’s Colorado College and Trinity but maybe there’s a third that needs some love? I present to you the ETBU Tigers. What they lack for creativity in a mascot they are making up for it on ways to win. ETBU is 9-0 and 2-0 in conference. They had home wins over Concordia and a quite entertaining win over UMHB. The UMHB win had cheerleaders, a huge number of fans and even a band. I feel like if you bring a band to the volleyball match then you should win. They then went to the Hendrix Tournament and swept the hosts among other teams they played. The Tigers are led by their outsides in Graycee Mosley and Avery Reid (both are averaging over 4 Points/Set). Lillie Hill leads the defense with 5.23 Digs/Set. Coach Matthews (who’s mom just ditched me on our date) is in her first year here so I’m not sure how much input she had on the schedule but I really wish this team had been able to play in a tougher tournament. Their Strength of Schedule (SOS) just isn’t going to be high enough for an at-large, if they need one. Still, great start by the Tigers. McMurry and LeTourneau are the other undefeated teams in conference (UT-Dallas hasn’t played conference, yet). I had my doubts on McMurry but they had a nice win against Sul Ross State at home this weekend (as did HSU). Concordia, Sul Ross State and HPU have yet to win a conference match so I hope no one remembers that I picked Concordia and Sul Ross to be in the ASC Tournament. The toughest schedule this weekend by an ASC team goes to UT-Dallas who played in the East/West Challenge. They beat Cal Lutheran but dropped matches to Tufts and WashU. I didn’t see the losses but I’m assuming the team just hasn’t achieved a consistent level, yet. I’ve seen them play really well. They just need to maintain that level, which is really easy to say. The big surprise had to be the UMHB loss to ETBU and then later seeing them lose to St Thomas. This conference has been dominated by UT-Dallas and UMHB for a number of years now, but it would be good to get a couple of other programs challenging them.

Looking forward, the teams in the ASC are pretty much just playing conference. Other than UT-Dallas, I think SOS will be an issue so I don’t think an at-large bid is likely out of this conference as it stands now. UTD has a nice win over Southwestern but they just had issues in the Wesleyan Tournament. In past years, there might be a third tournament in October to solidify their qualifications but the ASC schedule doesn’t allow for it. They just need to be strong in conference and be Southwestern’s biggest fans in hopes that the value of that win improves.

The NWC has gone through their two weeks of out-of-conference matches and will now focus on just conference. There are four teams above 0.500 and five under. Whitworth has played the toughest schedule in the conference and are 6-2 with wins over Aurora, Chicago (twice) and TLU. Their two losses are to good teams in St Olaf and Transylvania. Pacific and Linfield are two other teams above 0.500 but their wins haven’t been against opponents at the level that Whitworth has played. Pacific’s losses are to North Park and UC Santa Cruz. Linfield’s losses are to La Verne and UC Santa Cruz. It will be interesting to see how these teams (with these records) translate into NWC play. PLU is the other above 0.500 team but I’m unsure how they will do in conference. They had the opponents this past week to impress but lost to Gustavus Adolphus, UW-Eau Claire and Augsburg. So, Whitworth still looks like the favorite in conference and, if trouble occurs, should be in a position for an at-large. George Fox at 3-4 is still interesting to me. They couldn’t get a win their first week against the better teams at the Southwestern Tournament but did beat UC Santa Cruz this weekend. That team could be regionally ranked in Region VI so maybe a slim glimmer of hope for an at-large but you have to squint really hard to see it. Puget Sound struggled in SoCal this week dropping all 4 matches. It really gives an advantage to the SCIAC if Puget Sound ends up doing well in conference. Nice win against Schreiner for Whitman this weekend. They also took a set off of UMHB. You can’t sleep on Whitman as they seem to always play tough.

Looking forward, and I kind of covered it, I think Whitworth is the only team with a realistic chance at an at-large. It just means a more important conference schedule where everyone will try to make their name on beating Whitworth.

Sometimes the conference websites aren’t updated but the SCAC standings page shows every team at 0.500 or above. The only undefeated team is Colorado College at 6-0. There have been no conference matches, yet. I feel like I’ve been a little negative towards CC but I’m just waiting to see how they do against quality opponents. Their toughest match, so far, has been home against HSU. I don’t think it’s wrong to expect some proof no mater what a program’s reputation happens to be. Thankfully, they will head to Cal Lu for their tournament this weekend. St Thomas played at home at constructed a 7-1 record. Their best win is UMHB and their only loss is to ETBU. The SCAC has three (historically) good teams so they definitely have a chance at an at-large bid, if needed. TLU is at 7-2 and is another team with a chance at an at-large. Their best win is Transylvania with losses against Saint Ben and Whitworth. The Whitworth loss really hurts regionally and this was a really close contest that could have gone either way. Trinity has played an impressive schedule and that will continue. They just came off losses to Emory and CMS but have multiple quality wins. They are still looking good. Austin College really struggled in the northwest losing all four matches. The NWC will hope that AC does well in conference as it will help their cause regionally. Southwestern actually sits last at 3-3 among the SCAC teams. They have a good win against Augsburg but their losses are to UT-Dallas (hurts regionally), Wesleyan and Aurora. Aurora lost to Whitworth so that’s another problem regionally for the Pirates. They still have some tough teams ahead of them so they have a chance to recover.

The SCAC plays a pod schedule so they have more open weekends than the other conferences. As I mentioned before, CC will be at the Cal Lu Tournament while Trinity will be hosting some good teams at their place (which includes Southwestern and TLU). These four teams are the most likely for an at-large at this point.

The SCIAC will start conference this week for some of the teams. Cal Lu will host a tournament while La Verne will head to Trinity for that tournament. CMS leads the pack at 7-0 with a litany of quality wins. They are the easy pick for the top of the region as well as the nation. La Verne sits at 4-1 but they don’t have a win that makes us take notice, just yet. Their only loss is to Millikin, which is a quality team but one that could really hurt come selection time. They will get a chance to get that quality win as they will play TLU, Trinity and Southwestern this weekend. Pomona-Pitzer is at 3-2 but, like La Verne, they are really lacking a quality win. They will have a chance against Colorado College and UC Santa Cruz and they will jump into the at-large picture by winning both. Cal Lu is 1-6 but have played a really tough schedule. They just haven’t been able to do anything with it. Wins against Colorado College and Endicott (who just beat MIT) could change things but I fear this is a team that will need to win conference to make the NCAA Tournament. The rest of the teams don’t have the results or the opportunity for an at-large bid. Something could always change if a team that was beaten steps up and starts to win out. Still, this conference looks to be in CMS’ pocket, which probably means it’s going to be tough for someone to get an at-large. Of course, beating CMS in conference would be huge for someone if it happens.

The Cal Lu Tournament is going to be a big (and maybe last) chance for a number of teams. Let’s just hope that the team that runs with the chance comes from the west and isn’t Endicott or Minn.-Morris. The La Verne matches at Trinity are also really big for the SCAC and SCIAC regionally. If La Verne does well then advantage SCIAC. If La Verne goes 1-2 or 0-3 then advantage SCAC. It’s these little nuances that I love although I’d be a lot happier if all of the teams had done better out-of-region.  

Looking nationally, there were a ton of upsets this week. I haven’t done my Top 25 but expect CMS, Juniata, Otterbein, Gustavus Adolphus to be highly rated as they are still undefeated with good wins. There is a part of me, however, that thinks CMS is just playing with us all as they switch players in and out each match. This can all change, however, if they lose to CC, Endicott and UC Santa Cruz this weekend. Another team that will be interesting to rank is Albion. They have wins over Carthage, Wittenberg (sweep) and Denison. Wittenberg beat both Calvin and Hope this weekend. For those that don’t know, Calvin and Hope play in the MIAA and have dominated it for years. Albion also plays in this conference so to see three teams be really good there is interesting. Typically, this only happens in the UAA and SCAC.

Alright, I had to write this between birthday activities this weekend but I’m hoping things will calm down now. Well, actually it won’t because it’s colonoscopy week. Looking forward to losing 10lbs or so for a day or two. Yes, I truly am full of it and this week will offer the proof. Feel free to send me candy in lieu of cards but I’m kind of good on the Candy Corn.