Weekly Wrap-Up (9/18/22)

We are now three weeks into the season and prospects in the West are firming up although I really don’t like how it’s turning out. We are down to only one team in the region (CMS) with an undefeated record. As of this writing (UAA is still playing), the undefeated teams in the nation are WashU, Albion, Northwestern, Cairn, Maine Maritime, Ursinus, Eastern Nazarene, Colby and Wesleyan. That’s only 10 teams in the nation who remain unbeaten. It’s about this time that Ricky puts up a “Last Man Standing” post so check it out and complain if he hasn’t gotten around to it.

In case you missed anything this past week, there was my Top 25 on Monday, the AVCA Top 25 and Region Leaders on Tuesday and Players of the Week on Wednesday. The Match Days include comments from a mad man so that could be interesting, as well.

Looking forward, everyone moves to conference this week (including the SCIAC who I incorrectly said some of their teams were doing that last week). For the conference write-ups, I’ll concentrate on how the teams are looking based on three weeks of results.

Shout out to Laynee Beam (St Thomas junior middle) who has become my newest granddaughter. She answered my call from last week for a new logo. It now is being used across all of my social platforms. I really do appreciate the effort and I just love my new logo.

I touched on this in Players of the Week but it was odd that the SCIAC didn’t give POW to Jenna Holmes although the AVCA decided to do just that for the NATION. The problem with touching on this is that, without intent, when you complain about something like this you are diminishing the person that actually did win SCIAC POW (La Verne’s Ayana Mier). Mier had a great match against Puget Sound but Holmes had three great matches against some of the top teams in the nation. I can only assume the SCIAC didn’t want to give Holmes the award again (she won week one). I just have to wonder the purpose of these awards.

PSA – I had my second colonoscopy this past week and I just want to remind everyone that once you hit 45, you should be asking your doctor about getting the procedure. Colon cancer is one of the most preventable cancers out there and getting screened is the way to do this. Colon cancer is also the second most deadly form of cancer overall (third most in both women and men). It’s also not a very fun form of cancer to get. I would guess that every parent of a college volleyball player has reached 45 (although the moms all look 30) so I ask you; have you been screened, yet?

Loyal reader “Norleb72” often adds comments to posts that highlight other regions. Lots of work being done so make sure you look for those comments.

There were a number of surprising results this week so let me touch on them here as I have a different plan for the conference write-ups this week.

• LeTourneau gave UT-Dallas all they could handle in a 5-set loss. Morgan Nix had 37 digs in that match. Catherine Croft had 22.5 points for UTD.

• La Verne took down TLU in 5-sets behind Mya Ray’s 24 kills and 27.5 points.

• Pomona-Pitzer swept #10 Colorado College behind Grace Fan (16.5 points on 10 kills and 7 blocks).

• Sul Ross State surprised ETBU at home with a sweep. Annika Canaba had 12 kills and 7 assists.

• Concordia had to win the last two sets to take down UTD in 5-sets. Kinsy Haschke had 20 kills and 3 aces for 24 points.

• Trinity had a great weekend and they took down #2 Juniata in 4-sets. Total points ended in Juniata’s favor by a good margin. Where Trinity is really tough is at the net. They had 15 blocks as a team (Emily Ellis led with 4.5). Juniata had 20 more attack errors than Trinity.

• Tough weekend for Colorado College as they also lost to Cal Lutheran in 5-sets. Sophia Muller had 19 kills and 9 digs in the match.

• Hearing that UC Santa Cruz is suffering a number of injuries, which probably helped Whittier take them down on Saturday. Cheyanne Ybanez had 14 kills and 8 digs in the match.

• Back to Whittier again as they easily handled Endicott, which really surprised me. Four players had double-digit points (Ybanez, Cicero, Zazueta and Villagomez). Going through the names for Whittier and I would hate having to call one of their matches. I struggle with simple names but those are a mouthful. I’d just credit Della Trimble and Briana Rodriguez on every play.

• Puget Sound swept Whitworth for the first time in 10 years. Logan Winn led the offense with 24 assists and 6 kills.

• Whitman beat PLU in 5-sets behind Nicole Kelly (22 points) and Kenzie Martinez (20 points).  

• Finally, I have to credit Cal Lu for a turnaround this week. They ended the weekend with a sweep over Endicott. Remember that Endicott just beat nationally ranked MIT. Maci Haddad had 12 kills and 15 points.

I normally have a Watch List page up by this time that details the at-large chances for our Region X teams. I’m not sure it will be needed this year. Between performance and some of the scheduling decisions, I don’t see a lot of teams that are in position to get an at-large, if needed. I don’t see anyone from the ASC getting one. Whitworth from the NWC is a possibility. Trinity from the SCAC is a definite. CMS is an obvious choice. Who else and remember those are the favorites to win their conference title? La Verne will look good in region but that Millikin loss hurts. TLU has a Transylvania win so a second-place finish in conference might be enough (but they are behind La Verne). I don’t think Colorado College has the teams on the schedule to turn things around and they are behind the SCIAC regionally. Pomona-Pitzer really needed a win against Babson or NYU. Teams with good records like ETBU, HSU, and St Thomas just don’t have the schedule (Strength of Schedule) to have a chance. Could we just have 4 NCAA Tournament teams out of Region X?

CMS appreciation moment. The Athenas have 7 players averaging over 2.0 Points/Set or more. They are led by Jenna Holmes at 5.0. She is followed by Brenna Bell, Audrey Sawyer, Brooke McKee, Izzy Sakoda, Jackie Jones and Summer Ellis. Only two of those players (Holmes and Sawyer) have played each set as this team continues to show off their depth.

In case you are wondering, Trinity has 6 players at 2.0 Points/Set or higher. They are led by (“I’d like to buy a vowel, Alex.”) Sarah Williammee at 2.7 Points/Set. Again, this year, Trinity beats you by their team and not just one player.

Looking at the schedules, we have matches Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. SCAC uses pod scheduling and it appears their conference matches are at Trinity, St Thomas and Centenary. Kind of unusual for there to be three pods as there are typically only two. (Whoops! It is unusual because it’s not happening. I misread the Trinity schedule and they will also be at Centenary so just two pods.) We’ll tell how bad the Southwestern season will be or if they can turn it around as they play TLU and St Thomas. Thankfully newly minted granddaughter Laynee Beam is prohibited from playing well against my Pirates.

Time to look at the conferences and what I wanted to do was sort of reevaluate the predicted order of finish as it appears conference winners may be the only ones going to the NCAA Tournament.

The ASC is a mess. Every team has a conference loss and Sul Ross State and Concordia (tied for 7^th) have told teams that they will not be pushed over at home against anyone. The only team without a win is Howard Payne and I fear that may continue. The ASC takes 6 teams to their tournament and the team with the best regular season record gets to host. I think that is going to be huge this year as the teams are all very close. The UT-Dallas and Mary Hardin-Baylor mystics are gone this season and I think the conference champion will be the team that performs best on the road. ETBU gets UT-Dallas, HSU and McMurry at home this week and I think they need to win all three. That sweep to Sul Ross State on the road worries me a bit about this team. HSU will play host to UMHB and it will be huge for the Cowgirls to hold home court. On the flip side, UMHB really needs the win. UTD is 2-1 but all three have been on the road. I don’t really know how they lose to Concordia and then beat UMHB but that’s the ASC this season. These four teams – ETBU, UT-Dallas, HSU and Mary Hardin-Baylor are probably in the top tier for conference play. I still think UT-Dallas has enough to win conference and I think the ETBU/UMHB match will help us with the second-place team. The next four teams – LeTourneau, McMurry, Concordia and Sul Ross State will probably be fighting for the last two spots in the conference tournament. Only Sul Ross State doesn’t have a home loss and if they can keep that going then advantage Lobos. No clue about the other three although before the season I would have said Concordia. In summary, just one bid coming to the ASC this season even if UT-Dallas doesn’t win the conference title. It’s really wide open although I do think UTD will take it in the end.

The NWC was easy. Whitworth was going to win it and no at-large bids would be earned. Then Whitworth gets swept by Puget Sound who was coming off a horrible weekend in SoCal. PLU, my second choice, also just lost to Whitman. I mean who had the undefeated teams in conference being George Fox, Puget Sound and Willamette? No one, I tell you. One problem that Whitworth has struggled with all season is the loss of Kaity Barr during the preseason. Still, their remaining team was intact for that Puget Sound match so no excuses. If we look at the Kills/Set statistic prior to this weekend we see that 6 of the teams are all right around the same mark (11 K/S). PLU is just behind and then further back is Lewis & Clark and Willamette. Whitworth, PLU and George Fox probably had the toughest schedule to that point. You can also throw in Puget Sound who is the leader at 11.70. That makes Willamette’s two victories even that more surprising (one on the road against Linfield and one at home against Pacific). I mean Willamette was hitting 0.057 as a team before the weekend! I probably still have to put Lewis & Clark and Willamette in a lower tier than the rest of the conference but I’ll keep an eye open on the Bearcats. Jumping to the top tier, I have to include Whitworth but now also Puget Sound and George Fox. That leaves Linfield, Whitman, Pacific and PLU in the middle tier but I think this conference is really fluid. I mean how can I have Willamette lower than Linfield who they just beat on the road? Okay, let me change this up. Top tier is what I said and I think Whitworth still has enough to win this conference. After those three teams, give me Pacific and PLU and their combined 0 wins. Then Willamette, Whitman and Linfield in a third tier with Lewis & Clark all alone in a fourth tier (sorry). Remember that the NWC does not have a conference tournament so regular season champ gets the bid.

The SCAC hasn’t started conference play but it’s obvious that Trinity is going to win this thing and is in a tier by themselves. The one caveat to this is that the conference tournament will be held at Colorado College. Do I think CC can reverse course, play better and take the tournament at home? Yes, I actually do. Still, there are a lot of matches between now and then to see how CC improves. You still have to put CC in that second tier until we see something different in conference. I would add in St Thomas, TLU and Southwestern because history tells me they will be there. As I mentioned above, the Southwestern/St Thomas/TLU matches will tell us something right away this weekend and we could be dropping the Pirates. That’s 5 teams that I think will get spots in the conference tournament and that leaves just one spot for the rest of the conference. The third tier includes all of them as I can’t drop any of the teams lower than the rest. That’s Centenary, Austin College, Dallas and Schreiner. All of these teams will be at Centenary this weekend so huge weekend for a team to step up and control their fate.

You’d have to say that our at-large hopes for Region X really rely on the SCIAC assuming none of the top three teams falter in their respective conferences. I haven’t looked at it, but I assume La Verne will be my 3^rd or 4^th ranked team in region tomorrow. Pomona-Pitzer could also make the list of 7 teams. As far as the conference race, I don’t see CMS getting challenged. They may drop a match during the season but they should win the title. Before Cal Lu turned things around this weekend, I would have said La Verne and Pomona-Pitzer are in that next tier. Let’s put Cal Lu in this tier, too, based on what they did at their tournament. Whittier also looked better yesterday so we’ll start our third tier with them and add in Caltech (who I really have no clue about), Oxy and Chapman. That leaves Redlands for the fourth tier. This conference only takes 4 teams into their tournament so you’d have to expect CMS, La Verne, Pomona-Pitzer and Cal Lu but it won’t surprise me if someone from that third-tier steps up during the course of conference play. As a reminder, this conference has yet to start playing but that changes Tuesday and I’m interested to see the Cal Lu at Occidental match.

WashU just beat Brandies, as I write this, so they stay undefeated at 12-0 on the season.

Anyway, that’s a look at the conferences and they are important because the title is so much more important this season for teams that want to go to the NCAA Tournament then in past years.

Looking nationally and you have to admire Northwestern and what they continue to do staying undefeated. WashU has just done their first pass through the UAA and are still undefeated. We could see both teams in the AVCA Top 5 this week. Stevens Point is another team that should climb the rankings as they beat some top teams. Expect Johns Hopkins to leave the rankings as they have lost 5-straight. Wesleyan appears to be the class of the New England teams right now. I was getting ready to bounce Otterbein from my rankings but they took down Hope away so they will stay.

Alright! Conference play is here and we’ll see how things shake out. I’ll miss the national matches but it does make my life a little easier. I have been thinking about getting the podcasts going again but it’s just difficult with the house being busier. (Hot) wife now retired and son living at home although he’s moving to Chicago next month. Speaking of that, anyone in Chicago that wants to help a struggling actor out, let me know. He’s got an apartment on the north side (near Lincoln Park). He’ll probably be looking for a job while auditioning. I mean, if you are a producer or casting agent or manager then, of course, hook my son up. I’m not shy about this kind of stuff. I’ll be happy to ship him off to wherever for a good acting job. Regardless of my plea, I’ll still be here doing this.