Weekly Wrap-Up (9/21/25)

Time for the latest Weekly Wrap-up ever! And this will not be 5000 words. On vacation but let’s do an abridged version since we are done with dinner. I’m typing this on my patio with a wedding reception going on across the pool from me. As long as the bride doesn’t call for everyone to get on the dance floor (again), I should be able to finish this quickly. As always, this is where you get the best of DIII volleyball. We look back, forward and sideways and try to have fun doing it.

Looking at the week that was, we had the NPI Rankings kicking us off. That was followed by our Top 25, which was followed by the AVCA Top 25. We had the Players of the Week article and the Region Leaders that now cover our six “West” conferences. The Region Leaders covers all of Region VI and X. Our bonus article for the week was Fun with Numbers (again). Of course, we also had the Match Day articles where I sometimes sneak in NPI updates. (This is almost exactly what I wrote last week! This time, no links since that takes time, which I don’t have right now.)

The standings on the left side have been updated through the matches today. I hope to have NPI Rankings done mid-tomorrow sometime.

Looking at the week to come for our six conferences:

• ASC plays Friday and Saturday (thank you)

• C2C plays Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday

• NWC plays Tuesday, Friday and Saturday

• SAA plays Saturday and Sunday (thank you)

• SCAC plays Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday (WTF?!?)

• SCIAC plays Friday and Saturday (thank you)

OMG, what is up with the SCAC. So many teams. So much flexibility, I guess. Every day but Monday is annoying. The SCIAC starts their conference play after a week off but no mid-week match.

Off to the notebook, but it’s pretty empty this week.

Now that the Juniata streak is over but there are so many other little streaks attached to it. Johns Hopkins gave them their second loss of the season on Saturday. That’s their first home loss since November 2, 2019! JC needed the third set to avoid the sweep. That hasn’t happened since September 10, 2016!

Speaking of Juniata, did Coach Heather Pavlik have to go back and get training on when to call a timeout? I mean when you win all of the time, do you even call timeouts? Did she even remember the hand single for timeout?

I mentioned this last week, but I think it’s getting worse with me. STOP SERVING OUT AFTER A TIMEOUT! I really need to stop yelling at the streams.

Ricky always does a Last Team Standing post where he lists the undefeated teams with their remaining schedule. Check it out and pick the team who’ll stay undefeated the longest. I believe (but am not sure) that there is a large cash prize for the winner.

One thing I want to look at and planned to do here was take a deeper look into teams that had an NPI friendly schedule versus that did not. Maybe I’ll do an article on this when I get back at some point.

We saw a lot of upsets this week. I mentioned last year that there were basically five teams in a tier with Juniata in their own tier. Those teams and others were bringing the best talent DIII has ever seen due to the Super Senior. This year, I’m on record that anyone can win the national championship. I don’t have a favorite or even a tier of favorites. Part of me thinks the winner will come from the WIAC but we’re seeing so many teams lose to good teams but not good enough to be ranked. Again, no clue this year and I think that’s a good thing.

I said I didn’t have much so I’ll end with a story from our vacation. On the first night we went to this restaurant where we could sit outside. It was dusk and we started noticing some bugs around. The waiter started swatting his arm and we realized it was mosquitos. I had a couple on my arms and started swatting. I then looked down under the table at my legs. There were literally 20 of the little guys on my legs are about to land. I jumped up and started to wipe them off as my blood covered the napkin. I ran to the restroom where I started a mini-bath using the sink. I finally got them all off and looked into the mirror. There was one attached to my eyelid! Great first night. Still an issue but the resort has been spraying a ton. So, either I’ll turn into Mosquito Man or die of this pesticide.

Quick look at the conferences and I’ll blend in some NPI data (through Saturday).

The ASC played their first matches with ETBU getting UMHB away right away.  Their sweep away pretty much determines that they will coast through this conference. Maybe someone can trip them up in their tournament but I doubt it. It looks like HSU and UMHB will fight for the second and third spots but that doesn’t really matter. They’ll play each other in the first round. Howard Payne looks to be fourth. All four of the ASC teams are still above 50 NPI. HSU and UMHB are around 56.

The C2C doesn’t play conference. They’ll use NPI for their standings for the teams eligible and then Massey for the teams that don’t. Right now, the order is Salisbury (56.44), CNU (55.25), UC Santa Cruz (49.18), Mary Washington (47.00) and Warren Wilson (28.77). Massey has CNU ahead of Salisbury. They slot Regent and then JWU (NC) between Mary Washington and Warren Wilson.

The NWC has played their first pair of matches. The undefeated teams are Whitworth, Puget Sound, Linfield, PLU and Whitman. I think Whitworth, Puget Sound and PLU will take three of the conference tournament spots. No idea on the fourth. NPI has Whitworth and Puget Sound as the only teams above 50. Pacific Lutheran and Linfield are in the 48s. This is going to be a one-bid conference so best to win. (I don’t think Whitworth will be able to afford a loss and get an at-large, but they could last year so maybe again.)

The SAA played their pods. Trinity hosted the better teams while Oglethorpe hosted the un-betters. Of course, Southwestern was at Oglethorpe and I think they’ll do fine in conference as was evidenced by winning their three matches. The story was Trinity, however, as they handily took care of both Berry and Centre. The second surprise was Rhodes beating Centre. I wonder if there is an injury or something at Centre? We had a comment that the Berry setter was under the weather for this tournament so that might have explained some of the Trinity result. With Sewanee over 50 NPI, there are five teams total over 50 in the conference. Trinity and Southwestern are both in the 59s with Berry in the 58s.

The SCAC had some single matches this weekend. Hendrix leads the Blue Division at 2-0. They beat Austin College who might be their main competition. The return match will be big. Dallas is 0-2 and heading for a long rebuilding year. In the Gold Division, both St Thomas and Colorado College went 2-0 while Schreiner went 1-0. This should be the tougher of the two divisions. I’m quite impressed with the NPI numbers in the SCAC. Eight teams are above 50 but most are within 3 of that number. St Thomas is at 58.93 with Hendrix next at 56.43. CC is third right behind them. It’s going to be tough to get 2 teams in from this conference but the numbers say it’s possible.

The SCIAC took the week off but a couple of teams went to tournaments and did fine. Seven of the nine teams here are above 50 NPI. Only Oxy and Caltech are not. La Verne is at 63.14 while CMS is second at 56.07. If La Verne wins out here, I’m not sure CMS can make up enough ground to get to the at-large cut-line. Something to watch.

Still on vacation for a few days. Makes things tough but doing my best.

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