Weekly Wrap-Up (9/28/25)

Time for the Weekly Wrap-up! Your place for anything I could think of that was worthy or unworthy of writing about when it comes to DIII Volleyball. Let’s jump into it.

This past week we had our normal articles dealing with NPI Rankings, our Top 25, the AVCA Top 25, Region Leaders, Player of the Week and a number of Match Days. We also had an article where we revisited a few schedules and saw how they were doing now that we have actual results.

I haven’t updated the Standings Page on the left side. I’ll try to remember to do that when the matches are over today.

Looking at the week to come for our six conferences:

• ASC plays Tuesday, Friday and Saturday

• C2C plays Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday

• NWC plays Tuesday, Friday and Saturday

• SAA plays Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday

• SCAC plays Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday

• SCIAC plays Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday

Geez.Every.Day.Of.The.Week!

I will probably blow off the Monday match between Warren Wilson and Toccoa Falls. Unless I get 10 comments to this article demanding it. (If I get 9 then I’ll require 100.)

I was watching a match last weekend and they had the normal libero rotation with the middle but they were rotating in a designated server for the second middle. That got me to thinking if anyone in DIII rotates a libero between two positions? For instance, libero rotates out when the second middle has to serve. Bring in a DS to serve for the middle. Serve the ball (point or not) and then bring the libero in for (let’s say) the backrow OH that is middle back. If the serving team scored a point, then you have a really good defensive backrow. Regardless, libero (now in the OH position) rotates out when she reaches the front row. The other outside is now serving and you probably have the setter and that DS you brought in backrow for just the serve. Libero now rotates back in after the serve for the DS. Okay…downside is that the libero has to sit for two serves but they may actually play more if the team wins those serves because they can come right back in. Also, it’s also a tad confusion. On the plus side, you never have a middle on the backrow. (As a former middle, that’s rather insulting.) Assuming your DS is better than your OH on the backrow, you are better defensively. You could just put the DS in for the outside but you have a middle serving. If you also sub in a designated server than this saves you two subs. Surely, someone does something like this, right?

Shout out to the La Verne Panthers for reaching #1 this week! I feel bad for the AVCA social media person that went with the wrong mascot on their DIII Poll tweet and IG post. Honest mistake but the optics were pretty bad. I did send them a message about it and they regretted it. Of course, I told them that if La Verne stays at number one, they need to call them the La Verne Athenas. I mean…come on…funny, right?

Anyway, the La Verne Leopards reached number one for the first time since 2002. Their coach at that time? Southwestern’s Don Flora.

Also, from the AVCA rankings, the ETBU Panthers reached number 2, which is their highest ranking ever in their history. Who was their coach their previous highest ranking? No, it wasn’t Don Flora. Don’t be dense.

In the Dallas/Austin match it was noted that Dallas only dressed 10 players. They had 16 to start the season and 14 now listed on their roster. Hope all is well there.

We had some history made Friday when Howard Payne beat Mary Hardin-Baylor in 5-sets. The last time they did that was on October 1, 2010. That was the third straight time HPU had beaten UMHB. The last time HPU won at home against UHMB was October 5, 2005 or nearly 20 years ago. Just to complete the thought, HPU last won at UMHB in October 20, 2000. They will get a chance at that record on October 24.

So, just a general question. What does Howard Payne Interim Head Coach Nick Noll have to do to get the “interim” tag removed? I mean would the AD hire another coach at the end of the season and risk another 15-years of losses to Mary Hardin-Baylor?

Through Saturday’s matches, the biggest NPI upsets are:

That PLU loss is just annoying. I mean they deserved the win but always beware of that opening match.

La Verne went 5-sets with Whittier on Friday. They are now 3-0 in 5-set matches. That seems like a lot for one of the best teams in the nation and it worries me a bit. Also interesting to note that CMS is 1-2 in 5-set matches. Their at-large chances would be A LOT better if that record was also 3-0 in those matches.

When CMS went to Oshkosh the second weekend and dropped three matches, I worried if their schedule was good enough to secure an at-large if they didn’t beat La Verne this season. I finally got around to looking at it. I don’t think it’s long enough for an article so I’ll drop it in here.

After CMS went 0-3 at Oshkosh losing close matches to the host team plus WashU and Emory, I wondered if CMS could get an at-large winning out the rest of their matches except against La Verne. In theory, that would include the two regular season matches against them and a future conference final match. My thought was that there wasn’t enough in the schedule to get them to the cut-line without at least one win against La Verne. Back from vacation and with some time on my hands, I thought I would take a deeper look at this.

I have a schedule projection tool that I used for my schedule analysis this past summer and I went ahead and populated the matches CMS has played so far this season. It’s still using 2024 NCAA Power Index (NPI) numbers but it’s my starting position. The interesting thing that jumps out is that their 6-3 record gets them a 2025 NPI of 56.13 while using 2024 numbers, it would have given them an NPI last season of 60.29! That’s a huge difference! Again, NPI will raise as you play more matches so it’s not apples to apples in the sense that I’m looking 9 matches into last season. I’m using the year-end NPI numbers. Still, wow!

The problem is that every team CMS has played has a lower NPI right now than they finished with in 2024 except for St Olaf and Lake Forest. Again, they will go up but will it make up around 4 NPI points?

I then plugged in the remaining schedule with the 2024 NPI numbers. Assuming only losses to La Verne, the year end NPI would be 61.31. That would get them above the cut-line last season.

The next thing I did was replace the 2024 NPI numbers with the current 2025 numbers and year-end projected NPI comes out to be 58.51. We see that the difference has been slightly decreased but that still puts CMS about one point below the anticipated cut-line. I then added in the SCIAC Tournament having CMS play the highest possible team from the conference before losing to La Verne (again). This slightly decreased their overall NPI. Not good.

The final exercise I did was to give CMS a victory over La Verne during the regular season. Their NPI jumped to 59.59. As a reminder, the cut-line last year was 59.621. CMS would miss out even with one La Verne win. With that said, I think they would actually get an at-large because NPIs will increase, which will also increase the CMS number. Our current cut-line through Wednesday was at 56.59 so if we use that number than CMS is in whether they beat La Verne or not. In fact, they possibly could lose two other matches in conference and still have a chance although I would not bank on that at all.

It really comes down to how much NPI will grow over the course of the season and how high the at-large cut-line gets. CMS is fortunate that the SCIAC has some good (above 50) NPIs but their chances may just come down to how much St Olaf, Puget Sound, CWRU and Santa Cruz improve their NPIs. It will also help if (when) Oshkosh, Emory and WashU go higher. Emory is the big team to watch. I talked a bit about their schedule on Thursday but a team like CMS is linked with them and is probably their biggest fan right now.

As far as the eyeball, CMS is an at-large team. Maybe not a top at-large team but certainly not a team that will squeak in. It remains to be seen if NPI agrees. If not, this is a team that may have mainly scheduled themselves out a spot.

I wonder how the SAA parents/fans liked (or disliked) the SAA MEGA POD this weekend. You get three matches for your team while also getting to see other teams in your conference. Lots of volleyball. I know that the pod system was a big point of conflict with Trinity and Southwestern coming into the conference. Basically, the conference is playing their pod half of the schedule and then will go to a more traditional schedule during the second half. This will cause an unbalance as, for instance, Southwestern plays Berry both times away. One big benefit of pods is that it saves on play dates opening up the schedule for more non-conference opportunities. After the two weekend of pods, the SAA will have played 6 matches each over 4 play dates for a savings of 2 dates. (Side note, kind of cool that the SAA was able to figure out how to stream every match this weekend at Berry. I didn’t even think that is something anyone would even worry about.)

It’s interesting how many Live Stats applications don’t work for most if not all of a match. I’m not sure how it gets activated on the floor but can’t there just be an added step to the instructions?

• Pickup your cell phone and access the Live Stats. Does it work?

I was really disappointed in the streams for the UAA Pod this weekend. They only showed court 1 and you could make out what is happening on the other two courts. On Sunday (today), they had a screen up so you could only see court 1. I would be curious what FloSports is paying the UAA NOT to stream their matches.

When I do the rankings, something I like to use is best win. It helps me with knowing where the ceiling is for the team I’m considering. I also look at close losses but that information tends to leave my brain pretty quickly so it becomes less of a factor as the season moves along. I’m NOT watching WashU/Chicago right now and here are the WashU’s numbers. Their best win is CMS (56.6) with a loss only to Oshkosh (63.1). That’s a pretty big gap to where WashU could be and that’s why I find it difficult to rank them highly. Then you have teams like Hope who had a brain fart for a week where they lost 4 matches. Their worst losses are to Denison and Chicago who are both around 52 NPI. With their win over IWU, their ceiling is now 63 NPI. Their next best win is CMU at 58.7. So, this appears to be a high ceiling, low floor type of team. I actually favor these types of teams over teams that are more consistent but with a lower ceiling. I want my at-large teams to have a chance to damage in the NCAA Tournament. Hope could flame out or do some damage. I find MIT’s numbers interesting. They have 3 losses and all three teams are in the 61 NPI range. Their best win is CMU at 58.7. Their next best win is Wentworth. We can tell that this might be a good team but they struggled with that next tier up. Washington & Lee is another team with a lower ceiling than Hope. Their best win is Franklin & Marshall at 56.6. They have losses to two teams at 57.1 and 63.8. So, between WashU, Hope, MIT and Washington & Lee, which is the most deserving team for a hypothetical last at-large spot? NPI would take WashU by about 2 points over Hope. (These numbers are all through Saturday’s matches.)

Update – Chicago just beat WashU. That lowers the WashU floor but they should still be higher in NPI than Hope.

Let’s take a look at the conferences. Short roundup of the standings and then we’ll highlight some statistic leaders coming into this weekend.

In the ASC they are already halfway through the conference season with just their 4 teams. ETBU has swept through their away portion of the schedule and have the lead. They will be hosting the ASC Tournament unless something really strange happens with the team. Hardin-Simmons sits second with the big surprise being Howard Payne in third. Mary Hardin-Baylor is last and is winless in conference. That is a tad shocking.

Some of their leaders are:

• Halie Coon (HPU) leads in Aces/Set

• Kendall Harington (UMHB) leads in Assists/Set

• Graycee Mosley (ETBU) leads in Attacks/Set, Kills/Set, Points and Points/Set

• Anita Hancock (ETBU) leads in Blocks/Set and Hitting Percentage

• Peyton Sediacek (UMHB) leads in Digs/Set

The C2C plays the matches and everything matters at the same time as it seems they don’t. With no conference schedule, they base their tournament seeding on NPI and the Massey Ratings. NPI has the ordering as Salisbury, Chris Newport, UC Santa Cruz, Mary Washington and Warren Wilson. Massey has the ordering as Salisbury, Chris Newport, UC Santa Cruz, Mary Washington, Regent, JWU (NC) and Warren Wilson. The big question in my mind is whether CNU will be in position to be an at-large selection if they don’t win their tournament.

Some of their leaders are:

• Julie Altieri (Salisbury) leads in Assists/Set

• KJ Helinsky (Warren Wilson) leads in Attacks/Set, Kills/Set, Points and Points/Set

• Alyssa Dozier (Chris Newport) leads in Blocks/Set

• Prudence Marco (Salisbury) leads in Digs/Set

• Gwen Eustace (Salisbury) leads in Hitting Percentage

We are four matches in with the NWC and we have two undefeated teams in Whitworth and Puget Sound. They definitely look to be the class of this conference. Lurking in third is PLU and you can never count them out. As a Southwestern fan, I will be pulling for PLU and Puget Sound the rest of the way as they played both teams. (That’s the NPI in me talking.) Linfield (the only team to play 3 matches) sits in fourth and are the surprise team so far this season. Whitman sits 2-2 and then we have one-loss teams in Pacific, George Fox and Willamette. Lewis & Clark is winless and that may continue for a bit, unfortunately.

Some of their leaders are:

• Gracie Bearden (George Fox) leads in Aces/Set

• Randi Rush (Puget Sound) leads in Assists/Set

• Nora Myre (Linfield) leads in Attacks/Set, Kills/Set and Points/Set

• Lauren Kremer (Whitworth) leads in Blocks/Set

• Macy Matsushima (Pacific Lutheran) leads in Digs/Set

• Maddie Badger (Puget Sound) leads in Hitting Percentage

• Amblessed Okemgbo (Whitworth) leads in Points

The SAA is still playing as I write this. Looking into the future, Trinity will be the only undefeated team in conference and really put everyone on notice that there is a new sheriff in town. Berry will sit second with one loss. Regardless of the Centre outcome, Southwestern will sit third but have yet to play Trinity. Sewanee and Centre will be in the 4^th and 5^th spots in some order with Millsaps, Rhodes and Oglethorpe rounding out the final spots. Interesting that Rhodes only conference win (so far) was Centre. Still a strange result to me. This conference definitely looks like they will get two teams into the NCAA Tournament and the question that remains will be if they can get three.

Some of their leaders are:

• Ally Baer (Millsaps) leads in Aces/Set and Points

• Ava Brovet (Berry) leads in Assists/Set

• Reagan Whatley (Trinity) leads in Attacks/Set, Kills/Set and Points/Set

• Lauren McCarthy (Trinity) leads in Blocks/Set

• Izzy Rodriguez (Southwestern) leads in Digs/Set

• Kendall Jurgens (Southwestern) leads in Hitting Percentage

• Rachel Zamjahn (Millsaps) leads in Triple-Doubles

Over in the SCAC, we have two divisions. Undefeated in the Blue is Hendrix and LeTourneau. They will play this afternoon. Austin College is the only other team in the division to be above 0.500. Over in the Gold Division, both Schreiner and Colorado College are undefeated after that CC win against St Thomas this weekend. The Celts sit third in that division. There are a ton of matches left in this conference to be played.

Some of their leaders are:

• Arianna Gomez (Ozarks) leads in Aces/Set

• Adilynn Henry (Hendrix) leads in Assists/Set

• Brooke Humphrey (Ozarks) leads Attacks/Set

• Madisin Hartsfield (Austin) leads in Blocks/Set

• Carly Lange (St Thomas) leads in Digs/Set

• Riley Brady (Hendrix) leads in Hitting Percentage

• Brooklynne Fitzgerald (Concordia) leads in Kills/Set and Points/Set

• Alexis Bodunrin (St Thomas) leads in Points

We finish up with the SCIAC who just started their play (remember that the ASC is already halfway done). We have three undefeated teams in La Verne, CMS and, check notes, Occidental. Oxy shocked Chapman this week in conference. Winless teams are Cal Lu, Redlands and Caltech. That leaves the 1-1 teams as Whittier, Chapman and Pomona-Pitzer.

Some of their leaders are:

• Emma Berg (Caltech) leads in Aces/Set

• Samantha Riter (CMS) leads in Assists/Set

• Brooke McKee (CMS) leads in Attacks/Set and Kills/Set

• Ava Bradbury (Chapman) leads in Blocks/Set

• Keegan Corley (Cal Lutheran) leads in Digs/Set

• Olivia Harrison (Chapman) leads in Hitting Percentage

• Mya Ray (La Verne) leads in Points and Points/Set

I finished writing this up while watching the Southwestern/Centre match. (My first pass, at least.) Good Southwestern win there and they will be tied with Berry for second but lost the head-to-head there. Trinity finally lost a set in the SAA (to Millsaps). They may be human. That’s all I’ve got.

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