Weekly Wrap-Up (9/4/22)

Welcome to the Weekly Wrap-Up. It’s my normal Sunday article that takes most of the day as I try to play catchup on the website while writing about what happened over the weekend and, if that’s not enough, tries to prepare for the week to come. Since the matches have started, I will remind you of our normal week on the website. On Mondays, I put out the D3VbWest Top 25 that will include a Region X Top 7 (the number of teams the region is allowed to rank). I still want to do an article on Points/Set so it may get included in the Top 25 post or I may pull it out separately. I’m not going to do the calculations per match as it’s just too time consuming. I will be using the statistics on the team’s websites, but that still takes some time. On Tuesdays, the AVCA will release their Top 25. On Wednesdays, we get the Players of the Week consolidated in one post. I will also do a Regions Leaders post that pulls from the NCAA statistical database. This article depends on when the NCAA publishes their statistics. Thursday through the weekend is usually match days but we also know matches can be played Monday through Wednesday, too. I’ll do the Weekly Wrap-Up on Sundays and try to insert a surprise or two at various times through the season.  

This past week was the lead into the season so it didn’t follow the formula. We did have an article on retention or the number of players each school was able to retain going into this season. We also had a QWI article that is another way to look at strength of schedule (SOS). Finally, before the Match Days, I had a Musings article.

Before I dive into the matches, I use this time to discuss items that important to me. I hope you’ll find them interesting. (Oh, standings are updated on the left side of the site or a pull down if you are on a mobile.)

I wrote something in my musings article this past week about enjoying the gift your daughter is giving you regardless of her role. As my (hot) wife and I watched Southwestern this weekend I couldn’t help but notice the number of really difficult decisions that Coach Flora had to make with regards to playing time. My daughter, in her four years playing, never had playing time secured. She typically had to carve out a role each year and really only got to start consistently as a setter her sophomore year. There were times where I internally questioned some of the decisions being made but I always kept them internal. If your daughter is not a starter then I’m sure you are also having these internal questions. I now have the luxury of watching things like playing time unfold objectively. All I can say is that I don’t envy the coaches. They deeply care about their players but they are paid (very little) to make difficult decisions that can cause great disappointment. All I can advise is to adopt all of the players as your daughter. Spread the love. Enjoy the gift from all of your daughters.

One other thing on the above. If you are a recruit or ever have a chance to advise a recruit then the biggest piece of advice I can give is to go for the love of the school and what it offers. Never go strictly for the reputation of the volleyball program or the coach. The teammates are probably the other thing to consider, but I can’t imagine the misery of a student-athlete who becomes dissatisfied playing and going to class.

One more thing on the above. I wasn’t thinking of anyone specific. I don’t need the Southwestern parents reaching out to me on this. I just noticed how deep the team is at every position and how talented the bench is.

One of the things I enjoy the most now at tournaments is the 30 or so seconds the coaches give me when I bother them. I got to meet GFU Head Coach Emily Davis for the first time in person. Very sweet person who I interrupted while she talked with her child (I think). I had a less enjoyable time with UTD Head Coach Zach Villarreal. I did get to heckle him a bit but he got the last laugh when his squad beat my Pirates. He then had the nerve to try to shake my hand. I’m always interested to see if out-of-region coaches know about the site so I was interested in meeting Augsburg Head Coach Jane Becker. I think she pretended to know of the site, which I appreciated. Concordia Head Coach Nicole McCoy-Dalby knows me well through email since she’s a RAC member and has to ignore my inquiries when regional rankings come out. Another very nice person.

I just did my first pass on the Top 25 and I’m adding Points/Set (for and against) to the rundown for each ranked team. It definitely changed the ordering in some cases although I know the sample size is really small right now. Currently, I’ve got Southwestern ranked but not UT-Dallas, which certainly seems strange given their recent result. The main reason is Points/Set. I’m sure I’ll explain more if I keep SU ranked.

I think the practice of hiding video on the streaming services is becoming more prevalent. Teams are not wanting easy access to their matches for their upcoming opponents, I assume. I’m hoping this stops once we get to conference as I like to go back and catch the important matches I missed.

Okay. This is important. There are still a number of schools that don’t have sortable statistics. Emory, Chicago and Gustavus Adolphus were my problem children while going through the Top 25. The worst, however, is Colorado College. I know someone there will read this but can we get rid of the STUPID PDF output of your statistics? Can you obtain 2010 technology? If you love me, give me 2022 technology! Plus, you don’t even have a link, as of this morning, to your 2022 STUPID PDF file! I have no clue what your statistics are unless I manual put them together.

Props to Trinity’s broadcast team this weekend. I couldn’t watch much video but I enjoyed their production very much.

Looks like we have a match in region every day this week except Sunday. No days off makes me sad.

I’ve got a wedding to go to on Friday but I was trying to see if a day trip to Emory for the East/West Challenge could be done. (My daughter works for American Airlines so I can fly standby for little money.) It appears I would miss Trinity as they would play before I could get there. Also, I really need a red-eye out and the latest flight is like 8 pm so I wouldn’t get much match time. Looks like I’ll be streaming on Saturday.

I really believe the ASC needs to evaluate their conference travel and change things up. I know they want a home and away schedule but the conference is stretched from one side of Texas to the other and beyond. They need to go to a pod schedule as is done in the SCAC. It’s not fair but the majority of matches will be a neutral site. The current schedule limits their ability to play out-of-region and too many ASC programs aren’t making the extra effort to toughen up their schedule. As a parent, I’d much rather travel once a week and watch three matches then travel more often for just one match. I also have to believe it would help on the academic side of things. Even if one or two weekends were opened up, the schools would still have to commit to making good use of those weekends. That means money, and there are just some ASC schools that won’t do that for volleyball. If the ASC won’t travel out-of-region then they can’t get a high enough SOS to earn an at-large bid. Only UT-Dallas has any chance at an at-large if they don’t win the conference because of their schedule. The SCAC often puts three teams into the tournament (two from Texas) but it’s not enough to get a regional if the ASC only gets one team in. Do you remember the day when the west got a regional? Unless the SCIAC gets deeper at the top and puts three teams in, I just don’t see the west ever getting a regional again.

Time to look at the matches and the conferences.

Over in the ASC, UMHB hosted their tournament and went 4-0. Their toughest opponent was Hendrix and they basically cruised through everyone. First year Katie Warden announced her presence as she averaged 3.71 Points/Set to lead the team. Hannah Frasca missed the first day of matches and is 7^th on the team in Points/Set. I could never have predicted that. There were a few first years on the team to contribute so the Cru look deep again. ETBU also went 4-0 but their best opponent was probably St Thomas. Still, they had a nice 4-set win on their court. They were led by another first year in Graycee Mosley who had 4.12 Points/Set. This is a young team that could do better than expected. LeTourneau is the only other undefeated team at 1-0 as they only played Belhaven. HSU travelled to Colorado College and went 3-1 taking a set off of CC in their only loss. First year Gabby Jones led the team with 4.0 Points/Set. Seems we have a trend in the ASC. UT-Dallas played the toughest schedule in the conference the first week (and will again next week) and went 2-1. I described their play on Friday as a “mixed bag” in my Match Day but I was really being kind. They didn’t look like a normal UTD team. That changed big time on Saturday as they took down #18 Southwestern. Everything looked really good on that day and they will need that effort when they go to Emory for the East/West Challenge. Catherine Croft (not a first-year) led the team with 3.19 Points/Set. McMurry went 3-2 but only one win was against a DIII opponent. They were swept by Austin College and lost in 5 to Dallas. Unless McMurry can get better fast, this doesn’t indicate a team that will make the ASC Tournament. Concordia went 0-2 and didn’t look right at times. They have two nice pin hitters but just struggled in service receive at times. I think they can get better but it will need to be fast. Howard Payne beat Centenary but went 1-3 on the weekend. The last team to discuss is Sul Ross State. They went to the Pacific Coast Classic and went 2-2. Their wins were against the most-likely last place team in the SCIAC and NWC so it doesn’t tell us much. They dropped matches against Pomona-Pitzer and La Verne, which were the better opponents. Super senior Annika Canaba led the team with 4.14 Points/Set.

Overall, the ASC worries me. I thought Concordia would be better than I saw. I also thought that Sul Ross State could win against either Pomona-Pitzer or La Verne. That leaves UTD and UMHB although the jury is out on ETBU and whether they can insert themselves into the party. It’s early, I know, but most of the ASC don’t play out of conference starting now. Outside of UTD, I don’t think anyone else will play a ranked team.

UC Santa Cruz played in the PCC this weekend and went 3-1. They make a nice marker with respect to the SCIAC as they place most of the teams during the season. They were beaten by CMS (everyone was), but took down Chapman, Redlands and Cal Lutheran. It probably means that Cal Lu is going to struggle again this year and that Chapman has some work to do to incorporate their new players. It probably also means that UCSC will be a player in Region VI (if the NCAA continues to put them there).

Almost everyone in the NWC travelled because, well, they have to. Pacific and PLU went undefeated. Pacific took down Austin College in 5-sets so that gives us an indication that they may make some noise in conference this year. Mara Murphy was a menace with 5.42 Points/Set. PLU and Puget Sound stayed in state for the Puget Sound Tournament with both teams beating their out-of-region opponents. PLU was able to sweep Puget Sound in a non-conference matchup. First year Elle Thomas led the team with 4.36 Points/Set. Linfield was a nice surprise as they went 3-1 at the PCC. They were swept by La Verne but had a nice win against Whittier. Don’t be surprised if they finish in the middle of the NWC this season. Whitworth traveled out to Chicago and played a number of good teams going 3-1. All of these teams were closely matched so great effort getting those wins. Super senior Maddie Lee led the team with 3.89 Points/Set. Lewis & Clark went 1-2 over at Chris Newport losing to two very good teams. We’ll have to see more from them to know more. Both Whitman and Willamette went 0-4 so a bit of a disappointment there. George Fox was at Southwestern so I got to see them play. Nice team that plays good defense but struggled to put an entire match together against good teams. I still think they will be in the top half of the conference. Piper Harrop was fun to watch as she finished with 4.4 Digs/Set.

Overall, I don’t know about Pacific but I think this conference will again come down to Whitworth and PLU. Both have a challenging schedule this week. If both can do well then, we may have a chance of getting two teams out of the NWC this year.

Trinity is just annoying. Great weekend for them taking down three ranked opponents including the defending national champions. They didn’t drop a set and haven’t lost at home since 2018. The big question for the Tigers were going to be their outsides but they performed well. We could be seeing another run at the Elite 8 again. TLU and Colorado College also went undefeated but against lesser opponents. We’ll have to see how they do against other teams. One loss teams were Austin College, Dallas, St Thomas and Southwestern as 7 of the 9 teams in conference finished with winning records. Lexi Morris (TLU) continues her digging ways with 5.35 Digs/Set. I can’t talk about CC because their stats aren’t updated and they’re pretty much unusable when they are. Riley Abernethy and (granddaughter) Olivia Linton led the offense for Austin College. No stat links for Dallas or St Thomas. (Please get this fixed.) Christina Kuras led my Pirates with 4.6 Points/Set. Schreiner was able to beat HPU but finished 1-2 on the weekend. Centenary went 0-3.

Only two teams in the SCIAC are above 0.500 with CMS (4-0) dominating play in the PCC beating four really good opponents and not really being challenged. La Verne went 3-1 and were led by first-year Mya Ray who scored 4.8 Points/Set. Their only loss was to a good Millikin team in 5-sets but it’s those thin margins that become important at the end of the year. Jenna Holmes led CMS with 5.0 Points/Set. Jury is still out on Caltech as they are playing a number of non-DIII teams. We’ll know about them when conference starts. Pomona-Pitzer went 2-2 but lost to their two better opponents in NYU and Babson. Chloe Gill led the Sagehens with 3.3 Points/Set. Oxy went 2-2, which surprised me. Neither win was against a top opponent but they are in a major overhaul so any win is a good one. Lizzy Kerman led the team with 3.4 Points/Set. Whittier, Cal Lu and Chapman went 1-3. Whittier has to be disappointed in the Linfield loss. Chapman looks to be trying to figure out things out. Cal Lu played the toughest schedule of the three but could only beat Whitman. Maci Haddad led Cal Lu with 4.1 Points/Set but she’ll need more help next week when the opponents get even better. Redlands went 0-4 on the weekend and has to be disappointed in losing to St Scholastica after being up 2-0. They just could replicate that effort for an entire match.

Looking nationally, there were a number of teams to take losses. Berry was a bit of a surprise although their losses were to Eau Claire and Trinity. I just thought at the beginning of the year that they were the best of the three. BSC taking down Emory was interesting. The St Olaf, Whitworth, Aurora, Chicago mash up is another problem. They were all pretty even and, in the process, they just beat up on each other. None of their Points/Set looks good at this point but that’s what happens when you play tough teams that are just like you. Transylvania and Bethel will take the biggest hits from the weekend. Transy’s lost to Edgewood is the killer. I expect Trinity may be the new number one but I’m having a hard time putting them past CMS. Either way, they are probably 1 and 2 in some order right now.

That’s what I’ve got. I fear I missed some things I wanted to talk about but I was bad about taking notes this weekend. Oh, I did hear of situation where a player took great pride in her blocks during a match and would drop the f bomb across the net just to punctuate the play. It took a bit for the referee to realize what was going on and put a stop to it. I personally didn’t see that happen in the matches I watched so lesson learned, I guess. Of course, (insert old man voice) back in my day that was pretty normal. So, in honor of this player and to harken back to a different period in our history, as I finish this article, let me punctuate it with…yeah, can’t do it. I’ve grown.