Weekly Wrap-Up (9/5/21)

This is the Weekly Wrap-Up. It’s my normal Sunday article that attempts to capture the week that was and prepare you for the week to come. Before I get into my normal wrap-up routine, I do want to remind my readers what a normal week consists of during the season. On Mondays I put out the D3VbWest Top 25 that will include a Region X Top 8. This year, it will also include the Points/Set (P/S) Standings that I started in the spring. More on that in the article on Monday. On Tuesday the AVCA releases their Top 25. On Wednesday we get the Players of the Week for all of the conferences. Also, during the week, but I’m unsure what day, we’ll have Region Leaders, which will highlight the best performers from Region X. This will be dependent on the NCAA statistical database, but my hope is that this will be a Tuesday item. Thursday through Saturday are reserved for matches although we’ll still have a Match Day article whenever matches are played. If I decide I want to write about something then you might see that on a Thursday (in the form of a musings article or a standalone article). On Sundays we’ll have the Weekly Wrap-Up. It all sounds so sterile when I lay it out like that but there has to be structure behind the magic.

This past week, we didn’t follow structure as we led into the matches. We did have a Quality Win Index article and a note about my Podcast Page. I will try to do more podcasts but I’m limited by my stay-at-home working wife. She’s the boss during this time so I can’t disturb her. She’s also the boss the other times, too. Luckily, I’m allowed to disturb her during this time and she often comments that I am disturbed.

Before we get to the matches, here are some notes I captured during the week. Mills College finally released their roster. They officially have the smallest team with 8 players. I was updating my little black book of coaches (yes, each of you are ranked on a 5-star basis) and I noticed that we have some big milestones upcoming this season. Chapman Head Coach Mary Cahill is at 497 wins so three more until she’s 500 ahead of me. Those wins should have come this weekend but the team caught the C-Word and had to pull out of the tournament. They are scheduled to play this next weekend at the Whittier Tournament and I’m sure she’ll be bringing cake and little balloon animals for not only her team but everyone. Please, if you are at that tournament, go up to Coach Cahill and ask her about this. The other big milestone will be Trinity’s Head Coach Julie Jenkins as she started the season with 985 wins! Add in the 4 from this weekend and she’s 11 away from 1000. Assuming they win out, cake and balloon animals on October 1^st in Louisiana against Austin College. Winning out means beating Emory, CMS, Cal Lu twice, Chapman, Northwestern and Colorado College. Yikes! As with Coach Cahill, when you see Coach Jenkins from now until 1000, please ask her about the cake and balloon animals.

I only get to see a fraction of matches so I miss a lot but I sadly saw PLU’s middle Breeze Bartle get hurt in their opening match. Bartle was living the middle dream as she was playing 6-rotations and was in the service receive at times. Brought back memories of me if I had been allowed to play 6-rotations and be in the service receive. Hoping she gets healthy again really quickly. I was also sad to see Kianna Crow (LeTourneau) miss out on their opening weekend. Her team is scheduled to play Southwestern this upcoming weekend so I just want to remind the coaches that it’s important that she get healthy but also to take her time in her recovery. ETBU on the 14^th looks like a good target date for a return to me. Also hoping for health for HSU as they were another C-Word victim this weekend. I know I missed a number of other C-Word victims and other injuries but I want everyone to heal as quickly as possible (and for Crow to target the 14^th).

I player I really enjoyed watching from the spring was Whitworth’s Akon A’leu. She was a middle and was simply a blocking force on the front row. I was told she had a late decision to take a year off, which makes me sad because she was so much fun to watch and was part of the reason I was hyping Whitworth so much this season. They’re still good without her as a close 5-set loss to Trinity shows.

I was watching Southwestern play PLU (because that was the only video I could see because Puget Sound lost video streaming after that match and, yes, I’m bitter), and saw (I think…could have dreamt it) middle Riley Brantley go back to serve and come away with an ace. She was then promptly subbed out. Bold strategy Coach Flora! (I think he was wanting to get some players into the match so I get it…still funny.)

Our New England correspondent, “Ned”, wanted all of the Trinity parents to know that for their New England trip, there may be schools that will not allow spectators. He specifically mentioned Wellesley. Something to check on if you are planning on flying out. Now, if this turns out to be true then ask if media credentials will be handed out and allowed in for the match. If so, and you guys are willing to write an article each on how much better Southwestern is than Trinity then I’ll be happy to state that you all work for the website and you can get your credentials. Never let it be said that I don’t love those Trinity parents.

Odds and ends. I noticed CMS had 74 kills in a 4-set match. That has to get close to a record. Pacific was going up against some very good teams this weekend and I believe they probably wanted to create as much pressure with their serve as they could. It didn’t work out. I think there were at least two matches where they got 1 ace with 10 or more service errors. Their statistics for the year read 5 aces against 35 service errors. I still love you Boxers, it just stood out. St Thomas has definitely got their block on. They are averaging 2.73 a set versus 1.6. Paige Havel is averaging 1.53 blocks/set. (By the way, check your links on your website. When you go to statistics from volleyball you go to men’s basketball.) Austin College jumped out at me a couple of times with service aces. They are averaging 2.44 aces/set versus 1.5. Both Mari Prazak and Riley Abernethy have 9 (0.56/set).

Watched a couple of CMS matches because they were on the SCIAC app on my Roku television. Senior right-side Melanie Williams is finally getting a chance to play and she looks great. Problem for CMS is that they also have Brenna Bell on the right side and she also looks great. Setter Georgia McGovern looks more than capable of running a 5-1 but I think Bell is going to get second setter Spencer Hagenbuch in the games and get them running a 6-2. Wish all the teams in the region had this problem.

The last note I wanted to mention was the crazy and cool thing Centenary Head Coach Ashley McDonough did this weekend. Faced with a large roster (published at 21 with 14 first-years and sophomores) she decided to play in two tournaments the same weekend. I mean, okay. Some logistical issues for the tournaments to work out but doable. Did I mention that the tournaments were in two different states? Coach McDonough wanted to get her entire team time on the court so she split her team in two and shipped them off to Arkansas and Mississippi. The Arkansas team went 1-3 while the Mississippi team went 2-2 but the point wasn’t wins and losses it was growth and experience. There were some bumps along the way that caused the teams to adjust on the fly where they normally wouldn’t have to with larger benches but they got through the experience just fine. Some out of the box thinking by Centenary that could pay off in the long run.  

On to the matches, which started on Wednesday. There have been some issues with video streams (looking at you Puget Sound) and Live Stats (looking at you everyone) but we managed to make it through it. I loved the schools that were able to adjust and broadcast the match on Facebook or YouTube. This needs to be a backup for everyone. If a school can’t get its video working it should at least give you access to their Wi-Fi. I usually do the match breakdown by conferences but I think I will do it by tournaments or days until we get into conference play.

We’ll start off with the matches that occurred on Wednesday and Thursday. The ASC and SCAC faced off in two matches with Southwestern beating Concordia in 5-sets and Dallas taking down ETBU in 4-sets. What’s a little interesting is that you could make a case that the teams sort of align in their respective conferences as far as where they typically finish. Over on the coast, UC Santa Cruz would sweep Whittier in a match that would see the Banana Slugs reach 20.33 Points/Set (16 = good, 17 = great, 18+ = elite). These results would carry on through the weekend as both the ASC and SCIAC would struggle as a whole. The rest of the matches were against non-DIII teams and used as preparation for the season.  

Okay, I changed my mind. There are just too many matches to get through so I’ll just pick and choose through each day and offer up some thoughts.

With UC Santa Cruz convincing win over Whittier, I found the first match of the day Friday where they played CMS to be intriguing. CMS would win 3-1 but both teams would play well. CMS had a 20.5 P/S while UCSC still had a 16.25 number. Not bad and a strong indication that UCSC was going to be trouble for the other SCIAC teams. George Fox would have a good weekend going 3-1 and, yes, I did jinx them before their Augustana loss. When we look at P/S with respect to GFU, however, things aren’t as bright. In two of their wins (La Verne and Pomona-Pitzer) they actually were on the losing number for this statistic and tied Whittier in that match. You’d have to think that won’t continue but you take the wins when they happen. (Remember, none of the matches went 5-sets, either.) Cal Lutheran struggled during the week and it started with a loss to Transylvania (they would also lose to UCSC but beat UW-Oshkosh). Maci Haddad did what she could averaging 3.7 P/S but more offense is needed from the rest of the team. Concordia was another team to struggle and they are currently 0-5 on the season. The Tornadoes seem to be trying to figure out the best way to align their team as Alyssa Legette seems to be moved around some. Some big-time talent with Sarah Ghormley and Kylexus Block (in addition to Legette) exists but the key to their success will come on the growth of their other players. I thought TLU (2-1) looked good this weekend and I watched their loss to Whitworth. Speaking of Whitworth, nice that teams outside of Washington get to see her play. She led the Pirates to a 3-1 record with their loss being in 5-sets to Trinity. Lee averaged 4.34 P/S for the weekend. Kaity Barr also did really well and I do believe this team will end up being the NWC champion. LeTourneau finished 2-2 without Kianna Crow so no real issues there but their 4-set win over Centenary was really interesting as they finished 3 P/S less than Centenary when it was done. They did it by limited their attack errors and letting Centenary make the fatal mistake. Their other win was against a not-so-strong Huntingdon squad where their P/S number was about the same. Southwestern (4-0) scared me a bit after their Concordia win on Wednesday but they took care of business over the weekend. They may have gotten a little lucky P/S wise against Puget Sound but, again, you take the win when it’s offered. After the CMS loss, UC Santa Cruz cruised through the weekend to finish 4-1 and currently have a 17.12 P/S number.

Switching over to the Austin College/Dallas Tournament and I think we can say that it was a good weekend for Austin College (5-0). They didn’t seem challenged by this group. Fellow SCAC member, Dallas, would go 4-1 with their only loss to out-of-region Rhodes. There were some good matches with the other teams but, for the most part, it does seem like the SCAC won the battle with the ASC this weekend. Maybe the biggest story was McMurry (1-3) as all three losses came to SCAC teams (Austin, Dallas and Schreiner). I don’t think anyone figured that two of the top teams out of the ASC (Concordia being the other) would be 1-8 at this point in the season. Throw in UT-Dallas and it’s 2-11.

I couldn’t watch UT-Dallas although I did catch a bit of their match with WashU (the only one streamed). It wasn’t all bad and when you look at the P/S numbers they sit at 16.13 with 3 losses. That’s not bad. Catherine Croft struggled in the Centre match and missed the Webster match so I’m not sure everything is right there. She did do fine in the other two matches, which she did play in. Too early to say anything about the Comets but I will say that this weekend was not something I think I’ve ever seen from them.

Mary Harden-Baylor cruised through the weekend, which included a convincing take down of ranked Birmingham-Southern. Their Points/Set number isn’t the greatest as it sits at 15.58 so we’ll have to see how that plays out but right now they are the class of the ASC.

Thing’s kind of fell apart over at Colorado College just not with the team. They had two teams drop from their tournament so it meant duplicate matches against Linfield and St. Catherine. No problems for the Tigers and it was good to see Linfield get two wins.

Willamette traveled to Emory and went 3-1 losing only to the host team, which is highly ranked. Great experience for the Bearcats and some good exposure for Natalie Klotz (12 kills against Emory).

Other than the Whitworth match, Trinity had an easy time of it this weekend.

I mentioned how Centenary split up their teams and it’s interesting to see the P/S numbers from each squad. Let’s just say the squad that went to Arkansas had a tougher time of it.

Pacific took on maybe the toughest group of matches this weekend and went 1-3 in the process. They were able to beat Wisconsin Lutheran but took losses to Northwestern, UW-Stevens Point and Bethel. Out of the same conference, Lewis & Clark, was also in the WashU Tournament with UT-Dallas. I thought they competed well but went 0-4. I actually saw bits of their two biggest losses (Eau Claire and WashU) and was impressed.

There were a lot of matches and a lot of teams I’m not touching on so I apologize for that. I did want to look at the overall conferences for a second. In the ASC we only have UMHB with a winning record. ETBU did have a nice win over Hendrix but that was basically the highlight other than the Cru.

UC Santa Cruz (C2C Conference) did well as I’ve mentioned before. You can’t argue that right now you’ve got Chapman and CMS in a battle for the top spot in the SCIAC and if you want to know the third best team in the state, it’s going to be UC Santa Cruz. This weekend Chapman and UC Santa Cruz will also face off so…intriguing.

Jumping to the SCIAC, we have issues there, too. Only CMS and La Verne escaped with winning records. I mentioned in the preseason that there could be problems for the schools that didn’t play in nearly 2 years and it appears there were some issues. The thing we all forget is that it was also difficult to recruit in California as coaches couldn’t always access club matches. I’d be lying to say I’m not worried about the SCIAC right now.

No undefeated teams in the NWC but we do have a number of teams with winning records – George Fox, Whitworth, Puget Sound and Willamette. We’re going to see a number of NWC teams go down and play the SCIAC this weekend and those outcomes could drastically impact our regional rankings down the road.

The SCAC is the place to be after week one as only Centenary and Schreiner are below 0.500 and there are four undefeated teams in Austin College, Colorado College, Southwestern and Trinity. Overall, however, we can’t survive in a region with just one “good” conference and I hope things pick up this week. Unfortunately, there are limited opportunities to play against out-of-region teams.

One thing I forgot to mention above is to look out for the Watch List. This will appear in the drop-down menu (or left side if on a computer). It’s where I track teams in our region I think have a chance for an NCAA at-large berth. Not sure if I will get to this during the week or not.

I wanted to end with a look nationally. The AVCA Top 25 was an exercise in futility as we really had no clue how most of these teams would perform. We now have results although they are still very limited. My hope is that the voters will scrap what they did during the preseason and look at the Top 25 with a fresh lens. If things go well, I’ll try to have a podcast out tonight (?) that will cover the national scene. Follow me on Twitter for a notice if I get that done or subscribe to my channel on whatever podcast app you use. Search for D3VbWest and it should come up.

That’s it for the wrap-up. It was nice seeing volleyball again, but I don’t think I made my wife happy. Wait until she hears about the podcast.