What a week it was. I’m still kind of in a daze over all the awesome volleyball of the last three days.
Shout-out to Ben Patch and James Shaw, if the two good friends (and surefire frontrunners for MPSF Freshman of the Year) should happen to be reading, as they’re two of the newest social media fans for The Net Set. Fellas, I’m honored, hope you like what you see here and spread the word 🙂 Anyway, to the votes.
1. BYU. After that unbelievable comeback against Irvine, as I covered (shoddily) here, BYU avoided the letdown, sweeping UC San Diego. Body of work be damned — after that embarrassment they laid at the feet of UCI, there’s no way they shouldn’t be the new #1 team in the country. After his history-making night in Irvine with 35 kills (it’s a school record, and if it’s not an NCAA record for rally scoring, 25 point sets, I’d like to know what the hell the record is), Patch added 11 more in the sweep of UCSD. Interestingly, he was named MPSF Player of the Week last week, so he’ll surely take the honors for a second week in a row. Ben has 85 kills in his last four matches, at a rate which if it kept up over the whole season would be best in the nation by almost a full kill per set. To paraphrase Alicia Keys and Denzel Washington, this man is on fire. Taylor Sander still leads the team in kills (and he had a much better match against UCSD than he did against Irvine), but it’s a lot closer now. This week, it’s a Friday/Saturday double shot with Cal Baptist, for the Cougars.
2. Long Beach State. The 49ers haven’t given any indication that they don’t belong at this level. This week, playing a team they should dispatch with ease, they…dispatched them with ease, a straight sweeps of UCSB. Not really too much else to say. This week they get the draw BYU had last week, UCSD and Irvine, both at home.
3. UC Irvine. They’re still a great team, with a strong body of work and tournament resume, but…man that was a horrible loss against BYU last week. I can’t personally recall a worse loss. The gold medal match at the last Olympics comes to mind, but I don’t think Brazil had quite the 3rd set lead in that match that Irvine did against BYU last week. Earlier in the week, the Anteaters needed a full five sets to get past the Cal Baptist Lancers, but I don’t think we can hold being extended to 5 against a team, especially this season. They’re still as likely a team as anyone to be playing for the national championship in a few weeks’ time, and I still feel like it’s 2 spots for 3 teams with these three teams. But I may now feel UCI to be the weakest of the three. The LBSU/UCI match will be a huge one. It’s UCI’s only contest of the week.
4. Stanford. The Cardinal had a good week, winning five-setters against Pepperdine and against USC. I actually did watch most of the Pepperdine match, but I was still reeling a bit from the IPFW/Grand Canyon match (between the electronic fault and the ejection, it also ran a bit longer than you’d figure a 4-setter would). It was a pretty wild match. If I hadn’t watched a half a dozen other matches this weekend, I would have written it up. It was well worth a write-up, with the Cardinal claiming it (25-17, 20-25, 25-22, 23-25, 15-13). It was a great display by both sides, one of those matches that makes you feel like it’s too bad anyone had to lose (except for the part where of course someone has to lose). Sunday against USC, Stanford fell behind 2-1 but seized control in sets 4 and 5. They had set point at 24-18 in the 4th, finishing it off at 25-21, and ran out to a 7-2 lead in the 5th before finishing it off 15-10. That win was the first Stanford had had in their last six matches against the Trojans. This coming week it’s UCSB and UCLA for the Cardinal.
5. Pepperdine. I continue to have no real idea of the best order in this range of the poll. The Waves split this week, losing that great match with Stanford but beating Pacific in four. The Pacific match was an interesting one, as Pepperdine hit and sided out at very high percentages in the three sets they won, and completely failed in their execution in the one they lost. But I’m sure they’ll take it. ‘The split makes them 9-6 overall and in conference. Just as Stanford seem to be a tiny notch down from the first three teams, so too Pepperdine are a tiny notch below the Cardinal. It will be a surprise to see them playing for all the marbles at season’s end. A surprise — but not perhaps a shock.
6. Ohio State. Tough week for the Buckeyes, as we always knew it would be. They nearly blew a 2-0 lead against Loyola before coming back to win the fifth set decider 15-13. Grayson Overman and Michael Henchy combined to hit 26/4/38, for .579 — in five sets. The Bucks’ defense left a little to be desired, though, as they managed only 7 total team blocks and allowed the Ramblers a .357 attack percentage. It’s not that they were lucky to get a win, it’s that they needed precisely what they got (a huge offensive night). Then on Saturday came easily the worst result in Ohio State’s season, as the Lewis Flyers swept them aside. And it wasn’t particularly competitive, either, with the final (25-13, 25-20, 25-23) for Lewis. The Flyers hit over .400 in the first two sets and were able to win the third despite hitting 11/8/33 for .091. That’s because the Buckeyes had just a nightmare of a match, hitting negative in the first set, just barely positive in 2 and 3, and .030 for the match (30/27/99). 27 errors in three sets is a lot. Double shot with Grand Canyon coming up for Ohio State this week, and I’ll be looking forward to those matches as they’ll be my first look at the Buckeyes this season.
7. Penn State. The Nittany Lions are righting the ship, and are again on top in the EIVA (hold that thought). Though you can’t say too much about this past week’s results given the competition — Rutgers-Newark and NJIT — it can’t be denied that back-to-back three-set sweeps are just what they needed at the outset of a month-long road swing (they in fact have only three home matches left this season, and the next one isn’t until April 5). It gets a little harder for the Nittany Lions next week, as they face IPFW and Ball State in non-conference action, but they really ought to win both of those matches, too.
8. CSU Northridge. You can’t take their two wins weekend lightly. If for no other reason than jet lag, Hawaii isn’t the easiest place for opposing teams to play. They really came into the Stan Sheriff and took control of it. Just one match for the Matadors this coming week, a Friday night contest with MPSF lightweight UCSD. Look for the Matadors’ winning ways to continue.
9. Lewis. The Flyers’ tilt with Carthage College wound up being cancelled, so the huge match with Ohio State was their only contest last week. And what a win it was for Lewis. It makes them the top team in the MIVA, in line to host the conference tournament. With UCI falling, Lewis also now hold the nation’s longest winning streak. After losing 5 of their first 6, the Flyers have now rattled off 11 straight to lie at 12-5. They’re looking good. The MIVA will definitely come down to them or Ohio State. Two big non-conference matches await the Flyers this week, road contests against George Mason and Princeton.
10. UCLA. Ugh, case in point as to how I’m kinda bad at this. I had UCLA at #5 a week ago, and while a home loss to Santa Barbara is bad, it’s not “drop 5 ranks” bad. I don’t know if next week I’ll have them top 5 again, or outside the poll entirely. They’ve got Pacific on Friday and Stanford on Sunday.
11. Loyola. The Ohio State match was their only match this past week. I feel goofy upping a team that’s lost three of their last four, but those include close losses to Ohio State and Lewis. Loyola are surely third-best in the MIVA, and it seems like that should count for something (as should their still-above-water 10-8 season record). The Ramblers are idle this week, and draw Lewis and St. Francis next week.
12. Grand Canyon. And the Antelopes are probably fourth-best in the MIVA, but they showed very well this week, with two 3-1 wins over IPFW (both of which I wrote up here). The ‘lopes have won six straight, and they can prove themselves to be quite legit in the upcoming Ohio State two-fer.
13. Harvard. I still like their body of work, not least the Penn State sweep, but it was a rough week for the Crimson, falling in straight sets to George Mason and in four to Ivy League brothers Princeton. Just like that, Harvard fell from a tie of the lead in the EIVA (and holding the tiebreaker with Penn State) to barely holding onto a postseason position as they now lie fourth in the conference. There’s time yet for them to turn things around, and even if they just barely hold on to a top-4 position in the EIVA they’ll have a fair chance of doing something with it. No conference matches for Harvard this week, as they face MIT and something called Emmanuel — both Division III teams.
14. USC. And I think this time, maybe they do deserve it, though I’m sure in the actual poll later today they’ll be far higher. The Men of Troy knocked off Pacific in four (who are in a serious tailspin, losers of six straight) before nearly knocking off Stanford on Sunday. It’s a double shot in Manoa for the Trojans this weekend, and if either USC or Hawaii are to harbor postseason hopes, they both need to show up with their A-game. It’ll be a war of attrition, to be sure.
15. Princeton. Don’t look now, but the Tigers are putting together a halfway-decent season. After losing two of their first three, Princeton have now won six of their last seven, and while a lot of the opponents in that stretch don’t exactly impress, the win over Harvard is legit. Princeton have a big opportunity this week to further cement their ‘legit’ status as they play host to Lewis. They’ve also got NJIT on the docket.
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