NCAA week in review

New poll comes out tomorrow, so let’s recap what’s happened since the last one.

The marquee matchups of the week came, as you might expect, out of the Pac-12. The two LA schools traveled to Seattle to face off with Washington. Despite the Bruins going up 2-1 in the first of these matches, the homestanding Huskies prevailed in a five-set barnburner, (22-25, 30-28, 19-25, 28-26, 16-14). This match featured 53 ties and 22 lead changes all told. Two nights later they dispatched with USC in a (25-23, 26-24, 25-21) sweep. The Huskies remain undefeated, after certainly their most difficult weekend of the season.

There’s a chance they could leapfrog Oregon in the national poll. While the Ducks also remain undefeated, they had only relative lightweights Utah and Colorado to oppose them this week. The two LA schools both comfortably defeated Washington State in the back end of their trips to the Evergreen State (curiously, both played UW first and WSU second…I’d have figured that while one played UW the other played WSU), but they’re gonna tumble a little bit in the national rankings. Probably USC more so.

But for as well as Washington (and Oregon, against lesser competition) played this week, they won’t supplant the number-one team in the land. Penn State won two road matches this week, both in sweeps. The first, against Wisconsin, was merely what was expected of them, but setting aside Minnesota, on their home court, in a sweep, and allowing only 51 total points to the Gophers is really impressive. They’ll remain number one, no doubt.

A little further down the last national poll, Penn State’s conference mates Nebraska held home court against the Michigan schools, sweeping the Spartans and beating the Wolverines in four sets. I expect they will move past both USC and UCLA, and it’s likely that Stanford will as well, after matching four-set wins against the Arizona schools.

Elsewhere, Hawaii remained undefeated in their marginal conference, with a pair of sweep wins. The Texas Longhorns had a similarly easy time of it against Baylor, as I covered here, and over Texas Tech.

Over in the “don’t call us a mid-major” West Coast Conference, BYU suffered their first loss of the season, leaving only Washington and Oregon as the nation’s remaining undefeated teams. But it wasn’t to Pepperdine. It wasn’t to San Diego. It was to the 8-7 Gaels of St. Mary’s, who took down the Cougars in four sets. BYU was ranked 11th in the last national poll and should fall precipitously in the next, I’d imagine to a rank in the low teens. While San Diego held serve (har de har har) against two unremarkable teams, Pepperdine lost twice, a five-setter to that very same St. Mary’s team, and a rather shocking four-setter to Santa Clara. This has a good chance of knocking them out of the national rankings entirely.

Florida, Purdue, Florida State, Kansas State, Louisville, and Dayton all won both their matches last week. The Iowa State Cyclones experienced an upset, dropping a five-setter at Kansas. I don’t feel that there’s any shame, nor room for much punishment in terms of national prestige, for a five-set conference road loss (and it’s not like Kansas is total chopped liver, they were third in the ‘also receiving votes’ section last week), but we shall see.

One team who could well benefit from the struggles of teams above them like Pepperdine and Iowa State is Oklahoma. Rebounding from an even-uglier-than-it-looked three-set loss to Texas, the Sooners defeated Big 12 newcomers West Virginia in four sets in their only match this week. Over in the ACC, the two North Carolina schools both played very well this past weekend. After defeating the Clemson Tigers in four, the Tar Heels then had an even easier time of it against Georgia Tech, beating the conference leaders in a three-set sweep. The NC State Wolfpack likewise defeated Clemson in four, but needed a full five sets to dispatch with the Yellowjackets of Georgia Tech. At 15-1, they deserve to at least get votes in the national poll. Another team I’ve had my eye on is Kentucky. After an easy win against Tennessee, the Wildcats next entertained the Auburn Tigers, and dispatched them in four sets.

So unlike last week from the week before, when the same 25 teams remained in the national rankings, I expect there will be quite a shakeup tomorrow. And quite a bit of movement from within the poll in terms of teams remaining ranked.