It’s been longer since I last posted than I like to go, so here’s my attempt to whip something together. I didn’t get to see the ESPN match this week, though it was not a particularly appealing matchup, between Tennessee and LSU (it looks like it was a good match however, with the Lady Vols winning in five sets). ESPN sure does like the SEC. I might speculate it’s because the Pac-12 and the Big Ten, the best conferences for college volleyball, have their own proprietary networks and are thus difficult to get the rights for, but the SEC has their own network too. So who’s to know.
The biggest match of the week was no doubt #2 Washington, the last remaining undefeated team in the land, traveling to Eugene, Oregon to face #5 Oregon, who were undefeated themselves until last week’s action. After a tight first set went to Oregon, and the Huskies won the second set, the Ducks asserted control in sets three and four to give Washington its first loss of the season. They’ll fall in the national poll for this, but it shouldn’t be too far. Things get no easier for the Huskies, as they next face off with Stanford on their home court in another marquee match.
Stanford extended their regulation winning streak to 14 matches, beating USC in a dominant sweep and taking a five-set marathon against UCLA. The two Los Angeles schools are both starting to take on a little water, but one must remember that the Pac-12 was bound to beat up on itself a little. Stanford now leads the conference at 8-0; Washington and Oregon are both 7-1; USC and UCLA are now a mere 5-3.
Over in the Big Ten, Penn State held court against two markedly weaker teams, sweeping aside Purdue, but actually needing four sets to knock off lowly Indiana. The loss marked three straight-sets defeats in a row for the Boilermakers, though they were able to rebound nicely with a four-set win over national #19 Ohio State on the Buckeyes’ home court. You get a true road win over a nationally ranked team, that’s a very nice result. The other heavyweight in the Big Ten is of course Nebraska. They had little trouble with Wisconsin, and faced a much harder challenge with Minnesota today, but still emerged victorious.
After three straight weeks at #9, the Texas Longhorns stand a good chance of moving up in the next poll. Last Monday, they took a very impressive five-set win over Louisville at Louisville. On Friday, they extended their winning streak to nine matches with a home triumph over #21 Kansas. It might be time to put the ‘Horns past one or both of the Los Angeles Pac-12 schools. I would also put them past Hawaii. Even though the Rainbow Wahine won their only match of the week, it was a home match in the pathetically soft Big West Conference. A true road win against Louisville and a sweep of a ranked team at home have got to count for more.
Since Pepperdine ended their skid (albeit against two mediocre teams in San Francisco and Santa Clara…and they needed four sets in the first and a full five in the second), the last remaining story from last week’s top 25 comes from the Big Ten (all other ranked teams won out).
Illinois, last season’s national runner-up, held the #22 national ranking despite just an 8-8 record. This is for, as I can see it, three factors: they were #7 in the preseason poll (there is much less volatility on average in the volleyball polls than in other sports such as soccer {teams have gone from single digit ranks to not even receiving votes in the soccer polls}), they play in the Big Ten (easily the second-best volleyball conference in the NCAA), and they played a brutally difficult non-conference schedule, facing Dayton, Pepperdine, Iowa State, Louisville, and Texas, all of them currently ranked. My only qualm is that the only one of these teams they beat was Texas, albeit on Texas’ home court. They’ve been getting by on name power earned with last year’s tourney run rather than their results this year.
Their first match of last week dropped them below .500 as they lost a three-set sweep to unranked Michigan. They got a small measure of redemption in beating #25 Michigan State after dropping the first two sets (the scores suggest the Spartans were fatigued). The loss on their part really ought to drop Michigan State from the rankings, but I’m not sure Illinois belongs there, either. Are they a tournament team…ehhhh. Yeah, I guess. But I’m not sure they’ll make any noise.
Big news over on the D-II side, as the week featured a ton of upsets. I did actually get to see a D-II match this week, but it was not a very compelling matchup (Central Washington vs. St. Martin’s) and it wasn’t one of the upsets — it had the outcome anyone should have been able to predict (CWU winning in a sweep). It nicely sets up the Central vs. Western return match for next week, as our girls similarly weren’t really faced with a challenge this week, beating the best NCAA team in Canada Simon Fraser in three quick sets.
(in case the joke’s lost on you, Simon Fraser is the only NCAA team in Canada. They have 2 wins this season, which doubles their total from last season)
The big news is there will be a new #1 team in the upcoming poll. The Nebraska-Kearney Lopers, #1 in the nation five weeks running and the last undefeated team in D-II as of last week’s poll, actually lost twice this week. The first was to #19 Wayne State, and the second was at home to unranked Truman State. Both were four-set losses. This likely sets Southwest Minnesota State up to be the new national #1, as the Mustangs held dropped just one set in two rather easy NSIC matches.
It won’t be Minnesota-Duluth taking over the top spot, as the Bulldogs lost to unranked Augustana in five sets this week. The third team down in the NSIC (which is sort of shocking to say) Concordia-St. Paul had little trouble with two weak opponents in road matches, getting two easy sweep wins. I’m sure they’ll still have their one stubborn voter ranking them first — maybe that voter will have company this time.
In what has to be considered the match of the week on the D-II side, #4 Washburn defeated #7 Central Missouri in a five-set dogfight where the last two sets both went beyond the nominally required winning score (the final was 25-23, 19-25, 25-18, 27-29, 18-16 in Washburn’s favor). Washburn didn’t have any first-place votes in last week’s poll, but I bet they get a few this week. They are 21-1, with their only loss coming to Nebraska-Kearney.
#9 West Texas A&M suffered one of the biggest upsets of the season in any division, probably second only to Penn State’s loss to Oregon State. The lowly Abilene Christian Wildcats, who came into the match just 8-12 overall and 4-6 in the Lone Star Conference (which, WTAMU aside, is no great shakes in volleyball) stunned the Lady Buffs in straight freaking sets on their home court. It’s the first time WTAMU has been swept in a Lone Star Conference match in seven years. I’d say they deserve to tumble in the poll, but the team just behind them, Indianapolis, also lost to an unranked opponent. Maybe they’ll both fall past BYU-Hawaii, who won both of their matches this week.
I will be excited to see where everyone stands when the new polls are released.
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