These have been separate posts before, but they’re really kind of the same thing. Running down what happened last week, and where we are now. Here’s the rankings as I see them.
1. BYU. Body of work, I still like them better than Irvine (and, oh by the way, they did win the one head-to-head meeting the two teams have had this year). The two co-#1’s both won twice this past week, so there’s really no telling who’ll be on top this week. The Cougars needed five sets to squeak by Santa Barbara on Thursday, but had a comparatively easier time against a better team in UCLA on Saturday, winning in a straight-sets sweep. At long last this coming weekend, BYU will finally head out on the road, facing Pepperdine on Friday and USC on Saturday. First road trip of the season ought to be interesting for them.
2. UC Irvine. I feel much more comfortable having them this high after having seen their last couple of matches. Not sure how exactly they lost to USC and California Baptist (no shame in losing to BYU), but I betcha they won’t the next time around. This past week, UCI took care of Stanford in four sets in a match I covered and then swept aside Pacific the next night in a match I wanted to cover, but god help me it was just not interesting enough to write about.
3. Stanford. There’s little doubt in my mind that they’re the third-best team in the nation and conference, which will probably mean they don’t end up with a chance to play for the national championship (although it’s a bit early yet to say things like that and be sure of them). After Stanford’s competitive four-set loss to UCI, they defeated UC San Diego the next night in a sweep, but a close sweep, as none of the three sets had a margin wider than 3 points. They’re looking strong, stronger than most competition, but not really on the same level as BYU or UCI.
4. Long Beach State. They’re gonna drop a little from their high water mark of #3 last week, but it shouldn’t be too far. The 49ers’ near-two month long homestand didn’t get off on the right foot, as Pepperdine beat them in three very offensively-minded sets (not often a team hits .438 and gets swept). They rebounded with a four-set win over Southern Cal, a team that, as I mentioned, I can’t figure out. Fair-to-middlin’ week for the 49ers considering they could have been ripe for a big letdown after the huge win at BYU the week prior.
5. Pepperdine. They’ll be 3rd or 4th in the actual rankings tomorrow, I’m sure. And given, as mentioned, that they beat Long Beach last week, maybe they ought to be ahead of them in my rankings, but body of work I give the nod to the 49ers. Plus, the Waves are coming off a loss Friday night to CSU Northridge in five. Their match with BYU this week is an important chance for them to ensure that they’ve righted the ship after being — let’s call a spade a spade here — embarrassed out in Hawaii two weeks ago.
6. Ohio State. The Buckeyes played only one match this week, but boy was it a big result, as they swept aside their Big Ten brothers Penn State on the Lions’ home court. Revenge for Penn State sweeping them at Hawaii’s invitational, I guess. It’s time to recognize this body of work. They are 8-2 on the season, and off to a 2-0 start in MIVA play. It looked bad for them after the Hawaii tournament, when they barely beat a Hawaii team that nobody thought much of at the time and lost to UCLA and Penn State, but they’ve won six straight since then, dropping just two sets over that span. George Mason and Penn State are solid non-conference foes. They may not be quite this high in tomorrow’s rankings, but I expect them to show solid gains over their #9 ranking from last week.
7. CSU Northridge. Big week for the Matadors last week, as they took care of both USC and Pepperdine, needing four sets to defeat the Men of Troy while Pepperdine extended them to a full five. This week they draw Stanford and Pacific as they attempt to keep the ball rolling and build up a winning streak.
8. Penn State. The Nittany Lions did lose their marquee matchup of the weekend in slightly-embarrassing fashion (the sweep to Ohio State was their first home loss in two seasons), so they ought to drop a bit from where they were a week ago. They won their other match of the week, though, beating EIVA lightweight St. Francis in three quick sets Friday night. Theirs is still a pretty strong body of work. This week they travel to Harvard, who nearly beat them on their home court a few weeks back (Penn State haven’t lost an EIVA match since about the Kennedy administration).
9. UCLA. It was not really a good week to be a Bruin. UCLA lost both of their matches, this week, a five-set encounter with Cal Baptist and the aforementioned straight-sets loss to top-ranked BYU. It’s quality competition, though, and it might seem like I’m penalizing them a bit too much, but Northridge deserved a boost with their results and it’s, of course, a zero-sum game. Their schedule this week has them hosting an intriguing two-match double shot with the Hawaii Warriors.
10. California Baptist. The Lancers played a couple of five-set matches this week, coming up short against Santa Barbara but prevailing over UCLA. This team has beaten Lewis, UCI, and Northridge this season. Not bad for the program’s first season as an NCAA member. Portends some good things in the future. The Lancers face Pepperdine and USC this week.
11. Pacific. The Tigers’ results this season have me thinking the perfect place for them to be is right where they were seven days ago. They defeated UC San Diego in four sets on Friday before getting pretty solidly outmatched by UCI the next night. This is a gutty team, and one for whom a 5-4 record is nothing at all to sneeze at.
12. Lewis. I think we all pretty much expected Lewis’ record would get a face-lift once MIVA play began, and it indeed has. After losing five of their first six and battling some injuries, Lewis have won their first four MIVA matches, including two sweeps this week against some admittedly lower-tier competition (victories against Lindenwood and against Quincy). They’ve only got one match that counts this week (they also have their alumni match), but it could be an important one as they travel to Chicago to take on the Loyola Ramblers Saturday night.
13. Hawaii. They were idle this week, so let’s leave ’em exactly where they were in the last poll. As mentioned, their two matches this coming week are on the mainland against UCLA.
14. UC Santa Barbara. The Gauchos had a fair week, defeating Cal Baptist at home and losing to BYU in Provo, both in five sets. Both results paint them as a stronger squad than one that lost six straight matches a month ago. This week they face Irvine and UC San Diego, both on the road, in a clear opportunity to further cement their status among the nationally ranked.
15. Loyola. I just can’t bring myself to vote USC a national ranking at 2-5 and losers of four straight. Loyola don’t have a particularly ‘signature’ win so far this season, as they got their teeth kicked in at the UCSB Invitational to start the year, and George Mason and Harvard are probably their strongest wins of the year. They’ve also lost to Penn State and George Mason (they’ve played the Patriots twice this year). Just as Lewis did, Loyola had a pretty easy time of it this week against Quincy and against Lindenwood, though the former did take a set off them. It sets up Lewis/Loyola as an all-the-more intriguing match this week (it’s Loyola’s only match of the week as well).
I expect USC will probably still have some kind of rank in the actual poll, but I can’t for the life of me justify why. It’s going on a month since their last win, and this week they play host to two teams who stand a very good chance of beating them again, Cal Baptist and BYU.
(And now that I’ve said that, they’ll probably win both of those matches in sweeps.)
It would have been nice to include Ball State in these rankings, and if they had won their Sunday match with Grand Canyon I probably would have. But with the result and, more so, how out-of-sorts they looked on their home court playing a team they had defeated just 28 or so hours earlier (afternoon match on Saturday), I couldn’t justify that ranking either.
In some ways, the season’s really kicking into high gear right about now. This week is one of the first where I feel like it really makes sense to have national rankings. Prior to this week or maybe the one before, it just felt too early on in the season to have any kind of sense of where teams ranked in relation to one another. And it’s still pretty hard, given that everybody’s beaten up on everybody. I have little doubt we can continue to expect the unexpected this season.
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