Losing in the MPSF continues to be more valued than winning in one of the other two conferences. And god help you if you lose a match in the EIVA or MIVA.
BYU are again on top of the mountain, but it’s not unanimous. They got 14 of the 16 first-place votes. The interesting part is UC Irvine only got one of the others. For the first time this season, Long Beach State topped somebody’s poll. I have no serious issues there.
But rather maddeningly, the top seven teams in the poll are all MPSF. Lewis at #8 are the first non-MPSF team. But it’s more than that. Ohio State lose two ranks because of their loss to Lewis….fine. It was a bad loss. It was. But Penn State drop a notch after all they did was beat up on two teams they should beat up on? What? And then Hawaii, now having lost four consecutive matches to fall 7 under .500 on the season, are in the damn same place they were two weeks ago. And just one slot down from where they were three weeks ago (lost 5 of 6 in that span).
There are only three non-MPSF teams in poll, as Harvard fall out and are replaced by UCSB. Pacific, losers of six straight, still remain ranked at #15. George Mason, Princeton, Loyola, and Harvard are all in the ‘also receiving votes’ section (and in that order), as are….UC San Diego. **sigh**
You can view the complete poll — such as it is — here.
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