Was Last Weekend That Wild?
Maybe Last Weekend Wasn’t That Wild…Also, Mid-Season Changes to RPI. As usual: Latest RPI & KPI Rankings, Updates (VBelo, AVCA, Media), and In’s & Out’s.
Welcome to this week’s VBelo Report! Here is the starting lineup for today’s issue:
Maybe Last Weekend Wasn’t That Wild…
Mid-Season Changes to RPI
Latest RPI & KPI
Rankings Updates (VBelo, AVCA, Media)
In’s & Out’s
*whistle for first serve*
Maybe Last Weekend Wasn’t That Wild
I feel like I am saying a blasphemy that last weekend wasn’t that wild. Yes, there were plenty of upsets of the top teams. But did it make a huge difference? The polls had some changes, but I wanted to look at how VBelo reacted to last weekend.
Let’s start with the Big West.
Big West
Here were the Big West matches last week:
Long Beach swept UCSB: 3-1 (at UCSB) and 3-0 (at LBSU)
CSUN and Hawaii split (at CSUN): 3-0 (CSUN) and 3-0 (Hawaii)
UC Irvine and UCSD split: 3-1 (UCSD at UCSD) and 3-0 (UCI at UCI)
Given these results, here is what VBelo ratings looked like with these matches.
The first thing I noticed was that not a lot changed. Long Beach is still well at the top. Hawaii and UC Irvine are essentially tied. UCSD and CSUN are essentially moving in lockstep. Even with these exciting results, VBelo was largely unchanged. Quick note: the fact that every Big West team has a VBelo rating over 2000 is wild! They are the only conference where that is the case.
MPSF
Here were the MPSF matches last week:
BYU swept Stanford (at BYU): 3-0 and 3-1
USC and Pepperdine split: 3-1 (at USC) and 3-1 (at Pepperdine)
UCLA and GCU split (at GCU): 3-0 (GCU) and 3-2 (UCLA)
Menlo swept Concordia (at Menlo): 3-1 and 3-0
Vanguard and Jessup (not MPSF) split (at Vanguard): 3-2 (Jessup) and 3-2 (Vanguard)
My takeaways are pretty similar to the Big West. Top teams are still the top teams. There is a tight grouping right behind that, where the order didn’t actually change. The MPSF looks more exciting at the top, but ultimately, splitting matches (especially with a home and home series), doesn’t amount to big changes for VBelo.
MIVA
Here were the MIVA matches last week:
Loyola swept Queens (at Queens): 3-0 and 3-0
Ohio State defeated Ball State (at Ohio): 3-1
Lewis defeated Purdue Fort Wayne (at PFW): 3-0
Lindenwood defeated Quincy (at Quincy): 3-1
Loyola defeated Queens (at Queens): 3-0
Ohio State defeated Lewis (at Ohio): 3-1
McKendree defeated Quincy (at McKendree): 3-2
Purdue Fort Wayne defeated Ball State (at PFW): 3-1
Unsurprisingly, the MIVA had more madness. Loyola is rising above the rest while the battle for the next spots are really heating up. Last weekend saw some separation, but I wouldn’t be shocked if this weekend it gets closer again. The separation between teams is so close that I won’t be shocked when it all comes down to home court in the MIVA tournament.
EIVA
Here were the EIVA matches last week:
Penn State swept Sacred Heart (at PSU): 3-0 and 3-1
Princeton swept George Mason (at Princeton): 3-1 and 3-0
NJIT swept Charleston (at Charleston): 3-1 and 3-0
Harvard defeated Dominican (not EIVA): 3-0
Ok, this one surprised me. With all of the sweeps, there was more separation in the rankings. The biggest winner was clearly NJIT. Surging late in the season can be big in such a tightly grouped conference. Don’t sleep on the EIVA!
What do you think?
My big takeaway from looking at these conferences was that a lot more stayed the same than changed. This is one of the reasons I think an elo model is great to have. Every match can only swing the rankings by so much and it isn’t biased by “surprises”.
What did you take from these charts? Any surprises?
Mid-Season Changes to RPI
I promise that I don’t want to talk about RPI this much. But there was a discovery this week that I couldn’t leave out. With the latest RPI numbers released on Monday, I double-checked the RPI I calculated to make sure all the numbers jive. Yet again, they didn’t.
At first, I was confused. But very quickly I found the reason for the discrepancy. UC Merced was removed from the RPI calculation this week.
As you may remember, I wrote about how it didn’t seem right that UC Merced was included in RPI two weeks ago. It seems that the NCAA agreed and they updated the RPI calculation. On the one hand, I am thrilled by this change. It better aligns with the teams competing at the National Collegiate level.
On the other hand, there was zero transparency about this change. One week, UC Merced is included. The next week, they are gone. I guess it is a good thing I was checking their math, because it could have gone unnoticed.
Latest RPI & KPI
RPI
The latest RPI rankings for matches through Wednesday (4/9/25). Long Beach and Hawaii are separated by the thinnest margin at the top. If either team sweeps this weekend, they should have the clear edge heading into the home stretch of the regular season.
KPI
Rankings Update
VBelo Rankings
I am continually surprised by how close Long Beach and UCLA are in the VBelo rankings. We have seen that Long Beach can be beaten, but I have a sneaking suspicion that they are not miles better than the rest of the pack.
It should be noted that VBelo (unlike polls that involve humans) doesn’t know anything about injuries. There are a lot of question marks late in the season for some of the top teams. These question marks could turn into exclamation marks very quickly.
Coaches’ Poll
Quick note: I love that both Lincoln Memorial AND Mount Olive are in the top 20! This feels like a small amount of justice for two teams that have played incredible this year.
Media Poll
In’s & Out’s
A section for all of the random things that don’t fit anywhere but belong somewhere.
Moni-update: After a tough series, he is still on pace to break the record, but it is definitely not a sure thing. The rivalry atmosphere this week could make the difference (one way or the other).
AVCA Player of the Week: Shane Wetzel (Opposite, Ohio State)
Triple-Double Watch 2025: We are running out of time…