VBelo Scouting Report: April 15, 2022

EIVA tie-breaker scenarios

Apr 15, 2022

The EIVA has an interesting situation right now. NJIT, Princeton, and Harvard are all tied for second in the conference standings. Whoever can take over that spot will earn a bye in the EIVA tournament (which begins Wednesday, April 20.) To add to the drama, all three of those teams play today and tomorrow. So here is a break down of what could happen:

All Three Win/Lose Out - In this scenario, all three teams win their last 2 match series or lose all their matches. (Winning out is likely for NJIT and Princeton, but Harvard has to beat George Mason in Fairfax so they have a tough battle.) Harvard would get the 2 seed having a 3-1 record against tied teams.

NJIT and Princeton Tie - This is a pretty likely outcome, with both teams playing the bottom of their conference and 3 of their 4 matches being played at home. NJIT and Princeton are tied this year 1-1 (both teams winning their home match) and both matches were decided by 3-1 set scores. When it comes to point differential, Princeton has the slight edge 187-179 in those matches, so they would get the 2 seed.

Harvard ties with NJIT or Princeton - In a world where Harvard is somehow only tied with either NJIT or Princeton (but not both), Harvard would lose the tie breaker in both cases.

After today, we might have a decent idea of who will get the coveted 2 seed, and the bye that comes with it, in the EIVA.

Match Recaps

MPSF

#8/10 Pepperdine (73%) defeated #12 Stanford (27%): 3-0 (25-18, 25-19, 25-19)

Pepperdine hit .419 as a team. This was their 10th time hitting above the .400 mark. They won all of those matches.

Independent

Queens (45%) defeated Limestone (55%): 3-1 (25-15, 25-23, 18-25, 25-22)

Daniel Leitao (Queens) led the match with 23 kills (his third time reaching the 20-kill mark this season.) Also, he is listed as a Setter and had 46 assists in his previous match.

Today in Numbers

Games: 2
Total Points: 309
Sets/game: 3.5
Average Set Differential: 3.86 points
Home Win Pct: 50.0%
#cincosets: 0

Match Projections

Rankings reflect the current weekly AVCA Coaches Poll and Off the Block Media Poll.

Big West

CSUN (12%) at #3/3 Long Beach (88%)

The magic number for Long Beach to clinch the Big West regular season title is 1.

#4/4 Hawai’i (76%) at #14 UC Irvine (24%)

Hawai’i will need to win both matches against UCI to secure 2nd place in the Big West and get a bye to the conference semifinals.

EIVA

#2/2 Penn State (86%) at Charleston (14%)

Penn State is poised to finish conference play undefeated today, the only such team in the country.

St. Francis Brooklyn (26%) at NJIT (74%)

Sacred Heart (24%) at Princeton (76%)

Harvard (31%) at George Mason (69%)

MPSF

#1/1 UCLA (67%) at BYU (33%)

UCLA already has the MPSF conference title secured, a bye to the semifinals, and home court for their conference tournament.

#5/6 USC (39%) at #10/9 Grand Canyon (61%)

According to the wise Bracketologists over at Off the Block, at this point the best hope to get into the national tournament for either of these teams is winning the MPSF tournament (which would really cause some selection committee drama.)