VBelo Scouting Report: April 22, 2022
VBelo Scouting Report: April 22, 2022
Upsets are for the semifinals
Welp, yesterday was a day.
Congratulations to Central State on being named the first SIAC tournament champions! They faced a tough Edward Waters squad in the finals but came out on top in 5 sets. Well done SIAC for a great season. These programs will only continue to grow and work their way into more national conversations.
After yesterday’s matches, we are now down to 14 teams competing for those 5 automatic bids to the NCAA tournament. The finals are set in the EIVA, MIVA, and MPSF and the Conference Carolinas and Big West are not far behind. All of the finals will take place on Saturday which will be a great day for volleyball.
Two teams who won’t be playing on Saturday are UCLA and Penn State. You know, the #1 and #2 ranked teams in the country. They both lost, at home, in 5 sets, in the semifinals, just minutes apart. First of all, congrats to Princeton and Stanford for pulling off 2 of the biggest upsets of the year. But also, they introduced us to the timeline where Selection Sunday might be total and complete chaos. Fun!
We can only hope that the Big West does not say “hold my beer” and introduces even more chaos today.
Conference Tournament Projections
If you want to see what the tournaments looked like previously, here are some past VBelo Scouting Reports: 4-16-22 | 4-19-22
Big West
At this point, Hawaii needs to win the Big West tournament to make it to the NCAA tournament. Long Beach has some wiggle room, but at-large bids are going to be in high demand this weekend.
EIVA
At the start of the tournament, NJIT had a 31% chance of making the finals and a 8% of winning it all. Princeton had 9% and 4%, respectively. The world in which both of these teams made the final was highly unlikely, but here we are.
MPSF
Pepperdine had decent odds to make the finals at 31% and win it all at 10%. Stanford, on the other hand, had a 7% chance to make it to the finals and a 1% to win it all. Don’t tell Will Rottman the odds, he will only prove them wrong.
Match Recaps
Big West Quarterfinals
#14 UC Irvine (37%) def. #9/9 UCSD (63%): 3-0
(25-23, 25-20, 30-28)
#6/7 UCSB (85%) def. CSUN (15%): 3-0
(25-19, 26-24, 26-24)
EIVA Semifinals
NJIT (59%) def. Harvard (41%): 3-1
(17-25, 25-21, 25-18, 25-22)
Princeton (18%) def. #2/2 Penn State (82%): 3-2
(25-16, 28-26, 23-25, 17-25, 15-12)
This was the 4th largest VBelo upset this year.
MPSF Semifinals
#13 Stanford (14%) def. #1/1 UCLA (86%): 3-2
(25-21, 25-23, 21-25, 15-25, 15-11)
This was the largest VBelo upset this year!!!
#8/8 Pepperdine (50%) vs #5/6 USC (50%): 3-1
(25-23, 28-26, 20-25, 27-25)
SIAC
Edward Waters (57%) def. Benedict (43%): 3-0
(25-19, 25-19, 25-19)
Central State (53%) def. Edward Waters (47%): 3-2
(18-25, 25-23, 25-19, 14-25, 15-11)
Match Projections
Rankings reflect the current weekly AVCA Coaches Poll and Off the Block Media Poll.
Big West Semifinals
#3/3 Long Beach (76%) vs #14 UC Irvine (24%)
#6/7 UCSB (31%) at #4/4 Hawai’i (69%)
ConfCarolinas Semifinals
Emmanuel (33%) vs North Greenville (67%)
King (37%) at Mount Olive (63%)
IVA Tournament
Alderson Broaddus (10%) vs Lincoln Memorial (90%)
Fairleigh Dickinson (23%) vs Limestone (77%)
The winner of this match will play the winner of Alderson/Lincoln Memorial and the losers will also play each other today.
D’Youville (16%) at Queens (84%)
Daemen (79%) vs Tusculum (21%)
The winner of this match will play the winner of D’Youville/Queens and the losers will also play each other today.
