VBelo Scouting Report: February 14, 2023

Will you be my volley-ntine?

Feb 14, 2023

The weekly AVCA Coaches’ Poll came out yesterday and the big news is that Charleston is a nationally ranked team for the first time ever! As someone who has been vocal about their inclusion in the top 15, I am so thrilled for the entire Charleston program. They have put in the work and are the only team in the nation to not lose a single set. They deserve this and more. Fly Golden Eagles Fly!

This week we actually saw some shuffling in the poll. Only 5 schools retained the same exact rank that they had last week and we actually had a team drop out of the poll. The only thing everyone seems to agree on is that Hawai’i is super good. The top 4 still seem pretty solid and GCU has cemented themselves in the top 5 conversation. Outside of that, there is a lot of room for conversation (and elo models) to figure out who is next.

Today it looked to be a pretty one-sided day. Three of the four matches have at least an 80% chance of winning. The best chance at an upset probably goes to Lees-McRae. Not only are they the home team, but they are coming off an upset win against Emmanuel. They will face a King team that is on a 5 match win streak. Also, King currently has an 18 match win streak against Lees-McRae going all the way back to 2014. In fact, the last 7 matches have all been sweeps. Will tonight be the night that changes?