Some big matches at the top of rankings, but everything went pretty much as expected. As I mentioned yesterday, 3 undefeated teams played and VBelo gave them a 31% chance of all staying undefeated and sure enough, they are still undefeated. Benedict is the other team without a loss this season, but they have only played 3 matches and their next one isn’t until February 22nd. But hey, a perfect record is a perfect record.
The only noteworthy upset was Lindenwood getting a MIVA win over Lewis. With a conference record of 3-1, they are in sole possession of 3rd place (behind Ohio State and Loyola). Apparently the Lions took the pre-season poll and ranking personally. Both the VBelo pre-season ranking and the MIVA pre-season coaches’ poll had Lindenwood in 7th out of 8 teams. They still are 7th in the MIVA in terms of VBelo but at this rate they will be climbing the ranks quickly.
Five conferences are in action today as teams are looking for a strong foundation in their conference standings. The big matchup in the MIVA will have the two teams tied at the top go head-to-head: Ohio State & Loyola. VBelo seems to like Loyola as the home team but both squads will come into this knowing they can win. In the MPSF we get the exciting sequels to both the Stanford/Pepperdine and the BYU/UCLA matchups. The MPSF is full of great teams but this is the point in the season where personnel (and injuries) can make a huge difference. BYU will still be without their starting setter (Heath Hughes) and Stanford may also be missing their star outside (Will Rottman) again.
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