VBelo Scouting Report: January 17, 2023
VBelo Scouting Report: January 17, 2023
New rankings, same teams
Pepperdine continued its dominance last night as they hit just under .500 against the Princeton Tigers. The Waves are one of 6 teams to who have won every set this season and the only one of those teams to have played 4 matches. That being said, they will face their first ranked opponents this weekend with matches against Penn State and Lewis. Pepperdine is also one of five teams that is 4-0 to start the season. Four of those teams are in the MPSF and the other is Penn State. The results from this upcoming weekend could shake up the Coaches’ Poll rankings.
Just 3 matches on tap for today. Merrimack will host Harvard as they look for their first program win during their first-ever home match. Tusculum will host Erskine for the second of their home-and-home series this season. Erskine took the first match at home with a 3-0 sweep and VBelo has them with the slight edge playing away today. UCSD is now 1-4 after 4 straight losses to ranked teams, but Emmanuel will be playing their 4th match in 5 days. So this might give the Tritons a perfect opportunity to snap their streak.
A new AVCA Coaches’ Poll came out yesterday and it was a bit underwhelming. All of the ranked teams stayed the same and only 3 of them changed spots. Santa Barbara dropped from #10 to #12 after starting the season 1-4. This allowed the previous #11 and #12 (USC and Loyola) to each move up one spot. The MPSF has been on a tear to start the season (23-1) and 6 of their 7 teams are ranked. The Big West and MIVA each have 4 ranked teams and Penn State is the lone representative from the EIVA.
Match Recaps
Non-conference
Master's (32%) def. Emmanuel (68%)
3-0 (25-10, 25-16, 25-23)
The Master’s hit an unreal .917 in the first set and kept Emmanuel to a negative hitting percentage for the match (-.044).
Pepperdine (66%) def. Princeton (34%)
3-0 (25-17, 25-23, 25-19)
Bryce Dvorak (Pepperdine) made an impact all over the court. He finished with 38 assists, 2 kills, 3 aces, 3 digs, and 4 blocks.
Match Projections
Non-conference
Erskine (55%) vs Tusculum (45%)
Emmanuel (45%) vs UC San Diego (55%)
Harvard (63%) vs Merrimack (37%)
