VBelo Scouting Report: March 22, 2023
VBelo Scouting Report: March 22, 2023
You come at the king, you best not miss
With just a 13.9% chance of defeating Penn State in Happy Valley, the Ohio State Buckeyes defied the odds. The newly #1 ranked Nittany Lions suffered their third loss of the season yesterday in 5 sets. Penn State is now 2-2 in five set matches this year. In terms of VBelo, this is the largest upset of the 2023 season!
Ohio State Middle Blocker Cole Young finished the match off with 2 aces in a row. Don’t let that fool you though, because Penn State actually out-aced Ohio State 12-6. The best part of OSU’s serving was their ability to keep their serves in. They had only 15 service errors (in 5 sets) to Penn State’s 29. Penn State out-hit OSU .342-.314 and was led by Cal Fisher’s 19 kills (.500%). Penn State also out-blocked the Buckeyes 6-1. And yet, Ohio State led in the most important category: sets won.
Today we have 5 matches and they are all non-conference. At this point in the season, most of these teams aren’t front-runners in the hunt of the postseason. Two teams that have a chance are Belmont Abbey and Lees-McRae. The Conference Carolinas has been interesting this year and either of these teams could put together a well timed streak in the conference tournament. They are in the middle of their conference standings, but all it takes is a few wins at the end of April and they will be competing on the biggest stage.
The current process for determining who makes the national tournament is highly weighted to conference tournaments. I love the conference tournaments, but I think the automatic qualification system needs to change. If the tournament does expand, that helps solve the issue of keeping great teams out of the tournaments. If more teams make it, then you can reward both teams that have great postseasons and teams who had great regular seasons. Looking ahead to May, I can already see that there will be multiple teams who could contend for a national championship that will not make the final cut. But only time will tell who actually makes it.
Match Recaps
ConfCarolinas
North Greenville (67%) def. King (33%)
3-1 (25-16, 22-25, 26-24, 26-24)
EIVA
NJIT (57%) def. George Mason (43%)
3-0 (25-20, 25-12, 25-22)
SIAC
Edward Waters (85%) def. Morehouse (15%)
3-0 (25-10, 25-9, 25-15)
Non-conference
Ohio State (14%) def. Penn State (86%)
3-2 (25-21, 18-25, 22-25, 25-21, 15-13)
Charleston (88%) def. Alderson Broaddus (12%)
3-0 (25-16, 25-12, 25-21)
Missouri Baptist (40%) def. Maryville (60%)
3-0 (25-23, 25-22, 25-18)
Match Projections
Non-conference
Morehouse (20%) vs Life (80%)
Rivier (62%) vs American International (38%)
Belmont Abbey (33%) vs Limestone (67%)
Sacred Heart (29%) vs Harvard (71%)
Lees-McRae (43%) vs Tusculum (57%)
