VBelo Scouting Report: March 26, 2023
Carolinas chaos
With 22 matches yesterday, we got a great glimpse of so many great teams. Let’s take a quick look at some of those matches.
Long Beach completed the series sweep of USC. This was important to keep Long Beach in the potential hunt for an at-large bid to the national tournament. USC is out of the top 10 in the polls, RPI, & and VBelo so their only path to the tournament is really winning the MPSF tournament.
BYU pulled off a second straight five-set win against Pepperdine in Provo, UT. The Cougars are having a quietly impressive season. BYU is in the top 10 in both RPI and VBelo so there is a real (albeit slim) path to an at-large bid.
Grand Canyon got back to their winning ways by sweeping Concordia. They are still in a really good position in basically all rankings.
Daemen dropped their first conference match of the year. They are having an amazing season and are vastly underrated. It is a shame they won’t be considered for the national tournament.
Loyola suffered a tough non-conference loss against unranked Princeton. After dropping a match to Purdue Fort Wayne a week ago, the Ramblers are starting to make their postseason path even more difficult.
Now let’s quickly talk about the most chaotic conference in the country: Conference Carolinas. Yesterday we saw 2 impressive upsets and a near upset in five sets. It truly looks like all 8 teams could get a win in the first round of their conference tournament. The unfortunate part of this chaos is that there is no clear team that could repeat North Greenville’s postseason win last year. When we know the conference tournament seeding, I will be releasing some fun projections. Something to look forward to! This conference is tons of fun right now.
Just three matches on this Sunday afternoon. After the loss yesterday, Loyola will want to strengthen their resume with a win. The Ramblers currently look to be the favorite for the MIVA tournament. In the case where they have to make the national tournament as an at-large, they will need as many wins as possible. Their RPI would benefit from the win as well, as they are currently ranked 8th overall in RPI.
Match Recaps
Big West
Hawai'i (87%) def. CSU Northridge (13%)
3-0 (25-17, 25-18, 25-15)
ConfCarolinas
Lees-McRae (23%) def. Erskine (77%)
3-1 (22-25, 25-22, 25-22, 28-26)
Belmont Abbey (39%) def. Mount Olive (61%)
3-1 (25-23, 25-18, 14-25, 25-17)
North Greenville (84%) def. Barton (16%)
3-2 (25-23, 23-25, 25-20, 20-25, 15-6)
IVA
Queens (75%) def. Tusculum (25%)
3-1 (25-21, 25-18, 23-25, 27-25)
Lincoln Memorial (66%) def. Limestone (34%)
3-0 (25-21, 25-20, 25-23)
MIVA
Ohio State (88%) def. Quincy (12%)
3-0 (25-10, 25-11, 25-19)
Lewis (58%) def. Purdue Fort Wayne (42%)
3-1 (23-25, 25-18, 25-15, 25-22)
Ball State (78%) def. Lindenwood (22%)
3-0 (25-19, 25-18, 25-17)
MPSF
Grand Canyon (88%) def. Concordia-Irvine (12%)
3-0 (37-35, 25-22, 25-16)
BYU (56%) def. Pepperdine (44%)
3-2 (22-25, 25-16, 25-21, 23-25, 15-13)
NEC
Long Island (63%) def. Sacred Heart (37%)
3-1 (25-14, 25-22, 25-27, 25-20)
D'Youville (59%) def. Fairleigh Dickinson (41%)
3-2 (22-25, 25-16, 25-19, 18-25, 15-11)
St. Francis-Brooklyn (52%) def. Merrimack (48%)
3-0 (25-22, 25-22, 25-20)
Saint Francis (26%) def. Daemen (74%)
3-2 (26-24, 19-25, 26-24, 18-25, 17-15)
SIAC
Edward Waters (66%) def. Benedict (34%)
3-0 (25-14, 25-18, 25-19)
Non-conference
Missouri S&T (73%) def. Thomas More (27%)
3-1 (25-20, 20-25, 25-17, 25-18)
Long Beach (77%) def. Southern California (23%)
3-1 (25-13, 14-25, 27-25, 25-21)
Princeton (32%) def. Loyola Chicago (68%)
3-1 (28-30, 25-16, 25-23, 31-29)
Judson (27%) def. Maryville (73%)
3-2 (25-17, 25-21, 16-25, 15-25, 18-16)
Alderson Broaddus (48%) def. Thiel (52%)
3-2 (26-28, 23-25, 25-19, 25-19, 16-14)
Geneva (56%) def. Alderson Broaddus (44%)
3-1 (25-14, 23-25, 25-21, 25-22)
Match Projections
SIAC
Fort Valley State (25%) vs Edward Waters (75%)
Non-conference
Lincoln Memorial (76%) vs Emmanuel (24%)
Loyola Chicago (71%) vs George Mason (29%)
