D3 Volleyball and Underdog Talk

Just for the sake of off-season “Hot-Stove” talk, I’m going to look at the effect of strong first-year D3 players and how much of a difference that made stat-wise, (rather than going with statistics loss this time, because this time, I’m dealing with “after the fact” material. (Also, this is just for analysis only, not a knock on any players or squads that might be mentioned.)

First player I’ll start with is Washington-St. Louis setter Sam Buckley. She accounted for 80% of the assists, 13.7% of digs and had 36 service aces. Sam was also 5th in the Nation in Assists/Set (10.57), and 2nd in Total Assists (1,289).

Just found out that 6 other 1st year setters finished in the top 20 in the nation in Total Assists: Lauren Lee-Hope (4th, 1,250); Maddie Mahs -Coe (6th, 1,234); Kiersten Hoopes -Bob Jones (7th, 1,213); Alyssa DeVries-Calvin (9th, 1,171); Lillie Davis-Meredith (18th, 1,033); and Jaylyn Templeton-Greensboro (20th, 1,031). All schools with the exception of DIII newcomer (and Independent) Bob Jones have at least done well enough to qualify for their conference tournaments, and in 4 of the cases, (Hope, Calvin, Coe and Washington St. Louis) the teams are among the best in the nation.

Other significant stats for above players mentioned other than Buckley:

Lee: Also led Hope with 61 Service Aces, had 272 digs and 38 blocks. Maahs had 328 digs for Coe; Hoopes got 35 Service Aces, 295 digs and 32 blocks for Bob Jones; DeVries put in 34 Service Aces and 272 digs for Calvin; Davis chipped in with 271 digs, 39 Service Aces and 28 blocks for the Avenging Angels, and Templeton also led Greensboro with 59 Service Aces, had 353 digs and 34 blocks.

Elite 8 had a little bit of everything. Transylvania, KY and Hope MI were the closest thing to on-paper underdogs. MIT must be wondering what the heck they need to do to get into the Final Four after losing in the Elite 8 2 seasons in a row. NW-MN made a strong run and represented the UMAC well in the process and in the end, as somewhat expected, it came down to Top Ten squads Juniata and Trinity-Texas battling for the title. Juniata took it.

Now the off-season “Hot-Stove talk” begins.

Skyline Conference action was on tap tonight. There were 5 matches scheduled and each one was decided in 3 sets. Powers Manhattanville. USMMA and Farmingdale State did not disappoint. Sarah Lawrence and Mount St. Vincent had the tightest match of the 5. Mondays and Thursdays are light schedule nights during the regular season for NCAA D3 Women’s Volleyball.

Followed a NACC 5-set match between Rockford and Alverno-it was the Regents who got the win. Aurora and Concordia-WI are the leaders, St Norbert and Benedictine IL are right below and WLC is in the middle of the pack with several in-conference matches left yet.

Coe is at the top of the American Rivers Conference Standings at the moment. I’m pulling for underdog NE Wesleyan in that conference.

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