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  #1  
Old 09-22-2017, 03:49 PM
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2017 A-10 Week 5:

The Non-con (except for a handful of mid-week matches) is over and the A-10 Conference schedule begins today. Only two teams in the A-10 have a Figgie RPI above the average of 167. Those two teams are VCU at 84 and Dayton at 106. Davidson is just below the middle of the NCAA with a Figgie RPI of 177. So it is pretty obvious from those numbers that this conference has a huge disparity between top and bottom. If there is any good news at the end of the non-con, it's that no A-10 team is entering conference play with an RPI below 250. There are no truly awful teams in the A-10. Fordham, George Mason, and even La Salle enter the conference above 250. So while there are only two teams that could be considered quality wins. There are no anchors dragging the conference down. Even the worst team in the conference, Fordham at 247, is statistically better than 87 other teams.

The Dayton Flyers begin the conference play with a single road game at Saint Louis. It's really hard to believe, but this shouldn't be Dayton's big game in conference. UD has to be a big favorite given the type of wins UD has already accumulated and the fact that SLU's best win is Arkansas Little Rock. SLU did play well in a 5 set loss to ETSU and they currently have an RPI of 116. So Dayton can't lose focus. Given that SLU is Dayton's conference rival, this is still a tricky match.

The other favorite to win the conference, the VCU Rams start the A-10 by hosting the Rhode Island Rams and the Fordham Rams in that order. It's RAM weekend in the A-10. It is not only safe to say the Rams will win. But safe to say that the VCU Rams will win.

It will be much more interesting to see if Davidson can get wins against Fordham and/or Rhode Island. Davidson has the 3rd best RPI for the A-10, but I'm not sure I truly believe it yet. Two of Davidson's wins are some of the softest among any team in conference. Davidson has wins against Savannah State and South Carolina State, and both teams are normally the worst in the country. Davidson's best wins were against Appalachian State and Wofford at home. Neither of those names strike me as great volleyball programs, so I don't think we should place Davidson as a clear favorite for 3rd just yet. Davidson graduated and lost some good players from 2016-2017. Davidson Wildcats like Kelly Friers (h% from 0.153 to 0.306) and Katherine Franz (h% 0.234 to 0.313) deserve a lot of credit for making big improvements since last year. Freshman Ellie Crosley is player very well too hitting 0.353 and with 0.88 blks/set. I think Davidson will pick up a couple of wins with the home court advantage.

Finally, the DC Metro teams George Washington and George Mason travel to Pennsylvania. I can't believe I'm about to say this, but La Salle actually has a chance to begin A-10 play 2-0. In general, La Salle's schedule was softer than GW's, but GW hasn't played well recently. GW got swept by UMBC in the last match of their tournament, and barely beat Delaware. In contrast, La Salle almost beat Cornell, and then actually improved as the Colgate match went on. George Mason and La Salle look evenly match since they both defeated Loyola Md. 3 to 2. I still think Duquesne should win matches against GW and GM, but their really low RPI does make me think their matches could be close. To be honest, I think all 4 of these matches between the DC and PA travel partners are up for grabs, but the home teams should be favored again.

I will add that the pressure will be on Duquesne and La Salle to win because these home games against GM and GW should be the some of the easiest matches. Reaching the A-10 conference as the 6th seed this year is so attainable that I think every team honestly believes they can make it right now. The worst team in conference Fordham is only 25 RPI (247-222= 25) spots away from being the 6th. It's that close! It should create a high sense of competition between the bottom 8 teams. It could make for an entertaining season.
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Old 09-22-2017, 05:27 PM
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Heading out to dinner then on to chaifetz center for the flyers match with SLU. Hope the ladies keep my life miserable here in St Louis with another win. My friends still not over the flyers victory over SEMO in football.

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Old 09-22-2017, 09:34 PM
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The Flyers had to take SLU's best shot in the 1st set. But they sure looked good by the end of the match. Nice comeback by the Flyers to steal a win in set 1.
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Old 09-22-2017, 09:48 PM
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La Salle suffers a heart breaking loss to GW, while the Colonials steal a road win. I was expecting a close match, but this exceeded those. La Salle really looked like we're going to get a win with a 14-8 lead in the 5th. It felt like a La Salle win was all certain, but GW managed to finish off a miraculous come back.

This loss is goona sting for La Salle. We will have to see how they play against GM. But this was a good performance by them, and I don't think they are a punchline any more. For the past few years, the Exploers really only had a chance to beat one or two teams, but it looks like they can compete with 4-5 teams.
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Old 09-25-2017, 09:45 AM
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LaSalle has 8 losses so far and 5 of them have been in 5 sets. Two came this weekend with the final one a 5th set score of 24-22 against GM. The 5th set is played to 15 points- win by 2. 24-22 had to be one heck of a set. Two heartbreaking losses for LaSalle that I hope doesn't sink the program mentally for the rest of their a10 season. The program is improving but this past weekend was brutal.
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