LUC & Davidson Post-Season

BeckysTXA · #1 11-29-2022, 01:55 PM

LUC was how the A10 presented Loyola during the conference Tournament, so I’m going with that until someone tells me otherwise…and speak up if there is a better option. I’ve got no dog in this fight.

Anyway, thought we would follow them in their post-season journey. We beat both of them this year. I think we were the better team against Davidson at the end of the year, but not LUC. But, all 3 teams were capable of knocking each other off, so not a lot separated each. I hope both can have some level of success in their respective tournaments.

I think Davidson was smart to accept their bid. UD, DAV and LUC were young teams this season and return a lot. Davidson has no recent post-season experience that I know of. It looks like they are the first A10 school to play in the NIVC. If they do well, it will be interesting to see if other participate in years to come.

IM SURE Dayton got the call to play, but TH has in the past said he would not accept. It’s a coin flip with me. I see both sides. A program like Davidson, who has not seen a lot of post-season play, you of course go in with your entire roster. For UD, who expects to make the NCAAs every year, and rightly so, I would accept the bid and field only returning players and get in extra competition days/matches. No disrespect to other teams or the tournament. Just making the right decision for your program.

MadHatterTX · #2 12-01-2022, 11:29 AM

Agree. Hope both teams can make some noise in their tournaments as it raises the profile for the conference. I also would have accepted a bid to the NIVC. I understand the expectation for the NCAA's but I still think it's good for the program to get the extra practice/experience and for the conference to see teams do well in the post season.
Oh well - Will just have to root for LUC, Davidson and Dayton basketball.

BeckysTXA · #3 12-02-2022, 05:27 PM

Davidson beats North Dakota St in 5 sets. The wildcats list the 3rd set 12-25. All the other sets were close by both teams. Points by losing team per set - 23, 18, 23 and 13.

They play the winner of Wake Forest and Coppin St who are playing tonight. 2nd round is at 4 pm Sat. It’s hosted by Wake Forest.

BeckysTXA · #4 12-02-2022, 05:32 PM

LUC played KY last night. They got swept 17-14-20. Two competitive sets, but it looked like KY had it in control. KY hit .389 as a team for the match. If you can terminate points like that you won’t get beat.

BeckysTXA · #5 12-02-2022, 05:44 PM

Ohio and Xavier also won their first round matches. They play each other tonight. Ohio is hosting.

BeckysTXA · #6 12-04-2022, 11:27 AM

Davidson doing the A10 proud. They beat Wake Forest in 5 sets. They now get to host the next match which has to be exciting for that program. They play UTRGV on Dec 8 at 7 pm. This is the Elite Eight round.

Over on the other side of the bracket, Xavier beat Ohio 3-1. They travel to play host Boston College on Dec 7th in an Elite Eight match. Xavier is coached by UD alum Christy (Utnage) Pfeffenberger. She was A10 POY in 2004.

BeckysTXA · #7 12-04-2022, 03:12 PM

Originally Posted by BeckysTXA

LUC played KY last night. They got swept 17-14-20. Two competitive sets, but it looked like KY had it in control. KY hit .389 as a team for the match. If you can terminate points like that you won’t get beat.

KY played Western KY in the 2nd round. They swept them too. Scores were 17-16-21 by WKY for the 3 sets.

Chris and I have wondered for several years now why we never schedule WKY. They always have a great record which would help our rpi. They finished 29-4 thus year. They have been to the sweet 16 in 2020 by knocking off 15 seed WA St. that was the spring Covid year. They got better pairings because they went undefeated heading into the tournament. We got 5 seed WA and pushed them to 5 sets.

They seem like an obvious choice for matches by both teams, yet it never happens. Sure there are scheduling conflicts, but year after year? At this point it seems like something administrative between the two schools, but who knows. We will await the 2023 schedule in hopes again.

Figgie123 · #8 12-04-2022, 05:14 PM

And if you wonder about parity, 15 of the 16 teams remaining were seed 1 thru 4 in their respective regions, so it went according to "chalk". And the 16th team? They were the #5 seed in their region.

BeckysTXA · #9 12-11-2022, 02:02 PM

Davidson playing now in the NIVC Final 4. If they beat Drake, and I would think they will, they would play Boston College for the Championship. I sure hope they can pull it off. It would be great for their program and we need stronger teams in the A10. Drake is up 1-0 wining 25-21. Wildcats lead 12-10 in 2nd.

Over in the NCAAs. Final Four is set and no Big or PAC teams. That’s a surprise since they are the 2 strongest conferences. TX vs. San Diego. Pitt vs Louisville. 5-6 years ago, the results of smaller, none P5 programs getting into the late rounds seemed to indicate parity was spreading into the sport as the sport’s popularity was growing in the youth and prep level. Then Covid hit and it all seemed to evaporate. Bigger schools found academic? scholarship funding and many players stayed their extra Covid year. That’s how WI won it last year. And there were no campus visits. I believe that hurt Dayton. So many of our players visit and commit within 3 days. And there was no club seasons and in some cases no high school seasons. Our coaches couldn’t travel to scout out players. When you live on landing players with high ceiling but need development, seeing them in action is a big piece of tge puzzle. No summer camp opportunity either.

So it’s good to see no Big or PAC schools left. And San Diego is a positive. Other 3 are P5, but Pitt and Louisville out of the ACC is good to see. I don’t remember if the ACC has ever won a VB Championship, but I don’t think so and haven’t looked it up. TX is always in the running. So maybe a step towards parity albeit a shallow one.

I’m pulling for Pitt. They hired a great coach about 20 years ago. He has built that program from the ground up. When Penn State’s iconic HC retire last year…they thought they had the Pitt coach next in line. He said “no” his family loved Pittsburgh and he wanted to stay at Pitt. It’s paying off. Good to see.

BeckysTXA · #10 12-11-2022, 02:02 PM

Drake won the 2nd set 25-22. Do or die time for Davidson.

BeckysTXA · #11 12-11-2022, 02:48 PM

Drake sweeps. That surprises me. I didn’t watch or follow, but live stats showed they went to one hitter for their last 4 points and she scored. Davidson couldn’t stop her. All delivered by their setter, so their passing and defense delivered those. Might have one superstar player that carries the team?

BeckysTXA · #12 12-11-2022, 02:51 PM

So the ACC will have a team playing for both the NCAA and NIVC championships. (Pitt or Louisville and Boston College)

BeckysTXA · #13 12-12-2022, 06:54 AM

I forgot to add, 3 of the 4 Elite 8 matches went 5 sets to make the Final 4. Only Texas won 3-1 to advance over tOSU. Pitt in 5 over Penn St - the team who wanted the Pitt coach to takeover this year after Coach Rose retired. So the 2 Big schools knocked out in the Elite 8. Same happened on the other side of the bracket to the PAC. San Diego took care of Sanford in 5 and Louisville took out Oregon in 5.

The following are the years the Championship match either didn’t have a Big or PAC school OR…a non P5 team made the Championship. Under the later, in the last 20 years, only 2 non P5 teams (BYU and Long Beach St). In the 80s and 90s it was a sport dominated by schools that were ‘beach’ communities but the sport started to spread East across America and programs hired coaches - mostly men at that point, who had played the sport. A lot of those men had played Beach.

Only 1 time in the 2000s has a championship had no current Big or PAC school - that was 2020 - the Covid year. So this year will be the 2nd time in the last 20 years. (It should be noted Nebraska was in the championship several years before it joined the Big. I only counted them as a Big. Their long time coach is one of those beach players turned coach.)

2020 - KY beat TX
2014 - PSU beat BYU
2001 - Stanford beat Long Beach St
1998 - Long Beach beat PSU
1996 - Stanford beat Hawaii hosted by Cleveland St
1989 - Long Beach beat Nebraska
1988 - TX beat Hawaii
1987 - Hawaii beat Stanford
1986 - Pacific beat Nebraska
1985 - Pacific beat Stanford
1983 - Hawaii beat UCLA
1982 - Hawaii beat USC
1981 - 1st Championship year.

BeckysTXA · #14 12-17-2022, 03:51 PM

It’s Texas and Louisville for the championship tonight. Louisville was ranked #1 last season going undefeated until they lost in the Semis. So nice for that program run by a Nebraska alum. It took 5 sets to beat Pitt to advance. Texas dropped the first set to San Diego in overtime 28-26. And SD was never out of it…scoring 16-18-20 the rest of the way. TX always has great talent. Their recruiting classes always have top 10 players. It’s putting the right mix and chemistry on the floor.

TX has won it before. Louisville never. When you get this far, both teams have great hitters and setters. It always comes down to who can pass well in serve receive and who can keep pressure on the other side with aggressive serves. It’s a pass and serve game first and foremost even at the highest level.

BeckysTXA · #15 12-18-2022, 02:10 PM

TX sweeps, but Louisville led at some point in every set, but I don’t think they ever had more than a 2 point lead and it evaporated pretty quick.

Texas had 11 transfers on their roster that weren’t there a year ago. Welcome to NIL. It’s that simple. Not an oz of fat anywhere on any of their players including those on the sideline. And the TV adds 10 pounds.

UD is going to have to get serious about conditioning. We have had too many players in the last several years that would have been much better if their playing weight was 15-25 pounds less. I can say that because I’m a woman. But it’s an area we can get better at. And we will need to capitalize on every thing we can control. It’s simply not an area people like to talk about. But our recruits are players with huge potential and upside. Getting in the best condition to maximize your achieving your highest level is part of the equation. It needs to start this off-season for next year.

It was clear Texas has an excellent conditioning program. I’m not sure I ever saw anyone wipe a brow from sweat. Their only weakness was a lot of service errors. But they were so good in all other aspects of the game it didn’t matter.