WVB: Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference

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Regardless of next Wednesday's in-conference results, here's who did better than expected in the NACC:

IL Tech (was picked 12th, but will finish much higher than that)
MSOE (was picked 10th, also will end up better)
Benedictine (picked 8th, already in NACC Tournament)

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Well, well. ARV Concordia-WI was upset by St. Norbert, and Concordia-Chicago knocked off Edgewood. Every other match went as expected. Benedictine clinched a NACC playoff spot yesterday.

5 teams battling for 3 spots.

Scenario 1:  MSOE, IL Tech and St. Norbert all win next Wednesday, they're in. (MSOE gets ARV CUW, IL Tech gets ARV Aurora, St. Norbert gets Alverno). On paper, St. Norbert could finish as high as 4th, barring an upset elsewhere. In terms of tie-breakers, Benedictine beat St. Norbert head to head, but the Green Knights got victories over IL Tech and MSOE earlier.

Scenario 2:  MSOE and IL Tech lose, St. Norbert wins. Green Knights are in. Edgewood beats Lakeland and WLC beats Marian. In that event, there would be 4 squads with 8-5 records, MSOE, IL Tech, Edgewood and WLC. Warriors went 1-2 (knocking off only Edgewood) . Edgewood went 1-2 (beating only MSOE), MSOE went 2-1 (losing only to Edgewood) IL Tech went 2-1 (losing only to MSOE) Unless I'm missing something, MSOE and IL Tech would be in.

There are more, but since I can't see Alverno knocking off St. Norbert, I won't go any further. (as far as the last spots).

Should Aurora and Concordia-WI finish tied, the Falcons would get the top seed in the NACC tournament, having beaten the Spartans head to head.

Tracking several NACC matches tonight;  (CUC/Dominican and Benedictine/Rockford are the exceptions, Benedictine's already in, the other 3 squads have been eliminated.)

St. Norbert/Alverno:  Green Knight win, and they're in.
MSOE/CUW:
Marian/WLC:
Edgewood/Lakeland
Aurora/IL Tech:

Developing. . .

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1st Final:  St. Norbert over Alverno in 3 sets:  Green Knights clinch the 4th seed in the NACC Tournament with that win. (14 service aces. Outhit the Inferno .299 to  .138 for the match.)

           (WW and gbpuckfan cheering. . . )

2nd Final:  CUW over MSOE in 3 sets:  Falcons outhit Raiders .317 to .079 for match.

3rd Final:  Aurora over IL Tech in 3 sets:  Spartans 7 service aces 3 players with .417 or higher hitting pct.

4th Final:  WLC over Marian in 3 sets:  Chavez and Charron .375 and .348 hitting pcts, respectively.

5th Final:  Edgewood over Lakeland in 3 sets:  Falk .692 hitting pct.

Elsewhere, Dominican wins the all-Chicago rivalry match vs. CUC in 3 sets, and Benedictine knocked off Rockford in 3 sets.

IL Tech, MSOE, Edgewood and WLC all finish with 8-5 in-NACC records.  Time for the standings check to determine who advances on tie-breakers.

UPDATE:  MSOE gets the 5th seed and IL Tech gets the 6th seed. WLC and Edgewood are eliminated on tie-breakers.

Aurora gets home advantage throughout the Tournament. Concordia-WI gets the other bye.

#4 St. Norbert vs. #5 MSOE   (Green Knights won regular season match-up)
#3 Benedictine vs. #6 IL Tech (IL Tech won regular season match-up)

 

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Pre-NACC Tournament Notables:

Teams:  Concordia-WI had the most Aces/Set (2.26); Benedictine led in Blocks/Set (1.95) and Total Team Blocks (197.0):  Concordia-WI and St. Norbert led in most other categories-Green Knights are 8th in the nation in Total Attacks (4,227).

Players:  Aurora's Kaitlyn Beebe is 11th in the nation in Assists/Set (10.43); St. Norbert's Liz Maastricht is 7th in the nation in Total Digs (577) and 9th in the nation in Digs/Set (5.83);  Concordia-WI's Maycee Karpfinger is 14th in the nation in Hitting Pct. (.389);  MSOE's Quinn Borchert is 6th in the nation in Total Blocks (110).

Action begins later today.

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1st Playoff Final:  #4 St. Norbert over #5 MSOE in 3 sets:
            (25-22, 25-14, 27-25)
St. Norbert:  Maastricht  14 digs. Rader and Svennes .471 and .429 hitting pcts, respectively.
MSOE:  Borchert  .400 hitting pct.

2nd Playoff Final:  #6 IL Tech over #3 Benedictine in 5 sets.
            (19-25, 25-23, 25-17, 17-25, 15-11)
IL Tech:  Outhit Benedictine .321 to .167 in Set 5 to pull off the upset.
 

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Finals:  #1 Aurora over #4 St. Norbert in 3 sets.

            #2 Concordia-WI over #6 IL Tech in 3 sets.

Aurora vs. Concordia-WI for the NACC AQ on Saturday.

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Aurora gets a tough NCAA opening round opponent-- #3 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps--

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One coach stepped down in the NACC:

https://www.cuwfalcons.com/sports/wvball/2021-22/releases/20211112jgdons

Rockford is also coach hunting:

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Rockford has a new coach:

https://www.naccsports/org/sports/wvball/2021-22/releases/20220204uaosjp

Dominican is coach hunting.

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Kudos to Alverno, who ended a 17-match losing run going back to last season with a Match 2 win over La Grange.

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10/15/22 NACC finals:

St, Norbert over IIT in 3 sets:
     (25-23, 25-17, 25-15)
St. Norbert:  Hartson 30 assists; Green Knights outhit IIT .239 to .088 in the match.

Aurora over Edgewood in 3 sets:
          (25-19, 25-23, 25-19)
Aurora:  Beebe 32 assists; Spartans had 9 service aces and outhit Eagles .276 to .165.

Rockford and Alverno are in a tight one as I post. 4th set, Regents trailing 2 sets to 1 but leading and should that hold, they go to a 5th set.

UPDATE:  Rockford over Alverno in 5 sets:
                  (18-25, 25-20, 24-26, 25-20, 15-12)
Inferno used a late rally to make it 13-12 in Set 5, but Rockford then got the last 2 points for the win here.
            31 total service aces
Rockford; .257 hitting pct.
Alverno:  West; .426 hitting pct.; 27 spikes for points and 15 digs to get a double-double.