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2023 NCAA Tournament AQ's

11/10:  CUNYAC:  John Jay
11/11:  ODAC:  W&L
            SCAC:  Trinity-TX
            North Atlantic:  Eastern Nazarene
            NACC:  Edgewood
            MAC-Freedom:  Stevens
            MAC-Commonwealth:  Eastern-PA
            USA-South:  Meredith (in a reverse sweep)
            Midwest Conference:  Cornell-IA
            NESCAC:  Wesleyan-CT
            Empire 8:  Alfred
            NCAC:  Wittenberg
            OAC:  Otterbein
            United East:  Gallaudet
            GNAC:  Regis-MA
            Commonwealth Coast:  Wentworth
            MASCAC:  Framingham State
            Skyline:  Manhattanville
            SUNYAC:  Cortland State
            NJAC:  Ramapo
            ASC:  ETBU
            Atlantic East:  Marymount-VA
            C2C:  Salisbury
            American Rivers Conference:  Coe
            CCIW:  North Park

            CCS:  Covenant (in contention for Pool C)
                      (no AQ yet for this conference)
           
           
           

More AQ's
11/11/23:  MIAA:  Hope
                 Landmark:  Juniata
                 PAC:  Bethany-WV
                 WIAC:  Whitewater
                 UMAC:  NW-MN
                 SLIAC:  Greenville-IL
                 Little East:  UMass-Dartmouth
                 Liberty League:  Ithaca
                 MIAC:  Gustavus Adolphus
                 SCIAC:  CMS
                 NWC:  PLU
                 UAA:  NYU

11/12/23 Conference Tourney Finals Matchups:

AMCC:  PSU-Altoona/Alfred St.
HCAC:  Transylvania/MSJ
NEWMAC:  MIT/Springfield
SAA:  Berry/Sewanee
Centennial:  Johns Hopkins/Gettysburg

11/12/23 AQ's:

Centennial:  Johns Hopkins
HCAC:  Transylvania
SAA:  Berry
AMCC:  PSU-Altoona
NEWMAC:  MIT (in a reverse sweep, yet--)

My first take of way off Pool C's--
On the bubble:  Wash-MO, CWRU, Springfield, Platteville, Stevens Point, Mary Washington, CNU, Mary Hardin-Baylor, Otterbein,

Depends how many UAA and C2C squads get in-

Mary Hardin-Baylor and Platteville didn't get in.

1st round All Top-25 and/or Top 25/RV matchups
# 4 Whitewater vs. RV Coe
#12 Calvin vs. #18 Gustavus Adolphus
#14 Wash-MO vs RV St. Olaf
#15 MSJ vs #24 Covenant
#20 La Verne vs. RV Otterbein
#23 Stevens Point vs. RV CWRU
#25 Cornell-IA vs RV Millikin

Quote from: WLCALUM83 on November 13, 2023, 03:47:48 PM
Mary Hardin-Baylor and Platteville didn't get in.

1st round All Top-25 and/or Top 25/RV matchups
# 4 Whitewater vs. RV Coe
#12 Calvin vs. #18 Gustavus Adolphus
#14 Wash-MO vs RV St. Olaf
#15 MSJ vs #24 Covenant
#20 La Verne vs. RV Otterbein
#23 Stevens Point vs. RV CWRU
#25 Cornell-IA vs RV Millikin

The Millikin over UW-Platteville is a bit confusing for me, but it probably came down to Millikin being regionally ranked and Platteville not. Platteville was just ahead of them in the latest AVCA poll for receiving votes. 1 spot ahead of them in the Massey rankings. Platteville beat them head to head during the regular season. According to Massey, Millikin had them on SOS so maybe that had a role in the  final regional rankings.

UWSP dropped out of the latest regional rankings so, if I understand the way Pool C bids work, they probably got in after Millikin was selected and kept UW-Platteville from being even considered.

Opening Round Upsets:

ETBU over ranked North Park
PLU over Carnegie Mellon
Eastern-PA over Tufts
Covenant over MSJ
GAC over Calvin

Quote from: WLCALUM83 on November 16, 2023, 09:04:40 PM
Opening Round Upsets:

ETBU over ranked North Park
PLU over Carnegie Mellon
Eastern-PA over Tufts
Covenant over MSJ
GAC over Calvin

GAC over Calvin might tehcnically be an upset, but GAC was ranked 18 and Calvin 12 so not abig one.  Honestly Calvin faded significantly since the 20th of October.  At that point they were 18-3, but then went 4-5 in their last 9 matches (yes two of those losses were to #2 Hope) but that kind of slide can be hard to stop.

I watched the PLU/Carnegie Mellon match, and PLU really impressed me, winning 3-0 against CM who was regionally ranked #2 in region 7. 

Looking forward to the Covenant/Emory match. Covenant gave Emory one of its 2 losses earlier in the year.

Used to work at a school years ago that was in the same conference as Covenant when they were still NAIA.

Mild Upset Alert for Day 2:

#11 Trinity-Texas over #10 Berry

All 16 teams still alive are either ranked or RV.

Great match between Trinity and Berry.  Down 9-5 in the 5th set but TU comes back.  Almost like they've recently played for a national championship or something.  Gritty.

Regarding the poll, 8 of the top 11 ranked teams are still alive, so it's wide open, anyone of them can take it. I lead this thing off by going with CMS--they're at home.

UW-Oshkosh getting the #1 seed over undefeated defending national champion Juniata a bit puzzling. I know Oshkosh has been #1 in the Massey, but still a but of a surprise from the seeding committee. With C-M-S th #8 seed, maybe they didn't want to have them matched up 1st round.

For much of thr season it just seemed like Oshkosh and Juniata were destined to meet in the finals. Despite my WIAC roots, gonna go with Juniata to repeat.

Quote from: '95 Blugold on November 19, 2023, 09:45:32 PM
UW-Oshkosh getting the #1 seed over undefeated defending national champion Juniata a bit puzzling. I know Oshkosh has been #1 in the Massey, but still a but of a surprise from the seeding committee. With C-M-S th #8 seed, maybe they didn't want to have them matched up 1st round.

For much of thr season it just seemed like Oshkosh and Juniata were destined to meet in the finals. Despite my WIAC roots, gonna go with Juniata to repeat.

Robert Rochelle, aka d3vbwest had some musing on the seedings (https://d3vbwest.wordpress.com/2023/11/19/elite-8-official/) and came to the reluctant conclusion that UW-O earned the top seed via the criteria.  His blog, while focused on the west, has good national content this time of year. 

So we end up with the AVCA #1 vs #2 for the 'ship.  Juniata has been dominating all year and in the tournament.  Hope is on a string of 4 straight 5 set wins (a record in the D3 VB tournament).  Looking forward to Saturday!!

In the Hope v CMS match last night/this morning (yawn), the commentators on the live stream talked about the impact of the large crowd/hostile environment in CMS defeating Oshkosh so handily.   They were talking about that it would impact Hope as well, but it didn't (at least not to a large part), and I believe that is due to Hope being very accustomed to that kind of environment.  Hope v Calvin matches in particular, have very large crowds, and the games @ Calvin are just like the CMS crowds - maybe moreso.  There were 2578 attending the last Hope @ Calvin match.