Tomball beat me to the post today so I’ll repurpose this thread for next Friday night

FYI we host Tulane first on 10/28.

(10-26-2026 10:35 AM)dragon2owl Wrote:  FYI we host Tulane first on 10/28.

Good catch!
I’ve been following league play all season and the conference plays one game each Wednesday (and the two participants then have one of the byes Friday or Sunday, since we play Wednesday and Friday we must have this Sunday off.

(10-29-2026 12:31 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  Note the later than usual 7:00pm start time.

We end this recent brutal 6-match stretch of our conference schedule on Friday, at home against South Florida, having won four of the last five matches. A win here would position us nicely for the final 4 regular season matches. Though 3 of the 4 are on the road, Tulane is the only good team on paper. UTSA, Temple and Charlotte all have .500 or worse records.

USF comes into Tudor with an overall 7-13 record (6-4 AAC, 1-6 road, 2-9 road/neutral). However, that's somewhat deceiving as they played the 8th best OOC schedule in the country (even tougher than ours)-- against 6 ranked teams, another 2 receiving votes, and yet another making the NCAA tourney last year. That's 9 of their 11 non-conference matches. They're 6-3 in their last 9 AAC matches, with all 3 losses coming in closely played 5-setters. They also beat FAU in a 5-setter. So they're extremely battle tested and much better than their overall record would suggest. Let's not forget they blew us out in a 3-0 sweep at home earlier this months, holding us to just .113 hitting while hitting .337 themselves and collecting 10 blocks and 8 aces. Here's the box score of that ugly match...

https://gousfbulls.com/sports/womens-vol...core/14523

USF is led by the likely conference Freshman of the Year, their 6'1" OH Paula Tomasa from Argentina, who's a 6-rotation starter and leads the team in kills, is 2nd in blocks and 3rd in digs. Also of note, they rank 16th in the country in blocks, averaging a robust 2.8 blocks/set. Overall, they're hitting only .126 on the season (due largely to their tough OOC schedule) and average a very pedestrian 12.6 digs/set.

Time for payback. We need to bring the same backline defense that highlighted the final 3 sets against Tulane, with some semblance of a presence in the block, while being more aggressive and efficient offensively. Time to play more consistently. Will be interesting to see if Genny goes with Skopal or Bello to start the match. Skopal is better defensively; Bello is better offensively and on the serve. Just win, baby!

(10-29-2026 03:26 PM)owl at the moon Wrote:  [quote='waltgreenberg' pid='20831110' dateline='1793295082']

Note the later than usual 7:00pm start time.

Unless you live or work in the immediate area, a 7 PM start on a weeknight is easier to get to than the typical 6 pm starts.

Standings thru 10/28:
W-L School [GB]
9-2 Tulane -
8-2 ECU 1/2
8-3 Rice 1
7-3 FAU Tulsa 1 1/2
6-4 USF
5-5 Temple
4-6 UNT
————
3-7 UTSA Wichita UAB
2-8 Memphis
1-9 clt

Top 8 make the conference tourney

RPI through Sunday’s games (10/25):

59 Tulane (guess: minus 1-3 for L to Rice)
71 Tulsa
74 Rice (guess: plus 6-9 for W vs Tulane)
102 FAU
117 USF
118 ECU
120 UNT

(10-30-2026 07:32 AM)owl at the moon Wrote:  Standings thru 10/28:
W-L School [GB]
9-2 Tulane -
8-2 ECU 1/2
8-3 Rice 1
7-3 FAU Tulsa 1 1/2
6-4 USF
5-5 Temple
4-6 UNT
————
3-7 UTSA Wichita UAB
2-8 Memphis
1-9 clt

Top 8 make the conference tourney

RPI through Sunday’s games (10/25):

59 Tulane (guess: minus 1-3 for L to Rice)
71 Tulsa
74 Rice (guess: plus 6-9 for W vs Tulane)
102 FAU
117 USF
118 ECU
120 UNT

You can get realtime RPI here: https://ncaastats.figstats.net/volleyball-rpi.cgi

Not official but usually pretty accurate.

(10-30-2026 07:40 AM)dragon2owl Wrote:  

(10-30-2026 07:32 AM)owl at the moon Wrote:  Standings thru 10/28:
W-L School [GB]
9-2 Tulane -
8-2 ECU 1/2
8-3 Rice 1
7-3 FAU Tulsa 1 1/2
6-4 USF
5-5 Temple
4-6 UNT
————
3-7 UTSA Wichita UAB
2-8 Memphis
1-9 clt

Top 8 make the conference tourney

RPI through Sunday’s games (10/25):

59 Tulane (guess: minus 1-3 for L to Rice)
71 Tulsa
74 Rice (guess: plus 6-9 for W vs Tulane)
102 FAU
117 USF
118 ECU
120 UNT

You can get realtime RPI here: https://ncaastats.figstats.net/volleyball-rpi.cgi

Not official but usually pretty accurate.

Cool! Glad to have underestimated the impact of Wednesday’s big home win!

EST. RPI Thru 10/29:
61 Rice up 13
69 Tulane down 10
74 Tulsa down 3
101 FAU up 1
120 ECU down 2
121 USF down 4
124 UNT down 4

But while I underestimated the impact of one (big) win it does support my thesis that any of the top three can still make it to the low 40s by winning out to the conference final game. (What the committee would do with that is out of our hands, obviously.)

(10-30-2026 07:53 AM)owl at the moon Wrote:  

(10-30-2026 07:40 AM)dragon2owl Wrote:  

(10-30-2026 07:32 AM)owl at the moon Wrote:  Standings thru 10/28:
W-L School [GB]
9-2 Tulane -
8-2 ECU 1/2
8-3 Rice 1
7-3 FAU Tulsa 1 1/2
6-4 USF
5-5 Temple
4-6 UNT
————
3-7 UTSA Wichita UAB
2-8 Memphis
1-9 clt

Top 8 make the conference tourney

RPI through Sunday’s games (10/25):

59 Tulane (guess: minus 1-3 for L to Rice)
71 Tulsa
74 Rice (guess: plus 6-9 for W vs Tulane)
102 FAU
117 USF
118 ECU
120 UNT

You can get realtime RPI here: https://ncaastats.figstats.net/volleyball-rpi.cgi

Not official but usually pretty accurate.

Cool! Glad to have underestimated the impact of Wednesday’s big home win!

EST. RPI Thru 10/29:
61 Rice up 13
69 Tulane down 10
74 Tulsa down 3
101 FAU up 1
120 ECU down 2
121 USF down 4
124 UNT down 4

But while I underestimated the impact of one (big) win it does support my thesis that any of the top three can still make it to the low 40s by winning out to the conference final game. (What the committee would do with that is out of our hands, obviously.)

Rice was at 63 after the win. It moved up to 61 after Creighton and Georgia State won yesterday. One of the RPI killers is going to be Charlotte (282). We need Creighton to move into the top 25 (currently at 33) and Mississippi State (currently at 60) and Tulane to move into the top 50 to pick up some bonus points.

(10-30-2026 07:58 AM)dragon2owl Wrote:  

(10-30-2026 07:53 AM)owl at the moon Wrote:  

(10-30-2026 07:40 AM)dragon2owl Wrote:  

(10-30-2026 07:32 AM)owl at the moon Wrote:  Standings thru 10/28:
W-L School [GB]
9-2 Tulane -
8-2 ECU 1/2
8-3 Rice 1
7-3 FAU Tulsa 1 1/2
6-4 USF
5-5 Temple
4-6 UNT
————
3-7 UTSA Wichita UAB
2-8 Memphis
1-9 clt

Top 8 make the conference tourney

RPI through Sunday’s games (10/25):

59 Tulane (guess: minus 1-3 for L to Rice)
71 Tulsa
74 Rice (guess: plus 6-9 for W vs Tulane)
102 FAU
117 USF
118 ECU
120 UNT

You can get realtime RPI here: https://ncaastats.figstats.net/volleyball-rpi.cgi

Not official but usually pretty accurate.

Cool! Glad to have underestimated the impact of Wednesday’s big home win!

EST. RPI Thru 10/29:
61 Rice up 13
69 Tulane down 10
74 Tulsa down 3
101 FAU up 1
120 ECU down 2
121 USF down 4
124 UNT down 4

But while I underestimated the impact of one (big) win it does support my thesis that any of the top three can still make it to the low 40s by winning out to the conference final game. (What the committee would do with that is out of our hands, obviously.)

Rice was at 63 after the win. It moved up to 61 after Creighton and Georgia State won yesterday. One of the RPI killers is going to be Charlotte (282). We need Creighton to move into the top 25 (currently at 33) and Mississippi State (currently at 60) and Tulane to move into the top 50 to pick up some bonus points.

I don't see how we can possibly get into the low 40s given that Tulane is our only remaining opponent with a current RPI below 121, and with several well below 150.

That is a problem, especially if the formula punishes teams for wins (against lower ranked teams).

I’m hoping in our case that those wins (if we do earn them) will still help marginally (no damage or very minor gains)

Also to be fair it’s a lot easier to move up from 70s to the 60s than it will be to move up into the 40s.

I’m still going to keep an eye on it because we are just now at a point where our RPI is better than last year’s final RPI of 63 (per the NCAA site)

Scoreboard watching around the league today…
Temple takes the first set at 2nd place ECU…

(10-30-2026 11:33 AM)owl at the moon Wrote:  Scoreboard watching around the league today…
Temple takes the first set at 2nd place ECU…

Temple takes the 2nd, 26-24.

(10-30-2026 12:03 PM)dragon2owl Wrote:  

(10-30-2026 11:33 AM)owl at the moon Wrote:  Scoreboard watching around the league today…
Temple takes the first set at 2nd place ECU…

Temple takes the 2nd, 26-24.

Temple completes the sweep.

(10-30-2026 12:41 PM)dragon2owl Wrote:  

(10-30-2026 12:03 PM)dragon2owl Wrote:  

(10-30-2026 11:33 AM)owl at the moon Wrote:  Scoreboard watching around the league today…
Temple takes the first set at 2nd place ECU…

Temple takes the 2nd, 26-24.

Temple completes the sweep.

27-25 in the 3rd… Temple’s looking good to make the top 8 for the tournament….


And more importantly, Rice now literally controls their destiny again for at least a share of the conference regular season title

Rice moves into a tie for second place at the moment with ECU

In our last match against USF earlier this month both Dorotik and Seay hit in negative numbers and Hummel had just 4 digs over the 3 sets. AJ has been inconsistent, but since she was off a bit during our match against Tulane, I'm expecting a big game from her tonight. And Hummel has improved significantly from earlier in the season. The big question for tonight-- will our middles show up, both on offense and in the block. Guiterrez has been struggling the past several matches. We really need her back in form.

Arissa Smith in attendance for first time this home stand, but not dressed. Skopal dress and practicing, but wearing a knee brace.

(10-30-2026 06:11 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  Arissa Smith in attendance for first time this home stand, but not dressed. Skopal dress and practicing, but wearing a knee brace.

Schneider and Bello getting the starts.

Skopal did take off her knee brace but wearing a jacket.

Rice takes the 1st, 25-17.

15-10 at the 2nd set media timeout.