Wow, Stanford came back from down 0 - 2 on the road vs. USC to beat the Trojans without Kathryn Plummer, who has missed the last 8 matches and is still out indefinitely. That should keep the Cardinal in the Top 5, despite getting swept by then unranked UCLA (who will almost surely be ranked this week after sweeping both Stanford and #15 Cal).

Rice moves up to #18, moving ahead of Illinois and California (Purdue passed Rice). WKU remains at #23.

https://www.avca.org/polls/di-women/10-28-2019.html

Big RPI boost with UT moving up to #1. How in the world is Illinois still in the Top 20 with a 10-9 record? I also don't understand how Utah moved up a spot to #17, with a 14-7 record, and after splitting their matches this past weekend. What does it take to get P5 programs to drop out of the Top 25? Purdue (14-5) didn't just jump us with their win over Nebraska, they gain over 150 vote points on us.

(10-28-2019 03:47 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  What does it take to get P5 programs to drop out of the Top 25?

Move back to G5?

Why doesn’t Rice have a commentator at these games on the Conf USA channel, especially if we are Top 25 team. I noticed the majority of the schools have one. I am sure someone from the athletic could be one. It looks really bad for Rice, like the admin or the athletic dept. doesn’t give a damn.

(10-28-2019 02:56 PM)dragon2owl Wrote:  Rice moves up to #18, moving ahead of Illinois and California (Purdue passed Rice). WKU remains at #23.

https://www.avca.org/polls/di-women/10-28-2019.html

(10-28-2019 03:47 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  Big RPI boost with UT moving up to #1.

How does UT moving up in the coaches poll affect Rice’s RPI?

(10-28-2019 05:54 PM)temchugh Wrote:  

(10-28-2019 03:47 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  Big RPI boost with UT moving up to #1.

How does UT moving up in the coaches poll affect Rice’s RPI?

The Owls defeated Texas

(10-28-2019 06:19 PM)Tomball Owl Wrote:  

(10-28-2019 05:54 PM)temchugh Wrote:  

(10-28-2019 03:47 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  Big RPI boost with UT moving up to #1.

How does UT moving up in the coaches poll affect Rice’s RPI?

The Owls defeated Texas

That didn’t make Texas placement in the coaches poll relevant to anyone’s RPI.

(10-28-2019 07:41 PM)temchugh Wrote:  

(10-28-2019 06:19 PM)Tomball Owl Wrote:  

(10-28-2019 05:54 PM)temchugh Wrote:  

(10-28-2019 03:47 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  Big RPI boost with UT moving up to #1.

How does UT moving up in the coaches poll affect Rice’s RPI?

The Owls defeated Texas

That didn’t make Texas placement in the coaches poll relevant to anyone’s RPI.

Technically, that's correct. However, Texas beating previously undefeated and #1 Baylor will no doubt benefit UT's RPI this week, which in turn will give a boost to our RPI.

(10-28-2019 07:46 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(10-28-2019 07:41 PM)temchugh Wrote:  

(10-28-2019 06:19 PM)Tomball Owl Wrote:  

(10-28-2019 05:54 PM)temchugh Wrote:  

(10-28-2019 03:47 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  Big RPI boost with UT moving up to #1.

How does UT moving up in the coaches poll affect Rice’s RPI?

The Owls defeated Texas

That didn’t make Texas placement in the coaches poll relevant to anyone’s RPI.

Technically, that's correct. However, Texas beating previously undefeated and #1 Baylor will no doubt benefit UT's RPI this week, which in turn will give a boost to our RPI.

yes, it's a pretty good bet that would increase both UT and Rice RPI

Genny just tweeted that we're up to #14 in RPI, ahead of Creighton, Purdue, Cal and Colorado State.

(10-28-2019 09:58 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  Genny just tweeted that we're up to #14 in RPI, ahead of Creighton, Purdue, Cal and Colorado State.

Wonderful!

Can she coach football?

(10-28-2019 07:48 PM)HawaiiOwl Wrote:  

(10-28-2019 07:46 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(10-28-2019 07:41 PM)temchugh Wrote:  

(10-28-2019 06:19 PM)Tomball Owl Wrote:  

(10-28-2019 05:54 PM)temchugh Wrote:  How does UT moving up in the coaches poll affect Rice’s RPI?

The Owls defeated Texas

That didn’t make Texas placement in the coaches poll relevant to anyone’s RPI.

Technically, that's correct. However, Texas beating previously undefeated and #1 Baylor will no doubt benefit UT's RPI this week, which in turn will give a boost to our RPI.

yes, it's a pretty good bet that would increase both UT and Rice RPI

This is a silly discussion, but less painful than football, so I'll keep at it.

Texas is a very good team and watching Rice beat Texas earlier this year was awesome.

But Texas beating Baylor has only a very tiny impact on Rice's RPI.

The basic RPI formula is very simple:

Team record x 0.25 + opponents record x 0.5 + opponents opponents record x 0.25

For different sports, the NCAA applies different adjustments that they do not publicly disclose (although, for some sports, folks reverse engineer them).

Texas RPI score/rank does not directly impact Rices RPI score/rank (i.e., opponents RPI is not a factor in the RPI formula). Rice may get an RPI bonus for beating Texas (an RPI top 25 team), but Texas would be an RPI top 25 team whether they beat Baylor or lost to Baylor.

Texas beating Baylor (compared to Texas beating a 0.500 team) helps Texas RPI because Baylor's awesome win percentage goes into Texas opponents record (weighted 50%). Texas beating Baylor (compared to Texas beating a 0.500 team) has a very tiny impact on Rice RPI because Baylor's awesome win percentage goes into Rice's opponents opponents record (which is a huge pool of games and only weighted 25%). Any RPI bonus to Texas for beating a Top 25 team has no impact on Rice's RPI.

Women with an easy 3-game sweep on the road at Charlotte (25-18, 25-16, 25-21), boosting our overall record to 20-1, 9-0 in conference. Nicole bounced back from her unusually inefficient effort on Sunday with an all-around monster match tonight (18 kills, 17 digs, 2 service aces, 1 block, .333 hit%). Anota followed up her career match with another strong performance (13 kills, .423 hit%, 1 ace, 2 blocks) and true Freshman Ellie Bichelmeyer added another 11 kills.

I know it's nitpicking, but my one continuing concern with this team-- my only one-- is our consistently low block numbers. Only 5 tonight, which is pretty much our average per match. Against elite, ranked team (e.g., WKU), our very low block numbers could prove to be a major vulnerability.

Several upsets tonight that should help Rice move up in the rankings (assuming we take care of business Sunday at UAB).

A&M defeats #15 Kentucky on the road in 4. They play #24 Missouri on the road Sunday. Another win and they might just leap past a few teams who were receiving more votes than them (they received 13 votes last week to tie Michigan for 30th overall in the polls) and enter the top 25.

Also, Illinois loses again (in 4 at home to Michigan). Illinois now 10-10 overall and under .500 in the Big 10. They've played a very hard schedule, but losing a bunch of close matches to good teams doesn't deserve a top 25 ranking.

ETA - actually I forgot we were already ahead of Illinois. But still we have a decent chance of moving ahead of Purdue (and probably should be ahead of Utah too, but those two teams still have to play a lot of good teams in conference so we will eventually move past them in the rankings as long as we keep winning).

Quote:VB Scores
@NCAAVBscores
·FINAL: Nicole Lennon back to her normal efficiency - 18/6/36 (.333), 17 D - as #18 @RiceVolleyball (20-1, 9-0 C-USA) sweeps at Charlotte (13-13, 2-7). Rice has dropped just one total set in 8 true road matches this season, including sweeps at Texas State and Ole Miss. #GoOwls

BTW, for all of Nicole's double doubles over the past 2 seasons (and she already has 13 of those this year in the 21 matches played), her 17 digs last night was a career best, and she did it in only 3 sets. Pretty amazing performance.

On the road at UAB this afternoon.... go OWLS!

Early 8-3 lead in the first!

(11-03-2019 02:12 PM)owl at the moon Wrote:  Early 8-3 lead in the first!

Most encouraging, four different players have kills already.