Congrats to the women. There have been so many sports going on that it's tough to keep track of each one. But the format for the conference volleyball tournament is interesting.

According to the league web site, the top four teams in each division following the regular-season will qualify for a single-elimination, three-day championship. The winner will gain the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Championship.

What I'm curious about is how they determine seeds 1-8 if there are ties (or uneven amounts of games). If both teams hold serve, Rice and WKU will both be 12-0. Realistically, WKU would deserve a 1 seed based on their overall record (and top-25 ranking), but one can never tell with CUSA. If both teams are on their games, Rice and WKU will be in the finals regardless of seeds 3-8. Still, it would be nice to have some sort of bracket in place prior to the tournament (like the conference did for basketball). If it was one division, the seeds would be easy to figure.

(03-14-2021 04:28 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Congrats to the women. There have been so many sports going on that it's tough to keep track of each one. But the format for the conference volleyball tournament is interesting.

According to the league web site, the top four teams in each division following the regular-season will qualify for a single-elimination, three-day championship. The winner will gain the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Championship.

What I'm curious about is how they determine seeds 1-8 if there are ties (or uneven amounts of games). If both teams hold serve, Rice and WKU will both be 12-0. Realistically, WKU would deserve a 1 seed based on their overall record (and top-25 ranking), but one can never tell with CUSA. If both teams are on their games, Rice and WKU will be in the finals regardless of seeds 3-8. Still, it would be nice to have some sort of bracket in place prior to the tournament (like the conference did for basketball). If it was one division, the seeds would be easy to figure.

I’m sure it’ll be same as for basketball.

1W v 4E, winner plays 2E v 3W winner.

On the other side it would be
1E v 4W in the other semifinal against 2W v 3E.

Top two teams from same division can’t meet until final.

Much better start to game 2, 25-13.

Video stopped working, but Rice leads 21-15 in the 2nd.

Video comes back with UTEP scoring 3 in a row. Rice calls timeout, 21-18.

And UTEP has taken the lead after a service ace and back to back Rice attack errors. 24-25

Rice responds with a kill by Adekunle and a service ace by Grippo. UTEP attack error ends the 2nd, 27-25.

Rice wins the 3rd set despite Lennon not having a single kill, 25-19. Sweep!
Kills: Lennon 9, Adekunle 8, Bichelmeyer 7
Assists: Graham 25
Digs: LaBue 12, Lennon 12, McCardell 10
5 service aces, 5 service errors

Rice sweeps. 1st time in school history we finished the regular season (in conference play) with an undefeated record (12-0). Although that's a bit misleading since we didn't play the best team in the conference.

Owls take Set 3 25-19.

Tia Grippo with great serving to close out Set 2 and Set 3.

Not Rice related but an intersting read. La Salle is cutting volleyball after this season but are still playing this year with 6 players. They are 4-0.

https://volleyballmag.com/la-salle-volleyball-031521/

Relatively easy win despite not playing particularly well. Aside from Anota (8 kills for .500 attack%, 5 blocks) and Kostelick (5 kills for .625 attack%) everyone else had a sub-par, inefficient offensive performance. Was UTEP stacking the outside today leaving the middle more open to attack than yesterday? Arguably Nicole's worst offensive performance of the year (9 kills for .139 attack%), but as usual, she contributed in other areas (1 ace, 1 block, 12 digs). We hit only .196 as a team, but held UTEP to just a .045 attack%.

We had 8 more total kills and 8 less attack errors (due to our 4 additional blocks), and that was really the only difference in the match, yet resulted in a relatively easy sweep (save for the tight second set).

We're going to have to play better than that if we're going to be competitive against Baylor, UT and WKU. Volleyball "exam" period upcoming.

(03-14-2021 07:57 PM)owl at the moon Wrote:  

(03-14-2021 04:28 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Congrats to the women. There have been so many sports going on that it's tough to keep track of each one. But the format for the conference volleyball tournament is interesting.

According to the league web site, the top four teams in each division following the regular-season will qualify for a single-elimination, three-day championship. The winner will gain the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Championship.

What I'm curious about is how they determine seeds 1-8 if there are ties (or uneven amounts of games). If both teams hold serve, Rice and WKU will both be 12-0. Realistically, WKU would deserve a 1 seed based on their overall record (and top-25 ranking), but one can never tell with CUSA. If both teams are on their games, Rice and WKU will be in the finals regardless of seeds 3-8. Still, it would be nice to have some sort of bracket in place prior to the tournament (like the conference did for basketball). If it was one division, the seeds would be easy to figure.

I’m sure it’ll be same as for basketball.

1W v 4E, winner plays 2E v 3W winner.

On the other side it would be
1E v 4W in the other semifinal against 2W v 3E.

Top two teams from same division can’t meet until final.

We're likely going to be playing Marshall (6-4 in conference play) or Old Dominion (4-4) in the first round. Those two teams play each other next weekend (at ODU). If Marshall sweeps, MTSU can sneak in there if they can somehow manage a Covid cancellation of their 2 matches against WKU.

(03-15-2021 02:33 PM)dragon2owl Wrote:  Not Rice related but an intersting read. La Salle is cutting volleyball after this season but are still playing this year with 6 players. They are 4-0.

https://volleyballmag.com/la-salle-volleyball-031521/

Despite cutting seven sports, LaSalle will still field 18 varsity teams next year.

University Statement Wrote:... the university (said it) could no longer sustain an athletic department that offered more Atlantic 10-sponsored teams than any other in the conference at a school positioned in the conference's bottom quartile in enrollment.

... "the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic further accelerated the need for this change."

The university said keeping the programs in the current climate "would have required a financial commitment of at least $100 million in endowment, scholarship aid, and capital investment."

Quote:VB Scores
@NCAAVBscores
FINAL:
@RiceVolleyball
(13-3, 12-0 C-USA) finishes perfect conference season, fighting off a set point in S2 to earn a sweep at UTEP (6-6, 4-4). #GoOwls #NCAAVB

VB Scores
@NCAAVBscores
Rice now gets a pair of huge shots to make their at-large case:

Friday: #6 Baylor comes to Houston (BU will also play UH the day before)
Next Tuesday: Rice goes to Austin for rematch of their 2019 stunner of #2 Texas

Volleyball tournament should be just about set. ODU has to play Western Kentucky again today but that's another likely WKU sweep. If that plays out as expected, you'd have the following....

West -- (1) Rice, (2) UTEP, (3) UAB, (4) North Texas (UTEP still plays USM today too but they swept them yesterday so I'm assuming they win again today).
East -- (1) Western Kentucky, (2) Charlotte, (3) Marshall, (T4) ODU and MTSU. ODU and MTSU split so if you go on a regular tie-breaker (best win), I actually think MTSU will get the edge since they beat Marshall once.

So I'm thinking our first round match-up will be with MTSU.

Honestly, this conference is all about Rice and WKU. We struggled to close out some matches but won them all. Anything less than a conference tournament finals of those two teams will be a disappointment.

(03-27-2021 07:18 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Volleyball tournament should be just about set. ODU has to play Western Kentucky again today but that's another likely WKU sweep. If that plays out as expected, you'd have the following....

West -- (1) Rice, (2) UTEP, (3) UAB, (4) North Texas (UTEP still plays USM today too but they swept them yesterday so I'm assuming they win again today).
East -- (1) Western Kentucky, (2) Charlotte, (3) Marshall, (T4) ODU and MTSU. ODU and MTSU split so if you go on a regular tie-breaker (best win), I actually think MTSU will get the edge since they beat Marshall once.

So I'm thinking our first round match-up will be with MTSU.

Honestly, this conference is all about Rice and WKU. We struggled to close out some matches but won them all. Anything less than a conference tournament finals of those two teams will be a disappointment.

And we pretty much knew this before the season even started. WKU is clearly the cream of the crop, though they've yet to be tested (they've lost just 3 sets the entire season) and have played a very weak schedule. This is an upperclass-laden squad who have played together for 3 years now. Very balanced offensively, extremely efficient and have one of the best service games in the nation. I believe they have at least 3 regulars who deploy the power jump serve. Having said that, they're quite the caliber of Texas or even Baylor (who have lost only one match outside the 3 losses now to UT).

Bickelmeyer needs to get out of her recent funk-- she's had two consecutive real stinkers; so bad that Genny benched her for the final 3 sets vs. UT....and Courtley needs to become more consistent-- she'll have one solid match followed by a horribly inefficient one.

CUSA VOLLEYBALL TOURNAMENT
QUARTERFINALS
Thursday, April 1
Match 1: (1E) No. 18 WKU vs. (4W) North Texas – 12 PM, ESPN+
Match 2: (2W) UTEP vs. (3E) Marshall – 2 PM, ESPN+

Match 3: (1W) Rice (RV) vs. (4E) Middle Tennessee – 5 PM, ESPN+
Match 4: (2E) Charlotte vs. (3W) UAB – 7 PM, ESPN+

SEMIFINALS
Friday, April 2
Match 5: Match #1 Winner vs. Match #2 Winner – 12 PM, ESPN+
Match 6: Match #3 Winner vs. Match #4 Winner – 2:30 PM, ESPN+

CHAMPIONSHIP
Saturday, April 3
Match 7: Match #5 Winner vs. Match #6 Winner – 12 PM, ESPN+

I'm glad UTEP is out of our bracket. They not only played us very tough, but they ended the season red hot, with 3 consecutive sweeps.