Updated RPI
1. Texas
2. Louisville
3. Ohio St.
4. Nebraska
5. Pittsburgh
6. Stanford
7. Wisconsin
8. San Diego
9. Minnesota
10. Houston

13. Creighton
16. Rice
17. UCF
20. Oregon
24. Baylor

36. LSU
40. WKU
42. Texas Tech


71. Kansas St.

109. UTEP
128. North Texas

154. MTSU
157. UC Davis
159. Charlotte
162. UAB
165. FAU
166. UTSA
223. FIU
239. LA Tech


https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/volleyball...eyball-rpi

Updated Coaches Poll

1. Texas (1600)
2. Louisville (1530)
3. Nebraska (1469)
4. San Diego (1396)
5. Wisconsin (1299)
6. Ohio State (1281)
7. Stanford (1225)
8. Pittsburgh (1179)
9. Minnesota (995)
10. Georgia Tech (989)

14. Baylor (663)
18. Creighton (576)
20. Oregon (443)
21. Rice (293)
23. WKU (206)
24. Houston (117)

Others receiving votes and listed on two or more ballots: Southern California 101; UCF 91; Arkansas 36; Washington State 10; Towson 6; LSU 5
https://www.avca.org/polls/di-women/2022...-2022.html

I thought Towson might make the rankings, but they were upset over the weekend by a very average Elon team. Texas is the lone unbeaten team in the country now.

(10-17-2022 02:43 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(10-17-2022 02:06 PM)dragon2owl Wrote:  Updated Coaches Poll

1. Texas (1600)
2. Louisville (1530)
3. Nebraska (1469)
4. San Diego (1396)
5. Wisconsin (1299)
6. Ohio State (1281)
7. Stanford (1225)
8. Pittsburgh (1179)
9. Minnesota (995)
10. Georgia Tech (989)

14. Baylor (663)
18. Creighton (576)
20. Oregon (443)
21. Rice (293)
23. WKU (206)
24. Houston (117)

Others receiving votes and listed on two or more ballots: Southern California 101; UCF 91; Arkansas 36; Washington State 10; Towson 6; LSU 5
https://www.avca.org/polls/di-women/2022...-2022.html

Wow, previously #24 Michigan loses in 4 very tight sets to #5 Wisconsin, with every set going extras, and they not only drop out of the Top 25, but they're not even receiving votes.

They are #25.

Adekunle and Graham won CUSA Offensive Player of the Week and Setter of the Week for the second consecutive week.

So, we're 2-2 vs. Top 25; 3-2 vs. Top 30. Not a bad resume. Now all we have to do is find a way to return to our early season form. If we can't dominate and easily sweep FIU at home on Friday it may be time to hit the panic button. They're one of the two worst teams in CUSA (5-15, 2-5 CUSA, 3-12 away from home). They've been swept 7 times and have lost in 4 sets in 6 other matches.

I’m expecting nothing less than 25-3, 25-1, 25-2 vs FIU

I’m exaggerating, but I do echo Walt’s point that we need a convincing sweep to get some swagger back.

(10-17-2022 05:34 PM)owl at the moon Wrote:  I’m expecting nothing less than 25-3, 25-1, 25-2 vs FIU

I’m exaggerating, but I do echo Walt’s point that we need a convincing sweep to get some swagger back.

Agree with your numbers, but they are in the wrong order. Should be -3, -2, -1 to show us getting stronger as the match progresses.

(10-17-2022 07:55 PM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(10-17-2022 05:34 PM)owl at the moon Wrote:  I’m expecting nothing less than 25-3, 25-1, 25-2 vs FIU

I’m exaggerating, but I do echo Walt’s point that we need a convincing sweep to get some swagger back.

Agree with your numbers, but they are in the wrong order. Should be -3, -2, -1 to show us getting stronger as the match progresses.

I disagree

“I hate it when we start slow”

\sarcasm

(10-19-2022 06:08 AM)owl at the moon Wrote:  

(10-17-2022 07:55 PM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(10-17-2022 05:34 PM)owl at the moon Wrote:  I’m expecting nothing less than 25-3, 25-1, 25-2 vs FIU

I’m exaggerating, but I do echo Walt’s point that we need a convincing sweep to get some swagger back.

Agree with your numbers, but they are in the wrong order. Should be -3, -2, -1 to show us getting stronger as the match progresses.

I disagree

“I hate it when we start slow”

\sarcasm

Either way, the original numbers are in the wrong order.

For a second there, I thought I logged into HornFans... good to see some healthy criticism of a 17-2 team...we've been playing really poorly during this 13-1 run.

(10-19-2022 11:06 AM)Houston Owl 2 Wrote:  For a second there, I thought I logged into HornFans... good to see some healthy criticism of a 17-2 team...we've been playing really poorly during this 13-1 run.

Look, certainly winning ugly is better than losing. However, as a avid fan and supporter of Rice volleyball, and a follower of women's college volleyball (watching many of the elite programs when they play on ESPN), I'm going to call a spade a spade...and an honest appraisal of our level of play the past 3+ weeks is that we have not been performing at a Top 25 level. The offense has been somewhat out of sync all season, from the get go, but it has become even less efficient of late, and the defense has fallen off from the elite level it was playing at earlier this year (and our front line defense has been almost non-existent). Are you seriously going to question that assessment? Both the eye test and analysis of the stats would say otherwise.

(10-19-2022 02:15 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(10-19-2022 11:06 AM)Houston Owl 2 Wrote:  For a second there, I thought I logged into HornFans... good to see some healthy criticism of a 17-2 team...we've been playing really poorly during this 13-1 run.

Look, certainly winning ugly is better than losing. However, as a avid fan and supporter of Rice volleyball, and a follower of women's college volleyball (watching many of the elite programs when they play on ESPN), I'm going to call a spade a spade...and an honest appraisal of our level of play the past 3+ weeks is that we have not been performing at a Top 25 level. The offense has been somewhat out of sync all season, from the get go, but it has become even less efficient of late, and the defense has fallen off from the elite level it was playing at earlier this year (and our front line defense has been almost non-existent). Are you seriously going to question that assessment? Both the eye test and analysis of the stats would say otherwise.

To Walt's point, we can support the team in every way we can and cheer to the point of laryngitis, but as long as we aspire to a sustained ranking higher than our current standing, we want to improve. And who better than us armchair....liberos... to discuss it?

Maybe its more of a question of seeing how good we can actually be...

We watch football and see us lose to a team that we should have beaten... so we complain about that. With volleyball, its more like baseball used to be. We beat teams we should beat... but we seem to struggle more than we should.... and that is a concern because of course, once you hit the tournament... anything can happen and all the teams are good.

Which may bring us to the real point. Maybe volleyball has hit the point where the coach feels they can experiment with some things 'live' which make a lot of games closer than they should be and helps us be better prepared for tougher games. We can keep a player who is not going all out in practice on the bench when we could really use them to encourage them to get better and still win.

(10-19-2022 03:21 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:  Maybe its more of a question of seeing how good we can actually be...

We watch football and see us lose to a team that we should have beaten... so we complain about that. With volleyball, its more like baseball used to be. We beat teams we should beat... but we seem to struggle more than we should.... and that is a concern because of course, once you hit the tournament... anything can happen and all the teams are good.

Which may bring us to the real point. Maybe volleyball has hit the point where the coach feels they can experiment with some things 'live' which make a lot of games closer than they should be and helps us be better prepared for tougher games. We can keep a player who is not going all out in practice on the bench when we could really use them to encourage them to get better and still win.

Bones, I could be wrong, but the only "experimenting" Genny has done the past few weeks is having Courtley, Bichelmeyer and Adekunle rotate to the back line in an effort to improve our service game. Not sure it has helped in that area as Danyl and Anota are prone to service errors (though they do have some aces), and it's weakened out back line defense. Earlier in the year, neither Courtley or Bichelmeyer rotated to the service line and Adekunle was usually pulled for Izzy. Our back line was essentially some combination of the Maruska, McCardell, Harris and Mansfield quartet-- our strongest diggers by far.

(10-19-2022 03:21 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:  Maybe its more of a question of seeing how good we can actually be...

We watch football and see us lose to a team that we should have beaten... so we complain about that. With volleyball, its more like baseball used to be. We beat teams we should beat... but we seem to struggle more than we should.... and that is a concern because of course, once you hit the tournament... anything can happen and all the teams are good.

Which may bring us to the real point. Maybe volleyball has hit the point where the coach feels they can experiment with some things 'live' which make a lot of games closer than they should be and helps us be better prepared for tougher games. We can keep a player who is not going all out in practice on the bench when we could really use them to encourage them to get better and still win.

All explanations about the team's play lately also have to take into account the straight-set beatdown at home by a team ranked slightly higher than Rice.

The last of the D1 undefeated is no more. Iowa State shocked the Longhorns in a 5-setter tonight after knocking off Baylor a couple weeks back.

Iowa State was swept by both Creighton and LSU earlier this year. So perhaps our RPI gets a bit of a bump?

(10-20-2022 06:58 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Iowa State was swept by both Creighton and LSU earlier this year. So perhaps our RPI gets a bit of a bump?

Not much. Rice is still at #16.
http://ncaastats.figstats.net/volleyball-rpi.cgi

(10-20-2022 11:29 PM)dragon2owl Wrote:  

(10-20-2022 06:58 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Iowa State was swept by both Creighton and LSU earlier this year. So perhaps our RPI gets a bit of a bump?

Not much. Rice is still at #16.
http://ncaastats.figstats.net/volleyball-rpi.cgi

That ranking came out before the Texas loss.