Last week it was Stevens at the Frog-Jump Invitational getting 3 really nice wins to take back the #1 spot, and this week it was Wentworth returning the favor to get back where they probably belong. The Leopards defeated Misericordia, Baldwin Wallace, and Hobart winning 9 of 9 sets at the first ever Statesmen Volleyball Classic in Geneva, NY over the weekend.
Remember, the T100 is a derivative of ELO which is essentially a point stealing algorithm. So Wentworth’s 3 wins were able to steal .32 points, whereas Stevens wins could only earn .12 points this week. That .2 point difference was enough to be sitting at the top when the music stopped this weekend. That’s what happens as teams become higher rated. Being a stronger favorite to win a head-to-head match begins to limit the point totals available to steal, especially against significantly weaker opponents. When a top 10 type of team plays a team ranked in the 80’s, for example, a win might only steal .01 or less because the favorite would have had close to a 100% probability to win that match. The big winners this week, like any week really, are the dogs who find a way to get it done. Hobart and Wittenberg seized their opportunities to jump more than 10 spots this week by stealing well more than a full point over the course of their matches. (Roughly speaking, 1 point is somewhat on par to 10 ranked spots.)
Don’t forget the P(NB) column is the probability to earn a Nationals Bid given current standing in their conference and/or the position they are in to grab one of two at-large bids should either an AQ or Pool B bid not be forthcoming. Note: I never round up to 100%, so any 99% you see may very well be truncated from what might actually be 99.9%. (As in the case for Springfield and Cal-Lu, for example.)
| RANK | TEAM | CONF | RATING | P(NB) |
| 1 | Wentworth | GNAC | 17.99 | 99% |
| 2 | Stevens | MAC | 17.93 | 99% |
| 3 | Springfield | IND | 17.86 | 99% |
| 4 | Southern Va. | CVC | 17.46 | 72% |
| 5 | Vassar | UVC | 16.91 | 60% |
| 6 | Loras | CCIW | 16.71 | 63% |
| 7 | North Central (IL) | CCIW | 16.10 | 55% |
| 8 | Cal Lutheran | IND | 16.09 | 99% |
| 9 | Juniata | CVC | 15.95 | 40% |
| 10 | Carthage | CCIW | 15.93 | 48% |
| 11 | St. John Fisher | UVC | 15.91 | 31% |
| 12 | Nichols | NEVC | 15.91 | 84% |
| 13 | Nazareth | UVC | 15.85 | 29% |
| 14 | Marymount (VA) | CVC | 15.65 | 26% |
| 15 | NYU | UVC | 15.56 | 20% |
| 16 | Dominican (IL) | NAAC | 14.41 | 43% |
| 17 | Benedictine (IL) | NAAC | 14.21 | 41% |
| 18 | Hobart | UVC | 14.19 | 14% |
| 19 | Lasell | GNAC | 14.06 | 8% |
| 20 | UC Santa Cruz | IND | 14.04 | 14% |
| 21 | Misericordia | MAC | 14.03 | 5% |
| 22 | Messiah | MAC | 13.97 | 3% |
| 23 | SUNY New Paltz | UVC | 13.89 | 8% |
| 24 | MIT | UVC | 13.86 | 1% |
| 25 | Randolph-Macon | CVC | 13.73 | 9% |
To see the whole T100 as it stands on 2/11/24 you can click here.