I have to apologize to our readers for my lack of writing this year. The demands of my day job, Coaching, and running FrogJump have prevented me from writing as much as I used to. The downsides behind waking up at 4am and your day ending around 10pm are much harder to ignore as I get older, so I haven’t been able to keep up as much (I’m old).
However, I wanted to bring back the D3 Review at the halfway point of the season, a segment where I used to reflect on the happenings around the landscape as the best played each other week in and week out. We’re approaching the end game of the 2024, so I wanted to highlight some of the storylines I’ll personally be paying attention to as Conference play begins and we get closer to April.
1. More Than One Contender
After Stevens won the championship last year, the entirety of their starting lineup committed to returning to play using their 5th year of eligibility. This sent a profound warning shot across the landscape early into the summer, and many people were talking about how Stevens would run roughshod over DIII again on their way to a repeat championship.
Not only was this narrative challenged at the beginning of the season, but it has also been completely flipped on its head. As of this moment, there are five programs standing on equal footing by my eyes as they enter the next half of the year capable of winning the NCAA Championship.
Wentworth: The current #1 team in the AVCA coaches poll remains undefeated and cemented their claim at the top of the mountain by defeating Stevens earlier this season. Outside Hitter Jacob Labouliere remains the biggest cheat code in D3VB, and other teams have yet to find a way to contain him as he puts together a player of the year campaign.
Stevens: The reigning NCAA champions, the Ducks only loss this year was a cincoset battle with #1 Wentworth in Boston. Their resume includes wins over Juniata, Carthage, Benedictine, New Paltz (2x), Springfield, NYU, MIT, and St. Joseph (LI). The T100 match predictor essentially has a rematch between them and Wentworth as a 50/50 split on a neutral site.
Southern Virginia: The Knights shocked the world when they upset Springfield in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last year. They’ve begun the season 15-0 and have passed the eye test when it comes to the talent necessary to make a deep run in April. The one “knock” on Southern Virginia up to this point of the year is their Strength of Schedule, as it pales in comparison to the other contenders at the season’s midpoint. Their matches against Vassar and St. John Fisher this weekend carries some extra weight as they look to prove their contender status before CVC play begins.
California Lutheran: No team won the early season more than the Kingsman. The addition of LIU transfer Jordan Cooper has paid off tremendously, and California Lutheran currently has wins over Vassar, Carthage, NYU, Dominican, North Central, Messiah, and UCSC (2x). If the season ended today they’d be one of the independents in the tournament, so barring any end of season meltdowns we should expect to see them in April.
Loras: The Duhawks sent a clear message to the landscape when they swept California Lutheran in January. It was a sign of things to come, as they currently remain undefeated with additional wins over Dominican, Benedictine, and most recently Carthage. They have firmly established themselves as the favorites of the CCIW, and so far are the best of the Midwest pending any surprises in their remaining CCIW matches (2 versus North Central, 1 versus Carthage).
2. The Independent Race
This year the NCAA Tournament will consist of 16 teams; 11 Pool A bids (conference champions) 3 Pool B bids (Independent programs) and 2 at large bid recipients (pool c). These numbers were based on the addition of several mens programs over the last few years, and the current lack of a Pool A bid for the NECC conference.
As it stands, the four schools currently in position to seriously compete for these bids are …
- Cal Lutheran
- Springfield
- Nichols
- UCSC
Given the results up to now, Cal Lutheran and Springfield have claims to two of these three Pool B bids. The third bid is where things get interesting, as it is currently a race between Nichols and UCSC.
On talent alone, Nichols is easily one of the 10 best teams in the country (just my opinion). An experienced squad with decent wins over Hobart, Baruch, New Paltz, Misericordia, Lasell, and Rutgers-Newark. Their narrow 5-set loss to Springfield was about as close as it could get.
They have the current lead in the horse race from my view, but it is tenuous. Looking at their schedule, they only have one more chance to get a prominent win on their resume with a rematch against Springfield at home. Meanwhile, UCSC has matches against St. John Fisher, Wentworth, Cal Lutheran, North Central, and Marymount left on their schedule. UCSC can theoretically pull off a late season run to claim the 3rd bid with several wins in these matchups (they might need to win all of them, but that’s for the committee to decide not me).
More Good Teams
This year, more than any other in my time covering D3VB, we have seen the rise of new programs to national prominence as Volleyball continues to grow across the country. Programs like Misericordia, Baldwin Wallace, Nichols, Hobart all represent a growing trend of newer programs rising to contend with the blue bloods of the old D3VB landscape. It’s one of the reasons the AVCA moved to a Top 20 poll instead of a TOP 15.
This is very good for our sport, as the talent (players and coaches) spreads out across the landscape giving athletes more options to play at the collegiate level. You’re going to see this profoundly affect the postseason picture, whether it’s in Conference Playoffs or the NCAA Championships.
4. Regional Rankings
I’ll have bracketology segment coming out discussing the upcoming NCAA regional rankings. But as a quick prelude, as much as everyone likes to brag about where they land in the Coaches poll every week, the ONLY rankings that really matter in March/April are the NCAA Regional rankings. This is because these are the only rankings the NCAA selection committee considers when it comes to selecting Pool B/C bids for the NCAA tournament. As an example, It is WAY more beneficial to be ranked 1st in your regional ranking than it is to be ranked 19th in the AVCA poll (made this situation up at random and 99% positive it’s right most of the time).
I have no idea what the regional ranking numbers look like (not information I have access too), and I won’t get that information until the public does on March 27th. However, with the shift to four regions from last year’s three, there’s going to be 24 ranked teams in total this season compared to last year’s 21. I’ll dive into this effect later in March when we get to Bracketology season. Until then, see you!