Week 5 Wrap-Up

Sorry I haven’ t posted in a while.  I haven’t been on top of the world of women’s college volleyball like I should, and I still haven’t figured out the best way to recap every important match now that we’ve moved onto conference play.  I guess I’ll have to grope around for the best way to blog; till then, I’ll just put down what should amount to a rough draft and see if it’s readable:

Here is this week’s AVCA poll.  The Top 25 remain the same.  And the Top 5 remain in order: Penn St., Texas, Washington, Hawai’i, and Florida.  Do we have a bit of separation?

• Finally the Lady Lions start picking on teams their own size, and picking on is the right phrase.  They introduced then-#15 Illinois to a little bit of prison sex Saturday on the Illini’s home floor, 11-17-17.  Not only do they remain undefeated, they still haven’t even dropped a set.  I still don’t think their non-conference schedule is anything to write home about, but they nevertheless remain on top of the AVCA.  (Illinois, by the way, actually rose three spots to #12.  You gain rank by being swept at home by the top team in the land?)
• A crashing end to an historic streak for Nebraska Saturday afternoon.  The second-ranked Texas Longhorns march into Lincoln and defeat them in four sets, ending the Huskers’ 82-match winning streak at the NU Coliseum.  It’s the first time Nebraska has lost at home since Missouri did it in 2003, and it’s the first time the Longhorns have won at Nebraska since ’88.  Nebraska thus drops from sixth to tenth.  It’s the fourth loss for a Huskers squad who not only have gotten the short end of the stick against similar-ranked competition (Michigan, UCLA), but has already suffered the inexplicable upset loss (Wednesday at Texas A&M in four sets) that should worry coaches and fans because it’s so rare.  Meanwhile, Texas, who scalped its fourth Top-10 scalp this season, remains second in the poll, and they take their turn against Texas A&M tonight/Wednesday.  (You should be able to watch the game here.)
• Sure sign that third-ranked Washington is the shizznit in the Pac-10: Their sweep of then-#7/current-#7 Oregon, 18-24-19, at Oregon Friday night.  It’s the third Top-10 foe they’ve swept; in fact, like Penn St., they haven’t even lost a set.  Congratulations, by the way, to Huskies Senior Libero Tamari Miyashiro, who broke the school record for most digs in a career during Washington’s sweep at Oregon St. Sunday.  Miyashiro is the two-time Volleyball Magazine Defensive Player Of The Year, and with the way she and her team is going, three in a row is not out of the question.
• Game Of The Weekend?  I think I’ll give it to the Big Spike (nice name!), Cal’s five-set win over Stanford Friday night.  The Bears thus leapfrog the Cardinal, the former going from #12 to #9, the latter from #10 to #11.  This is the Bears’ sixth win in a row, and so far they seem to be coping with the season-ending injury to Middle Hitter Shannon Hawari well.  One other note: It’s good to see the fans turn out for a record-setting crowd of 4,189 at Cal’s Haas Pavilion.
• Turmoil in the Pac-10 Friday evening: Arizona rises up and beats USC in four sets in Tucson, while Arizona St. bushwhacks UCLA in Tempe, 16-22-22.  Symetrically, The Women Of Troy defeated the Sun Devils and the Bruins downed the Wildcats the next night, both in four sets.  (I like the Pac-10 because the ten teams are geographically grouped into five pairs, and each weekend one pair visits another; they just play one of the teams one night and switch opponents the next night.)  The AVCA still has both SoCal schools ranked ahead of both Arizona schools (Arizona St. still isnt’ even in the Top 25), but I think this portends more of a fight to see which team can challenge the Bay Area schools and, maybe, Washington for conference supremacy.
• Congratulations are in order for San Diego Head Coach Jennifer Petrie, who achieved her 200th career win as her Toreros swept San Diego St., 21-17-14, at home Friday night.
• What happened to Iowa St.?  They had a hangover from their loss to Texas, judging by their sweep at Baylor Wednesday night.  They Cyclones fall from #11 to #14, while the Bears rocket up five places to #19.
• The last three teams in the AVCA are barely holding on after losing to unraked squads.  UC-Irvine slips three to #24 after blowing a two-set lead and losing at home to UC-Santa Barbara.  Wichita St. played only once this past week and were vanquished in five sets at Missouri St. Friday evening; for that, they dropped five spots to #25.  Probably most shocking of all, Michigan St., who began Big 10 play undefeated, dropped its first two conference match-ups in four sets, at Purdue Friday and at Indiana Saturday.  The Spartans, who didn’t really play anybody besides USC (a game they won in five), seem to have been exposed.  They freefell seven spots to #23.

Week 4 Wrap-Up

Not much significant movement — the Top 5 of Penn St., Texas, Washington, Hawai’i and Florida remain the same — but the usually-static AVCA poll saw a lot more movement after the relatively ubiquitous upsets of the weekend.

Pac-10 teams take the extremes of the poll.  The fast riser of the week is Oregon, which impressed pollsters with its five-set defeat of then- and current #9 Minnesota in the match of the Pioneer Classic Friday.  They are now one of only six undefeated teams in the poll and rocket up five places to 7th.

The freefaller of the week, however, is UCLA.  The former 7th-ranked Bruins went into the Brea Embassy Suites Fullerton Classic and dropped two of their three games, both against Big West Conference teams.  On Friday night, Cal St.-Fullerton beat UCLA, 3-2, for the first time ever in 29 games all-time.  The Bruins had completely made the host Titans their bitches up till then; in fact, not only had they never lost, but they had dropped only two sets in those previous 28 meetings.  They rebounded by ruining Fordham Saturday afternoon, but that night their mojo was completely gone as they were swept, 19-16-14, by Long Beach St. (who were put back into the poll at #25).  They were punished by tumbling all the way to 14th.

Other teams in the Top 25 were upset or had the fear of Jesus instilled in them.  Michigan lost for the first time this season, getting swept in their own Michigan/adidas Invitational, 25-22-23, by Others Receiving Votes team Oregon St.  They drop two spots to #8.  And UC-Irvine drifted down from 18th to 21st as a result of Thursday’s lost to host San Diego.  Meanwhile, Florida barely remained unbeaten after surviving Ole Miss in Friday’s SEC opener.  Setter Kelly Murphy had to notch a triple-double (20 kills, 32 assists, 16 digs) to keep the Gators in fifth place in the current AVCA.  And the Gators’ arch-rivals, Florida St., had to survive a five-set slugfest with Notre Dame Sunday.  For their tireless work, the Seminoles gained one spot to #18.

But perhaps the team that got the luckiest this week is Nebraska.  The Huskers swept their first two Big 12 games against inferior competition and moved from eighth to sixth largely on (my opinion) their name.  Both Bay Area squads went 2-0 in their shared tournament this weekend.  Hawai’i pushed Pepperdine out of the Top 25 after back-to-back sweeps on The Island.  And to prove yet again that they deserve the #1 ranking, Texas blitzed a good Iowa St. team Friday, 22-24-17.

I’ll be taking a trip for the next few days, and because there are no more non-conference tournaments, I’ll be taking a few days off and modifying my blogging schedule when I come back.  I don’t know if I’ll be able to post as soon as I return, so I’ll quickly note some games of note between now and, say, this time next week:

• Penn St. at Illinois, Sat. at 7 (all times CDT);
• Texas at Nebraska, Sat. at 1 (this one will be a war);
• Washington at Oregon, Fri. at 9
• Arizona hosts USC and UCLA, Fri. at Sat. at 8

Week 4 Preview

This represents the final week of out-of-conference schedules and games.  Already the Big 12, SEC and MVC have or will begin conference play.

When it comes to tournaments, the big one (and that’s putting it mildly) is the Pioneer Classic in Denver.  The two big teams in this one are Minnesota (ranked #9 in the AVCA poll this week) and Oregon (12).  Weirdly, the four-team tournament isn’t a pure round-robin; the Ducks will not play Georgia Tech:

• Friday: Oregon vs. Minnesota, 6 (all times CDT)
• Friday: Georgia Tech at Denver, 8:30
• Saturday: Oregon at Denver, noon
• Saturday: Minnesota vs. Georgia Tech, 2
• Saturday: Minnesota at Denver, 8:30

The Big 10 hasn’t started conference play yet; Michigan (6), enjoying its highest-ever ranking, host the Michigan/adidas Invitational with Receiving Vote teams Dayton and Oregon St.  The two games being played Saturday will be at Crisler arena, the place the basketball team plays:

• Friday: Oregon St. vs. Dayton, 10 a.m.
• Friday: Marquette at Michigan, noon
• Friday: Marquette vs. Oregon St., 4:30
• Friday: Dayton at Michigan, 6:30
• Saturday: Oregon St. at Michigan, 2:30
• Saturday: Dayton vs. Marquette, 4:30

The Bay Area schools, Stanford (11) and Cal (13), are paired in the Pac-10/WCC Challenge.  They both host two other (minor) Bay Area teams.  (By the way, Cal was dealt a blow with the announcement Wednesday at their Middle Hitter, Shannon Hawari, is gone for the season.  She will undergo surgery to repair a torn ACL in her left knee.  Apparently she tore it in the first set of their loss to Hawai’i 9/6.)

• Friday: San Francisco at Stanford, 9
• Friday: St. Mary’s (CA) at Cal, 9
• Saturday: St. Mary’s (CA) at Stanford, 6
• Saturday: San Francisco at Cal, 9

Finally, in the lower reaches of the AVCA, UC Irvine (18) and San Diego (23) clash at the San Diego Tournament.  Well, actually clashed; they started this tournament Thursday night:

• Thursday: Toreros blows two-set lead but hold on to upset Anteaters in five
• Friday: UC Irvine vs. San Jose St., 9
• Saturday: San Jose St. at San Diego, 3

Otherwise, conference play is where the big matches are at.  Texas, which kicked off Big 12 play by sweeping Baylor (24) in three sets, hosts Iowa St. (10) Friday at 6:30.  Fast-rising Kentucky (16), which was upset midweek by Louisville, begins SEC play by visiting LSU (RV) Sunday at 2.  And in a special non-conference WCHA-style two-fer, Hawai’i (4) of the WAC hosts Pepperdine (25) of the WCC.  They will play games Friday and Saturday at 7 Hawai’ian, midnight Central.  (And you can hear on the radio over the Internet.)

Week 3 Wrap-Up

Not a whole lot of change from last week.  Teams beat the teams they were supposed to beat, largely.  AVCA poll for the new week here.  Summary:

The big winner of the week is Washington, which was the team of the Tampa Twice Tournament this past weekend.  They had matches against Minnesota and Florida, both Top 10 teams, and not only did the Huskies beat them both, but they swept them both.  And yet, because they were ranked behind both Penn St. (which swept three more bad teams and won another non-league tournament) and Texas (which beat, I guess, the second best team of Italians they could put together), they remain third in the rankings.  If I had a vote, I’d put Texas first, Washington now second, and Penn St. third.  But I don’t have a vote.

What’s this … Nebraska falling to 8th?  They lost at home to UCLA in an early-season candidate for Match Of The Year, but read this article: There were some very important milestones in this five-setter.  This was the largest crowd to ever watch a regular-season volleyball game (eclipsing a record … also set at the Devaney Center, Nebraska’s basketball court), the Huskers now are a part of the eight largest crowds in NCAA history, and their loss to the Bruins is the first time they’ve lost at home in more than four seasons and after 90 straight wins.  What’s even weirder?  The MVP of the Ameritas Players Challenge was UCLA Setter Lauren Cook.  Her father, John, is the Head Coach of Nebraska.  Awkward!

How about a surprise team: Kentucky.  The Varney’s Kansas St. Tournament wasn’t the most prestigious invitational of the week, but the Wildcats proved it could beat a ranked team on the road, as they did to the host, uh, Wildcats in four sets.  They are 16th in the AVCA and one of nine teams in the Top 25 that are undefeated … well, uh, were undefeated.  The team visited intra-state archrival Louisville for the first time in three years Wednesday night, and before a record crowd of 1,270 (that pales to what Hawai’i or Nebraska gets, but if it’s a record, good for them), UK went down in defeat for the first time all year.  A somewhat bitter pill to swallow, I presume.

Riser Of The Week is Arizona.  The Wildcats (what’s up with all these Wildcats?) followed up their Thursday sweep of Santa Clara with another sweep of Utah on Friday.  This was a tourney to watch because ‘Zona was just 25th in the poll while the Broncos and Utes were two of those “Others Receiving Votes” teams, and thus it seemed like the Santa Clara Tournament would be a close one.  Not so; thus, the Wildcats move up to #21.  (Also watch for Florida St. and Wichita St., both of which swept road tournaments.  The Shockers stand out for three reasons: they won theirs out of state; they followed that up with a three-set sweep of the Italian A2 National Team, the same team that dropped two matches to #2 Texas over the weekend (maybe this Italian national team isn’t as good as I thought); and they have the Collegiate Volleyball Update National Player Of The Week, Outside Hitter Emily Stockman.  Here’s her bio.

Fallers Of The Week: St. Louis and Pepperdine, both down six.  The Salukis, labeled here as The Hardest Working Team In Women’s College Volleyball, finally ran out of gas last weekend in the State Farm Illini Classic.  They may have looked ahead to the host Illini Saturday when they were swept by Cincinnati.  The day was completely lost when they lost to Illinois in four.  They are now #22 in the poll, three spots ahead of Pepperdine.  The Waves are barely hanging onto the AVCA after a five-set upset loss to Army in their own tournament, the Asics Classic.  They may slip out of next week’s poll because Wednesday night they lost at home to seventh-ranked UCLA.

In a huge clash of Western powers, Hawai’i beat Stanford in three sets, notching the 1,oooth win in program history.  As a result, the Rainbow Wahine goes from sixth to fourth in the poll, while the Cardinal slip a spot from #10 to #11.  On the other end of the AVCA, Kansas St. was replaced in the poll by Baylor, who went to 11-0 after winning a tournament in Albuquerque, N.M. — but has now lost for the first time this season, because they lost in straight sets to the Texas Longhorns at Austin Wednesday night.

Week 3 Preview

Sorry this is coming to you late.  A lot of drama at home.

Also, I can’t find the Volleyball Magazine poll for the week.  Is there one reliable spot I can find it?  If there’s anyone out there who knows – anyone out there reading this blog, in fact – holler at me.

The big tournament for the week (and once again, this week’s offerings pale in comparison to the bang-up match-ups we had Opening Weekend; it’s kind of like NASCAR, when they begin with Daytona and then go to, oh, I don’t know, Watkins Glen), is the Tampa Twice Tournament.  There are four teams, three of them ranked in the AVCA Top 10, but it’s not a true round-robin, thereby depriving us a meeting between the Florida (ranked 4^th) and Minnesota (9).  But this will be a baptism by fire for Washington (3), which faces both (all times CDT):

• Friday: Huskies take out the Gophers 21-19-23
• Friday: Florida at South Florida, 7
• Saturday: Washington vs. Florida, 5
• Saturday: Minnesota at South Florida, 7

The other four tournaments I highlight feature only two teams ranked in this week’s AVCA.  Nebraska (5) hosts the Ameritas Players Challenge.  The match to watch will be against UCLA (8).  A lot of people in Lincoln will be watching; so much, in fact, that this is the only match of the six that will be played in the Devaney Center (the basketball court) and not the much-smaller NU Coliseum.  Also, for some reason, this tourney started Thursday and will end Sunday afternoon:

• Thursday: The Bruins beat BYU in four sets
• Thursday: The Huskers blitz Virginia 3-0
• Friday: UCLA vs. Virginia, 4:30
• Friday: BYU at Nebraska, 7
• Saturday: Virginia vs. BYU, 4
• Sunday: UCLA at Nebraska, 2

It has to be because Hawai’i is too damn far.  It seems unfair that the Rainbow Wahine (6) get to host all three of their non-conference tournaments, but it’s a testament to the program, headed by Coach Dave Shoji since 1975, that volleyball programs from the mainland are more than happy to play there (well, it’s a testament to the weather also).  The third and final tourney is the Honolulu Advertiser Volleyball Challenge, the marquee competition of which for the hosts in 10^th-ranked Stanford.  This also started on Thursday, which makes me play catch-up for the blog:

• Thursday: Stanford destroys UT-San Antonio 17-11-9
• Thursday: Hawai’i has no trouble with Weber St. 13-13-17
• Friday: Stanford vs. Weber St., 10
• Friday: UT-San Antonio at Hawai’i, midnight
• Saturday: Weber St. vs. UT-San Antonio, 10
• Saturday: Stanford at Hawai’i, midnight

Quite possibly The Hardest Working Team In Women’s College Volleyball so far this year is the St. Louis Salukis (16).  They have stuck around the bottom half of the AVCA for three weeks despite playing in tournaments where they weren’t the top team.  They haven’t been quite successful (disregarding non-ranked teams, they are 1-3), but this isn’t, like, the Florida football team.  They face competition slightly closer to them in the State Farm Illini Classic, hosted by Illinois (14) in Champaign, Ill.:

• Friday: St. Louis defeats Illinois St. 21-22-18
• Friday: Cincinnati at Illinois, 7
• Saturday: Illinois St. at Illinois, 10 a.m.
• Saturday: Cincinnati vs. St. Louis, noon
• Saturday: Illinois St. vs. Cincinnati, 4:30
• Saturday: St. Louis at Illinois, 7

For the fifth and final tournament of the weekend I highlight, look down the AVCA poll to two lurkers who could make noise if things break the right way.  At the Varney’s Kansas St. Tournament in Manhattan, Kan., the two top squads are the host Wildcats (21) and Kentucky (17), who for some reason will not be the culminating match of the tournament:

• Friday: Purdue (RV) has its way with Portland 21-23-16
• Friday: Kentucky at Kansas St., 7:30
• Saturday: Purdue vs. Kentucky, 10:30 a.m.
• Saturday: Portland at Kansas St., 12:30
• Saturday: Kentucky vs. Portland, 5:30
• Saturday: Purdue at Kansas St., 7:30

Other notables … top-rated Penn St. continues to play relatively puny competition; they travel to Duke for a tournament where the host Blue Devils (RV) are the best opponents; the Lady Lions already took care of Loyola (MD) in straight sets … what could be a very tight tournament will take place in Santa Clara as the host Broncos and Utah, both receiving votes in the AVCA, will square off against 25^th-ranked Arizona; Santa Clara, by the way, already lost to the Wildcats in three sets … Texas (2) goes international this weekend: They face the Italian National A2 Team, a quasi-all-star team, I guess.  Here’s a quick blurb on this barnstorming team … and Oregon (12) – well, they play no one this weekend.  Lucky Ducks.

Week 2 Wrap-Up

New AVCA poll here.  Some analysis:

-I’m kind of shocked that Texas, which captured the Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Classic Championship by beating three ranked teams, isn’t #1.  The “a team can’t lose the #1 spot until they lose” rule is bullshit.  Penn St. is very, very good.  They may even turn out to be better than Texas.  But there is no use in a poll if it doesn’t accurately reflect the accomplishments of a team right now.  And the fact is that the Lady Lions, who are undefeated and have yet to drop even one set, have played only one team that is ranked (St. Louis).  That is dominating.  Compared to the Longhorns, who have dropped four sets in beating five opponents — all of them ranked — it is far from impressive.  Yet Penn St. collects the vast majority of first-place votes for the third straight time (although they lose two; Texas picks up one; and I’m guessing that there are two less votes this time around because a couple of them got caught up in Labor Weekend vacation plans).

-The other three teams in the tournament played paper-rock-scissors; they each lost to one team as they beat the other.  The pollsters of the AVCA raised the Salukis up three spots to #16, but dropped Hawai’i and Cal.

-As I thought, the semi-final of the 31st Annual Bankers Classic between Florida and Stanford would produce the winner; the Gators beat the Cardinal in five, then dropped a set to San Jose St. in the championship game.  They nevertheless rise a spot to #4.

-Relatively no problems for the Huskers of Nebraska.  They win the LSU Tournament, but they were taken the distance by the host Tigers.  No matter; they’re fifth, up a spot.

-The Gophers exact a miniscule amount of revenge on the team that upset them in last year’s NCAA tournament.  Minnesota defeated Iowa St. on their way to winning their Diet Coke Classic for the eighth time in nine years.  That leapfrogs them past the Cyclones, landing at #9 (high riser of the week, jumping four spots).  Iowa St. actually rose a place to #11.  In fact, that is the Cyclones’ highest poll appearance ever.

-USC claimed the Holiday Inn L.A. City Center Trojan Invitational, sweeping Pepperdine in the process.  And yet, the Women Of Troy float up a spot to #15 and the Waves go up two notches to #19.

-Droppers of the week: Illinois, which fell six places to #14 after getting swept by Florida St. (which enters the AVCA at #22); San Diego, which dropped a pair of games to Receiving Votes also-ran UCSB twice at home (for which they were punished by free-falling nine spots to #24); Purdue, falling out of the poll after dropping a five-setter to Baylor, host of their Baylor Classic; and Utah, which for some reason lost matches in the Utah Valley Classic to host Utah Valley and Washington St.  The latter was a sweep, which may be the reason why the Utes went from #17 to out of the poll.

Week 2 Preview

I apologize.  I still am trying to get the hang of how best to frame my blog, and it’s hard to do that when you have so many other things, writing and otherwise, you have to do.  This week has been kind of hectic, and so I overlooked the fact that because of Labor Weekend, many of this weekend’s tournaments actually started today (Thursday).  I should’ve been more on the ball, and I’m sorry.  Also, I have to use my lack of time to devote to Libero Or Libero? to not being able to give a combined poll out this week.  I didn’t think I had to because I couldn’t find the latest weekly Volleyball Magazine poll or even if there was a weekly Volleyball Magazine poll.  But I saw that there was – with points! – so I could’ve done it.  Now that I know that I could look at the Oregon athletics site, as well as others, I have the resources to resume my combined poll.

This is the second week of tournaments, but it seems like the big splash of Opening Weekend has given way to a bare cupboard of tournaments of note.  Many more seem to use regional, if not local, teams to fill out the field.

However, there is one incredible tournament to watch this weekend, and it’s off the mainland: the Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Classic features four teams that are all in the Top 20 in both the AVCA and Volleyball Magazine polls.  You can make a case that if any team that comes out of this tourney 3-0, they should be ranked first – I’m serious (all times CDT):

• Thursday: Texas (2 AVCA/2 Volleyball Magazine) beats Cal (10/8) in four sets
• Thursday: Hawai’i (4/4) beats Saint Louis (19/18) in four sets
• Friday: Cal vs. Saint Louis, 10
• Friday: Texas at Hawai’i, midnight
• Saturday: Texas vs. Saint Louis, 8
• Saturday: Cal at Hawai’i, 10

After that the pickings get slim; at best the tournaments feature only two teams that even garner votes in both polls.  The best of these probably is the 31^st Annual Bankers Classic in Stockton, Calif.  The toast of the tournament is Florida (5/5), the team that may finally represent the SEC with a team that can go far in the postseason.  The other team of note is Stanford (11/12), which suffered an inexplicable loss in three sets by Notre Dame last week.  This is a playoff-style tourney:

• Friday: Florida vs. Stanford, 7
• Friday: San Jose St. at Pacific, 9
• Saturday: losers, 7
• Saturday: winners, 7

Meanwhile, this is the 14^th edition of the Diet Coke Classic from Minneapolis.  The main clash to watch is host Minnesota (13/10) against Iowa St. (12/13).  There is very recent history between the two squads; in the second round of the NCAA Tournament last year, the Cyclones came into the Sports Pavilion and absolutely shamed the Gophers, considered the sixth-best team in the field, in four sets.  I was at that game, and I did something I swore I would never do: I left before the game was over.  I am a Gophers fan, but that was embarrassing:

• Friday: Iowa St. vs. George Washington, 5:30
• Friday: Auburn at Minnesota, 8
• Saturday: George Washington at Minnesota, 10:30 a.m.
• Saturday: Iowa St. vs. Auburn, 1
• Saturday: Auburn vs. George Washington, 5:30
• Saturday: Iowa St. at Minnesota, 8

The two teams that matter in the Holiday Inn L.A. City Center Trojan Invitational are the co-hosts – USC (16/15), which stubbed its toe against Michigan St. last weekend, and Pepperdine (21/19), 3-0 and rising:

• Thursday: USC beats Florida Gulf Coast in three sets
• Thursday: Pepperdine beats Northern Arizona in three sets
• Friday: Florida Gulf Coast vs. Northern Arizona, 6:30
• Friday: Pepperdine vs. USC, 9
• Saturday: Northern Arizona at USC, noon
• Saturday: Florida Gulf Coast at Pepperdine, 3

It was somewhat difficult to find a worthy fifth tournament to watch, but I’ll settle on the Tiger Classic being held at Baton Rouge, La.  It’s possible that host LSU (RV/RV) could jump up and surprise Nebraska (6/6), who were themselves surprised by Michigan in last weekend’s preeminent Runza/AVCA Showcase, held in their home state.  Each of the four teams plays the others, but the two-day tournament is split evenly at three games apiece, meaning that two of the teams play two games on Friday, and the other two play two on Saturday.  I find that weird and a bit unfair.  Also, it’s worthy to note that one of the teams competing is Tulane.  They were supposed to begin their season last week like every other normal team, but they cancelled their appearance in the Bluejay Invitational in Omaha, Neb., because some of the players may have had the H1N1 swine flu:

• Friday: Louisiana-Lafayette vs. Nebraska, 11
• Friday: Tulane vs. Louisiana-Lafayette, 5
• Friday: Nebraska at LSU, 7:30
• Saturday: Louisiana-Lafayette at LSU, 10 a.m.
• Saturday: Tulane vs. Nebraska, 12:30
• Saturday: Tulane at LSU, 8

Nearly everybody else plays teams out of their league in tournaments over Labor Weekend; consensus #1 Penn St. hosts a tourney where they’ll whip on Pittsburgh (RV/NR), Buffalo and Robert Morris … the only ranked team not to be invited to a party over the holiday is San Diego (15/17); they instead will host UC Santa Barbara for two games.

Week 1 Wrap-Up; New Poll

First AVCA poll after the season started is here; some analysis, along with results from the weekend:

The team of the week, and the biggest riser in the poll, is Michigan.  They won the weekend’s premier tournament, the Runza/AVCA Showcase, not just by beating presumptive host and #3 ranked Nebraska, but by sweeping them.  They followed that by beating Kansas St. in four sets, resulting in a nine-place leap in the poll to #7, its highest poll ranking in program history.  Nebraska, meanwhile, salvaged their weekend by beating Minnesota in five sets; they’re ranked 6th.  And Kansas St. lost both their games (they went the distance in their loss to the Gophers) yet slip just one spot in the AVCA to #23.

Also having an impressive debut to the ’09 season is Hawai’i.  It got progressively tougher for the Rainbow Wahine, but they dispatched borderline-NCAA tournament teams Western Michigan (in 3), Santa Clara (in 4) and the toughest competition in their Chevron Rainbow Wahine Invitational, UCLA (in 5).  For that they rose three spots to #4.  (By the way, UCLA stayed where they were at #9.)

Heartbreaking weekend for the hosts of the Long Beach St. Baden Classic.  The Beach had #2 Texas on the ropes, but All-American Destinee Hooker’s 23 kills and Heather Kisner’s 29 digs led the Lady Longhorns to a five-set comeback win.  Coupled with a four-set loss to San Diego, Long Beach St. is now out of the poll.  Texas and San Diego stay at numbers 2 and 15, respectively.

Colorado St. were walked all over on their tournament and home floor, too.  Sunday’s sweep of Cal Poly (who themselves were shut out by a combined nine sets to one) did little to salve their season-opening sweeps at the hands of Pepperdine and Oregon St.  It was a good weekend in the Mountain time zone for the Waves, however; they won the Asics/Coors Classic by going 3-0 and dropping only one set.  For that they get into the AVCA poll at #21.

Cal was one of several ranked teams that stumbled in their opening tournament.  For the Bears it was their first game, a 3-2 loss to UC Irvine, the winners of the Nevada Marriott Courtyard/Fairfield Invitational.  The Anteaters were the victors of the tourney, going 3-0 with wins over UConn and host Nevada; for that, they enter the poll at #22.  Cal slips from 6th to  10th.

Other ranked teams that lost this weekend were: Stanford, which got swept at Notre Dame and had to fight off SEC contender LSU in five sets, neither an encouraging sign (they slide from #5 to #11); Minnesota, the victim of Nebraska’s bounce-back five-set win (#11 to #13; by the way, for some reason they’re playing in the Mid-Atlantic for games last night and tonight); USC, which dropped a five-setter to Michigan St. in their first game of the season (#12 to #16); Purdue, also losing a five-setter, to Dayton, in their home tournament (#19 to #24), and Wichita St., blitzed 3-0 by Pittsburgh (#18 to #25).  Michigan St., propelled by their win over the Women Of Troy and a 3-0 record for their MSU Showcase, led Pepperdine and UC Irvine into the AVCA for the first time; they took the place of the Beach, the Rams of Colorado St. and the Broncos of Santa Clara.

Oh yeah, and by the way, Penn St. didn’t drop a set in their Active Ankle Challenge tournament victory in St. Louis.  They claim all but eight first-place votes as they stay on top of the poll.