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.