Volleyball Thread

[CreightonWarrior]

Creighton beats #3 Washington in 4 sets!

[StillAWarrior]

Generally speaking, the BEast has a pretty good opening weekend, going 23-8.  Hopefully the conference can do well to provide an RPI boost.  Marquette over Hawaii and Creighton over UW were huge wins for the conference.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

Its just so frustrating that Marquette can't hold onto their best players. Autumn Bailey and Nele Barber a couple of years ago, and now Taylor Louis transferring this offseason.

Both Autumn and Taylor were on track to absolutely demolishing Marquette's all-time kills record. I just can't see Marquette volleyball ever getting past the opening weekend of the NCAA tournament.

[StillAWarrior]

Once again, as a service to my fellow 'Scoop VB fans, I'll post the Big East recruits listed in Prep's Sr. Aces.  Kicking things off...

86. Claire Mosher, 5-11 S, Waterloo (Wisconsin), Milwaukee Sting — Marquette

Also, in the "just missed" category (i.e., Nos. 101-125):

Sanaa Barnes, 5-9 RS, Byron Nelson (Trophy Club, Texas), Madfrog — Villanova
Ellie Koontz, 6-1 RS, Academy of Holy Angels (Minneapolis, Minnesota), Northern Lights — Marquette

[barfolomew]

And for the true die-hard fans, my daughter's 5th grade team is playing today at 5pm against St. Cletus.
Tough game. Cletus may have three or four girls that serve overhand.

[StillAWarrior]

And for the true die-hard fans, my daughter's 5th grade team is playing today at 5pm against St. Cletus.
Tough game. Cletus may have three or four girls that serve overhand.

I scouted Cletus last week.  Serve it to the tall brunette.

[GGGG]

There's a saint named Cletus?

[StillAWarrior]

Once again, as a service to my fellow 'Scoop VB fans, I'll post the Big East recruits listed in Prep's Sr. Aces.  Kicking things off...

86. Claire Mosher, 5-11 S, Waterloo (Wisconsin), Milwaukee Sting — Marquette

Also, in the "just missed" category (i.e., Nos. 101-125):

Sanaa Barnes, 5-9 RS, Byron Nelson (Trophy Club, Texas), Madfrog — Villanova
Ellie Koontz, 6-1 RS, Academy of Holy Angels (Minneapolis, Minnesota), Northern Lights — Marquette

It took a few days, but we finally have more ranked players that are headed to the Big East.  Unfortunately, in addition to crushing the conference last year, Creighton seems to be doing pretty well on the recruiting trail, too.

49. Jaela Zimmerman, 6-2 OH, Malcolm (Nebraska), VC Nebraska – Creighton
42. Keeley Davis, 6-0 OH, Rock Canyon (Highlands Ranch, Colorado), Momentum — Creighton

[wadesworld]

Looks like a somewhat up and down season for MU so far.  I don't know enough about the women's side to know how the teams we're playing against are, so maybe all the losses are to solid teams.

It looks like they play at undefeated/5th ranked Wisconsin tonight.  Does anybody know if you can get "B1G2Go" with your standard cable subscription if you get normally BTN?  I think I've tried to watch Minnesota (I know one of their assistants) and couldn't but I can't remember for sure.  If not, does anybody know if the match can be found anywhere else?

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

As long as it's not BTN+ BTN2GO is included with almost all cable packages.

[wadesworld]

As long as it's not BTN+ BTN2GO is included with almost all cable packages.

It looks like it is BTN+.  Live stats shows MU is about to go down 2-1 through 3 sets.  25-19, 13-25, and right now it's 20-23 set 3.

[StillAWarrior]

Looks like a somewhat up and down season for MU so far.  I don't know enough about the women's side to know how the teams we're playing against are, so maybe all the losses are to solid teams.

Just some information for you from a site that I subscribe to...in case you're interested.

In the site's human rankings, Marquette is in the "Others receiving votes," in the 39th spot.  In the RPI-like* computer rankings that they publish, Marquette is 44th.  Their average of the teams they've beat is 175; the average of teams they lost to is 23.  They're 0-2 against top 1-25; 0-3 against 26-50; 0-0 against 51-100; 2-0 against 101-150; and 3-0 against 150+

That's probably far more information than you were looking for.


*The actual RPI isn't out yet this season.

[StillAWarrior]

And here are the final tallies of Big East recruits that are listed among PrepVolleyball.com's Senior Aces -- the top 250 players.  Prep names and ranks the top 100, and also names the "Next 150" without ranking them. So, in the list below, the first number in parenthesis is the number of Senior Aces a team recruited from the class of 2018.  The numbers in the second parentheses is the specific rank of the player(s) and the number of "next 150".  There are only three "ranked" recruits in the Big East for next year (compared with four last year).  For the second year running, only Marquette and Creighton landed ranked recruits.  It looks like Creighton has the best class this year.

Creighton (3) (42, 49 + 1 "Next 150")
Marquette (2) (86 + 1 "Next 150")
Villanova (1) (1 "Next 150")
DePaul (1) (1 "Next 150")



And here are the Big East recruits from last year's Senior Aces, in case anyone wants to compare consecutive classes:

Marquette (4) (39, 78, +2 Next 150)
Creighton (2) (98, 99)
Butler (2)
Xavier (2)
Georgetown (1)

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

Not surprising. The Big East is such a poor volleyball conference Marquette should be dancing every year just by the sheer fact they win 15 conference games a season.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

Big win for the Marquette ladies today over #12 Creighton to put them in sole possession of first place in the Big East.

Also, they're pretty much guaranteed a NCAA tourney bid by this point.

[StillAWarrior]

Big win for the Marquette ladies today over #12 Creighton to put them in sole possession of first place in the Big East.

Also, they're pretty much guaranteed a NCAA tourney bid by this point.

That is a fantastic win for the Marquette girls.  Creighton is very tough.  My daughter was very happy to even take a set from them a couple weeks go -- and got absolutely crushed in the other three sets.  She said they are definitely the best team she's played this year.  So...maybe Marquette is even better.  Happy to hear that about my second favorite BigEast team.

The Big East is interesting this year.  Marquette and Creighton are obviously the class of the conference.  After that, it gets dicey.  Georgetown is very frustrating because I think they actually could have a shot at finishing top four this year (or maybe I should put that in past perfect tense..."could have had") and making the conference tournament.  They could easily have been 3-2 in conference right now instead of 1-4; but I fear their window is closing.  Before, if they would have won the matches "they should have" I'd think they would be in the hunt for that No. 4 spot.  Now, they're going to have to win all the ones they "should" and a couple that maybe they "shouldn't."

Anyway, I suspect nobody here cares about Georgetown specifically.  The point being that I think that after Marquette and Creighton in 1&2 and probably Butler in 3, pretty much anybody could make the tournament in that fourth spot.

[wadesworld]

Outstanding news on the big win.

I was at the Minnesota at Wisconsin match on Wednesday.  Two top 10 teams.  Wasn't overly impressed with either.  Certainly good, but some big time holes and technical issues for teams that are ranked in the top 10 in the country in my opinion.  The field house is a great place to have a volleyball match.  It gets loud there.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Through 6 league games Marquette has only lost 1 set. That's pretty impressive. 18-1

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Just some information for you from a site that I subscribe to...in case you're interested.

In the site's human rankings, Marquette is in the "Others receiving votes," in the 39th spot.  In the RPI-like* computer rankings that they publish, Marquette is 44th.  Their average of the teams they've beat is 175; the average of teams they lost to is 23.  They're 0-2 against top 1-25; 0-3 against 26-50; 0-0 against 51-100; 2-0 against 101-150; and 3-0 against 150+

That's probably far more information than you were looking for.


*The actual RPI isn't out yet this season.

Out of curiosity, I looked up the current RPI for all of Marquette's losses. All 5 are currently top 25 RPI teams (5, 7, 16, 23, 25). Unfortunately, they only have 1 top 25 win (#8 Creighton), 1 top 50 win (#43 Hawaii) and 1 top 100 win (#83 Butler). The win against Creighton was huge for them.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

Out of curiosity, I looked up the current RPI for all of Marquette's losses. All 5 are currently top 25 RPI teams (5, 7, 16, 23, 25). Unfortunately, they only have 1 top 25 win (#8 Creighton), 1 top 50 win (#43 Hawaii) and 1 top 100 win (#83 Butler). The win against Creighton was huge for them.

The thing with Big East volleyball is they'll rack up 16 or so conference wins that the RPI won't really matter.

Marquette volleyball is pretty much a shoe-in for the NCAA tourney every single year because of a ridiculous conference record. The issue is they well never get a top 16 seed, and probably never get past the sweet 16, if that.

[wadesworld]

I forgot to mention this in here but Loyola and Lewis men’s will be playing an exhibition match at the Al McGuire Center in November 11. I believe there is an MU women’s match at 6 PM and the men’s exhibition will follow that match, so around 8 PM.

I know when MU added lacrosse it was down to that and men’s volleyball. I’d have to imagine the only reason to host this would be if they are once again considering adding men’s volleyball.

The one big problem is that that is the night of the WIAA boys volleyball state championship. I believe the Finals usually start at 5:30? But I think I heard it’s at 6:00 this year. It’s at Wisconsin Lutheran College so it’s a very short drive away, but still the two teams playing, along with their families, I’d have to imagine will be doing post match celebrations/dinners and won’t be attending the exhibition.

I’m hoping the youngest of my brothers is getting the 4th volleyball state championship in our family that night in his senior season. Which would mean I wouldn’t be able to make the match.

But hopefully they get a good turnout and MU sees there would be support for men’s volleyball if they added it.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

I would love to see a Marquette men's volleyball team, but what would you add for a women's team?

I'd venture a guess the most feasible option would probably be women's field hockey.

[warriorchick]

I would love to see a Marquette men's volleyball team, but what would you add for a women's team?

I'd venture a guess the most feasible option would probably be women's field hockey.

I would think Marquette would add Big East sports that they currently don't participate in before they would add a sport like men's volleyball, where only about 40 schools sponsor teams. 

[B. McBannerson]

I would think Marquette would add Big East sports that they currently don't participate in before they would add a sport like men's volleyball, where only about 40 schools sponsor teams.

I'd prefer they take the approach of adding a sport that fills a need that they can also maximize their ability to succeed.  There are only a handful of midwest schools with men's volleyball, but some good high school talent.  The scholarship limits for men's volleyball mean talent rich states like California only have so many openings to get scholarships.  That is one reason why such good talent from volleyball rich states are playing for Ohio State, Loyola, BYU, and others.  An opportunity for us to pull kids not only from Wisconsin and Illinois where we do so well, but from these other states and establish a very good program quickly.  It also boosts enrollment as 15 or so of these kids will have to pay their own way due to lack of scholarship offer.  The kids sitting on the bench at Penn State, OSU, UCLA, USC, could be starting at MU.  Think Lacrosse.

[StillAWarrior]

The day has arrived, and I have to admit it feels a little odd.  For the first time in my life, I'll be rooting against Marquette today.  Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective), I'm pretty sure that I'll be disappointed.  Marquette on a "normal" day would be pretty much an sure loser for Georgetown...but a pissed off Marquette team?  Yea...this might be hard to watch.

I'd be willing to consider a wager if someone would be kind enough to offer 12 points per set.  And even with that, I wouldn't bet too much.