(R)uffda!’s Week 4 in Review: Close But No Seger
While we wait – oh, the suspenders! – for the AVCA to release their latest attempt at making sense of the nonsensical, let’s take a quick look at some of the past week’s highlights.
Upsets of the Week
Believe it or not, there just weren’t that many this week. Top 25 teams lost, but, for the most part, they lost to other Top 25 teams – which, in my book, are not necessarily upsets. We’ll tackle those matches a bit later. So we are left with:
Wichita State over #22 Oklahoma, from two games down no less – 25-27, 23-25, 25-18, 29-27, 15-13. Is there any doubt the fans of the Shockers (and even the visiting Sooners) left that match feeling thoroughly entertained? This one is my Upset of the Week.
Boxscore (pdf)
Denver, playing at home, defeated #19 Colorado State 3-1. Interestingly, CSU also lost to Wichita State last week, suggesting two things: maybe the Shockers should be ranked and perhaps the Rams should not be.
#20 Miami-Florida lost 0-3 at Florida State in each team’s ACC opener. I look for the Hurricanes and Seminoles to battle for the conference title, so I can’t really call this one an upset, even if I do list it here, blatantly risking confusing the easily confused.
#23 Duke, in other ACC action, was knocked off by host Wake Forest 1-3. Duke probably falls from the Top 25 this week.
Top 25 Losses
#2 Stanford fell to #1 California at Berkeley, obviously no upset, but interesting nonetheless. Cal shows no sign of falling from the ranks of the volleyball elite.
The pups of #4 Washington were swept, at home, by the enigmatic #13 USC Trojans, but bounced back the next night to post their own sweep, over #6 UCLA, another team starting to flirt with the “enigmatic” label.
#12 Iowa State dropped a pair of road matches, 0-3 in each, to #15 Northern Iowa and to #10 Nebraska. Good news? They didn’t have to travel far.
#21 Pepperdine completed a very, very tough non-conference schedule with back-to-back 1-3 losses to Hawaii out there in the middle of the Pacific. Just how tough was that schedule? Six matches against teams in the Top 25 and another two against teams who probably should be (Florida State and Dayton). The Waves emerge from the end of that gauntlet at 6-5.
Close But No Seger
And let’s not overlook these near upsets, where the ranked were almost forced to take those old records off the shelf and work on mysteries without any clues:
Louisville took both #3 Illinois and #14 Purdue to five, only to lose each match.
Marquette pushed visiting #9 Minnesota to five, as well, only to lose, as well.
Boise State almost made #22 Oklahoma’s week worse than it was, taking the Sooners, on their home court, to yet another fifth game.
Drumroll Please
And this week’s AVCA Top 25 leads one to believe they aren’t even pretending they have a clue anymore. And who can blame them?
Photo by GoShockers, GoDuke, GoStanford, UofLSports
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