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Post by havervb on Oct 7, 2011 22:18:10 GMT -5
Huge win for Bowdoin over Williams: from Bowdoin's website: Polar Bears Mount Thrilling Comeback to Earn Historic Win at Williams Courtesy of www.CIPhotography.comWILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. - The Bowdoin College women's volleyball's historic season continued on Friday as the Polar Bears rallied from two sets down to earn the program's first-ever victory over Williams, 3-2 (23-25, 20-25, 25-22, 25-23, 15-8). Bowdoin remains the only unbeaten team in NESCAC play this fall, improving to 14-1 (5-0 NESCAC). The Ephs fall to 11-7 (3-3 NESCAC). The Polar Bears will play Hamilton at Williams on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. Four Polar Bears notched double-digit kills on Friday evening, led by 17 from Kristin Hanczor. Tory Edelman had 12 kills and four aces while Ellie Brennan and Melissa Haskell had 11 kills apiece. Sophia Cornew sparked the team with 54 assists while five Bowdoin players reached double figures in digs, led by 19 from Taylor Vail. Bowdoin had been winless in 28 previous matches against the Ephs, who have won a NESCAC-best nine conference titles. At 14-1, the Polar Bears are off to their best startin program history and have won a program-best 13 consecutive matches.
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Post by mnvb56 on Oct 11, 2011 21:53:16 GMT -5
www.wellesleyblue.com/sports/wvball/2011-12/releases/20111011fud630October 11, 2011 Wellesley Volleyball Upsets #18 SpringfieldWELLESLEY, Mass. -- The Wellesley College volleyball team handed 18th-ranked Springfield their first loss of the season, as the Blue posted a 3-1 (25-15, 25-22, 22-25, 25-20) win over the Pride in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) action on Wednesday night. The win improved Wellesley to 15-6 overall with a 5-1 mark in NEWMAC play. Springfield's season ledger now stands at 21-1, 5-1 in the NEWMAC. Wellesley's Megan Mills had a fantastic day for the Blue, hitting .529 with 10 kills, while also picking up three blocks. Sydney Carfagno recorded a team-high 16 kills, while Caitlin Laughlin had seven kills and three blocks. Isabel Custodio paced the offense with 35 assists, while Traci Hamanaka had 22 digs. Rounding out the stat leaders for Wellesley, Amanda Duritsch added six kills and three blocks. Springfield was led by Lauren Torvi who hammered 16 kills while picking up three blocks. Tessa Smolinski paced the Pride with 12 kills, while Molly Giannattasio dished out 29 assists and added three blocks. Itza Nieves and Meaghan Hart totaled 17 and 14 digs to round out the box score for SC. Wellesley opened a 7-1 advantage in set one, before the Pride trimmed the lead to 9-7. But Duritsch scored six straight at the service line to break the game open as Wellesley cruised to a 25-15 win. Set two was a see-saw affair in the early going until Wellesley used two mini-runs to open a 17-14 lead. Springfield tightened the game with a pair of points, but after an exchange of sideouts Wellesley's Carfagno finished the set with three service points to give the Blue a 2-0 lead. Springfield regrouped for the third set and opened a 12-6 lead at the halfway point. Wellesley responded with four straight, but a six-point run from Springfield's Whitney Miller gave the Pride an 18-11 advantage. The Blue rallied, cutting the lead to 22-20, but Springfield held on for the 25-22 win. In the fourth and deciding set, Wellesley grabbed an early 8-5 lead. Springfield pulled to within one, at 12-11, but the Blue broke away for good with a four-point run from Hamanaka. The Pride surged in the closing points of the set, but a Springfield hitting error gave Wellesley the 25-20 win.
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Post by Momof2D3 on Oct 11, 2011 22:03:22 GMT -5
Custodio ran a great offense and Wellesley played well all around.
I have to say, what a strange court. The court lines are light blue and are tough to see and the big "W" in the 'middle' of the court is off-center.
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Post by mnvb56 on Oct 11, 2011 22:17:58 GMT -5
Custodio ran a great offense and Wellesley played well all around. I have to say, what a strange court. The court lines are light blue and are tough to see and the big "W" in the 'middle' of the court is off-center. I'm not sure if they usually play there or not---they played there for the first time this weekend at the Seven Sisters tournament and when I saw them play in person last year, it was in their smaller gym upstairs. We were watching the online streaming and couldn't really see anything unusual (although, with the general quality of streaming video, we were just glad when we could see the ball! )
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Post by havervb on Oct 13, 2011 7:28:34 GMT -5
Wellesley usually plays all of their matches in the small gym upstairs. I have only seen them use the court downstairs for the Seven Sisters tournament (it is used for all basketball games, but the basketball team can't start practicing until Saturday). Other than being off-center, I have always thought that the downstairs court was nicer. Wellesley did sweep their way through the Seven Sister tournament so maybe they thought it would be a good idea to play more games on that court.
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Post by freeballer2 on Oct 13, 2011 13:55:02 GMT -5
was in NYC recently and dropped by a CUNYAC match since I've never seen a D3 match before. I knew what I was getting into but it was a major difference from watching West Coast D1 that I'm accustomed to. But still a fan of D3 ... true athletes!
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Post by Phaedrus on Oct 17, 2011 10:17:20 GMT -5
For those of you who know Rich Luenemann:
Joan Luenemann (Rich’s wife) suffered a brain aneurism on Friday evening, Rich was able to fly home from Rochester (UAA Round Robin II) early Saturday morning. She had surgery on Saturday and again yesterday to relieve the pressure on her brain and stop the bleeding. The doctors have placed her in a medically-induced coma for two weeks to help her rest and limit the swelling. Rich is taking a leave of absence to be with his family during this crisis. Please do not to inundate Rich with emails or phone calls as he is likely not to reply; Keep the Luenemann Family in the forefront of your thoughts and prayers – the situation is serious, and good thoughts are about the only thing all of us can offer at this point.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 18, 2011 6:16:28 GMT -5
thanks for letting us know, phaedrus.
will be praying for her and the family...
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Post by Momof2D3 on Oct 19, 2011 21:34:42 GMT -5
From newva d3: Crazy night in New England volleyball: Wellesley beats #17 UMass Boston 3-0. Their second win over a nationally ranked opponent in 8 days. Endicott comes back to defeat Tufts 3-2 after falling behind 0-2. Middlebury edges out Plymouth State in a back and forth 3-2 battle. Coast Guard over Trinity 3-1 and Southern Vermont continues to roll through the NECC with a 3-0 win over Lesley.
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Post by NotKingOfAnything on Oct 20, 2011 8:08:06 GMT -5
Attended MIAC match Maccalester at Hamline last night in a battle of conference winless teams, and Hamline came out on top in a sweep.
Hamline has a roster of all frosh except for one sophomore. They will be good - a hard working, scrappy team.
The MIAC is just nuts this year. As it now stands, two conference losses gets you tied for 5th place.
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Post by ned3head on Oct 20, 2011 11:06:02 GMT -5
From newva d3: Crazy night in New England volleyball: Wellesley beats #17 UMass Boston 3-0. Their second win over a nationally ranked opponent in 8 days. Endicott comes back to defeat Tufts 3-2 after falling behind 0-2. Middlebury edges out Plymouth State in a back and forth 3-2 battle. Coast Guard over Trinity 3-1 and Southern Vermont continues to roll through the NECC with a 3-0 win over Lesley. Endicott was down 16-10 in the 3rd, and 8-2 in the fifth. Good team win in that one.
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Post by mnvb56 on Oct 21, 2011 9:22:00 GMT -5
The first DIII regional rankings are out: www.ncaa.com/rankings/volleyball-women/d3/regional_rankingsI'm new to all of this and would appreciate it if someone could explain the process of how the regional rankings are compiled and who votes. I guess I was surprised that Wellesley didn't make the list, after beating the #1 and #3 teams in the region, but it looks like the rankings were made before they beat UMass Boston this week, so maybe next week (especially if they have a good weekend at the Hall of Fame Tournament, where they will play Middlebury and Amherst, among others.) I'm sure that having 6 total losses for the season doesn't help, especially those early losses to WPI and Endicott, but they have everyone healthy now and have settled on a line-up that seems to be working, so I'm hopeful that they will do well this weekend. I'm also curious as what part these rankings play in determining who gets picked for the NCAA tournament for those teams that don't automatically qualify. I suppose there is some kind of manual out there, but I couldn't find it on the NCAA website. Thanks in advance for helping to educate a newbie.
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Post by havervb on Oct 21, 2011 14:22:49 GMT -5
It is my understanding that those regional rankings only take into account results through Oct 16th. New rankings will come out next week. Also, these rankings are published by the same committee that helps to select and seed the NCAA tournament (each region has a committee that spend countless hours seeding their region then the regional chairs spend what has been repeatedly described as the world's longest conference call in an attempt to compare teams from various regions with multiple criteria to set the final NCAA tournament field). So, yes, they are the rankings that determine at-large selections to the NCAA tournament (kind of). Although, that becomes an increasingly complicated situation, especially in New England. There are 8 automatic qualifier conferences, but only four conferences represented in the NCAA's first rankings. If top-seeds get upset in their conference tournament, then it really shakes things up. Plus, how does that late in the season loss effect their new place in the rankings?
The Hall of Fame Tournament (http://athletics.mtholyoke.edu/sports/wvball/2011-12/hof/halloffame) could shine more light on the rankings in New England (and help some teams make a stronger case for being ranked or ranked higher) but could also muddle it even further. The thing to remember is that rankings are far from a perfect science. There are several criteria used to ranked teams and they are often at odds with each other. Also, teams are forced to play a schedule that is largely determined over 6 months prior to a match even being played. Next, it is impossible to account for all of the numerous situations that can effect the outcome of single matches such as which team had a player sick or hurt, or which STUDENT-athlete spent the last three nights studying for an exam or writing a paper or working on a project. Some teams play each other multiple times, some play each other once, others never get the chance to set foot in the same gym. Plus, some teams just match up better against some teams but not as well to others.
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Post by Momof2D3 on Oct 21, 2011 14:31:10 GMT -5
Thanks for the explanation. I've also been wondering about this. Looks like some great match-ups this weekend at the Hall of Fame tourney. It will be interesting.
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Post by bigeastfan on Oct 21, 2011 15:15:14 GMT -5
Kinda curious and was hoping some of you D3 fans and others can help me get perspective. Do you think some of the top D3 teams such as Emory, Wash U can beat D1 programs? Maybe for example, some of Big East programs since I'm familiar with the teams there. What do you think?
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