2017 NIVC

[flyingMoose]

New this year is a post-season tournament for 64 non-qualifiers, something similar to the WNIT in basketball.

Tuesday matches of interest

Campbell v Temple at West Virginia
UNC Greensboro v UCF at Georgia


Thursday matches of interest

IUPUI v Illinois State at Green Bay
Texas Tech v SMU at Texas State

[1972Shocker]

Question: Has volleyball now overtaken women's basketball as the No. 1 women's sport at the college level?

I think a good case could be made that it has. Seems to me like there is much more parity in women's volleyball than in women's basketball and more and more really good female athletes are opting for the volleyball court over the basketball court. There are a lot of very good women basketball players but perhaps not a deep enough talent pool to ever create much more parity than we have and the growth of volleyball certainly is not helping that situation. There seems to be a much deeper pool of good volleyball players. But these are just my general impressions and not sure I could come up with any hard evidence to support these impressions are not at a national level.

I will say that from my own perspective I find women's volleyball much more entertaining than women's basketball and if I was forced to choose one over the other I would pick volleyball. Now if the Shocks had women's basketball team like UConn maybe I would feel differently although after a while that can get old if winning comes so easily and by such large margins. Ho-hum UConn just edged Michagan State 96-62. Sort of like the Globetrotters against the Washington Generals.

[flyingMoose]

Temple thrashes Campbell, 3-0
18 9 16

In a little tighter match, UCF 3-0 over UNC-Greensboro
19 18 22

[1972Shocker]

FWIW, which may not be much, Campbell was the 3rd place team in the Big South (Radford's conference). Radford beat Campbell in both meetings this year 3-1.

[flyingMoose]

On Wednesday, Temple faces West Virginia who defeated UM-Eastern Shore by 3-0. Also on Wednesday, UCF plays Georgia who dispatched Alabama A&M by the same 3-0.

[flyingMoose]

West Virginia 3-0 v Temple
23 18 12

Georgia 3-0 v UCF
17 21 17

[flyingMoose]

Close but,

Texas Tech 3-0 v SMU at Texas State
24 23 20


Also,

Illinois State 3-0 v IUPUI at Green Bay
18 12 16

[flyingMoose]

Green Bay 3-1 v Illinois State
23 19 (18) 24

With this match, the "teams of interest" have been eliminated from the NIVC.

[JayJ79]

Green Bay 3-1 v Illinois State
23 19 (18) 24

With this match, the "teams of interest" have been eliminated from the NIVC.

There was a whopping 175 in attendance at that match, according to the box score.
I mean, I could see that sort of attendance with a neutral site match, but it was at Green Bay and they only drew 175??

[1972Shocker]

Makes you wonder if the NIVC will be around very long.

[flyingMoose]

The last four standing are Texas Tech at TCU (Thursday) and West Virginia at Ole MIss (Saturday). The Championship match is next Tuesday.

This is a revival of the tournament after a six-year run from 1989-1995. That is actually seven years, but their site says six.

[flyingMoose]

Texas Tech 3-1 TCU
The Red Raiders won all three matchups of the season.

[flyingMoose]

The other semi-final

Ole Miss 3-0 v West Virginia


The Championship

Ole Miss 3-0 v Texas Tech

The Rebels played all five of their matches on their home court, losing only one set.