Other Scores of Interest

[1972Shocker]

MVC Teams - Friday, August 24th

Arizona 3 - Evansville 0
Evansville 3 - Utah Valley State 1

Eastern Michigan 3 - SIU 1
SIU 3 - Memphis 0

Bradley 3 - Elon 0

VCU 3 - Illinois State 1

Creighton 3 - Central Florida 1

Indiana State 3 - Butler 1

UW-Green Bay 3 - Drake 0

Purdue 3 - UNI 0 (23-25, 23-25, 18-25)

Oklahoma 3 - Missouri State 1 (19-25, 26-24, 25-17, 25-23)

Including the Shocks loss to New Mexico State the MVC opened the season at 5-7 today with no signature wins. In fact the top 3 teams in the MVC lost today. UNI and MSU were competitive against very good opponents.

[JayJ79]

Actually, Creighton beat UCF.

And starting off today's action, UNI swept Pittsburgh, 25-19 25-21 25-13.

Not the best of starts for the Valley. I have a feeling that conference RPI may be a bit lower this season than it has in previous seasons. UNI will likely pick up another loss or two (@USC, possibly @ Iowa State, maybe another amongst Michigan, Marquette, LBSU) in their non-conference slate. Although I have to admit that I haven't yet studied the schedules of the rest of the MVC quite yet.

But even with a slightly worse RPI than normal, the MVC can still make some noise in the NCAA.

[1972Shocker]

Actually, Creighton beat UCF.

I'll take your word for it. I took the info from the MVC web site which as of 1:45pm Saturday still shows Creighton losing that match.

I corrected my original post.

Shocks have a long way to go if they are going to be a factor in the NCAA Tournament.

[1972Shocker]

#15 Tennessee lost at home in straight sets to #12 Florida State (27-25, 25-15, 25-21) on Friday. The Vols came back to defeat Cincinnati on Saturday 3-1 (25-12, 23-25, 25-19, 25-14).

BYU picked up sweeps over Arkansas State and Air Force in relatively easy fashion in it first two matches at the Rice Invitational.

#25 Colorado State, hosting its own tournament, swept Virginia (18,13,20) in its opening match of the season on Friday.

[1972Shocker]

Creighton off to a 3-0 start on the year topped of with an impressive 3-1 best down of Wisconsin in Tampa, FL tonight.

Shocks may very well find themselves in 4th place this year.

[1972Shocker]

The Valley went 15-15 on the first weekend of play.

As usual the standings can look odd in non-con play depending on how tough teams choose to play in the non-con season. Bradley was 3-0 this weekend but did not paly a tough schedule with those wins coming over Elon, N.C. Central and Winthrop. OTOH, Missouri State is 0-3 but they played the toughest lineup this weekend at Oklahoma vs the Sooners, Tulsa and a very good Western Michigan squad (the MAC favorite).

Creighton off to a very good start with wins over Central Florida, South Florida and Wisconsin. UNI had a solid start with wins over Pitt and George Washington after falling to #9 ranked Purdue in its opening match.

The Shocks were probably fortunate to come out of the weekend at 2-1 against good competition but they showed they have a lot of work to do. Next weekend will be a huge challenge for the Shocks.