SMU Tournament

[1972Shocker]

Colorado State swept #12 Pepperdine last night.

Saw that (@The Mad Hatter reported that last night- #84. Also @WuDrWu reported BYU swept a pretty good Utah team last night). The CSU win came on the heels of a nice win over Oklahoma last Sunday. CSU is definitely tough to beat in Fort Collins. BYU swept Bowling Green today to go to 8-0 on the season and play Portalnd State tonight. Tennessee has 2 sweeps under its belt this weekend over George Washington and Boston College and they play host Maryland tonight.

Creighton notched a 3-1 win over a very good Tulsa team today at Northern Colorado's tournament. That is shaping up to be a very key and very tough match next Saturday in Omaha. Creighton plays Northern Colorado tonight in Greeley.

UNI swept Wake Forest at the Marquette Tournament earlier today and they play #23 Michigan this evening. That should be a good one.

Former Shocker opponent Northern Illinois is at Missouri State tonight.

New Mexico State lost in 4 sets to #12 Pepperdine today in a very competitive match (25-16, 22-25, 23-25, 23-25). The Aggies play Colorado State tomorrow.

North Dakota State beat Milwaukee in 5 sets last night but they were swept by Wisconsin today (22,20,23) in Madison. NDS plays Drake from the MVC tonight and should win that match. North Dakota State is only 2 - 6 at this point but they have played a tough schedule with losses to New Mexico State, Norhtern Illoinois, Wichita State, Oklahoma, Norhtern Colorado and Wisconsin plus they play at Minnesota on Monday. They are favored to win the Summit and they should be well prepared for league play.

Auburn swept SMU this afternoon 20, 18, 17.

[1972Shocker]

Northern Iowa falls to #23 Michigan in 4 sets. 16-25, 25-23, 17-25, 25-27.

Missouri State lost in 5 sets to Northern Illinois at home. 16-25, 25-20, 25-17, 19-25, 13-15. NIU is no pushover.

Creighton sweeps Northern Colorado to improve to 8-1 on the season.

[SpanglerFan316]

SIU is also 8-1.

[1972Shocker]

SIU is also 8-1.

In recent years SIU's VB program has followed the Tim Jankowicz philosophy in their non-conference scheduling.

Over the previous 5 seasons SIU's non-conference record is 44-9. An average of about 9-2. Three of the 9 losses were to Iowa, Illinois and Purdue. However, the other six losses were to William & Mary (2), Tennessee-Martin, Memphis, and Kent State.

During this time they made the MVC Tournament (top 6 teams) twice, losing in the 1st round both times. Over the 3 years from 2008-2010 they were 30-2 in non-con play making the MVC Tournament 1 time.

Now SIU has made a coaching change this year and they generally have decent athletes. We will have to see if it is different this time around, but at this point it is very hard to know if that is the case. At best I see them making the MVC Tournament this year as a 5 or 6 seed.

[1972Shocker]

UNI closed out the Marquette tournament in style today with a tough 5-set win over host Marquette (19-25,25-23, 17-25, 25-21, 17-15).

Marquette beat #23 Michigan 3-1 on Friday.

BYU finished off their weekend with a 3-0 sweep of Portland State and Tennessee swept Maryland to win the Maryland Invitational.