Hawaii women’s volleyball: Dig Pink Friday, RPI at 9, No. 22 in poll, no weekly honors

Sky Williams took a swing on a set from Bailey Choy at Cal Poly on Friday. UH moved up in the NCAA RPI despite a loss to the Mustangs. / Photo by Alexander Bohlen, Special to the Star-Advertiser

Just learned that Friday’s match vs. UC Riverside is designated Dig Pink for breast cancer awareness
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Big West honors went to
Player of the Week: Lauren Matias, UC Davis (McKenns Ross nominated)
Freshman of Week: Julia Crawford, Fullerton (Amber Igiede nominated)
Defensive POW: Lea Ungar, Cal Poly (Norene Iosia nominated)

Hawaii moved up in the RPI and dropped in the AVCA coaches poll this week.

In the RPI, Hawaii is up from No. 14 to 9.

Wahine opponents in Top 50:
Baylor stays No. 1
6. Washington. 19. Missouri. 22. UCLA. 36. UC Santa Barbara. 39. Cal Poly. 40 San Diego.


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In the coaches poll, Hawaii dropped three spots to No. 22.

The top five remained the same, led by Baylor (61 first-place votes), Stanford (2 votes) and Pitt (1).
Washington moved a spot to No. 10. Missouri dropped three to No. 25.
UC Santa Barbara with 14 points, Cal Poly with 12.

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ICYMI (took Sunday off)
UC Davis def. CSUN, 23-25, 25-15, 25-23, 24-26, 15-10
No. 2 Stanford def. Arizona State, 25-18, 25-21, 25-22
No. 3 Pitt def. Boston College, 25-23, 25-22, 25-23
No. 5 Nebraska def. Michigan, 25-21, 25-22, 25-14
No. 7 Wisconsin def. No. 6 Minnesota, 25-18 25-14, 25-20
No. 11 Washington def. Oregon, 23-25, 21-25, 25-20, 25-18, 25-10
No. 14 Florida def. Texas A&M, 25-23, 25-23, 14-25, 15-25, 15-12
No 16. Cal def. Arizona, 25-23, 25-19, 25-20
No. 18 Utah def. USC, 20-25, 19-25, 25-17, 25-19, 15-11
No. 21 Rice def. Middle Tenness, 25-18, 25-17, 25-10
North Carolina def. No. 23 Florida State, 24-26, 20-25, 25-21, 25-23, 15-10
No. 24 Washington State def. Oregon State, 25-21, 25-21, 18-25, 25-18
No. 25 Louisville def. Wake Forest, 25-17, 25-19, 25-17

COMMENTS

  1. jmy October 14, 2019 9:15 am

    Not a bad drop…don’t understand how Nebraska is still ahead of Wisconsin…


  2. Kaimukian October 14, 2019 10:21 am

    Good that the RPI went up at least. Also, am I reading it right that #16 Cal beat Arizona in the second game 25-1, or is it a typo?


  3. jmy October 14, 2019 10:24 am

    2. 25-19


  4. earl tanaka October 14, 2019 11:30 am

    I’m surprised they dropped only 3 spots, so al is still good. Just need to take care of Cal Poly and UCSB when they come to the Sheriff.


  5. Warrior Lifer October 14, 2019 11:40 am

    In terms of for tournament sake, RPI is weighted more than the AVCA polls right? So being ranked 9th in the RPI is more advantageous than being 22nd in the polls?


  6. Maverick October 14, 2019 11:54 am

    5. Polls are irrelevant for tournament selection purposes. RPI is by far the most important factor.


  7. jmy October 14, 2019 11:55 am

    4…and hope that UCSB beats Cal Poly on Saturday…


  8. WaveRipper October 14, 2019 12:58 pm

    Re: AVCA Poll …….. Everything went as I predicted in my previous post, except Missouri (currently in 10th place in the 13-team SEC) stayed in the Top 25, when it should have been replaced by San Diego (currently 7-0 and in 1st place in the 10-team WCC, just ahead of 6-0 BYU).

    Will the Toreros ride the big MO (12-match win streak) to upset the Cougars (9-match win streak) to reemerge in the Top 25? We will see this week!

    Aside: 9 of the 12-team Pac 12 league members are ranked in the top RPI 50, with the lowest of the Pac 12 teams (Oregon State) ranked RPI 71.

    There is an indirect relation between the number of Pac 12 teams winning bids to the NCAA tournament and the number of teams from the WCC and Big West (widely considered the West’s strongest leagues after the Pac-12) invited to the Big Dance.

    8 Pac-12 teams earned NCAA Tournament bids in 2018, the most of any league. It marked the 5th time in the last 6 years at least 8 Pac-12 teams received bids.

    GO BOWS!


  9. blunite October 14, 2019 1:44 pm

    Most teams rely predominently on the talent of particular players. (Texas, Stanford, Wisconsin, Florida, etc.) Ergo, when talented players graduate or get hurt the record suffers; because the coach is of one mindset and one system, – “plug and play.”

    I give credit to RAM and AL for their efforts to go beyond plug and play in search of the optimum system and lineup. Basically, doing the best with who you have.


  10. WaveRipper October 14, 2019 3:02 pm

    7. Disagree with the first half of your statement: polls such as the AVCA’s are not “irrelevant” but, as the NCAA (Selection) Committee states, they are just one of many tools being used to determine selection (especially, it seems, when considering “bubble teams”).

    100% agree with your second statement: “RPI is by far the most important factor,” and in fact the RPI is the only tool actually put out by the NCAA so it stands to reason that an NCAA tool would be given far more weight by the NCAA than anything else — including private polling organizations such as the AVCA polls which the NCAA has no input concerning their methodology.


  11. Cindy Luis October 14, 2019 3:52 pm

    3. thanks for catching they missing number
    1 & 4. just how the votes go.


  12. Maverick October 14, 2019 4:09 pm

    11. Feel free to disagree, but polls are not relevant. Per the pre-championship manual, polls are not mentioned as an evaluative tool:

    https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/championships/sports/volleyball/d1/women/2019-20D1WVB_PreChampManual.pdf

    See section 2.2 and following


  13. sports for fun October 14, 2019 5:30 pm

    I’m glad that Na Wahine stayed in the polls despite the split. I’m estatic that their RPI rose five spots!! Go ‘Bows!!


  14. Kauaiboy October 14, 2019 8:50 pm

    This setter from Kahuku has BEAUTIFUL hands; where is she headed to for college?


  15. Cruisecontrol October 14, 2019 9:25 pm

    Sorry to bring it up again, but is there any word on the playing status of Jolie and Brooke?


  16. WaveRipper October 14, 2019 10:54 pm

    13. Haven’t looked at the Volleyball Manual since the last decade, and was surprised to see that it even has a new title.

    The language in the current Manual is much more precise than the language used in the last decade. You are right. Polls such as the AVCA’s and rankings such as Pablo’s are not mentioned as evaluative tools.

    However, the door is not entirely slammed shut on polls and non-NCAA RPI rankings. Should the Women’s Volleyball Committee fail to reach an agreement after using all of the stated evaluative tools, it can consider input from regional advisory committees. Yes, these regional advisory committees can be called upon as a “last resort” — as if their advice are irrelevant except when there’s a dire situation.

    There is nothing written in the Manual about what “input” here includes and excludes, and thus does not prevent these regional advisory committees from introducing (for example) the AVCA Coaches Poll as a criteria for consideration. Facts will determine the arguments being made, but I can see a situation where one line of argument could be so-and-so bubble team won X times while the other bubble team won only Y times against a then-ranked AVCA top 25 team.

    __________________

    Aside: I look forward to the day when the NCAA D1 Volleyball Committee seed 64 teams instead of just 16.


  17. noblesol October 15, 2019 12:05 am

    17. As you discovered, the AVCA poll is not being used for NCAA-T selection. It is not specified as a selection criteria or an evaluative tool. If the RACs were called upon for their input re teams in their region (an unlikely event), it is highly likely that RAC would not destroy its credibility, or its members sabotage their own personal integrity, by using the AVCA poll in any capacity.

    The list of issues with the AVCA poll are many, from some members submitting secret ballots, to some ballots being submitted by other than coaches, to some ballots containing obvious mistakes, to some ballots showing obvious bias, and perhaps the worst feature of the poll being that there is no stated standard for how coaches are to rank teams. Are they to rank by weekly performance? cumulative performance to date? multi-year history of superior performance? where they think teams will rank by end of the regular season? by how they think they’d perform in the tournament? The AVCA Poll is a fun thing for the fans and media to toss around. It supports marketing, and provides teams having a good season a way to help drive regular season press coverage and ticket sales, and that is all it is good for.

    It’s clear in the NCAA Championship manual how much weight they give to the AVCA and its totally subjective and flawed poll. “AVCA” and “Poll” appear zero times in the DIV I Championship Manual. OTOH, RPI appears 24 times. RPI has its flaws, but it is the top selection tool because it is a completely objective algorithmic based criteria.


  18. Maverick October 15, 2019 8:17 am

    18. Good to see your post, Noble. I remember your statistical analyses from a couple of seasons ago. Coincidentally, I searched for poll and AVCA in that same document, lol.


  19. Cindy Luis October 15, 2019 5:02 pm

    No update on Monday because the team was off.
    As of Tuesday, nothing has changed. The two still not cleared.


Comments are closed.