#15 St. Thomas bests #20 Concordia

In a key MIAC matchup, UST (12-3, 3-1 MIAC) beat Concordia-Moorhead (12-4, 3-1) in four at the Shoe. The Tommies win creates a four-team tie for second behind front-running St. Olaf (13-3, 4-0).

The Oles beat St. Catherine in four tonight. In a mild upset, Macalester (9-10, 1-3) beat Saint Benedict (10-7, 3-1) in five this evening, creating the four-team logjam.

UPDATED: My flippancy in stating Mac over St. Ben’s was a “mild” upset probably didn’t translate. I knew it had been some time since Mac won a MIAC match. I was surprised to read that Macalester won in the MIAC for the first time since Oct. 30, 2006, or 37 straight defeats. To do it against a top-half team? Well done. And that is not flippant.

UST/CCM box score
Mac/St. Ben’s box score

-Ricky Nelson

Millikin edges Elmhurst

In the first of my top five matches of the week, Millikin beat Elmhurst in five sets. The Big Blue positioned themselves as the top CCIW contender to Carthage’s crown. Millikin (16-2, 3-0 CCIW) and Carthage (14-5, 2-0) are the lone undefeated teams in CCIW play. Elmhurst fell to 10-7 (2-1 CCIW).
Millikin recap

Another result from just outside my top five matches of the week is Concordia (Wis.) over Dominican, 3-2. Dominican and CUW are now tied for third in the NAC with 3-1 records. CUW (13-6 overall) and Dominican (13-5) trail my predicted NAC winner, Benedictine (14-4, 4-0 NAC), and Edgewood (7-10, 3-0) in the early going.
Dominican recap

-Ricky Nelson

Poll: AVCA week 4 rankings

I don’t have time to do my usual rundown, but Carthage jumped from No. 14 to No. 8 with its impressive weekend at the UW-Whitewater Invitational. Whitewater tumbled from No. 5 to No. 11. Besides that, not a lot of movement this week.

UW-Platteville and Millikin finally got some votes. Both are well outside the top 25, but they’re getting recognized at least.

The complete AVCA Week 4 top 25

-Ricky Nelson

My Week 4 top 10

The AVCA poll comes out later today. (My rank last week, AVCA last week)
1. (1,1) Washington 14-0
2. (2,2) Juniata 14-1
3. (5,8) Christopher Newport 14-1
4. (4,3) Emory 13-2
5. (3,4) Wittenberg 13-2
6. (6,6) Eastern 15-1
7. (8,9) Calvin 11-2
8. (9,7) Colorado 15-2
9. (10,13) St. Olaf 12-3
10. (NR,10) UW Oshkosh 13-2
Dropped out: No. 7 (AVCA #5) UW-Whitewater 13-4

-Ricky Nelson

My top 5 matches of the week

The rest of my big matches (and standings) can be found here.
9/28 Millikin vs. Elmhurst
9/29 Concordia-Moorhead vs. St. Thomas
10/1 UW-Platteville vs. UW-Eau Claire
10/2 Dominican vs. Benedictine
10/3 Washington vs. U of Chicago

-Ricky Nelson

Last Team Standing: We have a winner

That didn’t take long. As far as I could tell, there were four undefeated teams in all of D-III heading into Friday. One was idle and the others played a full slate. The “others” all lost in their first matches of the weekend, and the unanimous No. 1 team in the land, Washington University (14-0), is the Last Team Standing in 2010. Wash U is idle until next weekend, when the Bears start UAA round robins.

Eastern lost to Juniata on Friday after 15 wins to open the season.
Connecticut lost to Wellesley on Friday after seven wins.
UMass-Dartmouth had not even lost a set before a sweep by Plymouth St. today.

Wash U is the LTS despite scheduling the following teams:
#2 Juniata
#4 Wittenberg
#13 St. Olaf
#14 Carthage (twice)
#18 Ohio Northern
In those matches the Bears lost two sets. Again, two sets. Juniata took two from Wash U. Against ranked teams, that’s it. Two sets. Wash U is 42-5 overall in sets played.

UW-Platteville, Simpson and DePauw all stole sets from the Bears this season.

-Ricky Nelson

Carthage wins Whitewater Invitational

The No. 14 Lady Reds went 4-0, sweeping No. 3 Emory and Iowa Wesleyan on Friday then beating host and No. 5 UW-Whitewater in five and sweeping No. 22 Chicago today.

Emory and Chicago finished 3-1 at the invite. Whitewater went 1-3 to finish fifth at the seven-team tourney. The Warhawks’ three losses were in five sets.

Key 9/24 results:
#14 Carthage 3, #3 Emory 0
#3 Emory 3, #5 Whitewater 2

Key 9/25 results:
#14 Carthage 3, #5 Whitewater 2
#14 Carthage 3, #22 Chicago 0
#22 Chicago 3, #5 Whitewater 2

I did not see an all-tournament team posted.
UWW Invite site
UWW/Chicago recap
UWW/Carthage recap

-Ricky Nelson

Alverno ties loss record

Alverno tied the D-III record for consecutive losses with two defeats at the Moody Bible Institute Tournament yesterday. Alverno has lost 59 straight matches to tie Washington College (Md.). The Inferno will attempt to end the streak today against Great Lakes Christian in the tournament’s fifth-place match.

Alverno was up seven in the fifth set yesterday against Northland International before falling 16-14.

UPDATE: The Inferno snapped the skid with a sweep of GLCC today. The D-III record remains 59 consecutive losses.
Alverno recap

-Ricky Nelson

#14 Carthage sweeps #3 Emory

No. 14 Carthage and No. 22 U of Chicago both went 2-0 at the UW-Whitewater Invitational tonight.

In the night’s marquee matches, Carthage rolled over No. 3 Emory, 25-13, 25-19, 25-21. Emory bounced back and beat No. 5 UW-Whitewater, 25-15, 22-25, 22-25, 25-21, 15-13 in the last match of the evening.

No other info is available as I head to work. I’ll update this post in the morning.

Tomorrow Chicago, UWW and Carthage will play what amounts to a round-robin for the possible invite title. Matches begin at 10 a.m.

UWW Invite site

UPDATE: UWW/Emory box score
UWW/EU recap

-Ricky Nelson

Last Team Standing: We’re down to 2

It didn’t take long to get our finalists. Eastern and Connecticut both lost tonight, leaving Washington and UMass-Dartmouth as the remaining contenders for 2010’s Last Team Standing.

No. 6 Eastern was swept by No. 2 Juniata; Connecticut lost, 3-2, to Wellesley. UMD plays two matches tomorrow. Wash U is idle until UAA play begins on Oct. 2.

-Ricky Nelson