2014 meeting report highlights

The D-III women’s volleyball committee met in late January. The report of those meetings was released today. Here are the highlights.

• There were 43 Pool A bids, 2 Pool B bids, 19 Pool C bids in 2013. The NCAA anticipates the breakdown will be 44-0-20 in 2014 because the Southern Athletic Association gains its Pool A. The committee report says there will be seven Pool B teams in 2014. I have not checked thoroughly, but seven appears to be the correct number. There would have to be approximately nine Pool B teams in order to necessitate one Pool B bid next year. My rough math projects 414 Pool A teams and 44 Pool A conferences in 2014 (414/44 = 9.409).

• The committee would like to publish four weekly regional rankings instead of the current three. Alas the final set of rankings (those used for selection purposes) would still go unpublished under this proposal. Teams are considered ranked at the time of selection, so no set of rankings matter besides the set used at selection time. Not sure what there is to hide with the last set of rankings. Transparency is good. Not publishing them — I’m just saying at some point before the next season — seems like an unnecessary crutch.

• The committee also proposed ranking eight teams in each region rather than the current formula of the top 15 percent of each region and a minimum of six teams. I won’t bore you with the minutia of why, but I like that idea. However, if approved, I hope the committee doesn’t think that the playing field would then be level in all regions in terms of selection criteria with that one simple change. It would help, but certain regions would still have scheduling advantages/disadvantages with the strength of schedule disparities, results against regionally ranked teams, etc.

• It appears that nonconference strength of schedule will be a primary criterion next season. I’m on board with that.

• The 2014 and 2016 championships will be held Friday through Sunday. The 2015 and 2017 championships will held Thursday through Saturday because they will be at Calvin. Calvin is one of several programs that do not play on Sundays. The NCAA honors those requests whenever possible.

• The committee spit-balled the idea of combined D-I, D-II and D-III women’s volleyball championships in 2020, the 40th anniversary of the D-III women’s volleyball championships. As you probably know the men’s basketball divisions held combined championships in Atlanta last season and the response was generally positive despite the difficult logistics and planning.

• It’s not in this report, but the American Southwest Conference and the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (in other words the Texas D-III programs) will move from the South Region to the West Region in 2014. That is a long-overdue filling of the West void. There will be other changes to next year’s Pre-Championship Manual, but that can wait for another day and another post.

-Ricky Nelson

Crown names new head coach

Danielle Hall was named the new head coach at Crown last week. Hall was most recently an assistant at Legacy Christian Academy in Andover, Minn.

-Ricky Nelson

Updated (3/18): 2 Central/Midwest region head coach listings still open

Two head coach positions in either the Midwest or Central region are still listed on an NCAA jobs site. Iowa Wesleyan and Lakeland are both seeking head volleyball coaches, according to NCAA Market.

The IWC listing said it anticipated hiring a new coach between late February and mid-March. The Lakeland listing was posted March 4 and did not contain specific dates.

NCAA Market also shows an opening for an assistant at Chicago and a grad assistant at Illinois Wesleyan. Another notable listing around the D-III volleyball landscape was for an assistant position at Juniata.

Update (3/18): Lakeland press release regarding Kim Bukowski’s resignation.

Update (3/18-19): Abbey Sutherland guided Wisconsin-Stevens Point to the 2013 national semifinals in her first season at UWSP. The NCAA Market now shows an opening for a Pointers women’s volleyball head coach. Sutherland was an interim hire last season.

-Ricky Nelson

NPU’s Switzer earns NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship

North Park senior outside Shelby Switzer was named an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship recipient last week.

Switzer was a four-time all-College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin player, a four-time recipient of the CCIW’s Jack Swartz Academic Award, and a 2013 Third Team Academic All-American. Switzer was one of three Division III women’s volleyball players to earn the award, joining Springfield’s Tessa Smolinski and Elmira’s Taryn Rumsey.

The Postgraduate Scholarship Committee selects 29 male awardees and five alternates and 29 female awardees and five alternates each sports season for the $7,500 scholarships.

More about the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship

-Ricky Nelson

UW-Stout announces new head coach

Laura Evans was named the head coach at Wisconsin-Stout today. Evans was most recently (2012-13) an assistant coach at Colorado Christian University.

-Ricky Nelson