October 12, 2024
As the new 2025 season approaches, Inside Hitter has been evaluating the data as it pertains to roster additions and subtractions and a wide variety of analysis on statistics lost to graduation and the impact of incoming freshman classes.
The 2024 season ended with the top 4 teams (SVU 29-1, Stevens 33-2, Wentworth 31-2, and Loras 25-2) not making the D3 Championship game. It just goes to show how anything can happen in a tournament playoff.
There are a number of teams that we feel will be dominant this season. Southern Virginia loses their standout setter (we have not been able to confirm whether Tyler Schaeffer will be returning for a fifth season) but it’s the only potential loss for a team that is absolutely stacked with a deep level of talent at each position. We expect them to be hands down the best team in the D3 landscape.
We expect Springfield to once again return to near the top of the rankings as they lose potentially two grads and will be continuing to load an already potent roster.
NYU is also expecting a many new players who will make an immediate impact. Stevens has lost the most with many fifth-year holdovers hanging on for one more ride last year after their championship run in 2023. Stevens probably had more depth than any other team in 2024, so we expect them to be very solid, but not at the level of dominance these past two seasons.
We expect Vassar to still be strong despite losing 5. Misericordia will be keeping their dominant attack duo of Anthony DePalma and Jared Piontowski. Loras, Cal Lutheran, MIT and Wentworth will slide back a bit but still be top 20 contenders.
New teams to watch on the landscape are Augustana, Baruch, Wittenberg, & Dominican. We also have the Banana Slugs up into the top 15.
There are 8 new teams added for 2025. Almost all are in conferences. The pool of independent teams has dropped dramatically as we count only 9 independent programs.
The entire team total per our count is 131.
Here is the link to the 2025 PSR #1 CLICK HERE