First month of the season observations:
There are currently 6 undefeated teams across the D3 men’s volleyball landscape. With SVU, Vassar and NYU not being a surprise in that group. All three were picked in the top 6 in our InsideHitter.com pre-season rankings. SVU was actually picked to go 32-0 in our PSR and we have about 9 more weeks to find out if that was crazy or not. We selected Aurora in our top 20 at #19. They were in our pre-season top 10 early on before calibrations. Aurora is now 7-0 and set for a big showdown with North Central tonight. Not sure anyone would have had Elmira coming out of January as an undefeated team with 8 wins. Congrats to the Eagles for such an amazing start to their season. They play Marymount this week and will be tested. The algorithm still has their expected losses for the season projected at 11. And hats off to Lehman who have started their season at 5-0. The math says they will be downed in their next match against John Jay but we do expect Lehman to have success this season, especially playing against many teams in the CUNYAC.
Shoutout to Hiram setter Matt Albano. Matt has been continuing to break records for the Terriers. He surpassed 2,000 assists for his career this week. That is a Hiram all-time record for assists in a career and the first time in school history that has been achieved. The Huntington, California native put up 971 assists as a junior breaking the Hiram single season record last year. Congrats Matt!
Records are being broken at Immaculata as well this season. The Mighty Macs have started the season at an all-time best 4-1. Joe Martell, Immaculata’s fifth year setter, surpassed 1,500 career assists and holds the all-time record for the school in this category. This week against Cairn, Joe posted 42 assists breaking the school record for assists in a single match. His teammate Josh McGurl also got in the IU record book with a 7-ace performance against Bryn Athyn. Lots of good things happening in Immaculata, PA.
Ian Wagenhauser is having a great season at Randolph-Macon. Ian moved into second place in school history in career kills, aces, and total points for the Yellow Jackets. This week, Ian ripped 8 aces in a single match. His career totals are 87 aces, 592 kills, and 855 points.
Elizabethtown libero Dustin Hagen is now the all-time leader in digs for the Blue Jays. He posted 20 digs in a single match against LBC this past week breaking his own personal record of 19 set last season. He has accumulated 421 digs in his career. Dustin is still a junior and will be adding to his record over this year and next year.
Augustana’s Max Sellers registered his 833rd career dig this week. Max holds the record for career digs for the Vikings. The fifth-year libero has been a strong leader and earned AVCA All-American status last season, the first time an Augustana player ever achieved that award. Max is a three-time Captain.
Congrats to junior Michael Greco of Dominican. Michael slammed back 7 blocks against Cal Lutheran last week to surpass 100 career blocks. The 6′ 6″ middle blocker from New Lennox, Illinois, has been a major contributor for the Stars. He put down 126 kills last season and hit .432 while recording 85 total blocks in a breakout season as a sophomore. A lot more to come from Michael this season and beyond…
The defending champs Cal Lutheran has everyone gunning for them this season. The team is 10-2 but has already lost 18 sets for the season. Most of that is due to caliber of opponents they have played thus far, but its duly noted that their computer ranking based on the math is heavily affected by this. It may also indicate that the Kingsmen may be a bit more vulnerable this season.
Juniata on the other hand were swept by Carthage last week but only have one other set loss in 10 matches, And that was to D2 UPR Rio. Their sweep of previously unbeaten Stevens shows them as a D3 elite, and we expect a move up to top 3 status in the rankings.
Kean is 6-1 since losing their first four matches against Vassar, Stevens, Wentworth, and New Paltz. They are much better than their record indicates and showed a lot of savvy coming from behind in 5-sets to defeat NJCU in this weeks NJAC matchup. Kudos to Coach Bez on reshaping the Cougars.
What a nice showing by freshman Michael Suarez at Rutgers. Mike returned from an injury and finally hit the floor against New Paltz in his first match of his college career. The first year played outstanding in his first match coming off the bench and racking up 13 kills, 3 digs, a block and an ace. The 6′ 4″ outside is a player to watch.
MIT got knocked down a notch by Lasell in a super exciting 5 set match tonight. The IH algorithm has just not liked MIT despite their solid record opening at 7-0. They have dropped three in a row now. The algorithm has their year-end loss count projection at 15.
SVU is the only team in the country that has not lost a set.
Springfield is undefeated at D3 with their only loss to D2 Concordia Irvine. The same goes for Wabash whose only loss is to D1 Ball State.
Strongest schedule strength this season goes to Baldwin Wallace with Benedictine close behind. Dominican and Carthage are top 5.
Through Wednesday night, 2/5, there have been 496 matches played involving D3 teams. 212 matches (43%) have gone 4 sets, and 81 matches (17%) have gone 5 sets.