NCAA’s d3 Women’s Volleyball Tournament concluded last week. WI-Eau Claire took the title. I thought this year’s Elite 8 field was more balanced than in previous years. What made things more interesting was with unbeaten Wartburg (IA) and Johns Hopkins both being knocked out in their Regional Final Matches, there was no real clear-cut dominating squad. Eau Claire had reached the Elite 8 once, several seasons back, Calvin (MI) (the other finalist) had been there on several occasions. The difference in this year’s final match was that Calvin had several serves sail long and out of bounds, and the Blugolds were able to take advantage of that.
Technically, even though Eau Claire was ranked in the Top 20 for a good share of the season, I consider that squad a somewhat un-expected national champ. Matter of fact, it seemed to fit the way the whole season went. Several underdog squads made mild statements (case in point, Bard, which broke an 0-93 in-conference slump by winning its’ first Liberty League match in squad history). Midwest Region squads St. Norbert and IL Tech also did stronger than expected. Denison (OH) pulled off several upsets over ranked teams, and there were also a handful of in-conference tournament upsets. 2 East Region conferences had incredible tie-breaking scenarios to sort out. Yes, this season sure was another interesting one.
When I find another underdog to follow, more info will come on it.
Volleyball and other Athletic Underdog Talk 