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While a 12-0 start is commendable, Valpo's non-conference schedule for women's volleyball was incredibly weak. The record is eyepopping, but the quality of opponents prevents any possibility of making the NCAA tournament as an at-large team (women's volleyball selection is very similar to basketball). Last year, Valpo's RPI for women's volleyball was 46, which means that scheduling should have considered the need for a decent strength of schedule. Right now, despite the 12-0 record, Valpo would probably need to only have one loss in conference and then a loss to a better opponent in the conference tournament to have any consideration for an at-large birth.

Compare the schedule with UNI, who has played three ranked opponents and several others who made the NCAA last season. Also, please note that my comments are only intended to suggest how coaching and athletic administration could have done better. All the players can do is go out, play hard and win.

Let's look at it this way - from last year's team, volleyball graduated:
- A libero who was a two-time MVC Libero of the Year and finished her career 2nd in NCAA history in digs.
- A setter who was a regular all four years she played, All-MVC and finished her career 3rd in program history in assists.
- A middle hitter who was twice All-MVC and finished her career 2nd in program history in blocks and 8th in kills.
- A middle hitter who was First Team All-MVC in her final season and finished her career 6th in program history in hitting percentage.

That is a ridiculous amount of talent and experience to lose from one team. Given Coach Avery's success, I think she deserves the benefit of the doubt in scheduling the nonconference in a way which prepares the team to perform in the MVC.

In the second half we had little continuity in lineup with players being pulled every dead ball.

After the 12:42 mark, we made four subs: Krikke for Kithier at 5:52, Gordon for King at 4:11, and reversed both those subs at the under-4 media.

The ticket prices are lower.

I complained sometime back that we the die hard fans have been kept in the dark about when Kobe will be eligible to play for no other reason than no one in the know cared enough to tell us. I specifically called out Brandon and Todd, who used to provide inside baseball info like that. Brandon replied that he has to sit out the first 9 games. In a later interview Matt said 9 or 10 games, he couldn't recall which, so let's call it 10. Really? you're a Stanford graduate and you can't recall when your #1 transfer can begin playing?

So, here we are coming down to the wire, and we still don't know. Why does this program always seem to be shrouded in secrecy or uncertainty about things that should be crystal clear? Why doesn't anyone associated with the program (directly or indirectly) feel a sense of responsibility to keep the fan base feeling hopeful in light of the horrendous start to the season? Lots of us try to keep everyone hopeful with glass half full thoughts, but why bother when people associated with the program and have the most to benefit from an engaged fan base could seemingly care less?

https://twitter.com/NWIOren/status/1459569266030698505

Exhibitions have never been streamed to ESPN.

What would be the attraction of CUSA for Missouri State over MVC? CUSA is a very unstable conference with huge turnover.

FBS football.

Best catch that I have seen from a Valpo WR in some time.  Very smart to tip it to yourself, even though I didn't think there was a chance in hell that he would catch that pass.

I just re-watched the catch and I'm pretty sure the announcer called us the "beagles" before changing it to the Beacons!   

He said "Touchdown Bingham"

Another late goal conference victory. They start playing the 3 worst teams so we should be 3-0 before it gets serious.

Alternatively, they just started the conference season 2-0 against the two teams picked 2nd and 3rd in the preseason poll.

There's literally an American flag right outside the ARC.

[NOT]

From the bracket you linked:
*If the No. 8 seed wins Game 2, it will play the No. 1 seed at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, and the winner of Game 1 would face the No. 2 seed.

The Missouri Valley Baseball Tournament is this week at Itchy Jones Stadium in Carbondale, IL

Valpo the #8 seed (out of 8 teams) plays # 5 seed Missouri State at 7:00 p.m. (8:00 p.m. Eastern) on Tuesday, May 25. The first round is single elimination. So if Valpo loses they are out. If Valpo can manage to beat the Bears they would then play #2 seed Indiana State (NOT #1 seed Dallas Baptist as indicated on the Valpo Athletics website baseball schedule) http://www.valpoathletics.com/baseball/schedule/2020-21/8942/valpo-vs-mvc-tournament-05-28-2021/   on Wednesday, May 26 at 2:30 p.m (3:30 p.m. Eastern).

https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/mvc.sidearmsports.com/documents/2021/5/22/2021_MVC_Baseball_Tourney_Bracket.pdf

If Valpo beats Missouri State (got swept in 4 games at Missouri State this past weekend) and loses to #2 Indiana State they would then fall to the losers bracket and play the loser of the #1 Dallas Baptist vs winner of the #6 Illinois State/#7 Evansville first round game. The loser bracket game would be on Thursday, May 27 at 10:00 a.m. (11:00 a.m. Eastern).

So are Cookerly and McCarthy coming back for another season?

https://www.valpoathletics.com/volleyball/news/2020-21/20325/volleyball-drops-home-finale-monday-to-indiana-state/?fbclid=IwAR0IJCcHvVxTGt0nFm-kWj3rD7FpWFGUDVyrkHlqY3Bt50CivZrZCkFzk4Y

I read somewhere Cookerly is coming back. Based on this I assume McCarthy is as well. I big question is what do you do with Anderson as our current setter is really solid. Does anyone play 2 setters at once?

Yes, running what is known as a 6-2 formation is quite common - it allows you to always have your setter in the back row, which means you always have three hitters up front. The downside is different setters have different rhythms, and in the 6-2, each is only setting half the time. It also decreases your flexibility for subbing other spots on the floor, given the number of subs it uses.

This is good news. It means he's probably not going anywhere any time soon.

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/sports/college/drake/drake-bulldogs/2021/03/17/drake-basketball-head-coach-darian-devries-signs-8-year-contract-extension-bulldogs/4740530001/

Bryce Drew signed a 10-year extension.

Everyone gets the extra year, regardless of whether they transfer or not. If they stay at the same school for their extra year, their scholarship does not count against the 13-scholarship limit. If they transfer, they still get the extra year, but their scholarship will count against their new school's limit of 13.

Mic check, 1, 2...is this thing on?

Tied a program record with 17 3-pointers tonight and beat a top-100 Bradley team.

PNW led Ohio by 4 at the half and was within 3 of Bowling Green at the half in their other 2 games. BG and Ohio were picked 1-2 in the MAC this year.

We also have had a much shorter preseason of practices due to quarantines - not sure it would be the best idea, health-wise, to run guys out there for 3 games in 43 hours.

Maybe calm down a bit. Trae Berhow didn't make the trip due to COVID protocols. Any team losing a guy last minute who averaged over 12 points a game and shot nearly 45% from 3-point range is going to struggle to adjust. This year is going to be different. Don't freak out so much over every single result.

This includes no size limitations on events, if approval is granted by the county health department. Hopefully, the new normal at the ARC will look a lot like the old normal.

Indiana will move to reopening plan Stage 5, mask mandate to continue

https://www.google.com/amp/s/fox59.com/news/coronavirus/gov-holcomb-state-leaders-to-give-update-on-reopening-plan-mask-mandate/amp/

Even with this, the executive order requires businesses to continue their efforts to keep at least 6 feet of distance between unrelated patrons. So there's no way you're going to see a full-capacity ARC.

The 2021 rankings come out September 14.

Not saying I don't agree with that premise, but keep in mind it's comparing apples and oranges - Jubril's suspension was an NCAA-dictated penalty, while Murphy's suspension was an institutional decision.

Im going to hype the Ryan thing for all it's worth until it's no longer a thing.

Did you know?
Ryan was the top 3-pt. shooter in college basketball this year at 49.5% (47-95). He needed to play in 75% of his team's games to officially qualify, which he didn't reach (played in 18; needed 25). The official winner shot 47-something. That still doesn't change the fact that he's the best in D-1 among 4000+ players.

I assume you checked on the other non-qualifiers from each of the other 350-ish teams, too?

How can you betray Lottich when the team (without Robinson) beats Loyola from 17 points down and plays their guts out over a 4-game tournament run?   

I wouldn't want you guys in my foxhole.

Might want to check the dates on the posts you're looking at...

Not only that, it looks like they took a slight detour after today's win to go support the men's team in St. Louis at the semifinal.

Troy VanAken, current president at Elmhurst College and formerly president at Thiel College, is the third candidate.

I'm sure Kiser is looking to utilize an engineering degree to jump-start a coaching career.