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So the official Volleyball RPI's have been posted and so far the Big East is looking pretty good. Both Creighton and Butler are receiving votes in the Coaches Poll. Butler has one bad lost to Xavier in terms of making the NCAA and must beat them this Friday to move up in the RPI's. DePaul has a strong record but hasn't played anyone.

Teams with a strong shot at a tournament bid: Creighton, Marquette

Butler has losses only to Arizona, Michigan State and Xavier but a win over Creighton...

Xavier with a disastrous trip to CA lost to Irvine (63), Fresno State(103) and American (74) in addition to Duquesne (146) has lots of ground to make up and can mostly be a spoiler. Villanova is pretty much in the same boat.

You can see why Providence plays in the American East.

10 Creighton Big East 10-4 4-1 3- 2 3-1 0-0
15 Marquette Big East 10-4 6-0 1- 2 3-2 0-0
42 Butler Big East 16-3 1-1 4- 0 10-2 1-0
79 Xavier Big East 10-7 3-3 2- 2 5-2 0-0
91 Villanova Big East 10-6 2-2 2- 3 6-1 0-0
130 DePaul Big East 14-2 5-1 5- 0 4-1 0-0
138 Seton Hall Big East 5-9 3-5 2- 4 0-0 0-0
156 St. John's (NY) Big East 12-7 2-5 6- 2 4-0 0-0
177 Georgetown Big East 6-10 1-6 4- 2 1-2 0-0
293 Providence America East 9-10 1-3 3- 4 5-3 0-0

Thanks for the update, Sactowndog. With those RPI's, Creighton and Marquette are still playing for more than a tournament bid, they're playing for a seed (top 16 and host in NCAA tournament). Both must basically run the table from here on out, split with or sweep the other, and win the conference tournament, so it's not an easy row to hoe.

JayPak wrote:Thanks for the update, Sactowndog. With those RPI's, Creighton and Marquette are still playing for more than a tournament bid, they're playing for a seed (top 16 and host in NCAA tournament). Both must basically run the table from here on out, split with or sweep the other, and win the conference tournament, so it's not an easy row to hoe.

Well as a Butler fan I hope that doesn't happen as long as Butler can finally have a good game against Xavier and beat them at home. Bessler can't play out of her mind and Butler has to pass better.

If we get past Xavier, mental block, then I think if we take 2-3 from Marquette we have a good shot at an at-large bid.

Midwest BE teams at the top of the list as expected. Volleyball in the northeast is horrible.

ChelseaFriar wrote:Volleyball in the northeast is horrible.

Why is that?

Bluejay wrote:

ChelseaFriar wrote:Volleyball in the northeast is horrible.

Why is that?

Honestly, I don't really have a concrete answer. My guess is there really just are not many organized "town volleyball leagues" for young kids. The better female athletes in the Northeast, depending on town, tend to gravitate towards soccer, field hockey, lacrosse and basketball. In some towns even ice hockey. Even softball in the northeast isn't very good in comparison to other regions of the nation.

And volleyball in the northeast for males is extremely rare...at least back when I was a kid. None of the high schools in my area had male volleyball teams (most did have female volleyball teams).

It's like looking at ice hockey and lacrosse. This is changing, but a large percent of the college ice hockey talent from the U.S. comes from the northeast and the midwest (probably dating back to the days when players relied on frozen ponds to play). Other areas are now starting to produce talent. Twenty years ago in lacrosse almost all of the college talent came from New England, New York, New Jersey and the Baltimore and Virginia areas. Lacrosse has spread rapidly and this has really changed. Lacrosse has exploded in areas all over the country. When I was a kid, the town lacrosse league started in 4th grade. The best athletes in my town played lacrosse, not baseball, which is shocking to those who grew up in areas that didn't play lacrosse.

I really don't remember any youth volleyball leagues when I was a kid. However, ice hockey and lacrosse were big for both boys and girls.