WVB: Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference

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Good news, not so good news:

Not so good news, Aurora totally dropped out of the AVCA ARV category in the Top 25 poll.

Good news:  Concordia-WI upset a couple of Top 25 squads earlier this week and is now ranked #25.

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NACC Opening Night In-Conference Finals:

IL Tech over Rockford in 3 sets  IL Tech  Weaver .750 hitting pct.  Team 12 Service Aces
WLC over Lakeland in 3 sets:  Warriors:  Sarles .400 hitting pct.
Aurora over CUC in 3 sets:
Marian over Alverno in 3 sets:
St. Norbert wins its' NACC in-conference debut over MSOE in 3 sets: --Green Knights outhit MSOE .361 to .047 for match.
Dominican/Benedictine and #25 CUW/Edgewood still in progress yet.

UPDATE:  Benedictine over Dominican in 4 sets:  IL Eagles-13 service aces and .263 team hitting pct. for match.

UPDATE II:  #25 CUW/Edgewood going to a 5th Set

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Edgewood knocks off #25 CUW in 5 sets!  Both teams hit exactly .240 in set 5. the WI Eagles scored the last 3 points to take this one at home.

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In the lone NACC match involving a Top 25 in poll team ARV Concordia-WI knocks off Alverno in 3 sets.

Falcons:  .393 team hitting pct. for match.

Once in poll Aurora is in action against Dominican as I post.
Just Final:  Spartans over Dominican in 3 sets:
                   (25-17, 25-22. 25-19)

Aurora:  3 players with .308 or higher  hitting pcts.
Dominican:  Green .688 hitting pct.                 

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Aurora had a good chance to make a statement against #5 Calvin, but the Knights won in 4 sets.

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10/1/21 results:

ARV Concordia-WI over Rockford in 3 sets:  (Falcons hit a blistering .456 for the match.)
Aurora over Marian in 3 sets.
IL Tech vs. WLC was postponed
Benedictine over Alverno --forfeit
Lakeland over Concordia-Chicago in 3 sets.
St. Norbert over Dominican in 3 sets.  (25-22, 25-22, 25-20)
              Green Knights:  Terry .375 hitting pct.  Maastricht 17 digs (among the top in the nation in avg digs/set)
              Stars:  McCallum .571 hitting pct.

MSOE/Edgewood still in progress yet: (A Raider win puts them at .500 in conference. An Edgewood win enables the Eagles to keep pace with WLC and Aurora at the top of the standings.)

UPDATE;  Edgewood/MSOE  has now gone final:  Eagles win in 4 sets
                    (26-24, 25-23, 14-25, 25-18)

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Aurora is the only NACC team which hasn't lost an in-conference match yet. NACC's best scenarios would be to have either the Spartans or ARV Concordia-WI win out the rest of the way. (Spartans have a non-conference match against ranked U of Chicago late in the season. Still early. 

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St.  Norbert vs. Lakeland and ARV CUW at Benedictine coming up:

(Noteworthy:  Green Knights' Liz Maastricht is among the best in the nation in 2 defensive statistics:
                         She leads the nation in total digs (480), and is 4th in the nation in Average
                             Digs/Set (6.32). (thru games of 10/14/2021).

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Forgot about ARV Aurora:  Spartans got a home win over Alverno in 3 sets:

Updates:  ARV CUW over Benedictine 3 sets to 1

St. Norbert and Lakeland are in a 5th set at the moment--

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It's gone final:

St. Norbert knocks off Lakeland in 5 sets:
              (23-25, 27-29, 25-14, 25-18, 15-9)

Green Knights outhit Lakeland .214 to .143 in Set 5
                   Maastricht:  29 digs (4 team mates had 12 or more as well)

Other NACC winners tonight.

WLC, Edgewood, MSOE, IL Tech

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Both NACC ARV teams win in-conference tonight, CUW over WLC and Aurora over Benedictine, each match went 3 sets. I'm hoping 1 of those 2 top squads gets some distance from the rest from here on out.

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Joining IL Tech/ARV Concordia-WI in progress:

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Final:  ARV Concordia-WI over IL Tech in 3 sets:
               (25-18. 26-24. 25-13)

CUW:  3 players with .667 or higher hitting pcts.
IL Tech:  Graham 10 spikes for points .333 hitting pct.

Scarlet Hawks led for a good chunk of set 2, but Falcons rallied behind the serving of libero Madelyn Alton to overtake them late.

Falcons clinch a NACC tournament spot and continue to put pressure on Aurora, who gets MSOE later.

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6 NACC squads are jockeying for the last 4 playoff spots:

Benedictine (8-3)
MSOE (7-4)
Edgewood (7-4)
IL Tech (7-4)
St. Norbert (7-4)
WLC (7-4)

Green Knights get ARV CUW today, and WLC gets ARV Aurora, so of the 5 tied squads, on paper, the Green Knights and Warriors would be most likely to take losses. WLC is hoping for a Lakeland upset of IL Tech today. Concordia-Chicago/Edgewood could be interesting , too (Cougars took WLC to 5  sets last week).MSOE should beat Rockford.

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Well, well. ARV Concordia-WI was upset by St. Norbert, and Concordia-Chicago knocked off Edgewood. Every other match went as expected. Benedictine clinched a NACC playoff spot yesterday.

5 teams battling for 3 spots.

Scenario 1:  MSOE, IL Tech and St. Norbert all win next Wednesday, they're in. (MSOE gets ARV CUW, IL Tech gets ARV Aurora, St. Norbert gets Alverno). On paper, St. Norbert could finish as high as 4th, barring an upset elsewhere. In terms of tie-breakers, Benedictine beat St. Norbert head to head, but the Green Knights got victories over IL Tech and MSOE earlier.

Scenario 2:  MSOE and IL Tech lose, St. Norbert wins. Green Knights are in. Edgewood beats Lakeland and WLC beats Marian. In that event, there would be 4 squads with 8-5 records, MSOE, IL Tech, Edgewood and WLC. Warriors went 1-2 (knocking off only Edgewood) . Edgewood went 1-2 (beating only MSOE), MSOE went 2-1 (losing only to Edgewood) IL Tech went 2-1 (losing only to MSOE) Unless I'm missing something, MSOE and IL Tech would be in.

There are more, but since I can't see Alverno knocking off St. Norbert, I won't go any further. (as far as the last spots).

Should Aurora and Concordia-WI finish tied, the Falcons would get the top seed in the NACC tournament, having beaten the Spartans head to head.