MVCfans.com

pawball wrote:I think Drake and SIU have capabilty of being very disruptive to teams that have been used to having their way over the next few years.

Conference Spotlight
The Missouri Valley Conference has a number of teams capable of playing with anyone in the country and may be the strongest from top to bottom as any point in its history. The league has seven teams in the top 100 of the NCAA's official RPI, including four in the top 40. Northern Iowa has also been inside the top 20 in the AVCA poll throughout the season.

According to the RichKern.com volleyball website, the league ranks sixth in its pseudo-RPI for conferences, following the Big Ten, Pac-10, Big 12, ACC and SEC. It is also listed ahead of the Mountain West and Big West, which are seventh and eighth this week. The highest the MVC has ever ranked for a whole season was ninth.

Two of the league's top teams will square off this weekend as Northern Iowa, ranked No. 14 in the coaches poll and No. 6 in the official RPI this week, will play host to Creighton, winners of nine of its last 11 matches to improve to 12-7 overall. The Blue Jays are ranked No. 40 in the RPI.

UNI is ninth nationally in win percentage with an 18-2 record (.900) and is fifth in the country in kills per set at 14.74. It is the second-highest mark of any MVC team in the national rankings, trailing only Creighton's current No. 4 ranking in digs (18.64 per set).

Missouri State (No. 23) and Wichita State (28) are both also in the top 30 in the RPI this week. The Bears are 16-4 entering this weekend while the Shockers own a 13-5 record. Missouri State is tied with Creighton at 7-2 for second place in the league standings behind UNI (9-0) while Wichita State is in fourth at 6-3.

JayJ79 wrote:

pawball wrote:I think Drake and SIU have capabilty of being very disruptive to teams that have been used to having their way over the next few years.

And Illinois State too, it seems.