They’re 23-4 overall and 15-1 in the league and have a shiny RPI rating of 35. That’s normally not mid-major territory, and it’s put them in position for an NCAA at-large berth if they don’t get the HL’s automatic bid.
“It’s certainly something we’ve been tracking,” third-year coach Travers Green said. “To have another path into the NCAA tournament is always a good thing.
“But best-case scenario, we punch our ticket the way we have in the past and win our conference tournament, and that helps you a great deal with seeding.”
The only Wright State team ever to earn an at-large bid was the 2019 volleyball team. It was ranked 44th in the RPI.
The league was a lofty seventh that year in the RPI conference standings with five teams in the top 100.
The HL is 13th this year with two top-100 teams (second-place Milwaukee is 75th), but that’s a big jump from Green’s first two years when it was 25th each season.
“Obviously, I’m not an expert, but we have some things that’ll help us and certainly some challenges as well,” Green said.
The Raiders have only two quality non-league wins: No. 37 Miami (Fla.) and No. 53 Appalachian State.
But as Green pointed out: “It’s similar to basketball. You don’t have as many opportunities to play top-50 teams as a mid-major. It just comes down to what the committee decides when they look at team sheets.”
The higher the seed, the better the draw in the NCAA tourney, which puts the 64-team field into four-team pods based mostly on geography.
In their four previous tourney trips, the Raiders have been the pod’s lowest seed and have always drawn a giant (Purdue, Texas, Georgia Tech and Louisville).
Ideally, they can earn one of the 32 seeds and face the third-best team in their pod.
They play at last-place Oakland on Friday and Saturday and need one win or a Milwaukee loss against third-place Cleveland State to clinch their fifth regular-season crown in school history (all in the last six years).
The Raiders, who have won three of the last four HL tourneys, split on the road against the Panthers (both teams notching narrow 3-2 wins).
“We’ve been playing some really good volleyball, but we’ve been challenged, too. Milwaukee was a good challenge — I don’t think we were playing our best then, and, hopefully, we’ve learned from it — but we’re peaking at the right moment,” Green said.
“If we get Milwaukee or whoever in the tournament, we’ll be ready.”
CROSS COUNTRY: Emma Johnson, a 5th-year runner from Beavercreek, finished 12th at the Horizon League meet to earn second-team all-league honors.
She finished the 6K race in 22:07.5, just one minute off the winning pace. She just missed all-league honors last year by finishing 20th.
Patrick Statzer, a junior from Wayne, led the men’s team with a 27th-place showing.
SOCCER: The Raider men fell one win short of qualifying for the six-team league tourney. They were 7-9-2 overall and 3-5-1 in the league.
Cole Werthmuller, a senior from Medina, Ohio, led the league in goals with 10 and in points with 23.
The women’s team missed a spot in the conference tourney by one point, finishing 5-10-2 overall and 3-5-2 in the league.
Olivia Stroud, a freshman from Fairfield, led the team with five goals and 12 points.
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