Boo.

I really wanted to do a whole Halloween thing, with lots of obscure Boris Karloff puns, a nod to Bela Lugosi, etc., but... that's an awful lot of work, and the World Series is keeping me up late. So the result is a... (wait for it) mixed bag of word candy.

Huskies go trick-or-treating in L.A., get nothing but rocks. - No, no Zagnuts or Snickers for U-dub. Just two bitter-tasting five game losses to USC and UCLA.

Toledo still playing Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde card - Sure, sure, go ahead and beat Northern Illinois and Western Michigan, why not. Coach Greg Smith's either laughing or crying. I can't tell anymore.

Illini win World War Z(immerman)! Badgers... do not - Wolverines were THIS CLOSE to moving into a tie with the Illini for first place in the Approximately Big Ten. But the Ramblin' Rosens did register Michigan's first win at Camp Randall since 1992, which -- sidebar! -- is also the last time anyone heard from The Screaming Trees.

Cal lowers The Great Pumpkin on Oregon - These guys hit a blistering .349 against Oregon in Duckville, which means they obviously have the most sincere offense of any country in the land.

Sparty's pumpkin patch a little bare, but... will it matter? - Michigan State has lost 4 in a row, putting them second-to-last in the conference. They're going to have to really apply themselves and start losing more if they want to, you know, get to last place, thereby securing a spot in the NCAA tourney.

On the upside, that's 255 degrees Kelvin - Pepperdine sweeps Santa Clara, holding their offense to zero-point-zero-zero-zero for the match.

Ball State need braaaainnss... - Ball State has arisen from the dead this season, but without all the gore and moaning. Saturday they got a five game win over Western Michigan, where libero Alyssa Rio had forty, four, digs.

Yikes. - Texas drops the hammer on Colorado in the third game on Saturday, notching a score of 25-5 and hitting .704 for the frame. You'd think 15 new players would be able to avoid something like that.

Beth Launiere and the Order of the Phoenix - Hey how about those Utes rising from the ashes? Winners of 4 of the last 5, including a classic 5-gamer against BYU for state pride.