NCAA volleyball round of 16 set as Stanford survives, seven others also advance

NCAA volleyball round of 16 set as Stanford survives, seven others also advance

3 décembre 2023

Nebraska put up the triple block of, from left, Bergen Reilly, Andi Jackson and Ally Batenhorst against Mizzou/Nebraska photo

The NCAA Division I women’s volleyball tournament round of 16 is set, but not before there was some late-Saturday night excitement.

Second-seeded Stanford took a 2-0 lead over Houston, but the visiting Cougars battled back to force a fifth set before the Cardinal regained its form and dominated.

Fourth-seeded Pittsburgh lost the first set to USC but then won in four.

Also advancing were Tennessee, Creighton, Nebraska, Arkansas, Arizona State and Washington State.

It sets up eight Thursday matches that include three conference battles — Kentucky-Arkansas, Wisconsin-Penn State and Arizona State-Stanford — and five others that are sure to continue this NCAA season of unpredictability.

Thursday’s round of 16

All times Eastern
No. 1 Nebraska (30-1) vs. Georgia Tech (24-6), 2 p.m., ESPN2
No. 2 Stanford (28-3) vs. Arizona State (28-6), 11:30 p.m., ESPNU
No. 3 Wisconsin (28-3) vs. Penn State (23-8), 7 p.m., ESPN2
No. 4 Pittsburgh (27-4) vs. No. 13 Washington State (26-7), 2:30 p.m., ESPNU
No. 5 Louisville (26-4) vs. No. 12 Creighton (29-4), noon, ESPN2
No. 6 Oregon (28-5) vs. No. 11 Purdue (23-8), 9:30 p.m., ESPNU
No. 7 Texas (24-4) vs. No. 10 Tennessee (26-4), 9 p.m., ESPN2
No. 8 Kentucky (21-7) vs. No. 9 Arkansas (27-5), 4:30 p.m., ESPNU

Some quick notes before the recaps and an NIVC update:

The three seeds that didn’t advance were No. 14 Kansas, No. 15 BYU and No. 16 Florida … Stanford and Arizona State split their Pac-12 regular-season meetings. Both results were home sweeps … Penn State beat visiting Wisconsin in four in their only Big Ten regular-season match … Kentucky, which has won 18 in a row, the longest streak of the remaining teams, beat Arkansas in both their SEC regular-season matches … The SEC, which got eight teams in the 64-team field, is down to Kentucky, Arkansas and Tennessee. The Big Ten and Pac12 have four each, the ACC has three, Texas is the lone Big 12 team left, and Creighton is carrying the torch for the Big East.

Click here for the NCAA bracket.

Saturday’s recaps

HUSKERS SWEEP MIZZOU: Nebraska (30-1) is in the third round for the 12th year in a row after its 25-14, 25-19, 25-21 sweep of Missouri (18-13). The Huskers, winning 30 times for the first time since winning the 2017 NCAA title, hit .264 and held a 14-5 edge in blocks.

Merritt Beason led with 12 kills and had two errors in 23 attacks to hit .435. She had two digs and five blocks. Ally Batenhorst had seven kills, four blocks and two digs and Harper Murray had six kills, an ace, three blocks and three digs. Bekka Allick, who had fiv ekills, had eight blocks. Bergen Reilly had four of Nebraska’s five aces, two kills in five errorless tries, 26 assists, two blocks and 10 digs.

Missouri, which hit .089, got 13 kills from Janet deMarrais and 12 from Dilara Gedikoglu.

STANFORD SURVIVES: Stanford (28-3), which hit .401, seemed to be on cruise control before Houston (19-10) made it a match. Elia Rubin had a career-high 23 kills — four in the fifth set with no errors in five attacks — as Stanford won 25-15, 25-20, 22-25, 22-25, 15-7.

Rubin had six errors in 41 attacks to hit .415 and had three assists, an ace, two blocks and 12 digs. Kendall Kipp had 16 kills, an ace, six blocks and eight digs. Caitie Baird had 16 kills, hit .412 and had a block and five digs. Sami Francis had 12 kills, hit .588, and had an assist, three digs and four blocks, including a stuff of Kenna Sauer to end the match. McKenna Vicini had eight kills in 16 errorless attacks, an assist and eight blocks and setter Kami Miner had three kills, 60 assists, an ace, three blocks and 12 digs. Elena Oglivie had 19 digs and five assists.

Houston, which lost to Stanford in the same situation a year ago, got 24 kills from Sauer, who had an assist, an ace, a block and nine digs. Abbie Jackson had 15 kills, two assists, an ace, three blocks and two digs. Setters Morgan Janda and Annie Cooke combined for a kill, 45 assists, an ace and 18 digs.

PITT BEATS USC: Pittsburgh (27-4), which advanced to the last two national semifinals, is in the round of 16 for the fourth year in a row after its 23-25, 25-20, 25-18, 25-18 win over visiting USC (19-13).

Olivia Babcock led with 16 kills, three assists, two aces, six blocks and 12 digs. Torrey Stafford had 13 kills, hit .345, and had three assists, a block and six digs. Valeria Vazquez Gomez had nine kills, an ace, 11 digs and three blocks, one solo. Chiamaka Nowokolo had eight kills, hit .500, and had an assist, a dig and three blocks. Emma Monks had eight blocks and four kills. Setter Rachel Fairbanks, whose team hit .248, had four kills with one error in seven tries, 41 assists, two blocks and 10 digs.

Skylar Fields had 21 kills to lead USC and finished second this season in kills in the NCAA to Tulsa’s Kayley Cassaday. Fields added an assist, an ace, a block and 10 digs. Her teammates combined for the same number of kills, 21. Gala Trubint had 12 digs, two assists and three of USC’s nine aces. USC hit .078.

Ava Martin hits through the Minnesota block/Creighton Athletics photo

CREIGHTON OUSTS MINNESOTA: Creighton (29-4) won its 17th match in a row and is back in the third round for the first time since 2016 after its 25-21, 25-20, 29-27 win over visiting Minnesota (17-13).

Norah Sis led with 16 kills, an assist, two blocks and nine digs. Creighton is 21-1 with her in the lineup. Ava Martin had 15 kills, ana ce and five digs and Ellie Bichelmeyer had 12 kills and three blocks. Kendra Wait had five kills with one error in 12 tries, 44 assists and two blocks. Her team hit .255. Sydney Breissinger had 12 digs, six assists and an ace.

Minnesota, which hit .202, got 12 kills from Taylor Landfair, who had three blocks and three digs, and 11 kills from McKenna Wucherer, who had an assist, a block and seven digs. Arica Davis had four kills in eight errorless swings and five blocks. Melani Shaffmaster had five kills with one error in six tries, 26 assists, trhee blocks and 13 digs.

ARKANSAS BESTS TCU: Arkansas (27-5) noted that “none of the Arkansas roster was alive the last time the Hogs won two NCAA Tournament games.” Indeed, the Razorbacks are into the round of 16 for the first time since 1998 after beating upstart TCU (17-15) 25-18, 27-25, 23-25, 25-20.

Taylor Head led with 18 kills, two aces, 15 digs and three blocks, one solo. Maggie Cartwright had 16 kills with two errors in 40 attacks, two assists, 14 digs and three blocks. Jillian Gillen had 13 kills, an assist, two aces, 16 digs and two blocks. Hannah Hogue had 43 assists, an ace, two blocks and 11 digs. Her team hit .253. Courtney Jackson had 23 digs, seven assists and an ace.

Audrey Nalls led TCU with 17 kills, two aces, 10 digs and three blocks, one solo. Melanie Parra had 14 kills, three assists, an ace, two blocks and 12 digs. Jalyn Gibson had 12 kills, an ace, foru blocks and 10 digs. Cecily Bramschreiber had 25 digs and an assist. The Horned Frogs, who got into the second round for only the second time in program history, hit .200.

TENNESSEE TOPS TOPS: Tennessee (26-4) is into the third round for the first time since 2005 after sweeping Western Kentucky (30-5) 25-20, 25-16, 26-24. The Vols were led by Jenaisya Moore, who had 19 kills, hit .419 and had a block and six digs. Morgahn Fingall had 11 kills, hit .320, and had an ace, six blocks and seix digs. Caroline Kerr had a kill in her only try, 37 assists and two digs.

WKU, which had won 25 in a row, got 15 kills from Paige Briggs, who had two assists six digs. Kaylee Cox had 10 kills, two assists, two blocks and four digs.

SUN DEVILS FORK BYU: Arizona State (28-6) continued its remarkable turnaround with a 25-20, 25-21, 25-21 sweep at BYU (25-7). ASU, which won a second-round match for the first time in program history, hit .301.

Marta Levinska led with 17 kills and hit .533 after having one error in 30 attacks go with an assists, five of her team’s seven aces, and 10 digs. Geli Cyr had nine kills, hit .300, and had an assist, two blocks and eight digs. Mary Shroll had 10 digs and an assist.

BYU, which was 13-1 at home entering the match, hit .186. Erin Livingston led with 10 kills, three assists and eight digs. Whitney McEwan-Llarenas had seven kills, hit .417 and had an ace three blocks and a dig.

WSU STOPS DAYTON: Washington State (26-7) is in the round of 16 for the first time since 2016 after its 25-21, 25-15, 20-25, 25-16 win over Dayton (32-3).

Magda Jehlarova was huge for the Cougars with 15 kills in 20 errorless attacks and 10 blocks, one solo. She’s now the Pac-12 all-time blocks leader and will remain so, since the league dissolves after this year. Pia Timmer had 12 kills, an ace, two blocks and 11 digs. Iman Isanovic had 11 kils, an assist, an ace, a block and seven digs. Argentina Ung, whose team hit .290, had five kills with one error in 10 tries, 42 assista, an ace, se ven blocks and eight digs.

Dayton, which had won 27 in a row, hit .155. Taylor Russell led with 15 kills, two blocks and two digs. Lexie Almodovar had 11 kills but seven errors and added two assists, two aces, three blocks and 15 digs. Karissa Kaminski had 18 digs, eight assists and an ace.

NIVC

The quarterfinals are set:

Wednesday, December 6
Drake (24-10) at Wichita State (23-8), 7:30 p.m.
Montana State (23-8) at Wyoming (22-9), 8:30 p.m.
Clemson (19-13) at UTEP (23-9), 9 p.m.

Thursday, December 7
South Florida (21-11) at Georgia Southern (23-8), 6 p.m.

On Saturday, South Florida pulled off a reverse sweep to beat St. John’s 23-25, 21-25, 25-19, 27-25, 16-14 as Maria Clara Andrade had a career-high 28 kills. Giorgia Walther had 17 kills for St. John’s, which ended its season 24-10 … Georgia Southern swept East Carolina as Jillian Gray had 15 kills, hitting .343 … UTEP beat UT Arlington in four as Alianza Darley had 15 kills with no errors in 28 attacks and Torrance Lovesee had 12 kills and Marian Ovalle eight with one error in 19 swings and five blocks, one solo. Brianna Ford had 17 kills for UTA.

Click here for the NIVC website.

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