Volleyball Today: USA goes for gold; PVF expands slate; NCAA in depth; Jax St.
The USA women’s sitting team is into the gold-medal of the Paris Paralympics, the Pro Volleyball Federation will expand its schedule in 2025, Creighton and Tennessee won the only NCAA matches Thursday between ranked teams, there are a zillion more matches Friday as the second weekend of the college volleyball season is underway, and we have a note from our Jacksonville State correspondent (yes, we have one) about that program in Alabama.
USA women play China again for Paralympics gold
The USA and China won their semifinal matches and will play for gold for the fifth Paralympics in a row.
From worldparavolley.org:
The United States secured their place at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games women’s sitting volleyball final after a 3-1 (25-22, 22-25, 25-14, 25-15) victory over Brazil in Thursday’s semifinal at North Paris Arena. This win marks their fifth consecutive appearance in the final, keeping them on track for a third straight gold medal.
Kathryn Bridge led all scorers with a standout 21 points, including 15 attacks, four blocks, and two aces. Heather Erickson also played a key role, contributing 18 points from 13 attacks, four blocks, and an ace.
Click here for the rest of the story.
From worldparavolley.org about the China victory:
China swept Canada 3-0 (25-16, 25-22, 25-18) in the women’s sitting volleyball semifinals at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games in North Paris Arena on Thursday, led by captain Xu Yixiao’s stellar performance. The victory sets up a fifth consecutive Paralympic final showdown with the United States, where China will aim for their record fourth gold medal.
Click here for the rest of the story.
Pro Volleyball Federation expands second-season slate
From the PVF news release:
The league will add one to the number of teams taking the court in ’25, as the Indy Ignite will play for the first time this season to give the league eight teams overall. The second year of competition will see 112 regular season matches played (115 including the postseason) — an increase of 33 percent from the inaugural campaign … (teams will play) 14 home matches and 14 contests on the road. Teams will see the league opponents a total of four times each – twice at home.
Click here for the complete PVF news release.
NCAA volleyball Friday
It’s another weekend with many teams playing twice in one day. Here are some the key matches:
In the ACC, Miami put its 3-0 record on the line when plays Indiana in Austin, where the Hoosiers are coming off a tough loss to the Texas on Thursday, and No. 4 Louisville plays South Dakota.
The Big 12 has TCU, which is getting AVCA Poll votes, playing No. 6 Wisconsin, 0-3 for the first time since 1990; No. 23 Baylor entertaining No. 18 Minnesota, which is coming off that upset of Texas; No. 13 Kansas vs. Marquette; and what should be a really good one, No. 8 Purdue vs. Utah in a battle of 4-0 teams.
The Big Ten’s No. 7 Penn State plays the SEC’s No. 9 Kentucky.
UT, Huskers, Purdue, Creighton, BYU, Vols, Hogswin
Top-ranked Texas beat visiting Indiana 25-8, 25-21, 25-22 but was down 17-11 in the second set and led 13-12 in the third before puling away. The Longhorns, who hit .385 and had seven aces with 12 serving errors, got 14 kills from Madi Skinner. She hit .357 and had two assists, two aces, a block and five digs. Libero Emma Halter had four aces, nine digs and seven assists. IU hit .074 …
No. 2 Nebraska, like Texas coming back from an upset defeat, beat visiting The Citadel 25-14, 25-16, 25-16. The Huskers, who hit .367 and had six aces and 11 errors, got nine kills from Harper Murray, who had an assist, an ace and 10 digs. Andi Jackson had seven kills with one error in 11 attacks and a solo block …
Purdue beat Cal in four as Raven Colvin had 16 kills, hit .423, and had two aces, four digs and six blocks, one solo … No. 11 Creighton beat visiting No. 20 USC 23-25, 25-17, 25-23, 28-26 behind 17 kills from Norah Sis and 16 from Ava Martin. Sis hit .333 and had two assists, an ace and 10 digs. Martin had an assist, an ace, a block and a dig. Maddy Bilinovic had 20 digs, two assists and an ace. USC’s Adonia Faumuina had 15 kills, hit .367 and had four blocks …
No. 14 BYU hit .393 and beat visiting Lipscomb in four. Claire Little and Elli Mortensen had 13 kills each and Kjersti Strong had 12 while hitting .625 to go with three blocks. Lippy’s Courtney Jones had 12 kills, three aces, three digs and two blocks …
No. 17 Tennessee — which entered 0-2 — won the first set easily and then battled to a 25-15, 26-24, 27-25 victory over visiting No. 25 UCLA. Nina Cajic had 14 kills, hit .324 and had an assist, an ace, a solo block and eight digs. Hayden Kubik had 12 kills, an assist and 13 digs. UCLA’s Cheridyn Leverette had 13 kills, two assists, an ace, three digs and two blocks, one solo …
And Arkansas swept Rutgers to open the Woo Pig Invitational as four Razorbacks had seven or more kills.
Around the nation
UT Arlington beat Santa Clara in five as Brianna Ford had 25 kills, hit .308, and had an ace, 15 digs and three blocks. She’s averaging 4.5 kills per set as UTA has improved to 4-0. Paige Reagor had 14 kills, hit .414, and had a dig and four blocks, one solo … Auburn improved to 5-0 with a sweep of Big West favorite Cal Poly. Bel Zimmerman had 11 kills with no errors in 19 attacks and Madison Scheer had 11 kills with one error in 25 attacks to go with four blocks … Louisiana-Lafayette knocked off Houston on its home court as Mio Yamamoto had 26 digs and eight assists in the 25-23, 18-25, 20-25, 25-23, 15-6 victory. Lauryn Hill had 12 kills for the Ragin’ Cajuns and Cailin Demps and Jazmine Gaston had 11 each. Houston’s Katie Corelli had 20 kills and Kate Georgiades had 26 digs, 10 assists and an ace …
In Denver’s five-set win over Montana State, Genevieve Lewis had 25 kills and Cassie Davis 21. Lewis hit .321 and had an assist, three digs and two blocks, and Davis had 13 digs and three blocks, one solo … Valparaiso got 12 kills each from Jordyn Grove, Elise Swistek and Sam Warren in a five-set win over Northern Illinois. Emma Hickey had 28 digs and eight assists …
Stephen F. Austin is 5-0 after sweeping Air Force. SFA hit .330 and Camryn Hill had 14 kills with one error in 25 swings to go with eight digs and two blocks, one solo …
Gabi Placide had 15 kills, an assist, two aces, six digs and three blocks for Northern Colorado in a five-set win over Ole Miss … McNeese swept Louisiana-Monroe and McKenzie Moore had 17 kills, hit .325 and had two assists, 11 digs and seven blocks … SMU, coming off its upset of Nebraska, hit .515 and swept visiting Milwaukee. The Mustangs had 43 kills with nine errors in 66 attacks. Naya Shime had 13 kills, hit .611, and had three blocks … Arizona hit .443 in a sweep at Alabama State. Jaelyn Hodge had 12 kills and hit .455 and Kiari Robey had 10 kills with one error in 15 swings to hit .600 … San Francisco’s Amelia Dombrowska had 20 kills, seven digs and two blocks in her team’s five-set win over NM State … Utah Tech hit .427 in a sweep of Cal State Fullerton. Kennedi Knudsen had 14 kills, hit .462, and had seven digs … Texas A&M-Corpus Christia beat North Florida in five as Kyndal Payne had 19 kills and Leah Stolfus had 18 …
Nevada beat Seattle U in a reverse sweep and Gabby McLaughlin had 19 kills, an assist, an ace and 11 digs … Taylor Underwood and Madison Corf had 16 kills each for San Diego State in a four-set win over DePaul … Portland beat Idaho State in five and Maui Robins and Elin Larsson had 17 kills each and Taina Kaauwai had 16 with one error in 29 swings … And both teams came in 0-2 before Long Beach State beat Northwestern in four. Natalie Glenn and Abby Karich had 11 kills each and Ella Lomigora nine and five blocks, one solo.
Jacksonville State bouncing back
Jacksonville State of Conference USA opened the season 3-0 with victories over Arkansas-Pine Bluff, New Orleans and West Georgia. Maybe not a top-25 schedule, but considering the program went 5-22 last season and the coaching staff left in the spring, a good start.
Derek Schroeder came on board as head coach of both the indoors and beach programs in May after six seasons in the same role at Mercer.
In those first three matches, Kayla Williams has 45 kills, averaging 4.5 per set, and setter Ellie Garrett is averaging 13 assists per set.
The Gamecocks play at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi this weekend where they’ll face Texas Southern, the home team and North Florida.
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