Volleyball Today: MVC, OVC, Summit finals set; PVF draft; Laguna Beach recap, photos

NCAA Tournament bids will be clinched Tuesday in the Missouri Valley Conference and The Summit League. 

The Ohio Valley Conference also has its tournament final, but fourth-headed Morehead State, which plays second-seeded Lindenwood, is already assured of moving on.

The Pro Volleyball Federation conducted its player draft Monday, the AVCA has a new top 25, the coaching carousel spun in the American Athletic Conference and we have a recap and photos from the Laguna Beach Open.

It’s all in this edition of Volleyball Today:

Valley, OVC, Summit finals set

Tuesday’s 5 p.m. Eastern Missouri Valley Conference Championship title match pits top-seeded Northern Iowa, riding a 19-match winning streak, against third-seeded UIC. UNI swept UIC twice in the regular season. 

UNI (24-7) moved on with a 25-13, 25-19, 25-16 sweep of fourth-seeded Illinois State (17-16). The Panthers, who hit .375, got 13 kills from Kira Fallert, who had no errors in 20 attacks and hit .650 to go with six digs, a block and seven digs.

UIC (23-9) swept second-seeded Drake (20-10) after losing to the Bulldogs twice in the regular season, both times in four sets. UIC’s Antonie Kelnarova had 15 kills, hit .444, and had five digs and two blocks, one solo …

The 8 p.m. Eastern Summit League final in Kansas City is all about the Mount Rushmore State, featuring top-seeded South Dakota State (27-1) and third-seeded South Dakota (20-9). 

South Dakota State got past fifth-seeded Denver (13-15) in five to get back into the league title match for the first time since 2007. The Jackrabbits won 23-25, 22-25, 25-22, 25-18, 15-10 as Sylvie Zgonc had 24 kills, an assist, 14 digs and four blocks, one solo, and Sydni Schetnan had 16 kills, hitting.400, and five digs and nine blocks, one solo. Denver had four players with 11 or more kills, 15 by Molly Mirabelli, who had a dig and 11 blocks, three solo.

In their regular-season meetings, SDSU beat South Dakota in five and then swept the Coyotes…

The 7 p.m. Eastern OVC final between Lindenwood (22-10) and Morehead State (18-13) is for bragging rights. That’s because Lindenwood, transitioning to Division I, is not eligible to play in the NCAA Tournament, so the league’s automatic bid automatically goes to Morehead State.

Morehead State knocked out top-seeded Southeast Missouri State (19-13) 23-25, 25-22, 25-20, 27-25 after losing to SEMO in back-to-back matches in October. Irene Wogenstahl led Morehead with 21 kills, hitting .462, and added an assist, two blocks and a dig, and Maycie Welborn had 20 kills with one error in 46 swings to hit .413 and had five digs and three blocks, one solo. SEMO’s Lucy Arndt had 19 kills, two assists, four aces, a block and 17 digs.

Lindenwood, which swept third-seeded Tennessee Tech (24-8) twice in the regular season, had to go five this time. Nyah Wilson had 15 kills in the  31-29, 16-25, 25-20, 18-25, 15-10 victory to go with an assist, an ace and nine digs, and Ashley Geluck had 14 kills, hit .423, and had five blocks and four digs. Jessie Seidel had 28 digs, two assists and two aces. Tennessee Tech’s Madolyn Isringhausen, the OVC player of the year, capped her career with 25 kills, an assist, an ace, a block and 19 digs.

Pro Volleyball Federation draft

The Pro Volleyball Federation, which starts its second season in January, conducted its draft Monday. Merritt Beason, the right side for Nebraska, was taken No. 1 after the Atlanta Vibe traded up to get new franchise Indy’s first pick. 

The Indy Ignite then took Louisville’s Anna DeBeer. The rest of the first round — there were five — saw Orlando take Creighton’s Norah Sis, Vegas choose Penn State’s Camryn Hannah, San Diego take Wisconsin’s Devyn Robinson, Atlanta make a second pick with Florida State’s Khori Louis, Grand Rapids take Purdue’s Raven Colvin and defending-champion Omaha choose Toyosi Onabanjo of Kansas.

Click here to view the entire draft list.

Pitt holds top spot in AVCA top 25

In the VolleyballMag Super 16 Media Poll, our voters moved Nebraska into a first-place tie with Pittsburgh, but in the AVCA Division I Women’s Volleyball Poll, the Panthers stayed No. 1 with 47 of the 61 first-place votes. Nebraska got 14.

Louisville-Penn State-Creighton stayed 3-4-5.

Other than Dayton falling from 18th to No. 23, there was no major movement. North Carolina returned at No. 25 and BYU dropped out.

Click here to see the AVCA top 25.

North Texas needs a volleyball coach

Kristee Porter is out at North Texas after three seasons in which her teams went 43-49. This season, the Eagles finished 10-18, 7-9 in the American Athletic and lost to Rice in the first round of the league tournament.

North Texas has been to the NCAA Tournament once, in 1995.

ICYMI, 900 Square Feet:

LBSU’s Gementera, Hagenah win Laguna Beach Open

Thanks to VBM’s Larry Hamel for the write-up and Jim Wolf and Mark Rigney for the photos:

Long Beach State juniors Malia Gementera and Taylor Hagenah notched noteworthy victories against pros over the weekend in winning the Laguna Beach Open, which billed itself as “the world’s longest running beach volleyball tournament” and was sanctioned as an AVPNext event.

First-team AVCA All-Americans as sophomores, Malia and Taylor had to win two matches in the qualifier just to get into the 32-team main women’s draw. In their second-round match, they fell to Julia Scoles (half of the Manhattan Beach Open runner-up team this summer) and Teegan Van Gunst. But the Long Beach State girls battled out of the losers bracket, defeating veterans Brooke Sweat (a 2016 USA Olympian) and Kendra VanZwieten, winning another match, then defeating Kelly Cheng (two-time USA Olympian and half of the reigning world champions) and her young partner still in high school, Kyra Zaengle, a high-profile USC recruit.

Next was a rematch in the semifinals with Scoles and Van Gunst, and Gementera-Hagenah flipped the script 26-24, 21-13. Their opponents in the title match, Carly Kan and Devanne Sours, had won the AVP Challenge-level event at the Waupaca Boatride this summer. College kids Malia, a 5-foot-6 lightning-bug defender, and Taylor, an active 5-foot-11 net presence, took them down in a nail-biter 22-20, 17-21, 15-13.

The Laguna Beach Open might have been a mixed bag of teams, but it nonetheless validated that the duo from The Beach possesses a significant upside. Both players hail from the San Diego metro area.

Up-and-comers Gage Basey, 21, and Thomas Hurst, 20, claimed the title on the men’s side.

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