Volleyball Today: NCAA regionals, NIVC semis, NAIA title match, LOVB TV, VNL schedule, international report

This is an absolutely chock-full edition of Volleyball Today, from NCAA to NIVC to NAIA to LOVB to VNL to our international women’s report:

NCAA volleyball Thursday, Friday

THURSDAY

All matches on ESPN2

At Pittsburgh (second matches start 30 minutes after the first ends)
1 p.m. — Missouri (22-8) vs. Kentucky (22-7), Oregon (24-7) vs. Pittsburgh (31-1)
At Louisville
7 p.m. — Florida (23-7) vs. Stanford (27-4), Purdue (27-6) vs. Louisville (27-5)

FRIDAY

At Penn State
1 p.m. — Texas (20-6) vs. Creighton (31-2), Marquette (25-8) vs. Penn State (31-2)
At Nebraska
7 p.m. — Texas A&M (21-7) vs. Wisconsin (25-6), Dayton (31-2) vs. Nebraska (31-2)

See the updated bracket at NCAA.com. 

Head to head: Kentucky swept visiting Missouri in SEC play on October 6 and then beat the Tigers in four at Mizzou on November 27 to end the regular season … Pitt opened the season on August 30 with a sweep at Oregon … Stanford and Florida played from 2021-23 in pre-conference, did not play each other this season… Purdue, 13-4 all-time against Louisville, did not play the Cardinals this year. Louisville swept the last three meetings, twice in 2022 including the NCAA Tournament … this is the first meeting betweenTexas and Creighton since the Longhorns swept their 2016 NCAA tourney match … Marquette and Penn State have met once, early in 2013 … Wisconsin has played Texas A&M eight times, the last in 2019 … Dayton and Nebraska have played four times, the last early in 2014.

NIVC down to seven teams

Bowling Green defeated DePaul in four sets Monday to advance to the semifinals. They continue Wednesday when Northern Colorado plays Arkansas State and Wyoming plays Arizona. On Thursday, UConn plays St. John’s.

Bowling Green (24-9) won 25-14, 25-19, 17-25, 25-18 as Lauryn Hovey had 17 kills with two errors in 30 attacks to hit .500 and she had an ace, three blocks and seven digs. DePaul finished its season 21-14. 

Click here for the NIVC tournament website.

NAIA: Indiana Wesleyan vs. Bellevue 

Indiana Wesleyan (36-2) plays Bellevue (32-4) for the national championship on Tuesday.

Indiana Wesleyan defeated Southern Oregon 27-25, 25-20, 25-18 in the semifinals

Bellevue of Nebraska defeated Corban, another Oregon school, 25-20, 28-26, 26-24,

The championship match can be seen on the NAIA Network.

Coaching carousel spins at Gonzaga

Gonzaga, which last had a winning season in 2016, has a coaching opening. Katie Wilson stepped down after three years in which she won 10 matches, including back-to-back 0-16 West Coast Conference seasons. Gonzaga has been to the NCAA Tournament once, in 1990.

There are now Division I openings at Belmont, California Baptist, Charlotte, Central Michigan, Elon, Evansville, Holy Cross, Idaho, Louisiana Tech, Memphis, Northeastern, Oral Roberts, Southeastern Louisiana, Siena Tarleton, Toledo, UCF, Louisiana-Monroe, UNC Wilmington and North Texas.

LOVB TV schedule info

The League One Volleyball inaugural season begins in January and LOVB has viewing information, not only in America but around the world.

The First Serve match featuring LOVB Salt Lake at LOVB Atlanta on January 8 will be shown on ESPN+. The next day, LOVB Houston plays host to LOVB Austin, also on ESPN+ and then on Friday in Houston, two matches can be seen on ESPN+, LOVB Austin vs. LOVB Madison and LOVB Houston LOVB Omaha.

The LOVB Classic, the league’s in-season tournament that features all six teams, begins February 14 in Kansas City adjacent to the Triple Crown NIT. Those matches will be shown on ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN+. The LOVB Finals, April 10 -13, will air on ESPN.

An additional 16 of LOVB’s 60 in-season matches will stream live on the free, ad-supported TV home for women’s sports, Women’s Sports Network (WSN). WSN will show LOVB’s doubleheader weekends for domestic audiences

ESPN will broadcast in territories that are the home countries to the 30% of LOVB athletes who are international, including Brazil, Canada, the Caribbean, Latin North Region (Mexico, Dominican Republic, and Central America), Latin South Region (Spanish Speaking South America), to the Pacific Rim Region (Austrailia, New Zealand and Pacific Islands).

European broadcaster DAZN will air 16 matches globally for free, including in the U.S.,  Belgium, Canada, DACH (Austria, Germany, Switzerland), France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, the UK, Japan, and Taiwan. 

SPOTV will become LOVB’s main South East Asia international distributor, airing all 60 matches across key territories in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and Macau in East Asia.

And for audiences that want to watch matches on the go, Mobii, a next-generation streaming platform, will power all 60 matches live and on demand on LOVB LIVE on lovb.com.

Volleyball Nations League schedule, venues

North American volleyball fans will have four opportunities — two in the USA and two in Canada — to see Volleyball Nations League this summer after the 2024 schedule and list of venues was announced Tuesday.

The women will play in Ottawa, Canada, the first week of June (the Canada women will be there, but the USA will be in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, that week) and then will make a trip to Arlington, Texas, for the third year in a row July 9-13. That week will include the USA, Canada, China, Dominican Republic, Germany and Thailand.

The week of June 11-15, the Canada men will be in Quebec City, while the USA men will be in Rio. Then June 25-29 the USA men will be joined in Chicago by Poland, Italy, Brazil, Canada and China.

Click here to read the Volleyball World news release.

NCAA beach back to Redneck Riviera in 2027

The national beach tournament, which started out as an AVCA event before the NCAA took over in 2016, is moving to Huntington Beach this year and next. But the NCAA announced that the event wlll return to the Redneck Riviera in 2027 at least through 2031.

Read the NCAA news release here.

900 Square Feet with Ehman, Feinswog

In case you missed it Monday, we had our usual great fun and two wonderful guests, DIII championship-coach Heather Pavlik of Juniata and Louisville assistant Dan Meske:

USA women playing internationally 

Even with LOVB and Pro Volleyball Federation, quite a few Americans still play overseas. Here is our weekly report:

In Italy, before she left with an injury, Simone Lee had 16 kills, hitting .481, but Vallefoglia lost in five sets to Novara …Khalia Lanier had 10 kills, two blocks and two aces for Conegliano in a sweep of Firenze … Olympian Avery Skinner had 12 kills in Chieri’s sweep of Pinerolo … 

In Japan. Mac May and Astemo Rivale swept their weekend series with PFU Blue Cats. May had 20 kills and three blocks in their first match, a four-set win. Brionne Butler had eight kills and five blocks. Kash Williams had eight kills and one ace for PFU. Then in a sweep, May had 14 kills, two blocks and two aces and Butler added six kills, three blocks and two aces … Stephany Samedy and Hisamitsu Springs swept Aranmare twice. Samedy had nine kills and an ace in the first match and nine kills and two aces in the second. 

In Brazil, Jenna Gray and Minas got the better of Callie Schwarzenbach and Osasco, 16-14 in the fifth. Gray had two blocks and an ace and Schwarzenbach had three kills for Osasco … Osasco fell in another five-set match, this time to rival Praia Clube. Schwarzenbach had nine kills, hitting .667, with six blocks and an ace. Nia Reed had 16 kills for Praia Clube and Payton Caffrey added 12 kills and a block …

In Germany, Breland Morrissette had four kills, three blocks and an ace as defending champion Stuttgart beat Wiesbaden in four sets. Rachel Anderson-Gomez had four kills, two blocks and an ace for Wiesbaden … Jaelyn Keene and Schwerin earned an exciting five-set win over rival Potsdam. Keene had five kills and one block. Danielle Harbin led Potsdam with 18 kills, a block and an ace. Eleanor Holthaus added nine kills and one block and Sabrina Starks had in six kills and three blocks. Jenna Ewert set for Potsdam and had five kills and an ace … 

In France, Morgahn Fingall had 17 kills and two blocks and was top scorer as Volero Le Cannet swept TFOC. FKarson Bacon had five kills, two aces, and one block for TFOC … Haylie Bennett and Laura Jansen (who is from the Netherlands and played at Arkansas State and Washington State) teamed as Nantes beat Marcq en Barouel. Bennett had 12 kills, two blocks and an ace and Jansen had 18 kills and hit .400. Jess Robinson added 10 kills, hitting .500, with two aces and a block … Bella Bergmark was named MVP as Nancy swept Mulhouse. Bergmark had a match-high five blocks to go with four kills and an ace.

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