NCAA Girls
December 7, 2023
Armed with a five-gun arsenal, Oregon is mustered for a frontal assault on the stronghold it can interact subsequent 12 months within the Massive Ten.
The NCAA girls’s volleyball event spherical of 16 on Thursday sees the balanced and battle-tested Geese (28-5) sq. off with Purdue (23-8) in Madison, Wisconsin. A victory would ship Oregon into regional-final showdown in opposition to host Wisconsin (28-3) or Penn State (23-8).
Geese coach Matt Ulmer will make a Badger State homecoming as his troops from the disbanding Pac-12 get a first-hand take a look at the Massive Ten minefield they must negotiate of their new league.
“If Nebraska have been invited to this weekend, we might name it the 2024 Massive Ten championship event,” stated Ulmer, a Wisconsin native with deep roots at Carthage Faculty in Kenosha, roughly a two-hour drive southwest Madison. “It’s loopy that it is a preview of what our future will seem like in our new league.
“However this stage of competitors is nothing new for us. The Pac-12 was actually loaded. We usually schedule a whole lot of Massive Ten groups within the non-conference. It looks as if within the playoffs yearly, we’re matched up with someone from the Massive Ten. The gamers who resolve they need to come to Oregon have aspirations of taking part in on the highest stage, so for them to change conferences (in 2024), that’s not going up or down, it’s precisely what they’re making an attempt to do.”
As befitting their statuses as the very best volleyball conferences within the nation, with 30 NCAA titles between them, the Massive Ten and Pac-12 personal half of the 16 groups left standing after the event’s first two rounds. Each leagues went 9-1.
The NCAA choice committee opted to award extra bids to 2 different conferences. The Southeastern had eight bids, going 8-5 with three of its groups advancing. The Massive 12 obtained seven, however after a 7-6 file, solely defending NCAA champion Texas remained in competition. The Atlantic Coast additionally obtained 5 invites, went 7-2 and has three within the hunt.
That the Pac-12’s Oregon, Stanford, Washington State and Arizona State all received their first two matches was not misplaced on Ulmer.
“Getting 5 bids didn’t precisely replicate how good the Pac-12 was,” he famous.”Our convention was so deep this 12 months that there was no backside. These groups that completed on the backside, they beat a whole lot of the mid groups, and that knocked these groups out of the event. We have been the No. 1 ranked convention in nonconference play with the No. 1 energy of schedule, but one way or the other we solely obtained 5 groups into the NCAAs. Everyone was so good that there by no means was an off evening.”
Many good wins, no dangerous losses
Negotiating the treacherous terrain of the Pac-12 with a 16-4 file (second-best behind Stanford’s 19-1) and a non-conference slate that included victories over 5 groups that earned NCAA bids (Pittsburgh, Hawaii, Pepperdine, Marquette and James Madison) helped Oregon enter the NCAAs with an RPI pc rating of 8, the No. 6 spot within the ultimate VolleyballMag.com Tremendous 16 Media Ballot and a No. 6 seed general within the NCAA Match.
The Geese took no red-flag losses and the highway victory over ACC-champion Pittsburgh (one in every of 4 No. 1-seeded regional hosts) was a big bullet level on their resume.
Oregon’s 4 defeats within the Pac-12 all got here in opposition to groups that superior to the spherical of 16: Stanford (twice, shedding in 5 units on the highway), Washington State and Arizona State. Its lone non-conference loss got here in opposition to the Massive Ten’s Minnesota, which received its first-round match.
The important thing to that success has been tremendously numerous assault, as mirrored by the Geese’ touchdown 5 gamers on the 18-member All-Pac-12 staff: outdoors hitter Mimi Colyer (a 6-foot-3 sophomore), OH Gabby Gonzales (a 6-3 senior), proper aspect Morgan Lewis (a 6-3 senior), center blocker Kara McGhee (a 6-5 senior switch from Baylor) and setter Hannah Pukis (a 5-11 redshirt senior). Colyer was the 2022 VBM nationwide freshman of the 12 months.
Oregon possesses a lot firepower and dimension that it lurks as a reliable menace to win any match on any evening, together with the nationwide championship. Once I broached that evaluation to Ulmer, this was his response:
“I agree with you,” he stated. “Now we have 5 reliable scorers. 4 of our hitters had 18 kills or extra in a match, and the fifth, one in every of our middles (6-foot-4 redshirt senior Karson Bacon) had 11 kills on 12 swings with no errors simply the opposite evening. What makes us so harmful is that in the event you attempt to remove one or two of them, then the others are open they usually’re going to go off. If groups attempt to key on one or two hitters, we’ve a solution for that.”
Spreading the butter among the many myriad of hitting choices is Pukis, a VBM third-team All-American in 2022 and a four-time All-Pac-12 choice.
“I do know I’m biased, however I imagine we’ve the very best setter within the nation in Hannah,” Ulmer stated. ”She makes so many nice choices, is so athletic, so constant, that she is all the things you’ll need in a setter. So so long as we management the ball OK, we’re fairly robust.”
Gonzales, who joined the Geese from Ohio State, helped fill the large void left by the commencement of All-American Brooke Nuneviller. A key member of a Buckeyes squad that superior to the regional ultimate final season, Gonzales has been the “glue” for her new staff, in accordance with her grateful coach.
“Brooke did so many issues for us, among the finest all-around gamers faculty volleyball’s ever had,” Ulmer stated. “She was so impactful in so many areas, how do you substitute that? We knew it must be by committee, that everyone must get just a little bit higher. I assumed Gabby can be the proper match for us. She’s are available and been among the finest passers within the nation. She takes care of a whole lot of the junk for us and makes a whole lot of actually good performs, with an ideal volleyball IQ. It’s important to have a ‘glue participant’ and she or he’s been it.
“Between Pukis, Gabby and our senior libero, Georgia Murphy, they run the factor. After they’re all clicking collectively, then it permits our middles, Lewis on the proper aspect and Colyer on the left to make large performs. With three courtroom generals, the large boppers and large blockers can thrive. You’ll be able to’t have an entire staff of simply ball-control gamers. You want the physicality, too, and we’ve that basically good steadiness.”
All-around competence
That effectiveness has prolonged to a stellar protection and a piece ethic reflective of skilled gamers.
“Our protection simply set an Oregon file for opposing hitting share,” Ulmer famous. “We’ve held groups to a few buck-fifty. We’re doing it a whole lot of other ways.
“Total, we’re rather a lot like a professional staff. We’re very outdated. One underclassman, and all people else is a fifth- or sixth-year senior. It’s a bunch of student-athletes who’re able to go play professional they usually’re already appearing that method. They’re extraordinarily constant of their method on daily basis. From a training perspective, it’s actually gratifying, simply serving to them prepare for what’s subsequent of their lives. They’ve large targets and have been working arduous to get there.”
Oregon by no means has gotten to the mountaintop in 20 NCAA Match appearances, the closest to it coming when it misplaced to Texas within the 2012 title match underneath coach Jim Moore, whom Ulmer succeeded in 2017. On Ulmer’s watch, they’ve landed an NCAA bid in six of seven seasons, twice advancing to the quarterfinals. In 2022, Oregon knocked off Nebraska within the spherical of 16 earlier than dropping a five-setter to Louisville within the regional ultimate.
After a daily season that noticed this system set data for common attendance and a single-match crowd (7,400), the Geese have had easy paddling within the 2023 NCAA Match, with home-court sweeps in opposition to mid-majors Southeastern Louisiana out of the Southland Convention and the Massive West’s Hawaii.
The going figures to get rather a lot harder in opposition to Purdue on Thursday (9:30 p.m. Jap, ESPNU). Coached by the veteran Dave Shondell, the Boilermakers have an RPI of 12 and in addition have been No. 12 within the ultimate VBM ballot. Potent pin hitters Eva Hudson, a 6-foot-1 sophomore, and Chloe Chicoine, a 5-11 freshman, current separate and distinct challenges. Hudson is an uber-physical hammer and the high-jumping Chicoine is a will o’ the wisp with a nasty top-spin leap serve. Each have been named first-team All-Massive Ten.
Ulmer marveled not solely at their expertise, however their youth, noting, “Poor Dave solely will get them collectively for 3 years.”
“Hudson and Chicoine, what an ideal 1-2 combo, nearly as good as any two on the pins within the nation,” Ulmer gushed. “It’s so robust to defend them as a result of each rating out of the again row so effectively. That’s the kicker, in the event you attempt to take one in every of them out of it for a technique, they’re going to get you within the different. Most groups don’t have two left sides who can rating as effectively out of the again row as they do from the entrance.”
“Purdue appears actually assured. Their freshman setter (Taylor Anderson) because the season has gone on has gotten increasingly snug. Their libero (Maddie Schermerhorn) is elite at her place. Ravin Colvin within the center can go off at any time. At this level, all people is actually good and your youngsters need to be up for the problem.”
