NCAA Ladies
December 14, 2023
TAMPA — All that remained was the ready, to see if we could have a rematch of the 2021 five-set epic NCAA championship match between Wisconsin and Nebraska.
Prime-seeded Nebraska did its half, fully overpowering No. 4 Pittsburgh on Thursday night time in Amalie Area within the NCAA Division I Volleyball Championship nationwide semifinals.
Sunday, the Huskers (33-1) will play the winner of the later match between No. 3 Wisconsin and No. 7 Texas after dismantling Pittsburgh 25-20, 25-23, 25-17.
Huge Ten-champion Nebraska was led by Harper Murray, the freshman exterior hitter who had 13 kills, 5 digs and two blocks. Merritt Beason added eight kills however hit .038 to go together with two assists, 4 aces, 4 digs and 5 blocks.
“Tonight is a good win for us, however on the finish of the day, Sunday is our aim,” Murray stated. “We simply have to remain targeted on that and do all the things we are able to to arrange for that match.”
Ally Batenhorst additionally had eight kills and added two digs and 4 blocks, one solo. The Nebraska middles have been errorless in a match through which the Huskers battled uphill to hit .245. Andi Jackson had 5 kills with no errors in 9 swings, a dig and 4 blocks, one solo, and Bekka Allick had 4 kills with no errors in seven assaults to go together with an help and 10 blocks, three solo. Allick, the sophomore taking part in for her hometown group, had 12 blocks in Nebraska’s regional-final win over Arkansas.
Setter Bergen Reilly had a kill in two errorless tries, 31 assists and three digs. Lexi Rodriguez had 14 digs, 4 assists and an ace.
Nebraska had 15 blocks to Pitt’s eight.
“I believed it was a fantastic effort on our half. Pittsburgh is an excellent group,” Nebraska coach John Prepare dinner stated. “Simply watching video on them, that they had our respect. I believed this is able to be a very, actually robust match, and I knew we’d should play nice to win.”
However I believed our group — we talked about successful some shut factors. There have been some ugly volleyball. We discovered a pair methods to win a pair factors out of that, and I simply thought our serving and blocking and protection actually put some strain on Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh, the ACC co-champion, completed its season 29-5 after shedding within the nationwide semifinals for the third yr in a row. When the Panthers and Louisville made it this far in 2021, it was the primary time an ACC college performed within the ultimate 4.
Pitt struggled offensively all match and hit .137. Olivia Babcock led with 12 kills, an ace, 4 digs and eight blocks. Torrey Stafford had 10 kills however hit .094. She had an help and 6 digs. Valeria Vazquez Gomez had seven kills and eight digs.
The middles, Emma Monks, who had seven blocks, and Chiamaka Nwokolo, had three kills every. Setter Rachel Fairbanks had a kill in two errorless tries, 29 assists and 9 digs.
Each groups have been abysmal offensively within the first set, however the best way Nebraska was blocking it didn’t want an assault.
Pitt hit a fair .000 with 13 kills and 13 errors in 37 assaults as Nebraska had eight blocks. The Huskers, struggling to remain within the optimistic the primary half of the set, completed at .152 with 9 kills and 4 errors in 33 swings.
The one Pitt gamers hitting optimistic within the first set have been Babcock (5-4-12) and Vazquez Gomez (2-1-4). Beason and Murray had 4 kills every for Nebraska and Batenhorst had the opposite to go together with two errors in 10 assaults.
The set was tied 9-9 and Pitt was as shut as 17-15 earlier than the Huskers pulled away.
Nebraska by no means trailed in a second set that was final tied at 4-4. The Huskers have been up 21-16 earlier than Pitt made a late cost, pulling to 24-23 on kills by Babcock and Stafford and a block by Babcock and Monks of Beason. However Vazquez Gomez served simply lengthy to provide Nebraska a 2-0 lead.
“We appeared frantic in transition. We gave them simple factors. Then I believed we have been flipping it within the second set, and we have been those successful the emotional factors,” Pitt coach Dan Fisher stated. “It will have been good to get that second set.
Nebraska hit .407 within the third set with 15 kills and 4 errors in 27 assaults. That included Allick getting three kills on 4 errorless assaults and three of her blocks, one solo.
“I believed within the second set, we began to look a little bit bit extra like ourselves. We have been battling. The volleyball was higher on each side,” Fisher stated. “Then within the fourth set, we simply served manner too many balls at Lexi and that actually helped their offense going out and so they obtained actually snug.”
“You have a look at the primary recreation, neither group didn’t hit effectively,” Prepare dinner stated. “Because the match went on, it obtained an increasing number of offensive and the numbers got here up.
“However protection takes a variety of vitality and emotion, and ultimately that begins really fizzling out because the match goes on. However I’m wanting right here, we hit .400 in recreation three in opposition to the primary or second greatest group within the nation, however their numbers got here up, too. General we did a very good job of holding them down and containing them. We by no means allow them to get actually sizzling. Babcock in recreation two obtained a pair good massive kills, however once more, we made some nice changes and shut them down.”
Nebraska beat Pitt in 4 within the 2021 nationwide semifinals earlier than shedding to Wisconsin in an epic five-set match. The Huskers, who gained the 2015 and 2017 titles, additionally misplaced within the 2018 national-championship match to Stanford.
