The USA women won the sitting volleyball title Saturday in Paris, the third gold medal in a row for a program that has medaled in every Paralympics since the discipline was introduced for women in 2004.
The Americans, who lost to China to open the tournament, this time beat China 25-21, 23-25, 25-20, 25-22 to give the USA three indoor medals this summer. In the Paris Olympics last month, the USA women took silver and the men won bronze.
While the USA was winning, NCAA volleyball was into another chock-full Saturday that saw what has become the usual unpredictability and surprising results.
That included Miami dealing Texas — No. 1 in the AVCA preseason and first-week polls but sure to fall — another loss by pulling off a reverse sweep in Gregory Gym. Sixth-ranked Wisconsin escaped Baylor with a five-set win, and Loyola Marymount had a reverse-sweep victory at SMU, which just five days earlier defeated Nebraska.
Or, as we say repeatedly, that’s why the VolleyballMag media poll won’t begin for two more weeks when pre-conference play is finished.
The recaps and top performances for all of the above follow, but first a look at Sunday’s NCAA schedule that includes 37 matches.
Six of those matches involve Big Ten teams, two of which are unbeaten as 5-0 Illinois plays. Wake Forest at Iowa State and 4-0 Washington is at 4-1 Colorado. Ohio State plays at No. 10 Florida.
In the ACC, fourth-ranked Louisville is at Northern Kentucky and No. 15 Florida State (4-0) plays at 5-0 Auburn.
The Big 12’s three matches include 5-0 Arizona State vs. St. John’s (4-1) at San Diego.
Ninth-ranked Kentucky of the SEC plays Ball State and No. 21 Arkansas (6-0) plays 5-1 Little Rock.
Dayton of the Atlantic 10, ranked No. 22, plays winless UMBC.
The USA and China have played each other for gold for five Paralympics in a row.
“This one means so much to us,” Kaleo Okalani said.
“We have faced so much adversity, especially in this tournament, and I’m so proud to play for this team and to be a part of this team.”
In the tournament, the Americans lost to China in four and then swept France and Italy to make the semifinals. There they beat Brazil 25-22, 22-25, 25-14, 25-15 before turning the table on China.
“We know them, and they know us,” Lora Webster said. “These are teams that fight tooth and nail and never think that anything is hopeless.”
Nicole Nieves missed the Tokyo Games because she had COVID.
“My two themes have been ‘redemption year’ and ‘delayed, not denied,’ ” Nieves said.
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Canada swept Brazil for bronze to win that country’s first sitting volleyball medal.
On the men’s side, Iran defeated Bosnia and Herzegovina in four for gold and Egypt beat Germany in five for bronze.
Miami, now 5-0, won 19-25, 17-25, 26-24, 25-18, 15-11 at Texas which has not likely been the victim of a reverse sweep too many times at home. Texas was up 24-23 in the third set before Miami rallied.
Puerto Rican Olympian Grace Lopez had 20 kills for the Hurricanes and hit .395 to go with two aces, four blocks and 15 digs. Flormarie Colon had 16 kills, an assist, an ace, three blocks and five digs. Paula Guersching, who has played on the German national team and played at Youngstown State and Hawai’i before transferring to Miami, had eight kills with one error in 23 swings and eight digs. Bianka Lulic had four kills with no errors in eight attacks and six blocks.
Miami, which had never beaten a No. 1 before, hit .241 and had six aces and 16 serving errors, while Texas hit .176 and had eight aces and 11 errors.
Texas (2-2), which opened its season with a victory over Wisconsin in Milwaukee, was knocked off the next day by Minnesota. Then the Longhorns, who have won the last two NCAA titles, swept Indiana on Thursday. Against Miami, Madi Skinner led with 20 kills but had 14 errors and hit .103. She had an assist, an ace, three blocks and 10 digs. Marianna Singletary had 12 kills and six blocks, two solo …
Wisconsin (2-3) won 25-18, 25-14, 18-25, 22-25, 16-14 at No. 23 Baylor (5-1). Baylor never trailed in the fifth set until 15-14. Devyn Robinson and Sarah Franklin had 19 kills each. Robinson had three blocks and four digs and Franklin had two blocks and 14 digs. Lola Schumacher had 27 digs, five assists and two aces and Charlie Feurbringer had four kills, 51 assists, a block and 12 digs. Her team hit .267 with seven aces and 14 errors. Baylor hit .208 and had four aces and 11 errors. Elise McGhee led the Bears with 15 kills, two aces, five blocks and two digs …
No. 19 Georgia Tech won in five at No. 14 BYU as Tamara Otene had 24 kills in the 21-25, 25-20, 19-25, 25-20, 15-13 victory. She had 13 digs and two blocks. Claire Little had 20 kills with one error in 43 attacks for BYU to go with two aces, nine digs and two blocks …
TCU got a big five-set victory over No,. 18 Minnesota, which is now 1-3, all in five sets. Melanie Parra had the line of the night for the Horned Frogs with 30 kills, an ace, 12 digs and five blocks, one solo in the 25-21, 26-24, 21-25, 23-25, 20-18 victory. Jalyn Gibson added 21 kills, two assists, 23 digs and four blocks. Setter Lily Nicholson had a kill in eight errorless tries, 56 assists, an ace, a block and 21 digs. Julia Hanson had 23 kills for Minnesota to go with two aces, a block and nine digs. Zeynep Palabiyik had 24 digs and three assists …
Elsewhere in the AVCA top 25, No. 2 Nebraska hit .400 and swept Montana State; No. 4 Louisville hit .443 and swept Missouri as Anna DeBeer had 11 kills with no errors in 27 swings to go with an ace, nine digs and two blocks, one solo; No. 7 Penn State hit .369 and swept Ball State as Jess Mruzik had 17 kills, hit .469 and had an ace, six digs and three blocks, one solo; No. 8 Purdue swept Utah State behind 14 kills, eight digs and four blocks, two solo, from Chloe Chicoine; No. 9 Kentucky swept James Madison; No. 10 Florida got 18 kills from AC Fitzpatrick, who hit .429, in a sweep of Southern Indiana; No. 11 Creighton hit .340 and swept Kansas State as Jaya Johnson had 12 kills with one error in 20 attacks, two digs and four blocks, one solo; No. 12 Oregon rallied to beat GCU 25-13, 20-25, 22-25, 25-16, 16-14 as Onye Ofoegbu had 19 kills with one error in 29 attacks, a dig and four blocks; No. 13 Kansas hit .358 and swept Western Michigan as Ayah Elnady had 15 kills with one error in 35 swings to go with 11 digs and a block; No. 16 Arizona State won in four at San Diego; No. 21 Arkansas swept Louisiana Tech as Romani Thurman had 12 kills, hit .455, and had six digs and four blocks; No. 22 Dayton swept Bowling Green as Lexie Almodovar had 16 kills, hit .364, and had two aces and 10 digs; No. 25 UCLA hit .385 and swept LIU. Cheridyn Leverette had 15 kills with two errors in 26 attacks to hit .500 and had five digs and a solo block.
Key results and top performances:
South Florida (2-3), which was coming off its upset of Florida, did it again with a five-set win over Ohio State (3-1) after trailing 12-9 in the fifth. USF had four players with nine or more kills in the 18-25, 25-21, 19-25, 25-18, 15-12 victory, 19 by Ally Cavanaugh, who hit .389. Of note for me is that USF assistant coach Leandro Vissotto is the brother of Brazilian sisters Luciana and Juliana, who coached for me in Volleyball Baton Rouge back in the day when they played at Southeastern Louisiana. Emily Londot had 27 kills for Ohio State …
Loyola Marymount rallied for a reverse sweep at SMU as Sophia Meyers had 15 kills, an assist, an ace and 14 digs in the 12-25, 20-25, 25-21, 25-16, 15-10 victory. SMU’s Maya Tabron had 21 kills, three assists, an ace, four digs and three blocks … Speaking of reverse sweeps, Binghamton dealt Boston College its first loss as Tsvetelina Ilieva had 14 kills, an assist, an ace, 14 digs and five blocks, one solo, in the 24-26, 18-25, 25-22, 25-20, 15-13 victory. Misa Dlouha had 10 blocks, one solo and eight kills … UC Santa Barbara rallied from 0-2, as well, in a reverse-sweep win over St. John’s in which Sophie Reavis had 21 kills for UCSB and Erin Jones had 21 for the Johnnies … And UC Irvine also had a reverse-sweep win, dealing Portland its first loss after five victories. Soana Leaea had 12 blocks — one solo — second most in UCI history, and a career-high nine kills. Katie Smith had 20 kills, six blocks and 12 digs, and Hunter Riedl had 10 kills, hit .390 and had an assist, five blocks and five digs …
Arizona beat Alabama in four in a match where both teams were 5-0 coming in … Southern Miss transfer Mia Wesley had 21 kills for Texas Tech in a four-set win over Green Bay … Raina Terry had 25 kills as Illinois improved to 5-0 with a four-set win at Iowa State. Terry had two assists, four aces, five digs and a block …
How about this scoreline as Morehead State beat Radford 25-19, 25-19, 22-25, 31-33, 15-11. Radford’s Sydney Mundkowsy had 28 kills, hitting .306, to go with an assist, three aces, seven digs and a solo block … The line of the day after TCU’s Parra: Camryn Luginbuhl had 30 kills for Sacred Heart in its five-set win over Kent State. She hit .303 and had three assists, an ace, 15 digs and six blocks, two solo …
Michigan State hit .382 in a sweep of Marist … Julia Hunt had eight kills and eight blocks in Washington’s five-set win over Georgia … Samantha Schnitta had 21 kills, five aces, 10 digs and five blocks in Maryland’s five-set win over American, which had started 7-0. AU swept Alabama A&M earlier in the day …
LSU is 5-1 after sweeping Davidson. Jurnee Robinson had 24 kills in just those three sets, hitting .512, and had 10 digs and three blocks. Robinson is averaging 5.3 kills per set and is hitting .313 this season … Olivia Utterback had 25 kills as UC Davis beat Saint Mary’s in four. Utterback hit .417 and had three assists, three aces, 14 digs and a block …
East Carolina is 6-0 after sweeping Western Carolina. Fran McBride had 13 kills with no errors in 19 attacks and four blocks, one solo. Carlia Northcross had seven kills with one error in 12 swings and five blocks … Syracuse is 6-0 after beating Manhattan in four. Sydney Moore had eight kills with one error in 11 attacks and seven blocks … Michigan is 6-0 after beating Notre Dame in four. Allison Jacobs had 19 kills and Ella Demetrician had 18 … Malaya Jones had 26 kills for Colorado State, which got its first victory, in a four-set win over Central Arkansas … Maddie Meyers had 22 kills for William & Mary in a five-set win over George Mason … Bridgette Smith had 22 kills for Sacramento State in a four-set win over San Francisco …
Hawai’i beat visiting Pepperdine in five as Caylen Alexander had 25 kills for the home team to go with two aces, 16 digs and four blocks, two solo, and Birdie Hendrickson had 25 kills for the Waves to go with an assist, an ace, 10 digs and three blocks … Sydney Love had 23 kills for Elon in a five-set win over NC Central … ETSU hit .459 in a sweep of Kennesaw State. Amanda Lowe had 13 kills with one error in 17 attacks … Wright State hit .364 in a sweep of UMBC as Maya Ayro had 13 kills with one error in 20 attacks, three digs and two blocks … Harvard won two five-set matches, first over Merrimack and then over New Hampshire to get to 3-0 on its opening weekend. Brynne Faltinsky had 19 kills against Merrimack and 19 more against UNH. Faltinsky, who had a total of 40 kills in 2023, had nine kills in the season opener against Stonehill … Speaking of Stonehill and Merrimack, Stonehill pulled a reverse sweep to beat Merrimack 22-25, 23-25, 25-15, 25-18, 15-11 as Mia Berardino had 18 kills, hit .438 and had three aces, five digs and a block …
Central Michigan is 6-0 after beating Iona in four … UTRGV beat Arkron in five and Ilana De Assis had 23 kills … Kira Fallert had 21 kills for Northern Iowa in its four-set win over West Virginia … Wyoming is 5-0 afer winning in four at Cleveland State. Emma Winter had 15 kills and six blocks … Samford beat Chicago State in five as Gracie Lynn Butler had 22 kills and Patrycia Lagida had 26 kils and 18 digs for Chicago State, which used no subs … Mercer is 5-0 after sweeping Ohio … UT Arlington improved to 6-9 with a sweep of Louisiana-Monroe. Paige Reagor had 11 kills, hit .529, and had four blocks.
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