Chalk.
All four top seeds are into the NCAA Division I Volleyball Championship.
Thursday’s national semifinals in Louisville can be seen on ESPN:
6:30 p.m. Eastern — Louisville vs. Pittsburgh
30 minutes following — Penn State vs. Nebraska
Nebraska swept Wisconsin on Sunday afternoon and then Penn State won a five-set battle with Creighton.
Also in this all-NCAA edition of Volleyball Today, Wake Forest became the fourth Power 4 program to fire its coach.
Domination.
Nebraska swept Big Ten rival Wisconsin for an incredible third time this season and the Huskers are back in the NCAA volleyball national semifinals for the seventh time in 10 seasons and 18th overall.
Nebraska, which lost in last year’s title match to Texas, has set the benchmark all season. The Huskers (33-2), who shared the Big Ten title with Penn State at 19-1, played a nearly flawless defensive match against Wisconsin (26-7). They hit held the Badgers to a .126 hitting percentage in the 26-24, 25-17, 25-21 and came up big on offense when it counted.
“The effort on both sides was incredible,” Nebraska coach John Cook said. “Both teams were laying out, making unreal plays.
“I blow the whistle in practice when I think the ball is down. I would have blown the whistle several times today thinking the ball was down. Next thing you know, it’s up. When they have hitters like that, you have to dig balls, because you’re not going to block those guys all the time.”
Wisconsin counterpart Kelly Sheffield analyzed it the same way.
“(Nebraska) was just an unbelievable defensive team. I thought both teams were just making some big plays. We probably made a few more errors than what they did. But some of the defensive plays they were making, no one in the country is making in the backcourt,” Sheffield said.
“That’s nothing new to anybody in this room. Those of you guys that are from here have been seeing that all year long. We took some really, really big-time swings and they came up with some big-time digs.
Taylor Landfair led Nebraska with 13 kills — six in the first set — two digs and two blocks. Andi Jackson had 10 kills with one error in 19 attacks to hit .474 and had a dig and five blocks. Harper Murray had 10 kills — lethal from the back row — 12 digs and four blocks, one solo.
“She is just so explosive there. The previous matches, she hasn’t had as much success on us in the front row, but she’s had quite a bit of success on the back row. Certainly, we didn’t solve that,” Sheffield said. “That’s a real credit to her and her explosiveness and her ability to get on the ball. She’s a real deal back there.”
Rebekah Allick had five kills with one error in nine attempts, a dig and six blocks, two solo. Lexi Rodriguez had 17 digs and six assists. Setter Bergen Reilly had two kills but seven errors and had 29 assists, eight digs and four blocks. Nebraska hit .210.
“That first set was back and forth, a close two-point game that we had to battle out,” Rodriguez said. “I knew going into the second set that we were going to come out with a lot more urgency, which is exactly what we did. We were just on a roll.
“It was awesome.”
Wisconsin’s Sarah Franklin, the Big Ten player of the year for the second straight year, had 12 kills but hit. 128 to go with nine digs and a block. Anna Smrek had nine kills, hit .333, and had an assist, five digs and three blocks.
Julia Orzol had seven kills — five in the first set — nine digs and two blocks. Carter Booth had six kills, an assist and three blocks. Setter Charlie Feurbringer had no kills and two errors, 32 assists, all three of Wiscconsin’s aces, nine digs and two blocks.
“I think this is one of the hardest regional finals we have ever had because of Wisconsin,” Nebraska’s Cook said. “They are a phenomenal team, they’ve got great players, they are very well coached. We had to play our very best match of the year to win this match today.
“So much respect for the Badgers and I asked our team, I told them that we were going to have to really max it out today and they responded and did a great job. Even though a few times it wasn’t going really well, they just stayed with it and found ways to win.
“The other thing is, I asked our crowd (8,743 in the Devaney Sports Center) to will us, and I’m not sure I have heard the Devaney this loud for this long every point, so thanks to our crowd they were unbelievable today.”
The three other top seeds were already in. Then late on a snowy Sunday night in University Park, Pennsylvania, Penn State joined Nebraska, Pittsburgh and Louisville in the NCAA Division I Volleyball Championship.
The Nittany Lions (33-2) of the Big Ten defeated Creighton 25-15, 16-25, 25-22, 20-25, 15-7 in a match that all that and more for a program that has eyes on an eighth NCAA title, its first since 2014, when it went back-to-back.
Just 12 programs have won since the NCAA began holding women’s volleyball championships in 1981: Stanford (9 times), Penn State (7), Nebraska (5), UCLA (4), Hawai’i (3), Long Beach State (3), USC (3), Texas (4), Pacific (2), Kentucky (1), Wisconsin (1) and Washington (1).
“It’s hard to get here, it’s hard to win, and these opportunities just don’t happen,” Penn State coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley said. “I’m just so happy for these guys and the program and all of the alums. We had quite a few come back for tonight. I’m so happy that these guys are able to experience a final four and win a national championship.”
Penn State’s Jess Mruzik led with 20 kills, hitting .278, and had an ace, four blocks and eight digs. Caroline Jurevicious had 11 kills, hit .292, and had four blocks. Camryn Hannah had nine kills but 10 errors and added two assists, two digs and three blocks, one solo.
“Mruzik really stepped up in game five and got some big kills for them,” Creighton coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth said. “Jurevicious did a good job. Those two really stepped up for them.”
Taylor Trammel had eight kills — including the match-winner — with one error in 12 attacks to hit .583 and she had five blocks, one solo. Setter Izzy Starck had six kills in 16 errorless tries, 41 assists, three blocks and 11 digs. Her team hit .226.
Gillian Grimes had 17 digs, five assists and an ace.
“I’m just speechless,” Grimes said.
Penn State “made some fantastic plays at big moments,” Booth said. “I hope they have a great run in the final four.”
Creighton (32-3) of the Big East had its chances, but the Bluejays, finishing their best season in program history, ultimately couldn’t keep pace inside a raucous Rec Hall. The Bluejays hit just .141 as their school-record 25-match winning streak came to an end.
“They were able to slow down some of our players whose efficiency is usually pretty high,” Booth said.
Not the least among them was offensive leader Norah Sis, who had eight kills but eight errors. She had three aces, a block and 12 digs. Ava Martin had 17 kills but hit .132 to go with an assist, two aces, a block and eight digs.
Elise Goetzinger had eight kills and four blocks and Jaya Johnson had eight kills, a block and three digs. Kiara Reinhardt had three kills, an assist, a dig and five blocks, one solo. Setter Kendra Wait had four kills with one error in 12 tries, an ace, five blocks and nine digs.
The Bluejays will no doubt be haunted by the third set, when they led 17-12 and were still ahead 20-17 on a kill by Sis. But Penn State — led by Mruzik — stormed back. She got six of her kills in the set, four in the final six of her team’s points, including the match-winner.
Penn State dominated the fifth set, going on a 6-1 run to take a 9-5 lead and never looked back. Creighton had just three kills in the fifth.
In the fifth set, “I thought we passed better, served tougher and gutted out some points and defensively made some great plays,” Schumacher-Cawley said. ” … When we do the little things well that we talk about we find ways to win.”
Now the Nittany Lions play Big Ten rival Nebraska in the national semifinals. They tied for first in the conference at 19-1, but Penn State beat the Huskers in four on November 29 in their only regular-season meeting.
“I’m going to enjoy this one tonight,” said Schumacher-Cawley. “We’ll prepare, we’ll make sure the team is prepared to compete and play and know what the game plan is. It will be a special match and I know if we compete and do the right things we’ll find a way.
“We’ll enjoy this one for the night and get back to the gym tomorrow. Hey, it’s nice to see another Big Ten team. We’ll give it our best.”
The ACC program fired Randi Smart, who took over as head coach in October 2019. The program appeared to making continual progress, but this year finished 13-18, 5-15 in the ACC. That came on the heels of a 17-12 2023, 8-10 in the ACC.
Wake Forest has never been to the NCAA Tournament.
Click here for the Wake Forest news release.
This is the fourth Power 4 opening after UCF and Cincinnati fired their coaches and Luka Slabe resigned from NC State.
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