NCAA Women
November 25, 2024
Two ranked teams lost Sunday, when Miami pulled off a reverse sweep to knock off visiting AVCA No. 15 Georgia Tech and No. 25 Missouri was beaten by Mississippi State.
But that was just the tip of the NCAA Division I volleyball unpredictability iceberg on a day when mid-major conferences produced some unlikely winners.
Not the least of which was Loyola Chicago not only beating top-seeded Dayton, but sweeping the No. 15 Flyers right off their home court, guaranteeing the Atlantic 10 will get two teams into the NCAA Tournament and making it unlikely that Dayton will get a top-16 seed.
The top seeds were knocked off in the MEAC, SoCon and Southland finals and lower seeds will represent their conferences in the American Athletic, Horizon, MAC and Sun Belt.
The SoCon winner, second-seeded Wofford, pulled off a reverse sweep over top-seeded Mercer.
And a couple of others, top-seeded Colgate in the Patriot League and top-seeded High Point in the Big South, won their respective title matches in five sets.
That’s why we call November our version of March Madness.
Notes of the day:
This one thanks to a very happy Texas A&M-Corpus Christi coach Steve Greene, whose Islanders are NCAA-bound: His team includes reserve freshman Virginia Van Der Werff. College of Charleston, which won the CAA on Saturday, has one of her older sisters, junior Olivia Mae Van Der Werff. And Utah, sure to get an at-large bid, has fifth-year middle Amelia Van Der Werff. They all played at Lansing High School in Kansas, and they have another sister and two brothers.
Laken Voss had 16 kills as Cleveland State won the Horizon League to get back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2017 and sixth time overall, all under her father, coach Chuck Voss.
There will also be two Klikas in the NCAA Tournament, Pitt’s Emily and Wofford’s Laney.
Also in this edition of Volleyball Today we have who won the National Junior College crowns and the Pro Volleyball Federation draft is Monday. Details below.
NCAA volleyball Monday
There are six matches, all conference semifinals.
In the Ohio Valley, top-seeded Southeast Missouri State plays fourth-seeded Morehead State and second-seeded Lindenwood plays third-seeded Tennessee Tech.
In the Missouri Valley semifinals, top-seeded Northern Iowa plays Illinois State and second-seeded Drake plays No. 3 UIC.
And in The Summit League, top-seeded South Dakota State plays fifth-seeded Denver and second-seeded Omaha plays third-seeded South Dakota.
NCAA regular-season Sunday
ACC
There was one surprise among the nine matches — Miami’s win over Georgia Tech — and No. 23 Florida State had to rally to beat Clemson in five.
Miami, 20-9, improved to 10-2 in the bandbox it calls home with a 22-25, 19-25, 25-21, 25-14, 15-13 victory over Georgia Tech. Miami’s Flormarie Heredia Colon had 29 kills, an assist, five digs and four blocks.
FSU, which hit .338, beat Clemson 20-25, 25-16, 21-25, 25-18, 15-10 as it got 20 kills from Khori Louis, who had two errors in 27 attacks to hit .667 and she had five blocks. Top-ranked Pittsburgh swept at NC State, No. 3 Louisville did the same at Virginia Tech, No. 7 Stanford swept at North Carolina, No. 9 SMU swept at Wake Forest, Virginia swept visiting Notre Dame, Boston College beat visiting Syracuse in four and Cal won in four at Duke.
Big 12
In the two matches, No. 11 Kansas won in four at Kansas State and No. 16 Utah swept visiting Cincinnati. Five KU players had nine or more kills, 15 by Caroline Bien, who had an assist, 20 digs and four blocks, one solo. K-State’s Aliyah Carter had 24 kills, an assist, an ace, 13 digs and four blocks. Utah’s Lauren Jardine had 14 kills in 25 errorless attacks to hit .560 and added an assist, three digs and five blocks. And the aforementioned Amelia Van Der Werff had five blocks.
Big Ten
There were two matches as fifth-ranked Penn State beat visiting Washington in four and Ohio State held off visiting Indiana in five. In Penn State’s 27-29, 25-9, 25-22, 25-19 victory, Camryn Hannah had 19 kills, hitting .405, and she had an ace and a dig. Izzy Starck had six kills in 12 errorless tries, 41 assists, four blocks and nine digs. Ohio State won 25-19, 23-25, 22-25, 25-17, 15-7 as Emily Londot had 20 kills while hitting .405 with 14 digs and three blocks, one solo. IU’s Candela Alonso-Corcelles had 23 kills, two assists, two aces, two blocks and five digs.
SEC
No. 12 Kentucky clinched at least a tie for the league title with a sweep of Arkansas. The Wildcats are 13-2, while Florida and Texas are 11-3. Megan Wilson had 12 kills with one error in 22 attacks to hit .500 and had two digs and four blocks.
Missouri was upset at Mississippi State 19-25, 25-20, 25-22, 26-24. Texas A&M beat visiting LSU in four and Oklahoma did the same to Auburn as Alexis Shelton had 21 kills, hitting .385 with two assists, six digs and six blocks. Tennessee swept visiting South Carolina and Ole Miss won in five at Alabama.
Big East
Creighton finished the regular season 27-2, 18-0 in the conference, and takes a 20-match winning streak into the league tournament after sweeping at Xavier. Creighton, which lost just three sets in the conference season, got 17 kils from Norah Sis, who hit .591 and had an ace and three digs. Ava Martin had 13 kills, hit .478, and had eight digs and two blocks, one solo.
Second-place Marquette won in four at DePaul as Aubrey Hamilton had 21 kills, two assists, two blocks and 11 digs.
The Big East Championship starts Wednesday with DePaul vs. St. John’s with th winner getting Creighton on Friday, and UConn vs. Villanova with the winner playing Marquette.
NCAA conference tournaments
Six teams clinched their respective conference’s automatic NCAA bids on Saturday, New Hampshire (America East), FGCU (ASUN), Charleston (CAA), Yale (Ivy), Chicago State (NEC) and UT Arlington (WAC).
American Athletic
Host Wichita State, the No. 4 seed which never had a home sweep during the regular season, made it three in a row in the conference tournament with a 25-22, 25-19, 25-19 victory over sixth-seeded Florida Atlantic. Wichita State’s Brookyln Leggett had 13 kills and Morgan Stout, who had one error in 23 swings, had 12 to go with three blocks and four digs.
Atlantic 10
Heavily favored and top-seeded Dayton was swept on its home court by third-seeded Loyola Chicago 25-17, 25-23, 25-19. Loyola, which won its 12th in a row, had just 30 kills and hit .209. Dayton’s Lexie Almodovar had 15 kills but 10 errors as her team hit .114. Dayton, which had not been swept in more than two years, will assuredly get an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Big South
Top-seeded High Point made it three in a row with a five-set win over second-seeded Winthrop. Arica Davis had 15 kills in the 25-23, 25-20, 25-27, 18-25, 15-12 victory, hitting .520 with four blocks and a dig. Jordyn Schilling had 20 digs, six assists and two aces. Winthrop’s Rachel McCollum had 19 kills, hit .321 and had a dig and six blocks. Sophia Matthews had 23 digs, three assists and three aces.
Conference USA
Top-seeded Western Kentucky won its 24th match in a row, 21-25, 25-18, 25-19, 25-21 over third-seeded NM State for its sixth consecutive conference title and 10th in 11 years. Kaylee Cox had 23 kills, hit .326, and added a block and 12 digs.
Horizon League
Third-seeded Cleveland State defeated No. 4 Green Bay 11-25, 27-25, 27-25, 18-25, 15-11 as Liberty Torres led with 23 kills, a block and seven digs. Laken Voss had 16 kills and 14 digs and Emma Walker had 25 digs, five assists and three aces. Green Bay’s Abby Gardner had 25 digs, nine assists and three aces.
MAAC
Top-seeded Fairfield went back-to-back as it beat second-seeded Quinnipiac in four as Mikayla Haut had 15 kills, hit .325, and had 10 digs and two blocks. Mamie Krubally had 11 kills with one error in 23 attacks to hit .435 and had an assist, a block and five digs. Fairfield has won the title three of the last four years and 14 times overall.
Quinnipiac’s Elena Giacomini had 24 kills, an ace, two blocks and 23 digs.
MAC
Fourth-seeded Western Michigan was an unlikely pick to go back-to-back, but the Broncos swept third-seeded Ball State to give coach Colleen Munson not only an NCAA Tournament bid but her 400th victory at the school. Julia Marr had 14 kills with one error in 34 attacks to hit .382 and had a dig and five blocks, one solo. Logan Case had three kills in as many tries, 43 assists, a block and 13 digs.
MEAC
Third-seeded Delaware State defeated Howard 26-24, 22-25, 25-20, 23-25, 15-7. Valeria Otero led with 18 kills, an assist, an ace, a solo block and 12 digs. Gerren Tomlin had 17 kills an assist, a block and 20 digs, and Morgan Allen had 22 digs, four assists and two aces.
Howard, 14-0 in the regular MEAC season, had four players with 11 or more kills, 18 by Rya McKinnon, who had an assist and eight digs.
Missouri Valley
Illinois State defeated Missouri State in four and plays top-seeded UNI, and UIC beat Valparaiso in four and faces second-seeded Drake.
Ohio Valley
Three of the four quarterfinals were sweeps as Lindenwood beat SIUE, Morehead State beat Western Illinois and Tennessee Tech beat Little Rock. Top-seeded Southeast Missouri beat Tennessee State in four as Lucy Arndt had 19 kills, two assists, two aces, 16 digs and three blocks, one solo.
Top-seeded SEMO plays fourth-seeded Morehead State and second-seeded Lindenwood plays third-seeded Tennessee Tech.
SWAC
Top-seeded Florida A&M, which went 16-0 in the conference regular season, improved to 27-6 with its four-set win over Jackson State. Brooke Lynn Watts led with 13 kills, a block and 15 digs.
SoCon
Second-seeded Wofford rallied from being down 0-2 and knocked off top-seeded Mercer 22-25, 22-25, 25-16, 26-24, 16-14 to repeat as champion. Bri Mahoney led Wofford with 18 kills, an assist, two blocks and 13 digs. Libero Laney Klika had 18 digs, seven assists and an ace and a rare kill in her only attempt and will join her sister, Pitt libero Emmy Klika, in the NCAA Tournament. Klika’s kill was her third of the season but first since getting one each in the first two matches of the season in August.
Skyler Bumpers had 21 kills for Mercer to go with three digs and four blocks, two solo. MeMe Davis had 26 digs and nine assists.
Southland
Southeastern Louisiana had the nation’s longest winning streak, 26 matches, but that ended when Texas A&M-Corpus Christi won the league final 25-19, 25-20, 25-19. It was the first time Southeastern was swept at home since 2021.
Tori Arrington led the Islanders with 13 kills and hit .353 after having one error in 34 attacks to go with three digs and two blocks. Alex Hoglund had a kill in her only try, 45 assists, an ace and seven digs.
Summit League
The tournament began with Denver beating North Dakota State in four and South Dakota sweeping Kansas City. Monday, fifth-seeded Denver plays top-seeded South Dakota State and third-seeded South Dakota plays second-seeded Omaha.
Sun Belt
Texas State completed a perfect run through the tournament with a sweep of Arkansas State. Texas State, which has been to the NCAA Tournament four previous times, the last in 2020, got 16 kills from MJ McCurdy, who hit .361 and had an assist, a block and eight digs.
CMU coaches go to PVF’s Grand Rapids
Now we know why there’s an opening at Central Michigan. which announced Sunday that coach Mike Gawlik had resigned after nine seasons “to pursue other professional opportunities.”
That’s because Gawlik and his wife, Katie, are joining Cathy George’s staff at the Grand Rapids Rise. Mike Gawlik coached for George at Michigan State from 2005-2015.
Read the Rise news release here.
And read the CMU story here.
Pro Volleyball Federation draft Monday
Speaking of the PVF, the second-year league holds its draft at noon Eastern Monday. Click here for the PVF Draft Central and a link to watch the happenings on YouTube.
NJCAA titles claimed
Florida SouthWestern State won the NJCAA Division I title, Cowley College won it all in Division II and Dallas College Eastfield won Division III.
Florida SouthWestern State won its third national championship in a row when it swept Miami Dade.
Click here for more.
Cowley finished 40-0 and went unbeaten for the second straight year when it beat Johnson County in four.
Click here for more.
And Dallas College Eastfield swept Minnesota West Community & Technical College.
Click here for more.
