Volleyball Today: ACC, SEC surprises; NCAA bracket announcement Sunday; USA pair wins gold

The ACC saved its wildest for last, ensuring that the NCAA Division I volleyball regular season would end with a bang.

And did it ever.

To wit:

Unranked NC State all but assured itself an at-large NCAA tourney bid with a five-set, reverse-sweep upset at No. 9 SMU;

No. 6 Stanford knocked off visiting No. 3 Louisville;

Top-ranked Pittsburgh, which has won 14 in a row, came pretty close to entering the tournament with a loss before the Panthers got past No. 19 Georgia Tech in five, 17-15 in the fifth.

There was more.

In the SEC, Georgia upset No. 16 Florida in four, sending the Gators into the tournament on a two-match losing skid and all but ensuring they will not get a top-16 seed; 

No. 13 Texas had to go five to hold off visiting Ole Miss, also winning 17-15 in the fifth after trailing 13-7.

Three more NCAA bids were claimed when No. 5 Creighton won the Big East, Hawai’i won the Big West and Colorado State won the Mountain West tournaments. 

This, of course, is the day we’ve all been waiting for. No, not a Sunday with no matches, but the 6 p.m. Eastern NCAA Tournament selection show on ESPN. 

We will have a story posted here ASAP and then soon after, we’ll post our annual Zoom with ESPN and Big Ten Network analyst Emily Ehman and tourney participants from around the country, including NCAA Division I volleyball committee chair Danielle Josetti of Marquette.

Also in this edition of Volleyball Today:

— The KPI is a factor in the NCAA selection process and the MasterCoaches are all over it. We’ve got the link below.

— Americans Molly Shaw and Toni Rodriguez won the Volleyball World Pro Beach Tour Nuvali Challenge in the Philippines.

— And Micha Hancock had quite a scare in August, hours after getting her Olympic silver medal. There’s a link to a feature on the LOVB Houston setter.

NCAA volleyball Saturday

ACC: NC State (16-12, 11-9) came away with an improbably 15-25, 22-25, 25-14, 25-18, 17-15 victory at SMU (24-7, 16-4). It left NC State with a RPI of 35 and KPI of 42, while SMU, sure to be a top-16 seed, is No. 7 in the RPI and ninth in KPI.  Amanda Rice led the Wolfpack with 23 kills, five digs and six blocks, one solo. Ava Brizard had 16 kills, three blocks and nine digs. Jada Allen had six kills with one error in 11 attacks and 10 blocks, one solo. NC State won despite hitting .179 and having 19 serving errors against five aces, three by setter Naomi Cabello, who had six blocks, eight digs and 45 assists. Skye Stokes had 24 digs and nine assists. SMU’s Naya Shime had 20 kills, four blocks and 10 digs. Her teammates combined for 28 kills and 24 errors …

Stanford (25-4, 17-3), which was swept at Louisville (25-5, 17-3) earlier this season, battled to a 25-23, 25-22, 27-29, 27-25 victory over the visiting Cardinals as the two teams tied for second, two games back of Pitt. Stanford is now at No. 4 in the RPI and KPI, while Louisville is No. 3 in the RPI and No. 6 in the KPI as both teams hope for one of the coveted top-four seeds. 

Stanford’s Elia Rubin had a career-high 22 kills, hitting .326, and had two assists, a block and 14 digs. Jordyn Harvey had 18 kills, hit .302 and had an ace, two blocks and a dig. Setter Kami Miner had four kills, 60 assists, an ace, 15 digs andfive blocks, one solo. Elena Oglivie had 24 digs and three assists. The Cardinal hit .273 and had two aces and 14 errors. Anna DeBeer led Louisville with 16 kills, hitting .350, and had two assists, two blocks and 14 digs. Charitie Luper had 15 kills, an assist, an ace and nine digs. Cara Cresse, who had 10 kills and hit .333, had an ace, a dig and five blocks. Louisville hit .255 and had three aces and 13 errors … 

Pitt (29-1, 19-1) held off visiting Georgia Tech (20-9, 12-8) 25-10, 24-26, 25-13, 18-25, 17-15. The Panthers stayed No. 1 in both the RPI and KPI, while Georgia Tech is 25th in the RPI and 26th in the KPI. Olivia Babcock had 18 kills but nine errors, an assist, two aces, 10 blocks and 12 digs. Torrey Stafford had 16 kills, hit .389, and added an assist, eight digs andtwo blocks, one solo. Bre Kelley had 15 kills, hit .480, and had nine blocks and three digs. Setter Rachel Fairbanks had three kills with no errors in five tries, 46 assists, an ace, a block and 10 digs. 

Tamara Otene had 19 kills for GT, which hit .114. She added an assist, a block and 20 digs. Bianca Bertolino had 14 kills, an assist, three aces, 10 digs and three blocks, one solo … 

Boston College ended its season with a five-set victory at Virginia as Julia Hagerty, the national leader in blocks, had 12 kills with no errors in 21 attacks to hit .471 and had seven blocks, three solo …

Cal finished with a four-set win over visiting Notre Dame as Maggie Li had 21 kills, an assist, four aces, two blocks andseven digs.

BIG TEN: Top-ranked Nebraska (29-2, 19-1) won in four at Maryland (14-17, 5-15) to finish in a tie with Penn State, to which it lost the day before. Nebraska had a season-high 20 blocks in the 25-27, 25-14, 25-8, 25-12 victory at Maryland, which drew a program-record crowd of 13,071. Merritt Beason led with 19 kills, hitting .471, to go with an ace, four digs and 10 blocks, one solo. Harper Murray had 12 kills, two aces, three blocks and four digs and the two middles went block crazy as Andi Jackson, who had seven kills, had eight blocks, two solo, and Rebekah Allick, who had six kills, had 11, two solo. Bergen Reilly had a kill in her only try, 43 assists, two blocks and 14 digs. Maryland hit minus .059 …

No. 6 Wisconsin (23-6, 17-3) finished alone in third, a game ahead of Purdue, with a 25-19, 26-28, 25-19, 25-18 win over visiting Michigan State (13-18, 6-14). Sarah Franklin had 23 kills, hit .316, and added three assists, two aces, five blocks and eight digs. The other outside, Julia Orzol, had 13 kills, three aces, two blocks and 19 digs, and Carter Booth had nine kills, hit .389, and had an assist and nine blocks. Setter Charlie Feurbringer had three kills, 46 assists, six blocks and 12 digs.

SEC: Texas (18-6, 13-3) survived 26-28, 27-25, 25-23, 21-25, 17-15 against visiting Ole Miss (17-11, 7-9), ensuring it would remain at top-16 seed. Texas (RPI 11, KPI 7), down 8-3, pulled to 8-7 in the fifth set before Ole Miss went on a 5-0 run. The Longhorns faced match point five times before rallying for the victory. They played without leading attacker Madi Skinner, said to be under the weather but with the team wearing a mask. Devin Kahahawai, starting in her place, had a career-high 19 kills, hit .313 and had 10 digs. Reagan Rutherford had 16 kills, four blocks and three digs, and Jenna Wenaas had 13 kils, two assists, an ace, a block and 17 digs. Averi Carlson had a kill, 58 assists, two aces and 15 digs. Nia Washington had 30 kills for Ole Miss, 46 in the RPI and 39 in the KPI. Washington had an assist, an ace, 10 digs and three blocks, one solo. Mokihana Tufono had three kills in five errorless tries, 59 assists, an ace, 17 digs and two blocks, one solo … 

Georgia (12-14, 6-10) ended its season with a four-set win over visiting Florida (21-7, 11-5). Sophie Fisher, who hit .429, had 14 kills, an ace, seven blocks and two digs. Erykah Lovett also had 14 kills and added two blocks and eight digs. The Gators got 27 of their 51 kills from Kennedy Martin, who hit .412 and had six blocks and 11 digs. Her teammates combined for 24 kills and 18 errors … 

No. 24 Missouri (20-8, 11-5) ended visiting Auburn’s (14-13, 4-12) season with a sweep as Mychael Vernon and Jordan Ilieff had 14 kills each … Texas A&M l(19-7, 10-6) swept at South Carolina (16-11, 7-9) to leave the Gamecocks in NCAA limbo. They have an RPI of 44 and a KPI of 33.

BIG EAST: Creighton can certainly make claim to an unlikely top-four seed because the Bluejays (29-5), who have won 22 in a row, manhandled Marquette (23-8) in the Big East Championshp title match. Creighton, which has won the Big East 10 of the last 11 years, got 10 kills apiece from outsides Norah Sis and Ava Martin in the 25-14, 25-16, 25-19 victory. Martin had five of her team’s nine aces. Marquette’s Aubrey Hamilton had 19 kills. Creighton is sixth in the RPI and fifth in the KPI. Marquette, RPI 17, KPI 23, will get an at-large.

BIG WEST: Hawai’i (21-9) did some nervous at-large hopefuls a favor by beating top-seeded Cal Poly in four to win the Big West Championship. The second-seeded Rainbow Wahine won 25-19, 25-19, 27-29, 25-22 got 14 kills each from Caylen Alexander and Miliana Sylvester, who hit .464 and had six blocks. Alexander, who had 11 errors. but also an ace, four digs and five blocks, one solo, is now the national leader in kills with 588. Kate Lang had three kills in five errorless tries, 42 assists, an ace, 10 digs and a block. 

MOUNTAIN WEST: Top-seeded Colorado State (20-10) won the league’s automatic bid with a four-set win over second-seeded San Jose State (20-1), which, hopefully, takes the Spartans out of the news. Malaya Jones had 26 kills, hit .429, and had nine digs and three blocks, one solo. Blaire Fleming led SJSU with 17 kills, an ace, three digs and a block.

WEST COAST: Loyola Marymount, which won the conference by two games, won in four at Washington State as Sophia Meyers had 13 kills, three aces, a block and 13 digs. San Diego (RPI 52 RPI, KPI 54) and Pepperdine (RPI 49, KPI 69 ), which tied for second, hold slim hopes of at-large bids. San Diego swept visiting Saint Mary’s as Nemo Beach had 14 kills, hit .344, and had a block and a dig. Pepperdine swept visiting Oregon State as Birdie Hendrickson had 20 kills, an assist, an ace, a block and 14 digs. Pacific ended its season with a reverse-sweep win over visiting Portland as Alexa Edwards had 23 kills, an ace, two blocks and 16 digs in the 28-30, 19-25, 25-18, 25-19, 15-9 comeback.

BIG 12: In the only match, Houston swept visiting Colorado in the season-ender for both teams.

MasterCoaches and KPI

Speaking of the NCAA selection show, the MasterCoaches — Bob Bertucci, Jim Stone, Tom Hilbert and Mick Haley —spend this week’s episode with Kevin Pauga, the founder of the KPI.

They talk about how the KPI is calculated, how it differs from the RPI and using the KPI to fill out the bracket. Click here to watch.

Molly Shaw, Toni Rodriguez win gold in Philippines

Molly Shaw and Toni Rodriguez, who won silver in Haikou, China, and bronze in Chennai, India, took home gold Sunday in Nuvali, Philippines, for their third medal in as many tournaments on their long road trip.

The USA pair, who took home $10,000 for their efforts, defeated Brecht Piersma and Noa Sonneville of the Netherlands 24-22, 17-21, 15-10 in the final 

Americans Kylie Deberg and Hailey Harward, who won silver in Chennai, and Piper Ferch and Madison Shields tied for seventh.

Madelyne Anderson and Brook Bauer tied for 13th and Carly Kan and Devanne Sours and Alaina Chacon and Molly Phillips tied for 19th.

Elmer Andersson and Jacob Nilsson of Sweden beat Paul Henning and Lui Wust of Germany in the men’s final. The high-finishing Americans were Chaim Schalk and Shaw’s husband, James, who tied for seventh. Theo Brunner and Taylor Crabb tied for 13th.

Celebrating 20/20: Micha Hancock’s Recovery

You might enjoy this story on USA Olympian Micha Hancock, the former Penn State star who, along with Jordan Larson, was in a car wreck the night after they got their Olympic silver medals in Paris last August. 

Hancock, fortunately, is all healed and ready to go as the setter for LOVB Houston.