LOUISVILLE, Kentucky — There are such a lot of particular instances in NCAA ladies’s volleyball.
Opening week, which occurred to be right here final August 27, when Nebraska beat Kentucky and Louisville defeated Wisconsin.
The upsets and reverse sweeps that punctuated the 2024 season.
Choice Sunday and the bracket announcement.
Regional finals.
And now Thursday’s nationwide semifinals within the KFC Yum! Heart. First serve within the NCAA Division I Volleyball Championship is at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN. All 4 groups have been the highest seeds of their respective regionals.
First up is ACC battle extraordinaire with the house workforce, Louisville, taking up top-seeded Pittsburgh. Their matches the previous few seasons have been epic. Click on right here for the Louisville preview, which covers all of it.
A couple of half hour after that one ends, it’s all eyes on the 2 groups that tied for the Large Ten title, Nebraska and Penn State.
Click on right here for the Nebraska preview and right here for the Penn State preview.
AVCA proclaims All-American groups
As you’d anticipate, the 4 finalists for nationwide participant of the 12 months lead the American Volleyball Coaches Affiliation All-American groups, They embody Nebraska libero Lexi Rodriguez, Pittsburgh proper aspect Olivia Babcock, Kentucky exterior hitter Brooklyn DeLeye and Wisconsin exterior Sarah Franklin, the 2023 nationwide participant of the 12 months.
Additionally on the 14-player first workforce are Pitt’s Rachel Fairbanks and Torrey Stafford; Nebraska’s Andi Jackson, Florida’s Kennedy Martin, Stanford’s Kami Miner and Elia Rubin, Pennn State’s Jess Mruzik, Creighton’s Kendra Waite, TCU’s Melanie Parra and Elena Scott of Louisville.
The VolleyballMag All-American groups — our voters wait till after the NCAA Championship is concluded — might be introduced Tuesday. We’ve 4 groups, coach of the 12 months, participant of the 12 months and freshman of the 12 months.
See the whole AVCA listing with all three groups and honorable mentions right here.
The AVCA introduces the All-Individuals at its annual luncheon Friday, when the participant of the 12 months might be introduced.
Miami’s Lopez to Wisconsin
A type of AVCA gamers, Miami’s Grace Lopez, the Puerto Rican who was an honorable-mention All-American, is transferring to Wisconsin for her junior 12 months. The 6-foot-1 exterior was second in kills for the Hurricanes this season with 421 (3.54/set) and he or she had 32 service aces and 80 blocks.
Again to Louisville for the LOVB championship
League One Volleyball (LOVB) introduced Wednesday that the finals of its inaugural 2025 skilled volleyball season will happen on the KFC YUM! Heart right here in Louisville.
The three-day occasion, set for April 10-12, will iinclude all six of LOVB’s groups as they vie for the primary championship title. It is going to additionally coincide with with JVA World Problem ladies membership event.
Click on right here for extra from LOVB.
LOVB Austin loaded with Texas exes
There are eight former Longhorns on the Austin roster.
Six of them gained NCAA championships, together with Khat and Molly McCage in 2012; Logan Eggleston, Saige Ka’aha’aina-Torres and Zoe (Fleck) Jarvis in 2022; and Asjia O’Neal, who was on the 2022 and 2023 Texas title groups.
The 2 others have been so shut. Juliann Faucette’s Longhorns misplaced within the nationwide championship match in 2009 and nationwide semifinals in 2010, and Chiaka Ogbogu performed in back-to-back title matches in 2015 and 2016.
Learn the function concerning the Texas exes and LOVB Austin right here.
Volleyball Canada tabs MacDonald as new chief
Kerry MacDonald will assume the function of Chief Sport Officer for Volleyball Canada subsequent month..
MacDonald has greater than 20 years of expertise throughout the sport together with working on the provincial stage with Volleyball Alberta, teaching U SPORTS and Youth Nationwide groups, in addition to serving in technical and sports activities science roles in all disciplines of volleyball. Kerry has additionally labored with Volleyball Canada’s occasion administration workforce in varied capacities, and has most lately served as Crew Chief (seashore) on the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Learn the Volleyball Canada information launch right here.
