Olympics
August 28, 2024
LOUISVILLE, Kentucky — The beginning of NCAA volleyball season adopted the lead of an Eric Clapton hit.
About 40 seconds “After Midnight,” sixth-ranked Louisville completed off No. 3 in 4 units in an AVCA First Serve Showcase match that began on Tuesday and ended on Wednesday within the Jap time zone. That was after second-ranked Nebraska defeated No. 9 Kentucky, additionally in 4 units.
It was fairly a kickoff on ESPN2 to the 2024 NCAA girls’s volleyball season and there’s a lot extra to come back this week, not the least of which is 218 matches on Friday as the remainder of the sector will get underway.
Nebraska overpowers Kentucky
Kentucky of the SEC made a match of it for 2 units earlier than the Huge Ten’s Nebraska turned it on and pulled away for a 25-21, 22-25, 25-15, 25-20 victory.
The important thing was blocking: Nebraska had 18 blocks, its most since 2018. The Huskers acquired 11 kills every from Merritt Beason and Rebekah Allick, who had one error in 15 assaults to hit .667 and had two solo blocks and 10 block assists. Beason hit simply .114, however had six block assists and eight digs.
Whereas Nebraska hit .258 with 4 aces — three by Lindsay Krause and eight serving errors, Kentucky hit .139 and had six aces and 16 errors.
Nebraska lastly acquired on the courtroom after what grew to become a well-documented (actually) off season during which among the consideration was not constructive for the reason that Huskers misplaced to Texas within the NCAA championship match.
“It’s one of many causes we have been just a little shaky to begin the evening as a result of we now have had a lof of distractions,” Nebraska coach John Prepare dinner stated. “There’s been quite a lot of tales and documentaries and all that stuff takes vitality from us and it was actually cool to be in our locker room for a change and never — properly the ESPN guys have been in there — however impulsively we might give attention to us tonight and one of many causes this was such a rewarding victory for us.”
“We have been so excited to play another person,” Beason stated. “This staff is so deep and it’s so aggressive day in and time out that typically we now have to remind ourselves that we’re mainly taking part in a national-championship match in observe day-after-day, it’s so excessive degree. There’s been so quite a lot of consideration, however we’ve tried to dam that out for essentially the most half and do what we will on our half to stay within the second and give attention to what we have to do.”
Click on right here for the Nebraska recap and right here for the Kentucky recap.
Louisville roars previous Wisconsin
Louisville scored the final 4 factors of the 18-25, 25-17, 26-24, 25-20 victory and received regardless of hitting .166.
Arizona switch Sofia Maldonado Diaz and Charitie Luper led Louisville with 11 kills every.
Anna DeBeer 10 kills, however with 11 errors hit minus .026. She had 16 digs, second solely to libero Elena Scott’s 22. Cara Cresse had eight kills, hit .400, and 6 block assists.
Wisconsin, which hit .179, acquired 17 kills from final yr’s Huge Ten MVP Sarah Franklin. Anna Smrek had 12 kills and Devyn Robinson had eight, hitting .353, and tied her profession excessive with 10 blocks, 4 solo.
As a result of the match began — and ended so late — the unique introduced crowd of 9,280 within the Yum! Heart dwindled to lower than 2,000 by evening’s finish.
Click on right here for the Wisconsin recap and right here for the Louisville recap.
State Farm joins the volleyball wave
State Farm has grow to be the title sponsor of what’s now the State Farm Girls’s School Volleyball Showcase, that includes 4 large NCAA girls’s matches Sunday and Monday in Milwaukee.
The inaugural occasion is at Fiserv Discussion board in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and contains two-time defending nationwide champion and AVCA coaches ballot preseason No. 1 Texas, No. 3 Wisconsin, No. 5 Stanford and No. 18 Minnesota.
Sunday, Wisconsin faces Texas at 11:30 a.m. Central on FOX, adopted by Minnesota vs. Stanford at 2 p.m. on FS1. On Monday, Wisconsin performs Stanford at 4 p.m. on FOX, whereas Minnesota takes on Texas at 6:30 p.m. on FS1.
The occasion was put collectively by Intersport and Fox.
The unbelievable story of Taylor De Boer of Illinois
Taylor De Boer is aware of how shortly life can take a drastic flip.
A rising star within the volleyball world, De Boer was gearing as much as play on the College of Illinois in 2023, after serving as captain for Staff Canada’s U19 staff in 2022.
However Taylor began having well being issues in Could 2023. First, she skilled sinus, ear and eye infections. After getting her knowledge enamel eliminated, they acquired contaminated. She went on antibiotics, however Taylor wasn’t getting any higher. One thing was clearly improper.
After her medical staff ordered a number of exams, Taylor, who was 17 on the time, was despatched to OSF Youngsters’s Hospital of Illinois in Peoria. There, it was found she had Anti-Neutrophil Cytoplasmic Antibody (ANCA) Vasculitis. ANCA is a uncommon autoimmune illness that may assault many techniques, just like the lungs, kidneys, joints and sinuses, all on the similar time.
Click on right here to proceed studying your complete story by OSF HealthCare.
USA girls purpose for Paralympics sitting 3-peat
From USA Volleyball:
The U.S. Girls have medaled in each Paralympic Video games since girls’s sitting was added in 2004. After profitable bronze in Athens, they took silver in 2008 and silver once more in London in 2016. The staff lastly broke by with a sweep over China for the gold on the 2016 Video games in Rio, and adopted it with gold over China once more in Tokyo.
Eleven of the 12 athletes on the 2024 staff are gold medalists, together with six-time Paralympian Lora Webster and five-time Paralympians Katie Holloway Bridge and Heather Erickson. Kaleo Kanehele Maclay and Monique Matthews will play of their fourth Paralympics. Bethany Zummo and Lexi Shifflett-Patterson will play of their third Paralympics, and Whitney Dosty, Tia Edwards Nicky Nieves and Emma Schieck all return for his or her second Paralympics.
Click on right here for extra from USA Volleyball, together with the whole roster.
Thursday: USA vs. China, 12 p.m. Paris time/6 a.m. Jap (Peacock)
September 1: USA vs. France, 8 p.m. Paris time/2 p.m. Jap (Peacock)
September 3: USA vs. Italy, 2 p.m. Paris time/8 a.m. Jap (USA, Peacock)
September 4: Classification matches for fifth/sixth and seventh/eighth locations
September 5: Semifinals (Peacock)
September 7: Medal matches (CNBC, Peacock)
