Ultimately, the favorites all won and we get to do it all over again Friday.
But what a great day Thursday was for NCAA Division I women’s volleyball.
The new four-day format was a huge bonus for TV viewers with just four matches, one after another, and even a studio show in between. High fives to the NCAA and ESPN for doing this.
The winners moved on — most notably top-seeded Pittsburgh survived Oregon in five and fourth-seeded Louisville crushed Purdue — and Saturday, Kentucky will play at Pitt and Stanford will play at Louisville with spots in the national semifinals at stake. The recaps follow.
The other half of the bracket’s round-of-16 matches are Friday, with Texas vs. Creighton, Marquette vs. Penn State, Texas A&M vs. Wisconsin and Dayton vs. Nebraska. All four matches can be seen on ESPN2.
But we’ve got more in this edition of Volleyball Today.
There were two monumental upsets in the NCAA Division II quarterfinals and the NIVC is down to three teams:
NCAA Tournament round of 16 Friday
At Penn State
1 p.m. — Texas (20-6) vs. Creighton (31-2), Marquette (25-8) vs. Penn State (31-2)
At Nebraska
7 p.m. — Texas A&M (21-7) vs. Wisconsin (25-6), Dayton (31-2) vs. Nebraska (31-2)
NCAA Tournament round of 16 Thursday
KENTUCKY 3, MISSOURI 1: In third Kentucky victory of the season between the SEC teams, Kentucky (23-7) hit .347 and won 25-20, 25-20, 16-25, 25-13. The Wildcats are back in a regional final for the first time since winning the 2020 NCAA title in the spring of 2021 after beating Missouri for the third time this season.
Brooklyn DeLeye, the SEC player of the year, had 22 kills with four errors in 43 attacks to hit .419 and she had three of her team’s five aces, six digs and two blocks, one solo solo.
“Our defense wasn’t always great, but it was when it needed to be,” Kentucky coach Craig Skinner said. “I’m proud to be moving on.”
Megan Wilson had 13 kills, hit .375, and had a dig, and Brooke Bultema had 10 kills, hit .438, and had a dig and two blocks. Emma Grome, who had kills in both her attempts, had 50 assists, an ace, 10 digs and three blocks, one solo. Kentuck has won 14 in a row,
Missouri, which ended its season 22-9, hit .242. Jordan Ilief had 20 kills, hitting .341, and had an assist, two aces and a block. Mychael Vernon had 11 kills but 12 errors to go with six digs and two blocks, one solo.
Kentucky is the No. 3 seed in the Pitt regional, while Mizzou was No. 7.
PITTSBURGH 3, OREGON 2: Oregon gave itself a chance, but when it mattered most, the moment was too big for the Ducks and Pitt pounced.
The Panthers (32-1) got a career match from ACC player of the year Olivia Babock as they won their 17th in a row in their quest to get to their fourth NCAA national semifinals in a row.
Babcock had 31 kills, hit .290 after having 11 errors in 69 swings, 12 digs and three blocks in the up-and-down 25-19, 24-26, 25-16, 21-21, 15-12.
Torrey Stafford had 14 kills, an assist, an ce, 12 digs and three blocks. Bre Kelley had 12 kills, hit .400, and had eight blocks, two solo. Rachel Fairbanks had a kill, 54 assists, an ace, 12 digs and a block. Her team hit .264.
“I hope the fans liked it,” Pitt coach Dan Fisher joked. “It wasn’t always the cleanest but I thought it was a hell of a battle.”
Oregon of the Big Ten ended its season 24-8. Mimi Colyer led a balanced attack with 15 kills but hit .125 to go with four aces, seven digs and four blocks. Michelle Ohwobete had 14 kills, two aces, 12 digs and four blocks, one solo. Noemie Glover had 10 kills but nine errors, two digs and three blocks, one solo. Mackenzie Morris had 16 digs, six assists and two aces of Oregon’s 11 aces. Cristin Cline had a kill, 46 assists, 12 digs and a block. Her team hit .166.
“They gave us a ton to deal with,” Fisher said.
Pitt is the No. 1 team in the regional. Oregon was No. 4.
STANFORD 3, FLORIDA 1: Stanford (28-4) of the ACC won its 12th in a row when the Cardinal ousted Florida 24-26, 25-17, 26-24, 29-27. Five Stanford players had 10 or more kills — setter Kami Miner had the other two — as the Cardinal returned to the national quarterfinals for the 18th time since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1998.
Start with Miner, whose team hit .288. She had 56 assists, an ace and five blocks. Libero Elena Oglivie had 16 digs and eight assists.
Ipar Kurt had 17 kills, hit .353 and added an ace and four digs. Sami Francis had 17 kills and hit .417 after having two errors in 36 swings to go with an assist, a dig and four blocks, one solo. Elia Rubin had 16 kills but 11 errors, and had had three assists, an ace and 13 digs. Jordyn Harvey had 10 kills, three of Stanford’s six aces against 17 errors, and 10 digs. And Lizzy Andrew was the difference. She had a career-high 10 kills with one error in 15 attacks to hit .600 and added two blocks.
Florida of the SEC ended its season 23-8 despite another fabulous performance from Kennedy Martin, who had 21 kills, hitting .320, to go with six digs and five blocks, two solo. She finished the season second nationally in kills per set at 5.57, just behind Evansville’s Giulia Cardona (5.60), whose season ended prematurely when she injured her knee with five matches remaining in the regular season.
Jaela Auguste added 11 kills, hit .412, and had two blocks. Isabel Martin had eight kills, seven digs and three blocks, two solo. Florida hit .243 and had no aces. Ellie McKissock had 13 digs to become Florida’s all-time leader in the category.
Stanford is the No. 2 seed in the Louisville regional and Florida was No. 6.
LOUISVILLE 3, PURDUE 0: The Cardinals (28-5) of the ACC hit a season-high as they blasted the Big Ten’s Purdue 25-17, 25-18, 25-18. Louisville, which lost to Stanford in the ACC regular-season finale, advanced with a sweep of Chicago State before barely escaping Northern Iowa in five.
No wonder Purdue coach Dave Shondell said, “I was hoping we’d see the team we saw last week, but it wasn’t. It was just an unbelievable performance. They played with great intensity and great purpose. They served the ball tough and passed well and had live arms.”
Live might be understating it. Louisville hit .467 with a whopping 52 kills in the sweep and just nine errors in 92 attacks. Anna DeBeer led with 15 kills, hitting .393, and had seven digs. Charitie Luper had 13 kills with one error in 21 swings to hit .571 and had nine digs. Sofia Maldonado Diaz had seven kills with one error in 14 attacks to hit .429 and added two digs and three blocks, and Reese Robins had seven kills in 10 errorless swings and a block. Cara Cresse had six kills with one error in 10 attacks and two blocks. Setters Nayelis Cabello and Elle Glock combined for 45 assists and five digs and Cabello had all three of Louisville’s aces.
Raven Colvin led Purdue with 13 kills as she hit .550 and had two blocks. Louisville shut down Purdue’s outside hitters as Eva Hudson had 10 kills, hitting .182, with six digs and a block, and Chloe Chicoine had six kills, hitting .176, with five digs and a solo block. Lourdes Myers had five kills in eight errorless attacks and four blocks.
Louisville is the No. 1 seed in the regional and Purdue was No. 4.
Big upsets in NCAA Division II
Eighth-seeded Bentley (26-6) capped a day of four matches in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, with a stunning 25-23, 16-25, 25-22, 12-25, 15-23 upset of top-seeded and previously unbeaten Ferris State (34-1). Sophia Poehlein led with 19 kills, five digs and three blocks.
Bentley, located in Waltham, Massachusetts, will play Lynn of Boca Raton, Florida, on Friday in the semifinals after fourth-seeded Lynn (31-3) swept fifth-seeded Wingate behind 19 kills from Samantha Wolf in the 25-18, 25-20, 25-18 victory.
In the first match Thursday, third-seeded Angelo State (32-2) of San Angelo, Texas, rallied for a 28-26, 15-25, 17-25, 25-19, 15-6 over Gannon (26-8). Evelyn Torres led the Rambellas with 22 kills, an ace, 15 digs and a block.
And in the other quarterfinal, seventh-seeded San Francisco State (25-6) pulled off a reverse sweep against second-seeded Central Oklahoma (33-3). Aidan Goodrich had 24 kills, a dig and two blocks, one solo, in the 20-25, 13-25, 25-23, 26-24, 15-10 victory.
Click here for the NCAA.com Division II volleyball home page.
St. John’s, Arizona advance in NIVC
There were two matches Thursday as St. John’s beat UConn in four in the quarterfinals and Arizona beat Northern Colorado in the semifinals.
St. John’s plays host to Bowling Green on Saturday for the right to play Arizona in the title match, details TBA.
St. John’s (24-12) beat its Big East rival 25-20, 25-23, 27-29, 26-24 as four players had 10 or more kills, 15 by Erin Jones. She had four assists, two aces, 17 digs and three blocks. UConn ended its season 26-8.
Arizona (23-9) of the Big 12 ousted the Big Sky’s Northern Colorado (28-8) 25-20, 27-25, 13-25, 25-18 as five Wildcats. had eight or more kills, 15 by Jordan Wilson.
Click here for the NIVC website.