UTEP 3, TULSA 1 (25-18, 21-25, 25-17, 25-19)
The UTEP volleyball program picked up its first-ever postseason victory in the first round of the 2021 Women’s NIVC on Thursday night with a 3-1 win over Tulsa. Yasso Amin and Alianzo Darley proved a formidable duo up front with 13 kills each on a combined .408 hitting (26-6-49), while Paulina Perez Rosas added 12 kills. It was the service game that was the story of the match however, as UTEP racked up 14 aces, including a career-high eight from freshman setter Ryley Frye. Frye also registered a career high with 28 assists in the match. As a team, UTEP hit .313 (58-17-131) in the match, while holding Tulsa to just .215 hitting. Tulsa was led by Kayley Cassady and Maggie Hembree, who had 16 and 12 kills, respectively. After splitting the first two sets, Tulsa held a 4-2 lead in the third set. UTEP utilized a 12-2 run from that point, much of which with Frye serving, to take a commanding 14-6 lead in the frame. UTEP never looked back after that and closed out the final two sets, 25-17 and 25-19. The Miners will take on the winner of Colorado State and Houston Baptist in the second round of the NIVC. COLORADO STATE 3, HOUSTON BAPTIST 0 (25-18, 25-21, 25-16)
FORT COLLINS, CO – Colorado State controlled the net during its sweep of Houston Baptist, holding the Huskies to a .128 hitting percentage and moving on to the second round of the 2021 NIVC. The Rams (19-10) will face UTEP on Friday, with start time set for 9:30 p.m. ET. Houston Baptist held leads throughout Set 2, but Colorado State took charge at net, with key blocks coming from the work of Karina Leber. A late 3-0 run got the job done for the Rams, anchored with a kill from Annie Sullivan and a service ace by Alyssa Bert. CSU took a big lead midway through Set 3 before wrapping up the match. Sullivan nine kills for the Rams; Jacqi Van Liefde added eight kills and Sasha Columbo chipped in with seven kills. Ciera Pritchard had 32 assists and Bert was key with her eight digs and four aces The Huskies (21-9) saw Anna Gadway and Sara Arroyo each notch seven kills; Ellie Wipf had 25 assists and Alexia Jones added 11 digs. VALPARAISO 3, BUTLER 0 (25-23, 25-17, 25-16)
VALPARAISO, IN – Valparaiso moved to 23-9 on the year with a sweep of Butler in the first round of the 2021 NIVC and will face Toledo in Round 2. Bella Ravotto had 11 kills, Peyton McCarthy added 10 kills and Maddy Boyer closed with eight kills for the Beacons. Rylee Cookerly did good work with 14 digs and both setters were solid, with Victoria Bulmahn ringing up 18 assists and Brittany Anderson adding 16 assists. The Round 2 matchup will be held Friday at 7 p.m. ET Valparaiso had a 20-14 lead in Set 1, only to see the Bulldogs come all the way back and take a 22-21 lead. The Beacons responded and got the set-winning kill by McCarthy. In Set 2, a 6-0 run capped by a kill from Boyer pushed Valpo ahead 18-8, and they were never threatened after that. In Set 3, Butler jumped ahead 4-0, but the Beacons worked their way back, hitting .278 overall in the set. The Bulldogs (16-16) saw Megan Sheridan and Mariah Grunze each register seven kills. Butler got 24 assists from Marissa McKelvey and 15 digs from Jaymeson Kinley. EVANSVILLE 3, SAM HOUSTON 0 (25-21, 25-21, 25-21)
CHICAGO, IL – Argentinian freshman Giulia Cardona had 21 kills and Alondra Vazquez added 18 kills as Evansville swept by Sam Houston State in the opening round of the 2021 NIVC. The Aces (20-11) will face Bradley or Chicago State in Round 2. Taya Haffner closed with 42 assists and Blakeley Freeman chipped in with 13 digs. Hit.304. Set 1 was back-and-forth until the Aces used a 4-0 run to pull ahead late, with the winning point coming on a Sam Houston service error. Evansville used a 7-2 run to pull ahead, 16-9, in Set 2 and saw the Bearkats respond as kills from Ashley Lewis made it 16-13 and 19-17. The Aces put it away on game point with a kill from Cardona. Catherine Krieger had 12 kills for Sam Houston (18-10) and Hannah Baker added 19 digs. TOLEDO 3, INDIANA STATE 2 (12-25, 26-24, 22-25, 25-18, 15-5)
The Toledo Rockets fell behind by a set twice in the match but won the last two sets in convincing fashion to knock off Indiana State and advance to the second round of the 2021 Women’s NIVC on Thursday evening. Indiana State started the match in dominant fashion, taking the first set 25-12. The Sycamores hit .550 in the opening set, while Toledo hit just .000 with 10 attack errors in the first frame. The Rockets regrouped through and managed to take a back-and-forth second set to head into the intermission at 1-1. The third set was once again a close battle between the two programs, but Indiana State utilized a 4-0 run midway through the set to grab a 19-16 lead over Toledo. Toledo cut the lead down to one at 22-21, but Indiana State responded to close out the third set and take a 2-1 lead in the match. In the remaining two sets, Toledo jumped all over Indiana State. The Rockets opened the 4th set with an 11-4 run and seemingly were in full control. Indiana State mustered a comeback and closed the gap to one point, 14-13, but once again Toledo responded down the stretch to take the set, 25-18. The Rockets utilized the end-of-set momentum and carried it with them into the final set, where they hit .667 and won 15-5 to take the match. As a team Toledo hit .226 compared to .255 for Indiana State, but the Rockets held the Sycamores to under .200 hitting in each of the final three sets. Toledo was led by junior outside hitter Sina Uluave, who racked up a career-high 20 kills on .350 hitting (20-5-40) to go along with 13 digs. Freshman setter Elaine Redman also set a career high with 56 assists. The UNC Greensboro volleyball program was forced to withdraw from the 2021 NIVC due to COVID-19 within the program. As a result, North Florida will advance to the second round of the NIVC and awaits the winner of Middle Tennessee (9-11) and Troy (17-12).
The Spartans finished the regular season with a 23-7 overall record and went 12-4 in the SoCon to earn a share of the regular-season title. by Kyle Koso
In the world of college volleyball, you don’t accrue sky-high numbers of victories and NCAA Tournament appearances without having your feet on the ground. Having a grip on reality is what keeps rosters excelling over time, and that’s been the approach for Tom Hilbert during his 25-year run at Colorado State. In 23 of his 24 non-COVID seasons Hilbert has directed the Rams to the NCAA postseason (to go with 12 Coach of the Year awards in the Mountain West Conference), but this year CSU came up short, for a variety of reasons. With the return of the National Invitational Volleyball Championship, Hilbert and his staff figured it was better to keep the team in a competitor mindset, rather than lament what could have been. So the Rams (18-10) agreed to join the 31-team field; hosting a regional this week that starts Thursday with Tulsa (14-15) playing UTEP (21-7) before CSU takes on Houston Baptist (21-8). “We felt like as inexperienced as the team is, and that we return everyone but two defensive players, we felt like having a postseason experience would be good for us, to learn how to play the duration the season, 15-16 weeks,” said Hilbert, who has 791 career victories, 10th all-time in the NCAA and sixth for D-1. “That is important; a lot of teams burn out. I’ve talked to teams in the conference who aren’t playing in the NIVC because the team is done … we wanted to play it and stretch them out. We got them excited about the idea two weeks before we even decided we were going in. I think it’s a good thing for us to do in this moment and time.” Colorado State fully understands, this was still a successful season. The team tied for first for the MW regular season title and saw Annie Sullivan, a transfer from High Point, earn league Newcomer of the Year honors. Four players (Kennedy Stanford, Alexa Roumeliotis, Ciera Pritchard and Karina Leber) were all-MW selections; the team also was the No. 1 seed at the MW Tournament in Las Vegas. But road matches were a wobbly topic this season, as CSU simply struggled to minimize the lows and build upon the highs. Colorado State was upset by host UNLV at the tourney, and when Boise State ended up winning it all as the sixth seed, the NCAA tournament took only the Broncos out of the MW. “We relied on the fact that at home, especially, we played really clean in the serve-and-passing game. When that didn’t happen on the road, our attackers were young enough, they could be disrupted,” Hilbert said. “And when they were, it caused problems for us. There were inconsistencies, tentativeness, when you got into end-game situations with some our players on the road. “That’s normal for a group as inexperienced as we were; we may have some older players, but we only had one player who had ever started games before COVID. I was real proud how we played and especially how we played at home. And we had couple real nice road wins (Boise State, San Diego State, where the Rams trailed 2-0 before rallying). We did some fun things and learned a lot.” If the postseason push through the NIVC and their own personal growth play out right, the Rams are ready to flex in seasons to come. Stanford, a sophomore, leads the team with 330 kills with Sullivan next 279. Leber, a 6-foot-3 sophomore middle, added 233 kills. “We’ve tried to keep it simple. We do scheme a lot of blocking, but I guess it’s not working because we’re not as near as good as we have been in the past,” Hilbert said with a laugh. “We are good defensively, we get our hands in front of people and we create problems … we are bringing them along. But we keep it simple, simple but fast, and it’s working to a degree.” Sullivan and Stanford had new and important roles for CSU; they were going to be leaned on heavily, and there really wasn’t much debate about the scale of Hilbert’s expectations. “Both went through times this year where one was good and one was bad, then it would switch. And we had matches where they were both good. They are both fighters,” Hilbert said. “Kennedy, especially, we’ve taught that even if you are down and not having a good match, you have to go up and take swings. If it doesn’t work, it’s our fault as coaches. You have to be aggressive. Annie, she’s always aggressive. She (gets blocked) unfortunately at times because of that aggressiveness, but she goes out and fights. She has a motor like no one else. I like both those kids on the outside position, and they’ll only get better.” Keeping it all humming in the right direction is Pritchard, in her second year as the team’s primary setter and who has rung up 1,008 assists this year, at 9.88 per set. Her moment to sparkle, however, had to wait until the shining example of Katie Oleksak finally receded from the court — Oleksak was the first player to be named MW Player of the Year three times, was a four-time AVCA honorable mention all-American and is the CSU leader in assists for the modern era. “If you know Ciera, she is very, very high energy, opinionated and a strong personality - it was difficult for her to play behind Katie Oleksak even though the whole world knew Katie was a great player,” Hilbert said. “Ciera, coming into 2020, was ready to take over, and then she went through a phase where she realized it wasn’t going to be as easy as she thought it was. She had some ups and downs. “But of all her traits, she is a great decision maker, and she is great competitor. She will go out and figure out how to win, and make decisions on the court as well as any setter I’ve ever had.” HOUSTON BAPTIST -- Colorado State’s opponent is in the postseason for the first time since the program returned to D-I status in 2007. HBU has seven players with 100 or more kills; setter Ellie Wipf has 1,014 assists (9.66 per set). The Huskies saw Wipf, Ebonie Ballesteros and Anna Gadway earn all-Southland Conference first-team honors, and Trent Herman (10 years, 169-137 overall at HBU) was named as the league’s coach the year. |
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