Yesterday was the tournament’s most hectic day, with 27 matches. There are a comparatively little 11 today. By the end of today, fully three-fourths of the teams that began the tournament will be eliminated. Kind of puts making it to the second weekend into greater perspective. It’s not an easy thing to do and it is a big deal.
The first match on the virtual airwaves was Purdue/Florida State, and this match was actually the only one on at the time. Several simultaneous matches were set to follow hours later. Seemed like this match had a pretty decent turnout, being on FSU’s home court. The winner was bound for West Lafayette and the winner of the Creighton/Minnesota match.
Purdue edged out to a 7-5 lead after neither side went up two prior, by winning a joust at the net. Their front-line collaborated on a nice double block to make it 8-5 at the Seminoles’ first timeout. Purdue setter Rachel Davis gobbled up an overpass on the first point after the timeout, and another block double on the right side made it 10-5. The run on Kierra ‘Kiki’ Jones‘ serve continued with an effective serve that led to another overpass, leaving the Florida State setter little choice but to end up in the net.
A service error finally got the Seminoles a sideout, but the Boilermakers kept it sideout volleyball, which is all they needed to do having established a lead. 14-8 was a great, long rally, which unfortunately ended anticlimactically with a double hit called on Purdue. The Boilermakers ran it to 17-9 with more great blocking, as Jones and Ariel Turner came up big on the front line. Elise Walch, subbing in on the right side after a Seminole sideout, effectively brought them back to within four at 19-15, but Florida State came no closer. The Boilermakers finished out the set 25-20 with Anna Drewry seemingly unstoppable on the right-side slide play.
This webcast again used the ESPN graphics package without their branding. I wonder what ESPN gets out of the deal, because it’s not really that hard to come up with your own graphics package. Every other site had their own (well, except Louisville and their conspicuous lack of one). The commentator went quiet between sets (which is fine, of course, I’m sure she wanted to eat or drink something, which is hard to do on the mic). It highlighted the pep band in attendance at the match. I’m not sure why pep bands exist. I played in one in high school, and it was fun enough, but it was hard to see it from the outside. Why exactly do I want to hear a horn-driven version of “Word Up!” or “Crazy Train” or whatever?
The second set began a lot like the first, with a long run of points being traded until Jones’ serve got the Boilermakers an advantage at 8-6. This time, though, the Seminoles were able to side out and keep her from going on a long run. Florida State drew even at 10 with a service ace from Duygu Duzceler and went back on top at 12-11 as Turner was blocked on the left side by Marija Milosavljevic. The set remained even to the TV timeout at 15-14 Purdue (found out this timeout occurs unless a charged timeout is taken prior).
On Turner’s serve, including an ace, the Boilermakers edged out to 17-14 coming out of the timeout. Walch, who did not play in round 1 against Hofstra, had just as good a second set as she did first, keeping the Seminoles close with kills to bring it to within a point at 17-16 and 18-17. Her answer on the Purdue side was Valerie Nichol, and the two traded points themselves for a short string. Purdue ran back to 20-17 behind a right-side kill from Catherine Rabarchuk to prompt Florida State’s first charged timeout of the set. They drew it to within one at 21-20 and Purdue’s timeout behind some suddenly much more effective blocking. With the first two points after the timeout, the Seminoles took the lead, and Purdue very quickly took their second timeout.
The run on Duzceler’s serve continued after the timeout with an ace to bring the Seminoles within two points of tying the match at a set apiece. Milosavljevic’s kill brought the Seminoles to set point, which they converted on a soft kill to the back-right corner of the court. It was a remarkable turnaround, as the Seminoles took 8 of the final 9 points to close out the set.
Both sides hit quite well at the outset of the third set. Purdue edged out to little 2-point leads at 6-4, 8-6, and 11-9. And then 12-11 was a pretty confusing point. It looked at first like a close call went against the Boilermakers. Their coach was assessed a yellow card (pretty hair trigger if you ask me) for protesting the call. I didn’t exactly see what happened — it sure looked like a kill for the Boilermakers, and eventually the call did go their way to make it 13-11. Purdue ran its advantage to 15-12 at the TV timeout. The run behind Turner continued with two more points out of the timeout, prompting Florida State’s charged timeout at 17-12.
Walch, who had come up big for the Seminoles in sets one and two, was blocked on the right side coming out of the timeout. She argued that the block was out, but to no avail. Purdue’s lead then got to 7 with a service ace, before Fatma Yildirim finally sided out for Florida State. Turner got a powerful back-row kill for the Boilermakers to make it 21-13. The Florida State libero Katie Mosher dove for the ball, but it may have been out had she not played it. The Seminoles called their second timeout trailing 22-13. The Seminoles went on a 5-1 run out of the timeout to close to within 23-18 at Purdue’s timeout, but it was too big a hill to climb too late in the set to come back all the way. The Boilermakers went up 2-1 in sets with their 25-21 eventual third-set win.
In contrast to the previous sets, the Seminoles came out strong in set four. Behind the serve of Sarah Wickstrom, Florida State took a solid four-point lead at 6-2. The Boilermakers ran the set back to 9-8 (still in Florida State’s favor) behind some great hits from Turner and overall solid play on the front line. Purdue kept it within 1 with sideout after sideout to 12-11, but then the Seminoles ran off three in a row to go up 15-11 and force Purdue’s timeout. After Sareea Freeman, Florida State’s leading hitter on the season and someone I probably should have mentioned by this point, ate up an overpass to make it 17-12, Purdue burned their second timeout.
From there, the lead only grew larger, behind kills from left-side Oliviera Medic and an ace from Duzceler to get it to 10 at 23-13. You might have figured Purdue would call time after such a long run against them, but they didn’t. Maybe they thought it was obvious we were bound for a fifth-set decider. Or was it? On the serve of libero Carly Cramer, the Boilermakers staged a dramatic comeback, claiming eight consecutive points. After four blocks, three kills, and an ace, Milosvlejvic finally sided back out for the Seminoles to get set point at 24-21.
Jones sided out to give Purdue the serve down 24-22. With some scrambling going on on both sides, the Boilermakers caught the Seminoles with too many people in the front row, Davis getting a soft roll shot over their heads to make it 24-23. Florida State managed to stave off what might have been a historic meltdown by salvaging a 25-23 fourth-set win, but that’s not how you want to go into a decider having been up 23-13 at one point.
The Seminoles took the first two-point lead of the fifth set at 4-2 after a long rally showing some nice defense on both sides. Their advantage extended to 5-2 on a solid swing from the right side by Walch, prompting Purdue’s timeout. Boilermaker setter Davis made a perfectly-timed dink — no block in sight — to side the Boilermakers out. An attack error for Walch, one of her first of the match, made it 5-4. A cross-court kill from the left side by Katie Griffin knotted the set at 5. Florida State then sided out with a double hit called on Purdue. A block double on the right side tied it at 6 again, and it looked for sure like this massively entertaining match would go right down to the wire. With a soft roll shot from the back row, Turner sided the Boilermakers out to go up 8-7 at the side change.
A right-side attack for Florida State went long on the first point after the side change. With no touch called, Purdue went up by two, but Turner’s attack error from the back row made it 9-all at Purdue’s second and final timeout. Griffin sided out for the Boilermakers to get it to 10-all, but perhaps more importantly it got Turner to a front-row rotation. She put Purdue on top 11-10 with a left-side crosscourt kill to prompt Florida State’s final timeout. Turner came up big on the points after the timeout, too, leading a double block to make it 12-10 Purdue and a kill to get it to 13-10. Purdue made it match point at 14-11 with a kill from the middle after a very long rally. Florida State’s right-side attack hit the antenna to end the match with their first home loss in two years.
Purdue d. #9 Florida State (25-20, 21-25, 25-21, 23-25, 15-11)
Entertaining match all right, but it was a weird match too. It was very even, as the linescore suggests, but it was like the two sides took turns who would get the opportunity to look like the much better team. Purdue’s run at the end of the fourth set, even though they didn’t quite make it back, was pretty jaw-dropping. They now get to go home for the regional semifinals next weekend in West Lafayette. I said on Selection Sunday that I thought Florida State were overrated, and I feel a bit vindicated by that today (Though if you want an excuse to call me a dummie, I had Louisville in the Elite Eight). By the S-curve, Purdue would have been the #24 overall ranked team (which, honestly, sounds pretty close to spot-on). #9 should look much better against #24 than this.
I was actually pretty miffed that this match ran long, because I wanted to make a run to the store before Kansas/Wichita State began, but that five-set clash left only about 20 minutes between the two matches, which wasn’t enough time. I watched a few points of Kentucky/Ohio State in the meantime, which was sort of surreal as that stream had just one camera, no on-screen scoreboard, and no commentator. Impossible to know the context what was happening.
Luckily the stream out of Lawrence began on time. And with a commentator! And a big crowd! The nice side of scheduling restrictions for the brackets is that teams can travel their fans, and there were a lot of black-and-gold clad Shocker fans in attendance. The commentator noted that neither of these two teams, despite many previous NCAA tournament appearances, had ever made the regional semifinals, so one side was bound to make program history.
At the beginning of the first set, Wichita State were really shooting themselves in the foot with service errors. While the Shocker net play was really solid, with Ashley Andrade racking up kills on her first four swings and being in on two double blocks, three of the Jayhawks’ first four points came on Shocker service errors. Andrade herself righted the ship from the service line with an ace, but after the Jayhawks sided out, they went up 8-7 behind Caroline Jarmoc‘s serve. At 9-8 Shockers, setter Chelsey Feekin tried the overhand dink she does so often, but the Jayhawk block was perfectly positioned waiting for it. Elizabeth Field‘s kill ran the Shockers out to an 11-9 edge, and Feekin managed to score with the dink on the second try to make it 12-10. Chelsea Albers and Jarmoc rejected Ashlyn Driskill on the right side to knot the set again at 12. With her sixth kill in the first set, Andrade got her 29th of the tournament, a new school record (23 in the first round was itself a school record in addition to her career high). But the set continued quite evenly, with ties at 13 and 14 prior to the TV timeout at 15-14 Kansas.
Jarmoc’s kill from the right side gave the Jayhawks a two-point edge coming out of the timeout. Tayler Tolefree, again from the right side, put Kansas up 18-15 to prompt Wichita State’s first charged timeout. Sara McClinton‘s fourth kill gave Kansas their biggest lead of the set at 19-15. The Shockers ran it back to 21-20 and after an awkward miscommunication they scored another block off Catherine Carmichael to draw it even, prompting Kansas’ timeout. The Shockers went ahead 23-22 on an attack error from Carmichael, and the homestanding fans didn’t like it. The Jayhawks called time trailing by a point, their last timeout of the set.
Kansas sided out out of the timeout for the 11th tie of the set. Andrade’s attack error made it set point for the Jayhawks, prompting the Shockers’ timeout in quite a back-and-forth first set. Kansas took set number one behind a left-side block of Driskill.
The Shockers took an early 6-3 advantage in the second set. Kansas closed to within a point a few times, but behind Andrade and Feekin Wichita State went out ahead 11-7 at the Jayhawks’ timeout. Andrade reached double-digits in kills to put the Shockers up 15-10. With a big left-side block for Andrade and Driskill, the Jayhawks called their second timeout down 7 at 17-10. The run, on Feekin’s serve, continued with another block and a bad attacking error from Carmichael on the right side to make it 19-10. That terrible shot earned Carmichael a trip to the bench, as she was replaced by Tiana Dockery.
Dockery made a good swing on her first attempt in the match, but Wichita State libero Jackie Church was more than equal to the task, and Emily Adney ended the rally with a kill. The set got silly at 21-10 with another block from Andrade and Driskill. The Shockers just kept pouring it on, with another kill for Driskill to make it 22-10. Jarmoc finally sided the Jayhawks out after eight straight for the Shockers, but it was damage long since done. The Jayhawks managed to rattle off a little run of their own to close to 22-15, but the hill was far too tall to climb, and the Shockers finished it off 25-16.
They had a cutesy little halftime promotion with two young fans wearing shirts representing each team doing a tricycle/bouncy ball biathlon. The Wichita State fan narrowly won.
The Shockers hit over .400 in the second set, and the Jayhawks under .100, as Kansas’ big scoring star Jarmoc was hitting negative for the match at 4/5/13. Andrade and Feekin were of course the big stars for the Shockers through two sets, with Andrade at 11/3/20 for .400 and Feekin 6/1/8 for .625, to go with 22 set assists. The Shockers had seven team blocks in the first two sets, and Andrade was in on six of them.
At the outset of the third set, I noticed Kansas’ jerseys have the players’ names on them, like certain other sports but very few volleyball teams do. Speaks to their budget, I suppose. The Jayhawks, behind Jarmoc, came out strong in the third set, going to an early 3-point lead, but Feekin’s fine net play and some timely hits from Adney brought the set even at 7. Tied again at 8, a rare miscue from Feekin gave the Jayhawks back the advantage. An ace off the hand of Andrade knotted the set again at 12. With Carmichael’s attack error from the left side, the Shockers went back on top by a point. That margin held to the TV timeout, with the Shockers up 15-14.
The stalemate held after the timeout, with tie score after tie score after tie score until Katie Reilly finally put Wichita State up by two at 20-18. Feekin and Field executed a picture-perfect quick set play on the next rally to make it 21-18 at Kansas’ timeout. Coming out of the timeout, Adney extended the Shocker advantage to 4 with a roll shot that caught the Jayhawks off guard — it looked for all the world like they were expecting a huge swing. Carmichael made her ninth hitting error of the match to make it 23-18 to prompt the Jayhawks’ final timeout. Andrade’s service ace (Dockery just whiffed the serve reception) got the Shockers to set point. Feekin and Field ran the quick set again to end it with the Shockers going up 2-1.
Field was the big hitting star for Wichita State in the third set, attaining 7 kills on 7 swings for a perfect attack percentage. Behind (who else but) Andrade, the Shockers again came out strong in the fourth set, attaining an early three-point edge at 5-2. Kansas knotted the set at 6, but that didn’t really last long as Wichita State ran back out to 9-6 at Kansas’ timeout.
At 12-9, the Jayhawk libero Brianne Riley tried to send a ball over free and it went wide to put the Shockers up four. At 15-11, the Shockers played a great point to frantically keep a ball alive. They looked a little out of system running the offense, but Jayhawks bailed them out with a double contact fault. The Jayhawks called time down 5, but Reilly’s service ace made it 17-11 Wichita State. After that, though, they scored 3 in a row to prompt the Shockers’ timeout at 17-14. Field got the Shockers the big sideout at 18-14. The Jayhawks closed to within two at 18-16 and 19-17, and then within one at 20-19 on an Andrade attack error. The Shockers called time there.
The Jayhawks gifted the Shockers a point with a service error coming out of the timeout, and then Andrade’s kill from the middle made it 22-19. Slightly out of system on offense, it was Andrade who made the set to Adney for her kill to make it 23-19. Feekin’s ninth kill of the match, with a nice two-handed tip, gave the Shockers match point at 24-20. McClinton staved off the first Shocker match point, but Adney got through the block on the left side to send the Shockers to the Sweet 16.
Wichita State d. #11 Kansas (23-25, 25-16, 25-19, 25-21)
Yeah. I like this Wichita State team quite a bit. They’re bound for a date in the Sweet 16 with a really good USC team, so it’ll be a fun match to watch. Andrade narrowly missed a double-double, with 9 blocks to go along with her 18 kills. Feekin, for her part, got a double-double with 48 set assists and 10 digs, but was just one kill short of a triple-double.
I watched a few points of BYU/Oklahoma afterward, but…I really don’t have anything to say about it. The next match I was interested to watch in its entirety was Washington/Hawaii. I thought Hawaii were pretty badly underseeded (by not being seeded at all), so I was most intrigued by this matchup. There’s really no reason two teams both as good as these should be meeting as early as the second round.
The video “quality” for this stream was just wretched, chopping and skipping all over the place. I was pleased, by the little chat bar off to the side of the player, to see that I wasn’t the only one experiencing issues. Misery loves company! I had half a mind to switch to one of the other matches, but I was really hoping to see this one and I hate not seeing a match from the beginning (unless I know I’m only watching a few points).
Early on, it was not Hawaii’s big star Jane Croson who was befuddling the Husky block, it was Emily Hartong, who hit paydirt with 7 of her first 10 swings without an error. After a long stretch of trading points, the Rainbow Wahine ran out to a 16-10 advantage. Thanks to some helpful updates from a user who was miraculously able to see the feed, I know that the advantage got as big as seven. Washington cut into the lead a little, but Hawaii won the first set 25-20.
About halfway through the set, the feed cut out altogether for me, instead of just being choppy/broken images, being replaced by a hilariously on-the-nose screen:
The feed eventually did come on in the second set, though it was well behind live if that helpful user who gave updates in the first was anything to go off (and I’m sure she was). Washington held a pretty sustained 4-5 point lead throughout the set until closing to within one at 18-17. They failed to draw even, though, with the Huskies taking set 2 by a 25-20 count.
After the two sides traded points early, the Rainbow Wahine edged out to a lead in set number three. The Huskies closed to 10-9 before Hawaii then ran off five in a row (a Husky timeout coming after three) to go up by six. Along with Croson and Hartong, Hawaii found a scoring threat up the middle with Jade Vorster, freshman middle blocker, extending to 17-11 before the Huskies rattled off a few to close to within 3 at 17-14. The Rainbow Wahine looked content to play sideout volleyball, which makes sense when you’re ahead, but the Huskies brought it to 19-17 at which point the Hawaii coach called time. The Rainbow Wahine neared set point on Croson’s serve, until an error made it 23-19. An error from Cassie Strickland, who uses a similar uber-high jump serve as does Croson, made it ‘Aloha ball’ all the same. Great point on 24-19, as Hawaii looked to have a kill, but the Washington libero Jenna Orlandini tracked down a ball that was literally in the first row of the stands and managed to legally return it despite facing away (in addition to being that far off the court). But it was for naught, as the Hawaii setter Mita Uiato found a slightly out-of-system block to dink it home for the set at 25-19.
Hawaii took 6 of the first 8 points in set 4 to prompt Washington to call time. On the first point back, Uiato served the ball before the up referee signaled for it. There’s no actual penalty for that, you just have to do it over again after the official signals for the service, but boy did Uiato look embarrassed when they tossed the ball back to her.
And then the teams traded pretty remarkable runs. I…I’m gonna have to be a little sparse on the details, because I was just so damn into it. It was a great match and a great fourth set. After the Rainbow Wahine took an early lead, the Huskies stormed out in front with a long run where they could do no wrong. Blocking, serving, hitting, all of it picture-perfect. Hawaii started to chip into the lead a little, but the Huskies got to set point at 24-21. And then Hawaii staved off all three set points to get to deuce, with some amazing rallies along the way. They actually had a match point at 25-24, this all coming on Hartong’s serve, but the Huskies sided out and then won the fourth set 27-25, the last point coming on a service ace.
The fifth set was a sideoutfest, the side change coming with Washington up 8-7 after neither side had a two-point lead prior. The Huskies got that two-point lead right after the side change at 9-7, prompting a Rainbow Wahine timeout. The Husky front line ate up an overpass to move the set to 10-7, and a Hawaii hitting error made it 11-7 at the Rainbow Wahine’s last timeout. The lead extended to 13-8 with a right-side double block, and the fans in attendance were surely smelling blood. To their credit, the Rainbow Wahine closed to 13-10 with Croson’s kill and her great big serve pulling the Huskies out of system leading to Hartong’s amazing 29th kill of the night. She made it an even 30 taking advantage of a blocking matchup with the comparatively diminutive Strickland across the net from her. But the Huskies made it match point with a left-side kill, and a right-side double block of Hartong ended it.
#13 Washington d. Hawaii (25-20, 20-25, 19-25, 27-25, 15-11)
This was the match of the tournament, beyond question, and I think it’s fair to say the committee dun goofed. No way should this have been a second round match. It was bound to suck for whoever wasn’t fortunate enough to move on, and such is the case for the Rainbow Wahine. They lose just one player from this team for next year, back-row specialist Emily Maeda, so here’s hoping they schedule a strong non-conference such that the committee will end up with no choice but to give them a tournament seed.
And hey, look at that — it’s already too damn late to write a report on the D-II match in Hawaii. Might as well have it on for noise as I tighten the bolts in this post, though.
Full Day Three NCAA Division I tournament results
Purdue d. #9 Florida State (25-20, 21-25, 25-21, 23-25, 15-11)
#16 Kentucky d. Ohio State (18-25, 26-24, 25-15, 25-18)
#8 Minnesota d. Creighton (20-25, 25-17, 25-23, 25-17)
#14 Florida d. College of Charleston (25-20, 25-16, 25-14)
Wichita State d. #11 Kansas (23-25, 25-16, 25-19, 25-21)
#1 Penn State d. Bowling Green (25-15, 25-12, 25-15)
#12 BYU d. Oklahoma (25-17, 25-21, 25-18)
Michigan State d. #7 UCLA (25-17, 29-27, 18-25, 25-22) Who had the two Michigan schools meeting in the Sweet 16?
#13 Washington d. Hawaii (20-25, 25-20, 19-25, 27-25, 15-11)
#2 Stanford d. Western Kentucky (25-15, 25-23, 25-15)
#5 Oregon d. Dayton (25-15, 25-20, 25-21)
Full Day Three NCAA Division II tournament results
#1 New Haven d. #2 Bridge Port 3-2
#1 Indianapolis d. #6 Hillsdale 3-0
#1 Tampa d. #3 Palm Beach Atlantic 3-1
#1 Wheeling Jesuit d. #3 California (PA) 3-1
#2 Wingate d. #4 Tusculum 3-0
#1 Concordia-St. Paul d. #3 Nebraska-Kearney 3-1
#2 West Texas A&M d. #4 Angelo State 3-1
#1 BYU-Hawaii d. #3 Cal State-San Bernardino 3-0
Yeesh. So chalk it is over in D-II. And those are your Elite Eight pairings for next weekend in Pensacola, by the way. The likely two best teams in the tournament, Concordia-St. Paul and BYU-Hawaii, can’t meet in the national championship. They would meet in the Final Four if they both advance. I think they both will, and whoever emerges from the dust in that matchup should be the heavy favorite to win it all.
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