The NIVC is down to six teams, the AVCA announced its all-region teams and a legend has retired after 40 seasons.
NIVC: Georgia Tech and South Dakota, two of the last four teams left out of the NCAA Tournament, are among the last four left in the NIVC.
That’s because Georgia Tech beat Liberty and South Dakota got past UT Arlington on Tuesday in the quarterfinals.
Their other quarterfinals are Thursday when Colgate plays TCU and Weber State faces Tulsa.
Georgia Tech (24-8) beat Liberty (21-12) 25-18, 25-13, 25-19. Julia Bergmann led with 15 kills, two aces, six digs and three blocks, one solo. Mariana Brambilla had eight kills, an assist, an ace, five digs and five blocks. Liberty hit .031 …
South Dakota (30-2) beat UTA (20-14) 25-21, 22-25, 25-15, 23-25, 15-11 as Elizabeth Juhnke had 23 kills, hit .340, and had an assist, six digs and four blocks, one solo. Sami Slaughter had 13 kills, two blocks and four digs, and Elizabeth Loschen had 12 kills, hit .381, and had eight blocks and four digs. Madison Harms had eight kills and eight digs. Setter Madison Jurgens had a kill, 55 assists, two aces and nine digs.
Brooke Townsend had 13 kills for UTA. Madison Hill had 11 kills and six blocks, two solo, and Bre Walp had 11 kills and two blocks. Kylie Jedlicka had nine kills, an ace, 12 digs and four blocks.
AVCA All-Region teams: The AVCA announced its 10 all-region teams, that included 15 players each, a player of the year, freshman of the year, and coach of the year.
Click here for the complete list.
Worth noting is the absence of Stanford star Kathryn Plummer. Plummer, last year’s VolleyballMag.com and AVCA national player of the year, was injured this season and is ineligible to be an AVCA all-region or All-American nominee because she missed too many matches. Accordingly, she missed out on making the Pac-12 team, too.
Plummer, who only played in 71 of Stanford’s 106 sets, still leads the Cardinal in kills (343) and kills per set (4.83).
VolleyballMag.com has no such rules and Plummer will be considered for our All-American teams that will be announced after the NCAA Division I Volleyball Championship next week in Pittsburgh. Stanford, which won the Pac-12 by three games this season and has won two of the last three NCAA titles, is seeded No. 3 in the NCAA Tournament and plays host to Utah on Friday.
Chisum retires: After 40 years, all at Texas State, Karen Chisum has retired.
Her overall record was 919-559-3.
Chisum, eight times her respective conference coach of the year — Texas State has been in the Gulf Star, Southland and now the Sun Belt during her time — won nine regular-season titles and 11 conference tournaments. In 2018, Texas State won its only first-round NCAA Tournament match when it beat Rice.
“This is not the end,” Chisum wrote in a letter the school posted on its athletic website. “I am healthy and have met my professional goals. My life has been enriched by all whose paths I have crossed as a student at Southwest Texas and throughout my career here at Texas State. I am confident that this Bobcat volleyball program will continue its winning way. The program will flourish under new leadership and will continue to bring pride and positive visibility to Texas State University.”
Click here to read the entire letter.
Russ Rose, in his 41st year at Penn State, remains the longest-tenured coach in NCAA Division I.
Two years ago we wrote about the incredible number of veteran coaches in Texas.
At the time, Chisum was in her 38th year, Brenda Gray in her 35th at Sam Houston State, and Debbie Humphreys in her 30th at Stephen F. Austin.
What’s more, others in Texas have been at their respective schools a long time, too, like Lisa Siefert at SMU, Jerritt Elliott at Texas, Laura Neugebauer-Groff at UTSA and Genny Volpe at Rice.
