2024 NCAA WVB Tournament (a Catch-all Thread - Spoilers)

Louisville survives. Beats UNI 22-20 in the 5th.

UNI had 4 service errs in the extra points; 2 on match points and 2 when the score was tied; (I think-Sure about the 4).  They were up 11-9 in the 5th and 14-12 in the 5th.  They came so close. 

To finish off the Juniata story, they played Wisc-Whitewater for the Div III championship this afternoon at 3:00 PM. I watched it before the PSU match; (I didn't feel I had enough stress in my life ). Again, if you didn't read my prior post, the coach of Juniata is Heather Pavlik, the wife of Mark Pavlik, who is the coach of the PSU men's volleyball team.

The the first 2 sets were not that close. Juniata won them both 25-19. Juniata was in control thru-out. But Wisc-Whitewater (in the future WW), woke up, and their block woke up also. They whipped Juniata 25-15 in the 3rd set. Not close. I don't know what the block total for that set was, but overall, WW out-blocked Juniata 18-5.

The 4th set was a classic; tight all the way. The score was tied 20-20; then JUN went up 22-20; then JUN went up 24-22. WW came back to tie it up 24-24; then 25-25; JUN got championship pt 26-25 and won the championship on an attack err by WW. BUT there was a challenge; the call was reversed; so the score is now tied 26-26. WW proceeded to win the set 28-26 to take the match to the 5th set.

To put this in perspective, JUN had 25 sweeps leading up to the quarterfinals. They beat La Verne 3-1 on WED, then beat Hope on THURS in a reverse sweep; the first 5 setter that JUN had played since SEPT of 2022. They had only lost 3 sets this year up until the quarterfinals.

So, on the the 5th set. JUN starts out 3-0; WW takes a time out; JUN continues up to 6-0; WW takes their last timeout; then JUN scores 2 more pts before WW gets their first pt; so the score is 8-1. Then the score is 10-3 JUN leading. WW gets a few more pts to bring the score to 12-6. Then JUN scores 2 pts to give them 8 championship pts. It's over. BUT WW doesn't give up; they score 4 pts in a row to bring the score toe 14-10. Finally JUN scores the 15th pt to win the championship.

What won the 5th set for JUN was the serving by their libero starting off the set. Her serves were fabulous even tho she didn't have a single ace. But she put WW out out-of-system with just about every serve.

WW put a blocking clinic on in the 3rd and 4th sets. Their blocking was fabulous. JUN adjusted in the 4th set; but WW still was blocking quite a few.

A few interesting facts about JUN; there are 24, that's right, 24 players on their roster. They will lose 6 of their 7 starters; 3 of which are graduate students.

She was a starter last year as well.