Volleyball Today: NCAA semis on ESPN; AVCA All-Americans; LOVB news

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky — There are so many special times in NCAA women’s volleyball.

Opening week, which happened to be here last August 27, when Nebraska beat Kentucky and Louisville defeated Wisconsin.

The upsets and reverse sweeps that punctuated the 2024 season.

Selection Sunday and the bracket announcement.

Regional finals.

And now Thursday’s national semifinals in the KFC Yum! Center. First serve in the NCAA Division I Volleyball Championship is at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN. All four teams were the top seeds in their respective regionals.

First up is ACC battle extraordinaire with the home team, Louisville, taking on top-seeded Pittsburgh. Their matches the past few seasons have been epic. Click here for the Louisville preview, which covers it all.

About a half hour after that one ends, it’s all eyes on the two teams that tied for the Big Ten title, Nebraska and Penn State.

Click here for the Nebraska preview and here for the Penn State preview.

AVCA announces All-American teams

As you would expect, the four finalists for national player of the year lead the American Volleyball Coaches Association All-American teams, They include Nebraska libero Lexi Rodriguez, Pittsburgh right side Olivia Babcock, Kentucky outside hitter Brooklyn DeLeye and Wisconsin outside Sarah Franklin, the 2023 national player of the year.

Also on the 14-player first team are Pitt’s Rachel Fairbanks and Torrey Stafford; Nebraska’s Andi Jackson, Florida’s Kennedy Martin, Stanford’s Kami Miner and Elia Rubin, Pennn State’s Jess Mruzik, Creighton’s Kendra Waite, TCU’s Melanie Parra and Elena Scott of Louisville.

The VolleyballMag All-American teams — our voters wait until after the NCAA Championship is concluded — will be announced Tuesday. We have four teams, coach of the year, player of the year and freshman of the year.

See the complete AVCA list with all three teams and honorable mentions here.

The AVCA introduces the All-Americans at its annual luncheon Friday, when the player of the year will be announced.

Miami’s Lopez to Wisconsin

One of those AVCA players, Miami’s Grace Lopez, the Puerto Rican who was an honorable-mention All-American, is transferring to Wisconsin for her junior year. The 6-foot-1 outside was second in kills for the Hurricanes this season with 421 (3.54/set) and she had 32 service aces and 80 blocks.

Back to Louisville for the LOVB championship

League One Volleyball (LOVB) announced Wednesday that the finals of its inaugural 2025 professional volleyball season will take place at the KFC YUM! Center here in Louisville.

The three-day event, set for April 10-12, will iinclude all six of LOVB’s teams as they vie for the first  championship title. It will also coincide with with JVA World Challenge girls club tournament.

Click here for more from LOVB.

LOVB Austin loaded with Texas exes

There are eight former Longhorns on the Austin roster.

Six of them won NCAA championships, including Khat and Molly McCage in 2012; Logan Eggleston, Saige Ka’aha’aina-Torres and Zoe (Fleck) Jarvis in 2022; and Asjia O’Neal, who was on the 2022 and 2023 Texas title teams.

The two others were so close. Juliann Faucette’s Longhorns lost in the national championship match in 2009 and national semifinals in 2010, and Chiaka Ogbogu played in back-to-back title matches in 2015 and 2016.

Read the feature about the Texas exes and LOVB Austin here.

Volleyball Canada tabs MacDonald as new leader

Kerry MacDonald will assume the role of Chief Sport Officer for Volleyball Canada next month..

MacDonald has more than 20 years of experience within the sport including working at the provincial level with Volleyball Alberta, coaching U SPORTS and Youth National teams, as well as serving in technical and sports science roles in all disciplines of volleyball. Kerry has also worked with Volleyball Canada’s event management team in various capacities, and has most recently served as Team Leader (beach) at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Read the Volleyball Canada news release here.

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