NCAA Women's Volleyball Elite Eight: Stanford sweeps Texas for Final Four berth; USC drops five-set thriller to Florida
Two Pac-12 teams, USC and Stanford, made it to the Elite Eight and were in action Saturday looking to punch their ticket to the NCAA women's volleyball Final Four, held next weekend in Kansas City. Check back here to see how the two games finished.
[Related: 2017 NCAA Women's Volleyball Tournament bracket (NCAA.com)]
No. 3 Stanford 3, No. 6 Texas 0
A rematch of last year's national title game wasn't filled with as much drama. Stanford rolled to a sweep over Texas to punch its ticket to the Final Four where No. 2 Florida awaits in Kansas City next Thursday. No. 1 Penn State and No. 5 Nebraska will battle in the other national semifinal game.
Stanford won each of the three sets by the same score: 25-21.
The Cardinal hit .304 and tallied eight blocks against the Longhorns, who miss out on a Final Four berth for the first time since 2011. Stanford, meanwhile, will make its 21st overall Final Four apperance, the most in the nation.
Final. Four. BOUND!!!#GoStanford pic.twitter.com/TCpVRlXrr2
— Stanford Women's Volleyball (@StanfordWVB) December 10, 2017
Pac-12 Player of the Year Kathryn Plummer once again led the way, posting 19 kills and tallying five digs. Audriana Fitzmorris added 10 kills and Meghan McClure racked up 14 digs.
Read more: GoStanford.com
No. 2 Florida 3, No. 10 USC 2 (Gainesville, Florida)
The Trojans showed they belonged on the bright stage with a strong showing against Florida on Saturday but couldn't complete the upset victory, falling in five sets.
Florida took the first set (25-23) before USC strung together two straight set wins to push Florida to the brink of elimination. The Trojans forced a match point in the third set but saw Florida tally three straight points to claim a 26-24 victory. In the decisive fifth set, Florida cruised to a 15-11 win. USC showed it was worthy of an Elite 8 berth by winning match two, 25-20, and conquering the Gators in the third, 25-18.
As a team, the Trojans hit .226 and tallied 68 kills against one of the nation's top teams. Khalia Lanier led the way with 26 kills and 15 digs while Brittany Abercrombie had 14 kills. Victory Garrick (22 digs) and (21 digs) added to USC's attack.
USC finishes the season 25-10.
After starting out the season unranked in the AVCA National Poll, the Women of Troy made a run all the way to the @NCAAVolleyball Elite Eight and finish the season with a 25-10 record. Always proud to be Trojans!#FightOn
— USC Women's Volleyball (@uscwomensvolley) December 10, 2017
Read more: USCTrojans.com