Chalk.
All four top seeds are into the NCAA Division I Volleyball Championship.
Thursday’s national semifinals in Louisville can be seen on ESPN:
6:30 p.m. Eastern — Louisville vs. Pittsburgh
30 minutes following — Penn State vs. Nebraska
Nebraska swept Wisconsin on Sunday afternoon and then Penn State won a five-set battle with Creighton.
Also in this all-NCAA edition of Volleyball Today, Wake Forest became the fourth Power 4 program to fire its coach.
Nebraska sweeps Wisconsin
Domination.
Nebraska swept Big Ten rival Wisconsin for an incredible third time this season and the Huskers are back in the NCAA volleyball national semifinals for the seventh time in 10 seasons and 18th overall.
Nebraska, which lost in last year’s title match to Texas, has set the benchmark all season. The Huskers (33-2), who shared the Big Ten title with Penn State at 19-1, played a nearly flawless defensive match against Wisconsin (26-7). They hit held the Badgers to a .126 hitting percentage in the 26-24, 25-17, 25-21 and came up big on offense when it counted.
“The effort on both sides was incredible,” Nebraska coach John Cook said. “Both teams were laying out, making unreal plays.
“I blow the whistle in practice when I think the ball is down. I would have blown the whistle several times today thinking the ball was down. Next thing you know, it’s up. When they have hitters like that, you have to dig balls, because you’re not going to block those guys all the time.”
Wisconsin counterpart Kelly Sheffield analyzed it the same way.
“(Nebraska) was just an unbelievable defensive team. I thought both teams were just making some big plays. We probably made a few more errors than what they did. But some of the defensive plays they were making, no one in the country is making in the backcourt,” Sheffield said.
“That’s nothing new to anybody in this room. Those of you guys that are from here have been seeing that all year long. We took some really, really big-time swings and they came up with some big-time digs.
Taylor Landfair led Nebraska with 13 kills — six in the first set — two digs and two blocks. Andi Jackson had 10 kills with one error in 19 attacks to hit .474 and had a dig and five blocks. Harper Murray had 10 kills — lethal from the back row — 12 digs and four blocks, one solo.
“She is just so explosive there. The previous matches, she hasn’t had as much success on us in…
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