NCAA Women
November 17, 2024
Abby Shadwick put Colgate on her back and carried the Raiders to the Patriot League regular-season title.
The star 6-foot-2 senior outside hitter’s heroics in crunch time during a reverse sweep on the road against Bucknell stole the spotlight for her low-major school on a busy Saturday of Division-I NCAA women’s volleyball.
With Colgate trailing 11-14 in the deciding fifth set, four kills by Shadwick staved off defeat. After the Bison sided out, Shadwich’s immediate sideout kill produced another match point. Then Abby’s ace sealed the deal on a 21-25, 23-25, 25-23, 25-18, 17-15 victory in a battle of teams that came into this final regular-season match deadlocked for first place in the Patriot League.
Shadwick scored her team’s last six points at the time they were most needed.
The victorious Raiders are 17-10 overall, 14-2 in the conference. Bucknell (21-4) settled for second at 13-3. A proud program that has captured four consecutive regular-season crowns and has represented the Patriot League in the last three NCAA Tournaments, Colgate will now enjoy home-court advantage at cozy Cotterell Court in Hamilton in upstate New York throughout the upcoming conference tourney. That gives the Raiders a leg up in their quest for another automatic NCAA bid.
“I’m just so proud of the consistency our program has shown,” Coach Ryan Baker said. “To win four regular-season championships in a row speaks to our team culture, our team leadership, and my staff. We are thrilled to host the championship and have our fans in attendance. We know the Hamilton community will show up.”
Shadwick’s totals for the match were 21 kills on 60 attacks with three errors, three aces, 13 digs and eight blocks (one solo), which earned her out stat line of the night, not only for quantity but for timely quality.
Many of the usual powers also played on Saturday, including red-hot Nebraska, which stayed undefeated in the Big Ten, and Wisconsin, which won on the West Coast to remain very much a factor in the conference chase. Also, Kansas kept pace with Arizona State in the Big 12, Dayton’s streak was at 21 after closing out an unbeaten Atlantic 10 slate and Northern Iowa and UT Arlington kept winning.
Reverse sweeps transpired: The aforementioned visiting Colgate over Bucknell, visiting Utah over UCF, host North Carolina A&T over UNC-Wilmington,…
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