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

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

Penn State coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley keeps an eye on practice Wednesday/Sally Deng photo

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.

Nebraska’s Laney Chaboy doing Laney Choboy things at practice Wednesday/Andy Wenstrand photo

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…

Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Volleyballmag.com…