In this Volleyball Today:
— Wisconsin is in a place that the program hasn’t seen in 31 years as Texas and Stanford got victories in the State Farm Volleyball Showcase here in Milwaukee;
— Tthere was another busy slate Sunday in NCAA volleyball;
— Olympians won the respective women’s and men’s titles at the AVP Chicago Open;
— And the USA sitting team figuratively served France off the court in the Paris Paralympics.
There’s more NCAA volleyball Monday with six matches after an incredibly busy opening weekend.
At Fiserve Forum an hour from the Wisconsin campus, Stanford plays the Badgers at 4 p.m. Central on Fox and Texas plays Minnesota at 6:30 on FS1.
There are four other NCAA women’s matches Monday, McNeese vs. Southern in a battle of Louisiana schools, Coastal Carolina vs. Georgia Tech, Texas A&M vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and UC Davis continues its trip to Indiana by playing at Indiana.
Texas overpowers Wisconsin
When last we saw Texas, it won the national championship, but gone from that team are superstar middle Asjia O’Neal and steady standout right side Molly Phillips.
Don’t, however, cry for the Longhorns.
Consider that in their 30-28, 23-25, 25-15, 25-11 beatdown of Wisconsin on Sunday that sophomore middle Marianna Singletary had nine kills, hit .438, and had eight blocks, two solo. And that Kentucky-transfer right side Reagan Ruthertord had 14 kills, hit .367 and had six digs and two blocks.
Throw in the best player in the nation in outside Madi Skinner (15 kills, six digs and a block) and a new setter in Baylor transfer Averi Carlson to complement Ella Swindle and, well, Texas is OK. Oh, yeah, outside Jenna Wenaas led with 18 kills, 10 digs and two blocks, one solo.
“We have a lot more options. Both setters are really good, Both bring good things to our team,” said UT coach Jerritt Elliott. Molly was such a good player for us and was so well respected and made play after play, but we had to be more in system with her. I think we can change it a bit and set longer balls to Reagan and have a little more firepower over there.
“Our middles are young, but they’re going to get better at it.”
Junior libero Emma Halter, who was so good down the stretch for Texas last year had 28 digs and five assists.
Wisconsin, which opened its season with a four-set loss to Louisville this past Tuesday, is 0-2 for the first time since 1993.
Sarah Franklin, last…
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