The USA women won the sitting volleyball title Saturday in Paris, the third gold medal in a row for a program that has medaled in every Paralympics since the discipline was introduced for women in 2004.
The Americans, who lost to China to open the tournament, this time beat China 25-21, 23-25, 25-20, 25-22 to give the USA three indoor medals this summer. In the Paris Olympics last month, the USA women took silver and the men won bronze.
While the USA was winning, NCAA volleyball was into another chock-full Saturday that saw what has become the usual unpredictability and surprising results.
That included Miami dealing Texas — No. 1 in the AVCA preseason and first-week polls but sure to fall — another loss by pulling off a reverse sweep in Gregory Gym. Sixth-ranked Wisconsin escaped Baylor with a five-set win, and Loyola Marymount had a reverse-sweep victory at SMU, which just five days earlier defeated Nebraska.
Or, as we say repeatedly, that’s why the VolleyballMag media poll won’t begin for two more weeks when pre-conference play is finished.
The recaps and top performances for all of the above follow, but first a look at Sunday’s NCAA schedule that includes 37 matches.
Six of those matches involve Big Ten teams, two of which are unbeaten as 5-0 Illinois plays. Wake Forest at Iowa State and 4-0 Washington is at 4-1 Colorado. Ohio State plays at No. 10 Florida.
In the ACC, fourth-ranked Louisville is at Northern Kentucky and No. 15 Florida State (4-0) plays at 5-0 Auburn.
The Big 12’s three matches include 5-0 Arizona State vs. St. John’s (4-1) at San Diego.
Ninth-ranked Kentucky of the SEC plays Ball State and No. 21 Arkansas (6-0) plays 5-1 Little Rock.
Dayton of the Atlantic 10, ranked No. 22, plays winless UMBC.
USA women win Paralympics sitting gold
The USA and China have played each other for gold for five Paralympics in a row.
“This one means so much to us,” Kaleo Okalani said.
“We have faced so much adversity, especially in this tournament, and I’m so proud to play for this team and to be a part of this team.”
In the tournament, the Americans lost to China in four and then swept France and Italy to make the semifinals. There they beat Brazil 25-22, 22-25, 25-14, 25-15 before turning the table on China.
“We know them, and they know us,” Lora Webster said. “These are teams that fight tooth and nail and never think that anything is hopeless.”
Nicole Nieves missed the Tokyo…
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