NCAA tournament enters the quarter-final stage – Volleyball News
The NCAA volleyball tournament is scheduled to resume on Friday, December 9 with the quarter-final matches. The grid of the top 16 teams was finalised at the end of second round on December 3. The Sweet 16 are all set to crank up the action today and vie
for the final four in San Antonio. Three Big 12 teams are also lined-up to play in the quarter-finals.
Lexington Regional
No. 1 seed Texas vs. Kentucky, 6 p.m.
Minneapolis Regional
No. 4 seed Iowa State vs. No. 13 seed Minnesota, 7 p.m.
Honolulu Regional
Kansas State vs. No. 15 seed Pepperdine, 9 p.m.
The NCAA top-seeded Texas Longhorns will cross ways with Kentucky in Lexington, while Iowa State, the No. 4 seed, will take on Minnesota in Minneapolis. The un-seeded Kansas State will face No. 15 seed Pepperdine in Honolulu. KU upset No. 2 seed Nebraska
in the 2nd round and clawed its way to the quarter-finals. Nebraska was labelled as Big Ten Conference champion and had the competitive edge of playing at home in the last match against Kansas State. However, the un-seeded visiting team stunned the hosts and
dismissed them in a five-set thriller.
Elsewhere, only two out of seven Pacific-12 Conference teams managed to qualify for the third round of the tournament. Five of them got eliminated in during the first weekend.
Texas, which is Big 12 champion, will be playing away from home and it will face a real challenge of qualifying for the semi-final. Likewise, the runner up Iowa State will be on their opponent’s home court in Minnesota. The fourth-seeded Cyclones swept both
of their first two opponents and found a place in the Sweet 16 for the fourth time in five years. Iowa State is prepared to give out a winning performance against 13th-seeded Minnesota team. Middle blocker Jamie Straube, Big 12 Libero of the Year
Kristen Hahn, Rachel Hockaday, Carly Jenson and Alison Landwehr are the top guns in the team.
On the other hand, the Gophers of Minnesota reached the Sweet 16 by beating 11th-seeded Washington in the second round of the tournament. The Gophers defeated Texas twice this season but also lost to Kansas. Bailey Webster, Haley Eckerman and
Rachael Adams will be fighting for the victory of Gophers.
Kansas State will try to dominate Pepperdine in the quarter-final match as Kansas State has reached Sweet 16 for third time, while the Pepperdine squad has competed at the regional semi-finals seven times. USC has captured six national championships and
20 regional semi-finals appearances while Hawaii has secured three national titles and is making its 24th regional semi-final appearance.
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