NCAA volleyball: Navy, American win Patriot matches; Florida, UCF in action Wednesday
Navy and American are moving on in the Patriot League, CSU Bakersfield and New Mexico won their matches, and No. 20 Florida and UCF top the Wednesday NCAA Division I women’s volleyball schedule.
Florida is the only ranked team playing when it entertains Auburn. Also in the SEC, Arkansas goes to Texas A&M in a huge NCAA at-large bid match for both teams. Arkansas is No. 46 in the NCAA RPI, while A&M is 37.
UCF, No. 24 in the RPI but not ranked or even receiving votes, plays an American Athletic Conference when it entertains South Florida.
Both MAC division leaders are in action as the league concludes regular-season play. Bowling Green, with a four-game lead over Ohio in the East, is home for Miami, while Ball State, leading the West by five games over Western Michigan, is at Toledo. Also in the MAC, Ohio is at Kent State, WMU is at NIU, Eastern Michigan is at Central Michigan, and Buffalo is at Akron. The conference championship starts Sunday at Ball State.
There’s also a SWAC match when Prairie View plays Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
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Quite a few conference tournaments get under way Thursday, including the WAC, Big Sky, Sun Belt, CAA, OVC, and Southland.
PATRIOT — Whenver Navy beats Army it’s a big deal, but in this case it was in the Patriot League tournament quarterfinals, so Navy (13-13) moves on to play the top seed and host Colgate on Saturday, while Army West Point’s season ended 17-9.
Cami Herman led Navy with 13 kills as she hit .545 after having one error in 22 attacks to go with an assist, a block, and seven digs. Avery Stowell had 12 kills, an assist, two blocks, and five digs. Navy, which had a 15-9 blocks advantage, saw Maggie Bodman get eight block assists and Jamie Llewellyn and Anna Klemeyer get six each. Averi Miller had five blocks, 33 assists, and five digs.
Army, which won the league spring last year and played in the NCAA Tournament, hit .068. Paige Fixemer led with 10 kills and seven blocks …
In the other quarterfinal, American (18-13) rallied for a 22-25, 25-23, 18-25, 25-18, 15-7 win over visiting Loyola Maryland (17-11). American plays Lafayette at Colgate on Saturday.
Zeynep Uzen had 22 kills for the Eagles to go with an ace and nine digs. Carlie Fikse had 13 kills, hit .313, and had a dig and nine blocks, one solo. Katie Putney had seven kills and six blocks, and Chiara Bosetti had 35 digs, an assist, two aces, and even a kill.
Loyola’s Abby Hamilton ended her season with 25 kills, an assist, two blocks, and 19 digs. Lauren Link had 19 kills, an assist, two blocks, and 20 digs. Kacy Sekunda had a kill, 48 assists, an ace, two blocks, and 17 digs, and Katie Forsythe had 24 digs, two assist, and three aces. The Greyhounds had their best season since also going 17-11 in 2007.
ROAD RUNNERS WIN — CSU Bakersfield (17-8, 10-7), the fourth-place team in the Big West, beat visiting third-place Cal Poly (13-15, 11-6) as Brooke Boiseau got six of her 13 kills in the fourth set of the 25-14, 25-21, 12-25, 25-22 victory.
Boiseau had two errors in 22 attacks to hit .500 and had an ace, three blocks, and a dig. Hana Makonova had 10 kills, an assist, and six blocks. Seleisa Elisaia had seven kills, hit .313, and had 33 assists, three aces, three blocks, and four digs. Paige Calvin had 16 digs, four assists, and two aces. Cal Poly’s Tommi Stockham had 19 kills, an assist, a block, and eight digs.
LOBOS GET 10TH WIN — New Mexico improved to 19-9, 10-7 in the Mountain West with a 23-25, 25-20, 17-25, 25-18, 15-5 Mountain West win at Air Force (7-20, 4-13). Uxue Guereca led the Lobos with a career-high 23 kills as she hit .452 and had two assists, four blocks, and 10 digs. New Meixco got its 10th conference win for the first time since 2015.
Savannah Neal had a career-high 12 kills for Air Force.
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