NCAA volleyball tourney begins; more coaching moves; Olivia Babcock, water polo player
UT Arlington rallied for a fifth-set WAC title victory over Grand Canyon to make the NCAA Tournament. Scenes like this are sure to be prevalent in this week’s NCAA Tournament. UTA opens against USC.
Three months and a week after Kentucky and Nebraska kicked things off on August 28 in Louisville, the NCAA Tournament begins Thursday.
We will continue to offer the match list here in chronological order. They can be seen (only) on ESPN+ and all times are Eastern.
3:30 — Loyola Chicago vs. BYU
4:30 — Western Kentucky vs. Minnesota
5 — UT Arlington vs. USC
5 — Texas State vs. Missouri
5:30 — Tennessee vs. Georgia Tech
5:30 — Ole Miss vs. Florida State
5:30 — South Carolina vs. Dayton
6:30 — Purdue vs. Western Michigan
6:30 — FGCU vs. Marquette
7 — Hawai’i vs. TCU
7:30 — Cleveland State vs. Kentucky
7:30 — Texas vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
8 — South Dakota vs. Creigton
8 — Wichita State vs. SMU
8 — Wisconsin vs. Fairfield
8 — Wofford vs. Baylor
9:30 — High Point vs. Oregon
9:30 — Utah vs. College of Charleston
Also in this edition of Volleyball Today, ESPN does some well-deserved volleyball-ratings chest-beating, the Big Ten announced its season honors, the coaching carousel spins on, Bowling Green won the NIVC opener, and Pitt’s Olivia Babcock played water polo as a kid. Who knew?
@NCAAVolleyball scores its best regular season EVER on ESPN platforms
Most-consumed season on record (635M total mins)
Averaged 140,000 viewers, up 21% YoY
Increased viewership YoY among women (+20%), P18-24 (+70%), P2-17 (+90)#NCAAWVB pic.twitter.com/FIKFXLX14d
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) December 4, 2024
Boffo ESPN volleyball ratings
ESPN announced that 2024 marked the most-watch college volleyball regular season on its outlets, up 21 percent. VBM’s Larry Hamel breaks it down:
The raw number of a 21% bump in viewership for NCAA women’s volleyball across ESPN platforms during the regular season continued the trend of atypical audience growth even as traditional cable TV continues to see its subscribership decrease. This adds to the value of NCAA volleyball as a TV property.
The information does not detail how that growth is distributed across ESPN’s cable channels and its ESPN+ subscription streaming service. But since the average was 140,000, I strongly suspect only the linear cable outlets were counted. Some of that increase could be attributed to the flagship ESPN channel’s telecasting more matches since its typical viewership far outstrips ESPN2 and ESPNU.
The demographic increases cited in the post by ESPN PR pictured above also is highly encouraging for volleyball, which made significant gains among young viewers. Cable TV has trended older and older with each passing year but volleyball seems to be a sport that youngsters want to watch.
Franklin repeats as B1G POY
From the Big Ten news release:
The Big Ten Conference announced the 2024 Volleyball All-Big Ten Teams and individual honors on Wednesday, as chosen by a vote of the conference’s 18 head coaches. Wisconsin graduate student and outside hitter Sarah Franklin was selected as Player of the Year, while Nebraska’s Lexi Rodriguez was named Libero of the Year (voted to replace Defensive Player of the Year) and Bergen Reilly earned Setter of the Year. Penn State’s Izzy Starck was named Freshman of the Year and Katie Schumacher-Cawley was named Coach of the Year by both the coaches and media.
Click here for the complete conference news release.
Coaching carousel spins on
A coach got hired and three got fired.
Austin Peay hired Stephen F. Austin assistant Evan Amstutz. He takes over a team that finished 2-26, 1-15 in the ASUN. Taylor Mott, there for 13 seasons, was fired on October 30. The Govs were 1-21, 0-10 at the time. Austin Peay has been to the NCAA Tournament twice, in 2010 and 2017.
Read the Austin Peay news release here.
Northeastern fired Lenika Vazquez after five seasons. The Huskies finished 10-16 this season, 8-10 in the CAA. Northeastern has never been to the NCAA Tournament.
Read the Northeastern news release here.
Memphis is not renewing the contract of Sean Burdette, who has been at the school for seven years. The Tigers finished 12-16 this season, 6-10 in the American Athletic Conference. Memphis has been to the NCAA Tournament once, in 1994. Read the complete Memphis news release here.
And in a strange twist, because Burdette’s daughter, junior middle Brinley, plays for my beloved Salukis, Southern Illinois coach Ed Allen is leaving after six seasons. SIU finished 10-19 this season, 3-15 in the Missouri Valley Conference. The Salukis have been to the NCAA Tournament once, in 2015.
Read the entire SIU news release here.
NIVC victory for Bowling Green
Bowling Green (22-9) of the MAC knocked out Binghamton (19-11) of America East 25-18, 25-21, 21-25, 25-15 in the first match of the NIVC. Bowling Green will play host to Wright State of the Horizon League on Thursday. Wright State had a first-round bye.
Mia Tyler led BGSU with 14 kills as she hit .367 and had a solo block and two digs. Lauryn Hovey had 11 kills, two assists, three aces, nine digs and four blocks, one solo. Binghamton’s Tsvetelina Ilieva capped her tremendous season with 21 kills, two assists, three aces, a block and 10 digs.
Other matches Thursday includes Utah Valley vs. Washington State, Idaho State vs. Wyoming, UTRGV vs. Arkansas State, Jackson State vs. Stephen F. Austin, Lindenwood vs. Omaha, Toledo vs. DePaul, UConn vs. Mercer and Winthrop vs. East Carolina.
Click here for the NIVC tournament website.
Olivia Babcock, well-rounded water polo goalie
I’ve been sitting on this nugget for a long time, since early September, the day before Pitt swept Penn State, when Olivia Babcock told me she touches 10 feet, 8.5 inches, and has been able to dunk a volleyball since she was a junior in high school.
Babcock, the incredible right side for top-ranked Pittsburgh — earlier this week named the ACC player of the year — was not just a volleyball player growing up in Los Angeles. No, the 6-foot-4 sophomore was a well-rounded athlete until she went solely with volleyball at 16.
She played water polo from the seventh through the ninth grades. The former goalie said, “I was a very good swimmer. I learned to swim in like the first grade, and my school had one meet every year and I would always participate in that. It was fun.”
Babcock said she and her twin sister, Natalie, competed in a few swim meets in high school, too.
“I loved water polo,” Babcock said. “Maybe not in the moment, but I look back and I’m grateful for it. I realize that I did like it but I guess it was too time-consuming. I feel like I complained a lot about it when I did it, but now that I’m not doing it I think I took it for granted. It’s really fun to watch, too.”
Babcock did gymnastics and dance, played basketball and soccer, and competed in track. Incredibly, Babcock first played club volleyball when she was 15, starting during COVID.
“That first year I still did soccer, but after that first year of club volleyball that soccer wasn’t for me anymore and I wanted to focus on volleyball. And I committed here after my first season in club volleyball.”
She was also a goalie in soccer, noting with a laugh, “I’m not a runner and I don’t like contact.”
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