Volleyball Today: Coaching news; Indiana Wesleyan rallies to win NAIA title
Indiana Wesleyan wins the 2024 NAIA national title
We’ve got NCAA regionals announcer info, the NIVC quarterfinals continue, the NAIA has a champion that came back from a 13-6 fifth-set deficit, and the MasterCoaches.
But this edition of Volleyball Today begins with the coaching carousel.
Most notable was the resignation of NC State coach Luka Slabe, who is leaving after five seasons and the program’s first NCAA appearance since 2017.
Coaching carousel spins on
NC State had back-to-back news releases Tuesday, the first announcing that Luke Slabe had resigned after five seasons and then another 15 minutes later to reflect that Megan Wargo-Kearney, his associate head coach the past five years, would replace him.
“After the conclusion of the season, my family and I decided to take a different path, stepping away from collegiate athletics and looking for opportunities that would allow us to spend more time together as a family.” Slabe said in the first news release, that can be seen here.
Slabe, a Slovenian who played at BYU and played and coached professionally in Europe, was an assistant to Karch Kiraly when the USA women won gold in the Tokyo Olympics. Kiraly has since taken over the USA men’s national team and USA Volleyball has yet to hire his replacement.
Wargo-Kearney was an assistant at Arkansas for three years before joining Slabe. She played at Gettysburg and coached at Truman State before that.
Read the Wargo-Kearney news release here …
Rob Browning is out after 20 years at Saint Mary’s, which finished 10-17, 6-12 in the West Conference. Browning compiled an overall record of 283-263 in his time at the Moraga, California, school, 164-165 in the WCC. St. Mary’s had winning records three times in the last 12 years.
There are also Division I openings at Belmont, California Baptist, Charlotte, Central Michigan, Elon, Evansville, Holy Cross, Idaho, Louisiana Tech, Memphis, Northeastern, Oral Roberts, Southeastern Louisiana, Siena, Tarleton State, Toledo, UCF, Louisiana-Monroe, UNC Wilmington and North Texas …
When Jeremy White left Southeastern Louisiana to become the coach at Liberty, it also created an opening in the beach program. Accordingly, SLU has promoted Amy Blanke. Blanke was the University of New Orleans head coach before joining White’s staff last season. She was a libero at Cleveland State.
NCAA volleyball Thursday, Friday
All matches on ESPN2
THURSDAY
At Pittsburgh (second matches start 30 minutes after the first ends)
1 p.m. — Missouri (22-8) vs. Kentucky (22-7), Oregon (24-7) vs. Pittsburgh (31-1)
At Louisville
7 p.m. — Florida (23-7) vs. Stanford (27-4), Purdue (27-6) vs. Louisville (27-5)
FRIDAY
At Penn State
1 p.m. — Texas (20-6) vs. Creighton (31-2), Marquette (25-8) vs. Penn State (31-2)
At Nebraska
7 p.m. — Texas A&M (21-7) vs. Wisconsin (25-6), Dayton (31-2) vs. Nebraska (31-2)
See the updated bracket at NCAA.com.
NCAA tourney Talking Heads
Every site will have a reporter for the first time. High-fives to VolleyballMag Super 16 Media Poll and All-American voter Michella Chester of NCAA.com for the new gig:
Pittsburgh Regional
Play-by-play: Anne Marie Anderson, played at Hofstra
Analyst: Nicole Branagh, beach volleyball Olympian and two-time All-American at Minnesota
Reporter: Michella Chester, NCAA.com
Louisville Regional
Play-by-play: Eric Frede
Analyst: Emily Ehman, Northwestern libero, VolleyballMag 900 Square Feet videos
Reporter: Ci Michel, 2012 England indoor volleyball Olympian, played at Miami
Penn State Regional
Play-by-play: Paul Sunderland, 1984 Olympic gold medalist and announcing legend
Analyst: Missy Whittemore, three-time All-American at Florida
Reporter: Shelby Coppedge, Texas A&M Corpus Christi libero
Nebraska Regional
Play-by-play: Courtney Lyle
Analyst: Holly McPeak, USC indoor star, three-time beach volleyball Olympian
Analyst: Katie George, setter at Louisville, 2015 ACC player of the year
Reporter: Madison Fitzpatrick, played beach at Florida State
NIVC continues Wednesday
Bowling Green is already into the NIVC semifinals and awaits the winner of Thursday’s match between UConn and St. John’s. The other two semis are Wednesday as Northern Colorado plays Arkansas State and Wyoming plays Arizona.
Indiana Wesleyan wins NAIA title
Indiana Wesleyan (37-2) made it back-to-back when the Wildcats rallied for a 25-22, 16-25, 13-25, 25-18, 16-14 victory over Bellevue (32-5) in the NAIA national-championship match Tuesday in Sioux City, Iowa.
Bellevue of Nebraska held a 13-6 fifth-set lead and then had match point at 14-8 before imploding with eight consecutive attack errors. Bellevue had six opportunities to close it out..
Eva Joldersma had 17 kills for IW to go with two aces, a block and eight digs, and Martina Demarchi had 16 kills, an assist, two aces, two blocks and 15 digs.
Eve Fountain led Bellevue with 23 kills, hitting .413, to go with 16 digs and four blocks, one solo. Lia Aiwohi had 20 digs, an assista and four aces.
AVCA’s Gordon with MasterCoaches
The MasterCoaches — Bob Bertucci, Jim Stone, Mick Haley and Tom Hilbert — visit with AVCA executive director Jaime Gordon.
Click here for the Vimeo link.
The post Volleyball Today: Coaching news; Indiana Wesleyan rallies to win NAIA title appeared first on Volleyballmag.com.
Read More Volleyballmag.com NCAA Women