Texas vs Tennessee 12-7-2023 WVB Regionals Day 1

Dear Readers~

    Welcome back! This blog will cover Day 1 of the NCAA National Championship Regional match up. This blog will be covering the game between Tennessee and Texas that took place on Thursday, December 7th at 8pm CT in Stanford, California. Coming off of the First and Second Round games, Texas beat Texas A&M in their First Round 3-1 and SMU in their Second Round 3-0 while Tennessee beat High Point 3-0 in their First Round and beat WKU also 3-0 in their Second Round. With it now being the point in the season where if you lose your season is over, let's get into this game between Texas and Tennessee that took place in California to see how that game ended.

    Let's start with the game leaders and we'll start with kills. The leader in Kills goes to Texas' Madisen Skinner with 26 while Tennessee's Morgahn Fingall was not far behind with 24. The leader in Aces goes to Texas' Madisen Skinner and Tennessee's Caroline Kerr, each with two, while Texas' Keonilei Akana and Ella Swindle as well as Tennessee's Yelianiz Torres and Erykah Lovett all had one ace each. The leader in Blocks goes to Texas' Asjia O'Neal, with 8, followed closely behind by Tennessee's Keondreya Granberry, with 7. The leader in Assists goes to Tennessee's Caroline Kerr, with 56, while Texas was led by Ella Swindle, with 40. The leader in Digs goes to Texas' Emma Halter, with 20, while Tennessee was led by Mackenzie Plante, with 15.

    Now it's time to see how each set ended. The first set ended at 25-19 in favor of Texas, which also had the biggest score gap at the end of any set during the game. The second set ended at 25-20 in favor of Tennessee. The third set ended at 25-23 in favor of Tennessee again and putting them just one set away from moving on. The fourth set ended at 26-24 in favor of Texas and causing a fifth set to happen. That fifth set ended at 16-14 in favor of Texas and giving Texas the win and ending Tennessee's 2023 season. By the end of the 5 sets, Tennesse led in Points, 83-81.5, Kills, 68-64, Aces, 5-4, Assists, 65-60, and Digs, 58-50, while Texas led in Blocks, 13-10.

Here is the Match Day post Texas put on their Instagram for the big game. Don't forget to follow them to see how the rest of their 2023 season goes and to see if they can become the 2023 NCAA National Champions: @texasvolleyball

Here is the Match Day post Tennessee put on their Instagram in honor of the big game. If you'd like to see how they are doing after this game and the rest of their off season, give them a follow over on that platform: @vol_vball

    

    A few days after this game, Texas played Stanford for their second Regional game and beat them 3-1 to move on to the NCAA Semifinals where they played a team I won't mention since they'll be in my next blog. If you're interested in the next Texas blog so stay tuned for that coming out in the near future or if you'd like to see who Texas will be playing in their next game, check out my next blog after this one. Until next time, Miller out

~J. Miller