Nebraska vs Pittsburg 12-14-2023 WVB Semifinal #1

Dear Readers~

    Welcome back! This blog will cover the first semifinal on the road to the 2023 NCAA National Championships. This game was played between Nebraska and Pittsburg in Tampa, Florida at the Amalie Arena at 6pm CT on Thursday, December 14th.  Going into the game, Nebraska was 33-1 while Pittsburg was 29-4 for the 2023 season. With Nebraska coming off of a 3-1 win against Arkansas and Pittsburg coming off of a 3-2 win against Louisville, both teams were ready since they knew that if they won this game, they'd make it to the national championship.  Now let's see which team becomes the first to make it to the National Finals.

    Starting off with the game leaders we start with Kills. The leader in Kills goes to Nebraska's Harper Murray, with 13, while Pittsburg's Olivia Babcock and Torrey Stafford were not too far behind with 12 and 10 kills respectively. The leader in Aces goes to Nebraska's Merrit Beason, with 4 and the only athlete to have multiple aces, while Nebraska's Lexi Rodriguez and Pittsburg's Olivia Babcock, Cat Flood, and Juliana Dalton all had 1 ace each. The leader in Blocks is Nebraska's Bekka Allick, with 10, while Pittsburg is led again by Olivia Babcock, with 8, followed shortly by her teammate, Emma Monks, with 7. The leader in Assists goes to Nebraska's Bergen Reilly, with 31, while Rachel Fairbanks led Pittsburg with 29. The leader in Digs goes to Nebraska's Lexi Rodriguez, with 14, followed by Pittsburg's Rachel Fairbanks, with 9, and closely followed by both Nebraska's Laney Choboy and Pittsburg's Valeria Vazquez, each with 8 digs.

    Now for the score of each set. The first set ended at 25-20 in favor of Nebraska. The second set was the closest score of any of the sets. That set ended at 25-23 in favor of Nebraska yet again and putting them only one set away from competing in the National Finals. The third set had the biggest score gap of teh whole game. That third set ended at 25-17 in favor of Nebraska and ended the game 3 sets for Nebraska while Pittsburg had none and moved Nebraska onto the National Finals only a few days later following this game. At the end of the game, Nebraska led in points, 59-47, kills, 39-36, aces, 5-3, blocks, 15-8, and assists, 38-35, while Pittsburg led in digs, 41-39.

Here is Nebraska's Gam Day post for their Semifinal appearance in Tampa. Don't forget to give them a follow over on their Instagram to see what the team is up to: @huskervb

Here is Pittsburg's Match Day post they put on their Instagram for the big game. Don't forget to give them a follow to see how their off season is going: @pitt_vb

Here is Nebraska's post-game victory post they put on their Instagram so if you'd like to see things like this go and give them a follow over on that platform.

    That concludes the first Semifinal game. If you'd like to see who Nebraska will be playing in the finals, stay tuned for the next blog as I cover the second Semifinal game. Until next time, Miller out

~J. Miller