Sports by Miller

  Dear Readers~     Welcome back to the final blog of the 2023 NCAA Women's Volleyball season as it's now time to cover the National Championship game. This game took place on December 17th at 2pm CT in Tampa, Florida's Amalie Arena. Going into the game, Texas had a season record of 27-4 while Nebraska's record was 33-1, with its only loss coming from Wisconsin. Will Nebraska end the season at 34-1 or will Texas hand Nebraska their second loss of the season? Let's find out what happened.     Let's cover the game leaders so let's start with Kills. The leader in Kills goes to Texas' Madisen Skinner, with 16, followed by her teammate, Jenna Wenaas, with 9. Nebraska was led by Harper Murray, with 7, and Andi Jackson, with 4. The leader in Aces goes to Texas' Asjia O'Neal, with 5, while her teammates Ella Swindle, Keonilei Akana, and Madisen Skinner, all had 2 aces each. Harper Murray had 2 aces for Nebraska as well as the only athlete on her team to ...

  Dear Readers~     Welcome back! It's time to cover the second semifinal game and this time it's Texas taking on Wisconsin. This game took place on December 14th at 8:30pm CT in Tampa, Florida at the Amalie Arena. Going into the game, Texas was 26-4 after beating Stanford to make it into the semifinals while Wisconsin was sitting at 30-3 after their win against Oregon. Now let's see which team makes it to the National Finals.     Starting off with the game leaders, we have the Kills. The leader in Kills goes to Texas' Madisen Skinner, with 18, While Wisconsin's Sarah Franklin and Anna Smrek led their team with 13. For Aces, Wisconsin's Izzy Ashburn, Joslyn Boyer, and Caroline Crawford all had 1 ace each. As for Texas, they were led by Madisen Skinner, with 6, followed by Asjia O'Neal and Emma Halter, each with 2. The leader in Blocks goes to Wisconsin's Caroline Crawford, with 7, while both Texas' Asjia O'Neal and Wisconsin's Devyn Robinson ...

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 hav...

 Dear Readers~     Welcome back! This blog will cover Day 2 of the 2023 NCAA Regional game between Wisconsin and Oregon. Just to make it to this game, Wisconsin played Penn State and won 3-1 while Oregon played Purdue and won 3-0 for the Day 1 games. This Day 2 game took place on Saturday, December 9th at 7pm CT in Madison, Wisconsin. Now let's get into this game to see who will win and move on to the National Semifinals.     As for the game leaders, we'll start with kills. The leader in Kills goes to Wisconsin's Sarah Franklin and Oregon's Mimi Colyer, each with 20, while second highest was Wisconsin's Temi Thomas-Ailara and Oregon's Morgan Lewis, each with 11. The next highest was Wisconsin's Anna Smrek, with 10, while Oregon's Hannah Pukis had the next highest with 9. The leader in Aces goes to Oregon's Elise Ferreira and Daley McClellan, each with 2, while Oregon's Hannah Pukis along with Wisconsin's Izzy Ashburn, MJ Hammill, and Sarah Fr...

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 Texa...

 Dear Readers~     It's time for Round 2 of the 2023 NCAA Women's Indoor Volleyball National Championships. Round 2 will cover the game between Creighton and Minnesota. This game took place in Omaha, Nebraska at the D.J. Sokol Arena at 6:30pm Central Time on Saturday, December 2nd. Going into the game, Creighton was sitting at 28-4 after just beating Colgate in a 3-0 sweep in Round 1. For Minnesota, they went into the game 16-12 after beating Utah State in a 3-0 sweep for their Round 1. Now let's see how the two teams played in their Round 2 game.     The game leader in Kills goes to Creighton's Norah Sis, with 16, followed shortly by Ava Martin, with 15, and Ellie Bichelmeyer, with 12. Minnesota's leaders were Taylor Landfair, with 12, McKenna Wucherer, with 11, and Melani Shaffmaster, with 5. the leader in Aces goes to Creighton's Kiara Reinhardt with 2, while her teammates Ava Martin and Sydney Breissinger, along with Minnesota's Kylie Murr, Elise McGhie,...

 Dear Readers~     The regular season is now over so it's time to see who can make it all the way to the finals and be named the national champions. For Round 1 the game being covered will be Penn State taking on Yale in Lawrence, Kansas at the Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena. At the end of the regular season, Penn State was 21-8 along with a 6-game win streak, with 4 of those being a 3-0 sweep, while Yale was 21-3 with a 17-game win streak and their last loss being on September 15th after they got swept by Northwestern. With 64 teams competing in Round 1 let's get started to see who can make it to Round 2.     Starting off with Kills for the game leaders we have Penn State's Jess Mruzik, with 19, while Yale was led by Audrey Leak, with 15. The leader in Aces goes to Purdue's Mac Podraza, with 3, while Yale's Cara Shultz and Mila Yarich, as well as Penn State's Allie Holland, all had 2 aces each. The leader in Blocks goes to Penn State's Zoe Weatherington an...