Florida vs. Stanford: 2017 NCAA women's volleyball semifinals | FULL REPLAY

here you are an opportunity at your fingertips your pulses racing that feeling in your gut heartbeat so loud it silences the noise but your game speaks for itself nobody can hold you down you were made for this moment i was paid for this once again live from a sold out sprint center for our second semi-final we're going to find out who is going to play the fifth seeded nebraska corn huskers who just concluded a comeback in the fourth set three deuce sets nebraska wins it in the fifth set 15-11 ousting the number one seeded penn state nittany lions and it was a defensive and offensive battle for hours and hours lauren stiffens with a stuffed block and there was drama throughout there is match point the woman who leads the way kelly hunter the all-american setter and captain ended it and nebraska has moved on who will they play will it be stanford for the florida gators back with coach kiri on paul sunderland holly rowe to join us in just a moment taking a breath we took some fluids we're all ready to go for yet another semi-final so let's talk about the defending champions first they win it last year led by inky ajaniku and four freshmen now they're a year older apparently they're also a year better i think they are they've lost inky for sure but a lot has picked up some and they're three first-team all-americans jenna gray their setter catherine plummer their outside hitter and morgan hence their their libero have done a fantastic job in fact stanford has a record five all-americans this season morgan hence is the human highlight package and look at how stanford gives her a complete half of the court to cover and then plummer with an amazing variety of shots when she's hitting off of jenna gray those three have really been the bedrock of the success for stanford this year and catherine plummer was announced as the espnw national player of the year earlier today now let's talk about the florida gators they only have one loss all season long that was at home to kentucky this is a really good volleyball team back in the semifinals for the first time since 2003. rahmat al-assad gets most of the headlines but there's somebody else who has really driven their run into this semi-final china joseph only played two plays one two two serves in the last ncaa tournament this year she's hitting close to 400 and leading her team she's made monkey so much adversity and fought through so much lots of other people might have transferred she's stuck with it and now she's guiding them and a real force on offense for them at opposite crowds settling back in here in kansas city moments away from first serve let's take a look at some of our key players junior setter from stanford and this is my squad jenna gray the queen of dake memes innet setter alexei hitter katherine plummer aka plum dog millionaire megan mcclure one smart cookie at outside hitter tammy latte steph curry's biggest bandwagoner at middle blocker adriana fitz morris middle blocker and a final four hometown hero team grandma maretta lutz at opposite diaz kate formico cousin of carrie walsh jennings cindy wilson defensive specialist from the sixth and morgan hence our kentucky bucky as libero i'm chanelle hargraves i'm a ds for the gators and here's my team are libero number six caroline ck killa canoe outside hitter carly hey young carly young carly snyder our setter ali monzu ray middle blocker number one vermont montezi girl alhassan middle blocker coming in at seven foot two rachel cramer outside hitter paige bringing the hammer hammonds outside theater morgan greer aka porky outside hitter mia m.i.a sokolowski lineups are set let's send it over to the sideline at holly rowe well for stanford volleyball there are two teammates jenna gray and audriana fitzmaurice who have been lifelong friends and teammates when they were little girls they started out playing club together they're from lenexa kansas just about 20 minutes away from here they played club volleyball high school volleyball but it was really in the 2010 national championship right here in kansas city that the seed was sown that they one day wanted to get back here and become national champions they set that goal then and here they are now representing stanford thank you holly and we're underway who will play nebraska china joseph with the first swing and registers the kill florida will be the home team on the scoreboard as the higher seed they were seated second the stanford cardinal third 11th mating all time between florida and stanford stanford leads the series 6-4 and are a perfect 3-0 in the ncaa tournament and the first serve and that's going to be something to follow that ball missed out of bounds that time by carly snyder who has 53 aces on the year and serving was a huge story in our first semifinal and it was a huge story for florida in that comeback victory against usc in the regional final down match point just like nebraska was down match point in that first semifinal and a year ago to penn state but won both matches rachel kramer wearing number five in white six foot eight sophomore out of phoenix arizona hitting 429 on the year with a quick kill out of the middle here is carolyn knope playing with that heavily bandaged right hand more on that in just a minute first swing dug nicely by snyder the first swing coming from plummer and so golowski number nine and white nicely off the block and out of bounds carolyn knope broke her right hand against arkansas november 10th and has just now lately been cleared to practice basically wearing a boxing glove in practice and she was very honest with us she said look it affects how efficient i am as a receiver first look at more enhanced easy dig don't try tipping on morgan hence she's gonna gobble those up left hand and a nice kill by jenna gray the 6-1 sophomore as you saw the setter of the year in the pac-12 conference and also named yesterday a first-team all-american here is gray 44 aces on the year nine of those coming so far in the tournament and just as i say that drifts out of bounds let's tell you how these two teams got here florida beat alabama state 3-0 beat miami 3-1 ucla 3-1 usc 3-2 they're working their way up the pecking order of the pac-12 conference are the gators and if they win this one they could say they won two conferences but the co-champions of the sec with kentucky and then defeating those very strong teams from the pac-12 nice dig by canoe but florida unable to get a swing out of it shot by plumber up into the block restart the point pareto locks down the line and off the block of number nine sokolowski and number 17. redshirt senior six foot eight maretta lutz with the kill originally from houston texas paul you call this such a smart shot by plumber you see almost nobody in college volleyball or even internationally do that tap it into the block get it back and reset the offense hence with the dig plumber with the chase over into the sideline long time assistant coach denise corlett and kevin hambly says to the franchise are you okay and she pops right back up yeah you got to be careful because those chairs are not going to give it all and you're going to lose that battle with the chairs nice hustle by plumber but she needs to save it for another point well there's the national player of the year showing you what kind of teammate she has given at her all right at the beginning of the second semi-final meghan mathur this is a young stanford team four sophomores mcclure a freshman tammy elatti who's been really efficient on the year misses that out of bounds a lot a 6-2 junior out of alberta canada the number one efficiency attacker in the pac-12 conference this year at 4 27. oh that is such a good swing when we were spoken speaking with first year head coach kevin handler for stanford and we talked about mcclure he said look when she came up to the farm she was still a high school player she's not anymore and she was absolutely superb particularly last week at stanford in the three sets to none victory over texas they need her to play with great ball control she does that and that's going to be a story that will follow you just saw that set to vermont all hassan about a foot too low so she doesn't get anywhere close to full extension with her elbow but anyway mcclure playing such a nice role for stanford as a stabilizer and they're very selective with when they give her offensive swings but she passes well defends well serves well and this two-setter system for mary weiss in florida cheyenne husky on the floor now to back set lux who did not get good contact on that and missed it over the end line john dunning retired last year after winning yet another national championship the seventh all time for stanford so instep's kevin hamley in his first year after eight seasons at illinois he's been to the national championship match once before at illinois in 2011. snyder and out of bounds loretta lutz at six foot eight it was interesting the team was having a little uh fun introducing key players rachel kramer was introduced as being seven too she's she's not she's not but kramer kramer and loretta lutz are seeing eye to eye and stanford's team having some fun with it they want loretta to be the last big standing in this tournament really good block on the outside megan mcclure only six feet skying to stuff the 6'8 kramer yeah if kramer can get set a little higher and not so close to the net where it brings the block into place she should be able to go over and take the course block out of the picture plumber out of the back row rips into the cross court and registers the kill and stanford a nice response a little mini run as the cardinal take the 8-7 lead best three out of five sets first four sets to 25 points last year the national freshman of the year shank pass there free ball coming to stanford to extend their lead oh nice rip down the line by carly snyder 6-1 senior out of macomb michigan and mary weiss the co-coach of the year in the sec and announced earlier today the avca american volleyball coaches association national coach of the year and her 27th season in gainesville coming back for the first time since 2003 a rare shank pass of miscommunication there between morgan hence the libero and megan mcclure for stanford we'll keep an eye on this but the team over the course of the season has been letting hints play more and more both on sir reception and on defense and sometimes people are just going to bail out thinking she's got everything fitzmorris number 12 with a hitting error for stanford stanford on the year hits 322 holds opponents to 178 florida comes in with a season average of a 286 efficiency working on mcclure and plumber misses that ball out of bed so several hitting errors right now for the stanford cardinal and give ellie montserry the server number 22 for florida credit she's giving a lot of trouble she aced hints and then that last touch caused trouble also and there's a better touch by hence back to fitz morris and boy the stanford cardinal we saw moreto let's not get good contact and now fitz morris has missed a couple out of bounds and we've got an early timeout called by stanford just underway here in this second semi-final scoring run for the florida gators the co-champions of the scc yeah they're shaking it up early and leading the stanford cardinal here in kansas city scenes from last year in columbus ohio when the stanford cardinal won their program's seventh national championship three sets to one over texas and speaking of that the stanford cardinal beat the texas longhorns a very good volleyball team in the sixth overall seed three sets to none to advance to this semifinal mcclure good swing again in the deep cross court corner wow gps on that and we saw her break that out last weekend in both the regional semi against wisconsin and the and the tech in the final against texas she just finds these spots on the court that take the block out of play hitting deep corner and high off the line so far florida passing the ball pretty well nice touch by gray and shiny joseph into the cross court corner she got the opening kill of this match but it's been quiet since plumber on the outside nice dig by snyder out to plumber again one on one what a dig by canope again to plumber no to fix morris and stuff by florida well looks like florida's strategy is just be a pitch back machine dig send it over dig send it over where plumber out get her like five swings on one rally what and up by carolyn canau again remember as paul said she's playing with a big pad on her hand after breaking it and she has to use a very different grip and switch her for her forearm contact catherine plumber able to register that kill as she rattles it through the block of joseph along with kramer stanford off to a very slow start seven of 25. excuse me eight of 27 six errors hitting 0.74 i gave you their season numbers at 322. very uncharacteristic but you got to give florida a lot of credit nice pass by canope oh that is badly mishandled by stanford and the six foot eight kramer makes the stanford card no play let's take a look at tonight's planning for success brought to you by northwestern mutual well certainly for stanford key hitters for florida to defend chyna joseph and ramon alhassan who plays at an altitude unlike any other college player and then for florida they have to control the good serving of stamford and so far they've done a nice job of it and instead turn the tables chyna joseph unloads off the right side six foot chyna joseph is just a high flyer out of ottawa canada and waited a full four years for this opportunity florida's playing some very good defense right now getting some point scoring opportunities and there's joseph again let's go over to holly rowe well i think one thing we may be seeing early on is stanford is one of the tallest teams in the nation they are very unused to playing a team that's just as tall as they are this is the biggest team in florida history you can see with the six eight players but all across the board super athletic those high swings for stanford have been going out because they're trying to go over the block that time you see plummer use the block a little bit better to her advantage catherine plummer registering her third kill on 11 swings these two teams once again meeting for the fourth time in tournament history stanford a perfect three-and-oh coming in vermont hollis on three blockers up and number six tamiya latte going into the night here in kansas city to register the stuff and alade is the shortest of those three look look at that lineup at the net but really focusing on stopping ramon al-hassan she dragged the ball down right into the block is passing the ball really well and that ball missed down the line so both teams missing the court here a little bit stanford with six hitting errors and now florida much better than that but still with three and this is a match up at the net that we want to follow throughout the course of this this evening is katherine plummer stanford's best left side hitter and blocker against china joseph florida's right best right side hitter and blocker and both coaches they could just give each other their starting lineups because they both want the same matchup florida wants joseph on plummer and stanford wants plumber on joseph alhassan registering the kill 6-4 senior out of glenard and maryland the sec player of the year and a four-time all-american plumber passing the ball well good reaction by schneider that ball tipped out of the middle again al hassan going over the top touches 11-3 with her approach jump i've never heard of anybody touching that high in the women's game but you can see how many misconnects there are it is so difficult to get her at the right altitude it's like putting it up at mount everest and trying to find find her hand and so that is tough to defend jenna gray was there for stanford but didn't wasn't able to make a very good contact let's see if we can freeze this contact up near the top of the antenna the center's got to get the ball up to the penthouse you can't stop at the 30th floor that's valuable that's valuable real estate up there so golowski the unforced error here and after a very good start for florida they were on top 12-8 and still holding on to the 18-15 advantage again best three out of five sets the winner to play nebraska boy what an opening semi-final we had between two historic programs and that ball tucked down inside alhassan going behind the center it seems like stanford right now wants to go after canoque what do you think about that early serving strategy they talked about that early because they know she's playing with a pad and they're guessing she told us she didn't tell them that she has to use a different grip so far doesn't seem to be working normally she grabs her left hand with her right but now her right won't flex at all so she has to grab the right hand with the left to lock the two arms together for her uh forearm contact she was very honest when we spoke with the florida gators because she said look it has hurt my efficiency and the numbers show it and that's why stanford wanted to test it early that ball hit out of bounds and because of that fracture along the side of her pinky finger for canope they are taking x-rays at the beginning of every week to make sure she's not injuring it further they see a calcium buildup and so they're keeping her on the court with great medical care we'll step aside here in kansas city second semi-final underway the florida gators certainly needed that time out as stanford is capitalizing on some errors by the gators to get back within two and it talks a lot about vermont alhassan she's had an absolutely wonderful career and size up vermont this is this is a very very gifted athlete huge wingspan even taller than or longer than she is tall at six foot eight but that jump that she has takes her up into an altitude that just not many players can play at touching 11 foot three and able to contact the ball near the top of the antenna if they can make her reach and extend her elbow carly snyder coming out of the timeout with a very very nice side out kill second team all-american all-sec for the 6-1 senior struggled at times against usc in that five-set comeback thriller finished 11 of 60 but she was really good when the gators needed her in the fifth no it was impressive because she started very slow florida stuck with her and she came up with some key kills and an ace to get them to match point against the women of troy hargreaves on to serve oh nice dish that time jenna gray showing you why she was setter of the year in the pac-12 and a first-team all-american this ball is so close you see how she has to almost put her back to the net so that she won't touch the net of course you can't catch the net your hair can but no no no no other part of you can't that ball served just out of bounds and getting back to gray she was able to bring it off the net and give out some really nice swinging room joseph comes back on in the front court now just underway here in this best three out of five set second semi-final the winner will go on to play nebraska on saturday at 9 eastern time on espn2 fitzmorris has been slow to get engaged in this match so far a couple of hitting errors and what a stab that time by canope with the offhand right on top of the net in the slam dunk for adriana fitzmaurice well at the beginning of that play we saw some confusion catherine plummer didn't know she was going to get set out of the back row you would think that at this point of the season there would be no such confusion but we saw a critical play in the first semifinal penn state same thing happens at around 9-7 in the fifth set of the semifinals creamer is dug by hints but oh canope is really doing a good job reading plumber and then through the block and down the libro for florida right now the transfer from michigan doing an outstanding job it was interesting ramon halassan and carly snyder were traveling with a group of volleyball players in europe and canope somehow was on that team and she was thinking about transferring an ace serve here for carly snyder and carly schneider and ramon halassan went back to mary weiss and said hey we've met the young woman that our program really needs and she's now they're starting libro yeah that was their call there she's exactly what we need with the ace timeout is called by stanford florida leading 23 to 19. mentioned the carly snyder very dangerous from the line 53 aces coming in and now she's got another and mcclure just stepped out of the way of this one of the challenges for a volleyball team is if you don't face something in your own gym then you're just not that good at it and stanford doesn't have any jump spinners so their passers are going to have to make some quick adjustments holly rowe well carly snyder is one of the more unique athletes with that jump surf she has got some kind of funky elbow bend and flexibility in her shoulder unlike any other player in college volleyball they've actually taken her into a bio lab at florida and measured her arm swing she has a 73 degree bend in that elbow so she's able to reach back snap forward on that serve i call it nasty i feel like there's a better nickname we could give that but the elbow degree is unlike any we see anywhere else nasty's fine her opponents would say it's pretty darn nasty no question about that puts a lot of pressure on and she like ramon alassane and the rest of this senior group for florida have really done a job down in gainesville it was earlier this year holly got her to break out her swahili she did a very nice job with that she said yesterday that she's starting to have people write her in swahili i'm not faced with trouble that's trouble testing her knowledge to the limit and also trouble for stanford now trailing 23-19 off the top of the tape but still lots of comfortable separation in this opening set what's been the true the struggle so far for stanford i think it's been those six hitting errors for stanford they are normally a very low error high ball control team but they flailed a few out of bounds easy serve right down the middle of the court and a nice kill by kramer out of the middle i'll tell you if they're going to serve canope like that stanford is going to have to change their tactic she has been up to the challenge so far yep they wanted to test her to me it's not working i think they're going to have to go to a different area and they're just going to have to we saw nebraska do this part way through the first set coach cook said serve tougher they follow okay 25 18. stanford needs to drive the ball harder what a match that was in our first semi-final three deuce sets catherine plummer able to rattle through for another kill but getting back to that first semi-final nebraska trailed two sets to one penn state had a match point there was a collision their setter was knocked to the floor and uh nebraska survived 28-26 and then one in the fifth 15-11. with this set point china joseph is the go-to player that florida's been using a lot but no to rahman al-hassan good touch by alade and then plummer is going through the block of florida as opposed to around catherine plummer now with five kills already taken 16 swings in this opening set in a timeout is called by mary weiss and florida looked very comfortable moments ago but now it's 24-22 this is the match-up we talked about she's going right at the probably the best block florida can muster and that is ramada hassan from the nation the nation's leading blocker and along with chyna joseph a very good right side blocker and the plumber just blasting it through that's a risky strategy though you don't want to hit the middle of the meat of that block with all hassan up there you don't want to mess with vermont abc has a bowl game double header on saturday beginning at noon with a celebration bowl between grambling and north carolina a t and then at 3 30 it's the las vegas bowl between boise state and the oregon ducks both are streaming live on the espn app back with three-time olympic champion and usa national team head coach karch kurai along with hollywood on the sideline paul sunderland florida has used 14 of their allowable 15 subs so could be a factor again also three challenges available to each team ball in and out ball off a player was talking earlier this year paul sorry about how when he knew how good this team was and he said you know usually the dicey moments are the first match of the season and the first match of the tournament and they're just so calm and poised i wonder if they're almost a little too calm in this match just taking it for granted that they're going to to play their normal game and that normal game is a really good one but they seem a little flat to me here is gray stanford's best server and they need her now trailing and facing another set point that one pretty easy joseph nice bump set right on target and the high flying china joseph rips that ball off the stanford block and it was a quick early lead 12 to eight in china joseph rahmat al-assad and carly snyder led the florida gators to a first set win over the stanford cardinal 25-23 gators looking to force a fifth set here reason to celebrate reason to be ecstatic guards five sets against the red-hot sc team and mary weiss's gators just were not going to be denied they trailed 21-18 in the fourth came back to win that and then 24-23 yep and then they trailed 9-5 in the fifth and came all the way back a heartbreaking loss for the usc trojans yeah usc actually had a dig had they converted it would have been 10-5 mishandled ball once again the florida gators working their way through the best teams in the pac-12 conference beat ucla in the regional semifinals and then beat the usc trojans that you just saw and now taking on the stanford cardinal a team that was 19-1 in conference adjustments for stanford well they haven't changed the matchups at all they're still going to try and get catherine plummer up to the net very quickly so that they can defend china joseph better but they're going to have to take care of take care of the ball more they were careless they hit out clean out of bounds or in the net five times that first set that was a fifth of florida's points and they're not controlling the serve of florida as they did for example against texas in the regional final last saturday night mentioned that stanford was 19-1 in conference their only loss was in seattle to the university of washington nice swing that time off the inside hand of adriana fitzmorris and another kill for carly snyder the stanford cardinal 30-3 on the year florida 29-1. and fitz morris is really struggling adriana fitzmaurice is one of 10 now with four errors down to holly rowe well stanford coach kevin hambly during sets just told his team look we're under attack here and we're not attacking back we're not being aggressive we're not getting the block over and they're coming after us and you can see that this florida team smells blood in the water and stanford is not reacting according to their coach he wants to see a more aggressive response from this stanford team kevin hamley once again in his first year taking over for hall of famer john dunning plummer turning the ball back down the line right on the sideline for number two the six foot six sophomore plumber now with five kills on 16 swings beginning of the year kevin hambly wanted to try to reduce the workload for catherine plummer they were getting her 10 sets 10 opportunities per set well now it's even more than that in the tournament good luck with that good luck with that but you know what they're in the national semifinal and she only has to play at most two more matches and unlikely probably start up each tournament a day later like she did last year playing in a world championship beach uh world beach championship qualifier just a day and a half after the ncaa finals and people are wondering now you're exaggerating that's absolutely the case finish that thought in a moment nicely defended by florida that shot was going down against texas last week and stuffed by rahmat al-assad al-hassan taking a little bit of a guess here figuring i'm just going to jump and commit myself to stopping the cameolate and nowhere for aladdin to go when all hassan get her gets her hands that far across the net statistically number one the senior out of maryland the top blocker in the country just about 1.8 stuffs per set a lot of teams don't average much over two and she averages 1.8 here is gray and that ball drifts along stanford only hitting 157 so far in the match and now have eight hitting errors and remember florida runs that unique offense i guess you could call it a five two they actually have two setters they use allie monserrate in the backcourt and of course cheyenne husky touching the ball right there who plays in the front four because she's a better blocker and helped get that first blocking touch and point and opportunity for a transition point nice kill on the outside by number nine mia sokolowski 6-4 redshirt freshman out of tucson arizona and tamiya lotto the double quick frees up alate behind jenna gray that ball missed out of bounds but a touch in the backcourt so point possession back to al hassan in florida boy carly snyder and the rest of the receivers doing a really good job right now for florida yeah we call that diming a server just putting it right on the dime right where her setter wants to stand in the middle of the court a couple of feet off the net and that's a dime by katherine plummer returning to favor and mcclure threw a seam in the block there's been inflation though through several years it's going to have to be cryptocurrency okay i mean a perfect passage is now worth a bitcoin bitcoin exactly here's morgan hence who hasn't really put her imprint on this match so far now she's been outplayed defensively by canop who's made some wonderful touches against plummer right side to mouretta likes able to put that ball away and trying to generate some energy i think you've hit upon something karge i mean stanford came in i mean maybe a slight favorite in this match in spite of the fact that florida was the higher seed but florida coming out excuse me stanford coming out maybe a little bit flat tough short serve yeah that's going to be a net violation against mouretta lutz not an accurate set that time by morgan hence who was libero of the year in the pac-12 that's the best serve i've seen her hit this uh these last few matches are in the tournament i have of course i haven't seen all of them earlier in the season she was hitting a jump float now she's standing on the ground it's a little safer serve but if it crosses the net pretty flat it's tough that one had a little more loot to it tough swing for mcclure easily handered but handled by snyder but not very accurately might want to have that one back plummer out of the back row nice choice by jenna gray you know just an interesting aside this building was just rocking during that first semi-final and why not there were 4 000 husker fans maybe more and they'll be back for the championship on saturday but pretty neutral crowd right now and it's a little bit quiet you're gonna have to generate your own energy tough serve and that's gonna be a net violation called against fitz morris you're absolutely right paul so first of all stanford seeming a little flat coming out to start the match and then when it's not as loud as they perceived it to be in that first one they're going to have to bring more of their own energy and kevin hemley is going to use he's talking to fitz morris and adriana coach no put put it away put it away i netted at first she was saying no no no i didn't that she was trying to talk the referee into it but then when it came to using one of your three precious challenges you don't want to waste it wow that ball should not go down you saw the joust coming jenna gray on top of the net against six foot eight rachel cramer and that ball fell on the floor to side 11 8 the gators on top just joining us for the second semi-final florida hung on to win the opening set 25-23 there's a tougher creating a little more of a chance against the florida defense but joseph mopping up and she's been doing that all season long how impressive after how little she has played her career for florida two points against alabama state last year in the first round of the ncaa she's waited her turn and you saw her and how clutch she was against usc she was one of the real leaders on this team and it is so big to have an opposite who can help you in a broken play like that and create a kill out of a trouble first and second contact head coach mary wise telling us that she might be among the most popular athletes on all of the florida campus cramer missed it out of bounds kate formico tried to get a hand on that and that ball ruled out of bounds but a touch was detected as we thought on formico as it went by so kramer registers the kill and canoe back at the line that's a challenge also not only do you have to form a new grip with your hand that you normally grip the other hand with but now you have to contact the ball and get it to go where you want to with all this stuff in your way on your serving hand really impressive how she's adjusted so look at that november injury it's gonna take six to eight weeks to heal once the season is over into the deep service corner and able to register the kill and even that was not a particularly clean contact but she's hitting it so high and when you fluff it around it's really hard to put yourself in the right spots because she doesn't even know where it's going here's allie gregory on to serve the double quick and hit high flat loretta lutz signaling emphatically and will register the point and the kill for stanford as catherine plummer goes back to serve once again these two teams meeting for the fourth time in the ncaa tournament stanford a perfect 3-0 sokolowski she's missed a couple into the top of the tape and now it's 14-12. wow those are a couple of rockets plumbers sent over handled nicely that time by schneider and on the slide ramon able to register the kill we've come to the media timeout second set here florida up one set to none they won the first 25-20 in the florida gators yep showing all the moves and getting all the right results shiny joseph just like in the regional semis and finals shine and joseph karczyk up to a really good start five of ten and a 36 inch vertical jump and then some yeah she's got the record for tonight we have several players wearing the vert device which measures your jump and the height of each one of them also counts so right now 36.2 inches and counting just a cool little us mailbox do you really want to jump over a bear i do not want to go anywhere near it's like the old story of do you have to be faster than a bear no you just have to be faster than the other somebody else exactly and don't want to be there with morgan henson she's gonna not be eaten right side to lutz again and she's gotten a couple of touches off the top of this very tall florida block let's go down to holly rowe well it's really special to see shaina joseph shining on this stage keep in mind last year she wasn't good enough to be in the ncaa tournament she played just two points for the gators and now here she is leading her team in this moment for four and a half years she has waited her turn and now it is her chance to shine and she's rising to the occasion quite literally with that vertical jump good high flat shot by megan mcclure and here comes the stanford cardinal there you see the timeline and you know one of the things that we talked about with the other florida players and whatnot wouldn't you have transferred wouldn't you but what an incredible team player and it is it has worked out very nicely for mary wise in the florida gators it's more still trying to look get untracked and then through the block and down for carly schneider adriana fitzmaurice is only one for 11 so far in this match and she is one of the key components hitting 386 so far on the year and the local product from overland park kansas and the high school teammate of jenna gray needs to get involved here for stanford stanford's less than 10 points away from falling down 2-0 against this florida team getting still really careless with the ball off the edge of the block and down cheyenne husky the 6-2 sophomore one of the two setters deployed by the florida gators in this 5-2 system husky's got a bright future they just they the coaching staff for florida just didn't think she was quite ready to handle setting in all six rotations here is formico overpass fitz morris you never know it's like a shooter in basketball you miss your first 10. you get a layup see the ball go down now if you're fitzmorris and maybe starting to find a little rhythm and get started we'll step aside after it was florida early leading 10-6 and 15-12 as we go to break adriana fitz-morris and stanford are tied at 16 apiece the ncaa women's volleyball championship coverage continues with a title match coming up saturday december 16th at 9 00 p.m eastern on espn2 for more information on the ncaa women's volleyball championship visit ncaa.com your home for all 90 ncaa championships here is the bracket once again and we certainly hope you were with us earlier this evening here in kansas city for nebraska's comeback win over the top seeded penn state nittany lions they're in the championship match for the eighth time against either stanford or florida coming out of the timeout tied at 16. another overpass and tipped over the top of the block and out of bounds by husky bad break for husky that would have hit the floor nobody nobody for stanford was there but she put it out of bounds and florida makes the change a little early in their normal substitution pattern for their setters monserrate comes in ali monterrey wearing number 22. good pass on target in system mcclure not able to put the ball away but another overpass and monster ray does she win the joust she does but she committed a net violation and i think husky would have had a better chance at that with a lot more height five extra inches on her frame again one on one dug by canoe that's like pitcher and catcher schneider threw the block and down stanford's lead is 18-7 i'm not sure they let it all unless it was very very early in the opening set which florida won 25-23 down to holly well guys stanford was trailing by four the score was 14 to 10 when they had a very important huddle jenna gray their team leader got in the face of everybody very emphatically kind of urging our team look we've got to fight for this do you want it asking her teammates if they had the fight within her and then kevin hambly came in at the end and said look they're not just going to give it to us are you going to fight for this trying to get that spirit alive in his team and it has worked since then now they've gone ahead to tie this game jenna gray was a successful tip but was in the net well doing it so we're tied at 18. there is shiny joseph a really smart swing change in trajectory off the top of the block now look like she used a fist on that one aim for the corner and use the fingers there's another look yep opened it up a little there that was nice trajectory by number 15 in white in timeout called by kevin hambly of stanford espn has a triple header of bulls on saturday at 1 pm eastern it'll be troy versus north texas in the r and l carriers new orleans bowl then at 4 30. marshall versus colorado state at the gildan new mexico bowl and at 8 pm raytown media camellia bowl middle tennessee taking on arkansas college football bulls all day on saturday on espn and then you can tune in at 9 eastern time karch kurai holly rowe i'll be on hand with the rest of our espn crew for the championship match nebraska savoring their seventh straight win over penn state that is a remarkable run against one of the most successful programs in the history of college volleyball they were co-champions of the big ten conference but nebraska was the only team this year obviously based on the streak that i mentioned went in to university park beat penn state three sets to none and were able to come back from two sets to one down there is john cook tyler hildebrand to his left part of the reinvention of nebraska yep and just like last year nebraska fended off a match point last year it was in the third set this year it was in the fourth set at 24-23 a collision allowed the ball to just fall untouched on the penn state side of the net so coming out of the timeout monserrate the 5'9 richard jr out of windermere florida will go back to serve oh morgan hence with a shank pass wow that is a rare occurrence to see hence one of the top players at her position if not the very best with a shank pass out of bounds oh some hesitation look at that that's the trouble that when hence will cover a huge area for them others think that she'll jump in and jenna gray let that ball go to hansen it falls look at this 21 to 18 advantage a five make it a six nothing run catherine plummer with the unforced air and kevin hambly is gonna have to burn another timeout with florida looking to take a commanding two sets to none lead 22 to 18. give ali montserray a lot of credit that ball hit right into the net very unusual for stanford to make this many hitting errors but it starts with the tough serving of people like ali monserrate their backcourt setter and carly snyder has given them trouble with her jump spin serve stanford which hits over 300 as a matter of fact 322 efficiency on the year being held to 230 27 kills 10 errors and the other thing is we we talked about a little in this first match it's called good pass percentage what percentage of the time do you have a nice first contact off the other team's serve where your setter doesn't have to run around a lot run your offense florida at a phenomenal 65 really handling the stanford serves easily stanford only at 59 percent below their normal for the season serving played a huge role in the success of nebraska in the first match and the florida gators when you look at their serving story four errors okay fine but five aces and here's carly snyder so they've got a nice mix of jump spin and then monster a causing lots of problems with that ball that drifts toward the sideline to our left on that one to her right florida out playing the stanford cardinal right now and those serving in passing numbers and stamford switches their formation they expose now catherine plummer down the line she doesn't get a great touch either off speed yeah that's a good call by the second referee that ball somehow found its way to the floor that was very fortunate for megan mcclure in the stanford cardinal trailing by three and it's fortunate for stanford to get plummer up at the net at a critical time down by three late in this second set that's a nice serve by mcclure oh that's going to be a double contact by rule first contact just about anything goes but after that the ball's got to be handled cleanly even though that contact from snyder and then kramer looked the same by rule treated differently and another nice serve yeah serving the ball very well high up into the block and plumber cannot track it down and look who comes to the line next carly snyder two points away from a possible 2-0 lead oh she went really easy on that one outside the plumber who misses it over the top seen a lot of hitting errors from the stanford cardinal oh they called a micro touch i don't know about that yeah the i i think this ball is straight out of bounds and mary wise is going to use one of her challenges that's a great view i don't think i don't i don't see anything there i don't see anything there and if there were a touch it would have changed you see how there's a little backspin on that ball if it had touched a finger it probably would have stopped that backspin backspin or turned it into a forward spin and again it has to be clear and conclusive to overrule the car call on the floor the call on the floor was touch and that's pretty clear and pretty conclusive to me that ball is over the block and straight out of bounds in my opinion yeah that's a great view that net cam beautiful view there i don't see how that was a touch no touch and the call was overturned good use of the challenge and now that takes florida to set point remember just moments ago that stanford had a little bit of a lead boy stanford is really bleeding points in this rotation plummer going off speed one point save sydney wilson out of toronto canada on to serve and play defense sokolowski off the block and out of bounds wow bang bang play and look at this the florida gators mary wise along the sideline with a fist pump and why not florida doesn't want anything to do with going to the locker room and stanford certainly wants to go in and regroup no question about it florida won the opening set 25-23 and came back from four down to take the second 26-24 and kevin hambly is going to have to do some rethinking let's go to holly rowe well coach none of your players have been in this situation before here at the women's final four for volleyball and yet they're playing loose i see them smiling at you on the bench what is allowing them to be so free right now uh you know i think taking uh the lead from china joseph that's sort of like her her go-to but we totally enjoy it and thrive in this moment that that is who this group is and we understand you know there's a whole lot of volleyball still up to play but from this point it's it's been surprisingly other than a couple shots that fell and credit they're really really good shots by stanford but we've been playing some very tenacious backcourt defense you have and also carly snyder from the service line i feel like she's been a point getter for you what do you think in that rotation yeah we need her because we don't she is our best point scorer behind the the service line and her ability makes up speeds and locations each time she goes back we feel like we've got a chance to score all right well up 2-0 on stanford just like you thought right maybe honesty is always the best policy but the scoreboard doesn't lie the gators the number two seeds overall in the tournament back in the national semis for the first time since 2003 leaked stanford two sets to now cool job particularly in terms of serve receive winning the first two sets 25 22 and 25 21 espn is a triple header of bulls on saturday one eastern time troy versus north texas and then marshall versus colorado state at the new mexico bowl and then middle tennessee versus arkansas at the raycon media community college football bowls all day saturday on espn we're at the intermission between the second and third setting mary wise in her 27th year at florida is looking to become the first woman to win an ncaa volleyball championship as a head coach we talk to her players and ask them what makes her so special mary wise has been doing this for a long time now i think 27 years it is and she is kind of the pinnacle when it comes to female coaches in the game but to win a national championship i think would take what she has done for the game of volleyball and for women in the game of volleyball to the next level i guess i do sometimes forget that she is the winningest female head coach because she really does care about us as people and wants us to feel like we're growing over our careers in a volleyball way as well but as a person even more importantly so i do feel so excited to play for someone who genuinely values the type of person that you are when you leave her program i think in coaching it's easy to get caught up in the numbers the win loss percentage but if that's all you think about then you lose the opportunity to understand what's the most important thing is the relationships as soon as i met mary wise um i i fell in love with her she was just somebody that was so um that i look up to and that i wanted to be you know i wanted to be a better volleyball player for her and i wanted to be a better female for her and she really influences a lot of people in her life and in their careers the relationships that are built through the recruiting and the four years they play but even better is the relationships that you can keep long after they're done to be a part of their world when they are entering into their careers be it playing professionally or working on wall street or raising children that really is the best part of this job she is not just a coach for us she truly is a mentor she cares about the well-being about creating strong independent women who are going to be successful after their four years at florida and i think that that is kind of a testament to who she is as a person and her character mary wise could be the first female coach to win a national championship i wouldn't want to miss that opportunity and miss that experience and to be there when you know she wins that national championship title well it has been quite a run for mary wise again in her 27th year the only woman to win a match as a head coach in the ncaa tournament advancing to the championship match in 2003 and has just had a magnificent career and is now up two sets to none one more set win and she'll be right back where she was back in 2003 we'll be back with more from kansas city right after this florida florida on top of stanford two sets to none stanford cardinal have not faced a deficit like this since the regional finals last year at wisconsin when they came back to win and eventually go on and win the national championship back with karch kiray and paul sunderland what's the problem with stanford they are not the efficient smooth machine that they have been so far this season to me it looked like they almost made a conscious effort to come out so relaxed that they ended up really flat and they're not serving florida out of system florida is far outpassing their normal seasonal levels and and uh and so and they're getting aced by the florida serves on the other side so carly schneider has been giving florida trouble their other really effective server is their back court setter ali montserrae who aced morgan hence on that play and then also catherine plummer and the other stanford hitters have been uncharacteristically error-prone launching balls out of bounds getting blocked adriana fitzmaurice has hit some out of bounds they're normally very efficient low error high kill or at least keeping the ball in play but not so far are they capable of coming back absolutely they did it in a much tougher environment last year a different stanford team yes but this is the pac-12 champion well that's certainly capable of coming back and in spite of the fact that they're the defending champions cards let's remember that they are by far the youngest team maybe even in the entire tournament with four sophomores and a freshman in the starting lineup and fitz morris comes right out and registers the kill and that's a very good sign for stanford again the champions of the pac 12 19 and 1 30 and three on the year and maybe last year they were so young they just had no clue as to where they were what they were doing and inky led them all through their inky ajanaku and talked to him in that comeback in the locker room at down 02 in wisconsin and now they're a little more cognizant of the the ramifications and what's at stake here stop thinking yeah exactly thinking we can wait you know stanford they do a lot of thinking there so they can maybe do too much what are they saying golf if you're thinking you're stinking carly schneider showing you the heater and then drop this one right off the end of the table yep she lets off the the motion looks the same but she causes a crash between passers and that goes over so that is oh boy well an absolute gift from sokolowski after carly schneider had certainly done her job and you can see carolyn cannot telling her you know what you go hit i'm i'll take that one but the ball just goes right back over after essentially an ace by carly snyder great serve off the top of the tape kept alive by canoe plumber off the inside edge of kramer and catherine plummer the player of the year as uh recognized today by espnw been a first-team all-american her first two years and you were joking about what she went through last year get back to that in a moment just underway here in the third well another collision we've seen setters going down in a heap going to take another swing dug by monserrate down the line out of the back row here's schneider and plumber able to get that ball through after the national championship last year in columbus ohio stanford flies home catherine plummer then had to go to san diego to play in an under 21 world beach volleyball championship qualifier she wins the qualifier goes on and wins the title so had no time to celebrate last year as that ball is served out of bounds the serving story so far that is the fifth error for stanford against no aces and the gators four airs six aces let's go to holly rowe and you talk about no time to celebrate well kathleen plummer played a day and a half later in that world beach qualifier but then she went right into beach volleyball they started practice just after in january just a few weeks after winning the national championship in indoor so her beach team played she was partners with jenna gray they played all the way through june then in july she had to start that world beach championship run and that ended up in cyprus later that summer she had about two weeks off and then reported back to school so from indoor outdoor beach she's done it all she's young no problem chyna joseph ripping that ball off of alate but remember it was last year catherine plummer was playing opposite she was a setter and an opposite coming up and that's how she was recruited to stanford middle of the season they're really struggling and in the middle of a match they decided to go from a 6-2 offense to a one-setter offense with jenna gray and they just said look we're short we're down two outside hitters katherine plummer you're gonna start playing on the left side like okay her beach background really prepared for her for that because you have to play a very all-around game and of course the the other part of that story is she's the only person ever to meddle in international competition five competition both beach and indoors at the world class level double click run by stanford in the off speed shot over the top cardinal lost the opening set 25-23 lost a second 25-21 and again have never been down or have not been down two sets to none that ball rifled way out of bounds by plumbers since they were in this same situation a little more than a year ago at wisconsin they were down two sets to none came back and finally advanced into the national semis with a 15-9 win over wisconsin carly schneider first of all with a good block and then shredding the stanford block right now just like that florida back on top nice save by morgan hence on what we call hitter coverage when your iron hitter is attacking and the block brings it back florida trying to track that down and give the kill once again to megan mcclure who's having a really good offensive night cards that's seven kills on 13 swings and she was equally good last week particularly against texas six of 17 maybe not those big kind of but no errors she does not make mistakes as an attacker and cross body number 17 in black morgan and excuse well you can definitely call see a greater level of urgency on the stanford side i see a lot more contact i see tighter huddles it just seemed to be really sloppy and loose those first two sets oh that is such a tough swing by carly snyder again wow we saw simone lee take swings like that in the first match for penn state but watch her get her feet there to that inside set hit it just around once again the hottest hitter on the floor i don't think we'd ever think of saying this is megan mcclure with her eighth kill on 14 swings no errors yeah florida is leaving number 22 ali montserrae normally they're backward setter at the net more so that's a better matchup for mcclure overpass fits morris and florida once again runs out of real estate here in kc you pointed out the key statistic you have the numbers for florida's passers on the year all of them were way above their season average and they're still passing it 56 percent perfect there's another perfect nice play by canal schneider's getting a lot of work on the outside looking for a touch mary wise is thinking of it that ball called out of bounds looking at the lions person well that was very close but again you only have three challenges and it's not like internationally if you're right you keep it nice crossbody by kramer at six foot eight good delivery by monserrate you have to be very judicious with your use of challenges and fitzmorris misses again out of bounds that's how this match started so far for number 12 in blackfitzmorris five kills five errors just looks like a little bit of a misconnection between she and gray which is very surprising off stanford leading 12 to 10. really smart play by mcclure and maybe some of her teammates could take a cue from that mixing it up and trying to mix in a little off speed something that's safer it's gonna go in a little more high error right now for stanford good pass again back to kramer and missed it out of bounds here comes stanford leading 13 to 10. i would expect chyna joseph right about now good time to stop the bleeding for florida oh into the middle and hit out of bounds again and florida needs a timeout i don't know if they're going to take one it doesn't look like it but stuck in this rotation stanford on top by four stanford did not lead at all in the opening set which florida won 25-23 stanford had a lead but two-thirds of the way through the second and then chyna joseph and florida came flying out and won the second set going away 25-21 last year the leader for the stanford cardinal no doubt about it was that woman right there inky ajaniku and we'll hear from ajanaku when we come back the sprint center sold out tonight a crowd of over 18 thousand nine hundred and yes what a match we had earlier this evening nebraska came back from a couple of sets down faced a match point in the fourth and survived over the top seeded penn state nittany lions in nebraska is into the championship match on espn2 nine o'clock eastern time on saturday will it be florida or will it be stanford florida came out blazing joseph from well off the net and slicing and dicing the ball to the floor we had a chance to hear from inky ajanaku the the leader and maybe even most importantly the inspirational leader last year particularly in wisconsin so somebody's going to have to step into that role in the locker room for stanford just moments ago during the intermission yeah last year when they went on to win the freshman just said what an inspiring present she had she looked she just said you just have to believe you all are good enough and they started believing her came back to win late in the fifth game in wisconsin great comeback and then went on to win the ncaa title and right now that title in those title hopes for 2017 in real jeopardy stanford tied with the nittany lions for the most championships in tournament history this is the 37th edition both with seven florida has never won they this is their eighth national semi-final they made it to the championship in 2003. nice wrist away that time by carol and catherine plummer she finally got a ball down on canuck cannot just threw some pad off the sideline i don't think it came off her hand no i don't think i don't think so either again carolyn knope they're passing the ball pretty effectively playing with that broken right hand plumber looking to extend the lead off the top of the block and down and now plumber starting to heat up 12 kills on 33 swings and inching her way back up moreto lutz 11 of 19 very efficient and megan mcclure has been the surprise offensive star so far for the cardinal shank pass so pawlowski looking for some hands doesn't get the touch and now stanford with a commanding 20-12 lead there is ds sidney wilson once again been serving pretty effectively and just as i say that misses it well long now florida is trying to regenerate a little bit of energy as well rahmat al-assan just came on gathered up her teammates plumber again incoming wow wow well remember she took those kinds of swings not quite that hard in the first set and canope was coming up with every one of them but that was an absolute scud coming across it clearly they're playing plumber and her teammates with more urgency trying to put a little more pepper on the ball that ball thrown through the block and down by number one well if you don't feel urgency in the national semifinal not playing well being completely outplayed by florida and down two sets to none you never will have any urgency but it was only yesterday kevin hamley complimented them on how poised and calm they were at the start of the season and even in the first match of the ncaa tournament he said two tons that can be really dicey but i think maybe they put a little too much emphasis on the calm and poise plummer back at the line against stanford only three losses on the year two of those coming on neutral courts to penn state the other in conference at washington alhassan good connection there that time with cheyenne husky yeah cheyenne's a little taller and so when she jumps she can get at least i don't know within 20 stories of the right floor for ramadan hassan i said and one right back at you for schneider both teams going high flat really good set that time to the perimeter by gregory wearing number 14 in white for florida those are not easy sets to make but they're really important sets to make and on each side putting the hitter about three feet off the net pushing it close to the net gives them a great chance and now gregory coming up with the defensive play plumber a little bit late to that free ball and it forces a net violation wow not well played by stanford again i think that's a factor of morgan hints at how much she takes plummer's thinking she's going to take the whole court timeout is called by stanford their lead was very comfortable moments ago it still is there is the net violation no question about that the lead for stanford is till 22-17 but you don't want to give up momentum you don't want to give up that good feeling that you're out playing your opponent at the end of a set you got to finish strong what you started well once again well we've got a moment take you back to the match earlier this was match point watch the right side of your screen collision there gatoring and feeling jazz sweet the outstanding freshman what a match she had for nebraska and then stifrins with the one-handed stuff block and that forced the fifth set and nebraska was able to take control and eventually won it kelly hunter their captain and their real leader able to jam that ball to the floor and nebraska is moving on and i think have surprised a lot of people not only in this tournament but all year long with what they had to replace this last offseason and got to be surprising themselves at least a little bit with eight new players and two new coaches tonight after the stanford florida semifinal catch sportscenter at night with john buchigrass and kenny mayne to catch a breakdown of alonzo ball versus lebron james i think at this point it seems like a little bit of a mismatch but we shall see tom brady's greatest moments and the 76ers all access back with karch kurai and holly rowe i'm paul sunderland thanks for joining us on the semifinal thursday championship coming up on saturday on espn2 9 p.m eastern high flat shot nicely done by loretta lutz stanford needed that back comfortably on top 23-17 we're asking a lot of questions karch about stanford through the first couple of sets and now it seems like stanford is going to get on the board and we'll change the focus back over to the florida side morgan hence with a spectacular save a handful and then some of set points for the stanford cardinal time out called by florida boy stanford has really turned it around some of it of course just just some added energy and a sense of urgency and we're going to have ourselves a contest now because florida's going to get on the board they're going to have to regroup and then we'll have a real battle once again possibly like we had between nebraska and penn state oh about two hours ago it seems yeah what a match that was it sure was if you're stanford right now you want to get these three this last point finish get this set under your belt and know you know what we are capable of beating this team your florida you want to get this over soon because you don't want to let stanford have enough time to start playing the game that they have played all year long yeah and some seeds of doubt certainly creeping into what florida has been unable to do in terms of keeping their level at the same very high place it was during the first couple of sets when they were so impressive particularly in serve and receive they play way above their season averages and they're dangerous with those two serves with montserrae and carly snyder they can run out lots of points so even though stanford might take this next one they're only a point away that doesn't mean they're at all out of the woods because of the good serving of florida that has really surprised the path of the stanford passers and talk about a turnaround offensively all kinds of struggles for plummer for fitz morris among others for stanford they're hitting a cool 4 33 in this third set well it's not supposed to be easy to repeat it's not supposed to be easy to get to the championship match and florida was superb in the first two sets and it's that old saying you don't just get to win and it looked like stanford was thinking that in the first two sets for sure oh nice crack on the right side by alhassan one set point saved that's a part of ramona hassan's game that has she's worked really hard at trying to develop the ability to hit off of one foot so that she can spread opposing block defenses out plumber on target pass out to lutz who'll hit that ball off of kramer and snyder and stanford is on the board stanford won the third set easily 25 to 18 over the florida gators you wondered if florida could maintain the same level or that stanford would continue to struggle well we've got our answer stanford raised their level the defending champions are on the board back in the sprint center in kansas city the 37th ncaa women's volleyball championship stanford on the board karts they hit 452 in the third set a couple of their offensive stars one from a source we expected and one a surprise catherine plummer was the source we expected mcclure does so many nice things for them we were really impressed with her last week with the role she plays but look at the offense she's bringing and it's a wide variety of shots the off speed and the hard driven ball but plummer has really been the offensive go-to for stanford early on carolyn knope was controlling everything but nobody comes up with that while she almost broke a hole in the floor and then uh hit canope on the bounce but mcclure and plummer really picking up their games in the second set controlling the serves of florida much better you see the improvement by plumber mcclure and stanford in that third set as compared to the first two and mcclure 9 of 19 hitting 474. loretta lutz having a very nice match as well plummer has straightened things out but adriana fitzmaura is still struggling a little bit and she has been a key contributor offensively for stanford underway here in the fourth mcclure again tough chance setting that time by jenna gray yeah what a save by jenna gray that ball was close to the net and in almost in the hands of a six foot eight kramer the middle blocker for florida but she saved it brought it back for her hitter snyder's first swing is rejected by gray and fitzmorris really nicely executed by the stanford blockers watch them all crowd over into one half of the court because there's only two hitters cramer and carly snyder for florida so they're going to try and they do it again trying to clog the pass outside the plumber getting one-on-one against monsae that's dug by florida but a double contact is called and a good quick start here for the defending champions florida tried starting with ali montserrae in the front court that is a horrible matchup monterey at the net trying to block catherine plummer somebody might get hurt back there same matchup morgan hands sprawling and tip excellent save by the libero morgan hence for stanford and the cardinal out to a quick four-nothing lead oh that's the morgan hence we saw last weekend feel like we haven't heard from her much tonight watch her not only die for this play but keep it on her side of the net that's so hard to go forward but play the ball backward that ball just out of bounds and for morgan hence the libero of the year in the pac-12 conference to yesterday a first-team all-american selection and her saying is if you don't go you'll never know if you don't go after every ball maybe there's that one that you come up with that gives your team that separation and that's going to be a double contact called against monserrate now carts put yourself into the heads of the florida gators right now you played so well they're they're getting a little quiet on their side of the net right now and they rely on a lot on their emotional energy to get it from china joseph who's had such a fantastic season after playing a very small role for them so she it's gonna fall on her to try to pick that team back up as stanford jumps out to a six to one lead in set number four look at this start for tameolade with a stuffed block against rachel cramer stanford won the third set easily 25 to 18 when they exploded offensively another look at this stuffed block yeah lotte on that last jump looked like she had about 22 inches good read blocked by her seeing where the center is delivering the ball and reaching to her right expecting kramer to hit it back that way now that we got a timeout let's go over to holly rowe well guys you were just talking about this is a very different feeling team for florida right now and mary wise definitely detected that right before this set started she got on her players and she said look we said from the beginning we were going to come out and be the aggressors and take it to stanford she said what's changed you can definitely feel that they're starting to think about what they're doing instead of playing with that free spirit we saw in the first two sets and stanford now being the aggressors really a very different feeling for both of these sidelines right now thank you holly and once again stanford hit 205 in the opening set lost much better 273 not bad lost the second but in the third right back on track with a big 452 in terms of effect efficiency 17 of 31 where florida really cooled off to just a 179 clip in the third well we were talking about chyna joseph and what an emotional driver she is of this florida team coach mary weiss was even saying i wait for her to finish talking to the team before i joined the huddle in the timeout she was huge in that department carly schneider said there was one time when they huddled last weekend when things were really dire against usc and people came out of that huddle with tears in their eyes because she was inspiring them so much that's what florida needs right now is stanford is starting to bring a whole different intensity that ball served long just over the end line by kate formico lots of time left in this fourth set for florida to right the ship there is snyder this big pretty good place to start she's served a couple of aces and she can put some real pressure on stanford lots into the cross court loretta lutz having a really nice match 15 kills now on 24 swings and that is a swing much like we saw near the end of the wisconsin match when wisconsin created all kinds of trouble lutz puts the ball away and coach kelly sheffield wisconsin just laughed at kevin hamley like what do we have to do to get a point here that ball missed out of bounds by kramer way too many unforced errors now for the second seeded florida gators these are the errors that stanford was making in that first in those first two sets now it's florida's turn overpass alate right there nice dig by joseph and mouretta lutz again loretta lutz the 6'8 redshirt senior out of houston a second team all-american this year a 348 average and she talk about a versatile player we talked about joseph she played some time in the middle as well for some really good stanford teams booking at book ending with uh inky ajanaku ooh that goal just out of bounds florida is really struggling here karts trailing 10-2 and that's going to be the biggest problem for them because their lifeblood has been joseph she's gotten them out of so many jams if she starts making errors the wheels overpass again and lutz will easily put that away as well as florida was passing through the first two sets they have really fallen off you mentioned joseph having a pretty good match eight of 18 hitting just under 300. florida fans here at the sprint center getting very very worried and with good reason joseph dug and over the sideline florida certainly needed that it's a big hill to climb but still time she is hit with such range we saw her last week crushing the line against usc when they gave her that then also the deep corner just like that last shot so impressed with how her game has developed which as we mentioned before she only played two whole points two points total in their ncaa tournament last year catherine plummer missing on the left so they change the formation and move her over to the right let's on the left and she misses that out of bounds yeah that's probably her weakest area area to hit there but jenna gray cytogenic ray really had no choice on that pass but to have to put it up to lutz valade no outside the plumber and that ball off the face that time of sokolowski or rahmat al-hassan plumber moving a little gingerly remember she took a hard fall right at the beginning of this match plumber now 14 kills lutz leading the way with 17. and all hassan registering the kill away from milan here is gregory working short hints all over that and a lot off the top of the block and out of bounds tamiya lada who's been really efficient through the entire season pretty quiet so far three kills on 11 swings with a couple of errors as she heads to the sideline look at that in the ncaa tournament way below that so far tonight alhassan good connection that time with cheyenne husky yeah jenna graham the center for stanford who's had such a wonderful sophomore season really seems like she's having trouble connecting with her two main middles adriana fitzmaurice and tommy alate both of them close to 400 or over 400 hitters but they're really being helped there's another misconnect they're being helped at the sidelines by people like loretta alex on that swing there good good defense schneider rolling inside plumber out of the back court what a dig by canoe wonderful play from florida and that gets their fans on their feet and little by little getting them back in this fourth set carolyn canoe one hitter one blocker i should say up on the bit the back throws set by kathryn plummer reads it like a book nice play by jenna gray will come back on wearing number 11 the 5 9 freshman out of saratoga california pretty good volleyball lineage uh the cousin of kerry walsh jennings i thought she was serving pretty well last weekend at the regionals tonight almost every one of her serves has backspin that one no that was a clean contact and all four-time all-american now 11 of 20 hitting 450 having a very solid night stanford leading 14-9 you know hargraves on to serve now boy still the connection just not there but adriana fitzmaurice able to make do remember it's fitzmorris and jenna gray if anybody should be connecting they should they've been playing together since high school nearby st james academy and coach hanley's said fitz morris is probably the most versatile versatile hitter or player that they have she could play any position in the front row hit any set nice read by hence but out of bounds it touched the antenna that ball into the antenna morgan hence was all over it in any case holly guys i'm just throwing this out food for thought you know we told you at the top of the show two hometown kids adriana fitzmorris and jenna gray could they be nervous i know jenna said she found out her family bought tickets to this event six months ago before they even made it she's like i'm glad they didn't tell me that i would have been so nervous i just wonder if they're just trying a little bit hard hence tracking it down but formica cannot make the play certainly a possibility holly it's a lot of a lot of pressure in the game is in the challenge is hard enough as it is jenna gray karch has been pretty good what a great touch by hints but holly you bring up a good point just to me it didn't look like it was trying too hard in those first two sets it looked more like they were trying to be extra relaxed and poised this is a big moment and you could make an over correction in that you you don't want to be too amped and they fought it too well i think catherine plummer nicely over the top of the florida block for her 15th kill on 39 swings joseph registering yet another kill and back and forth we go both teams now getting in a pretty good side out rhythm stanford leading 17-11 if you're just joining us florida the number two seed over the number three seed stanford won the opening set 25-23 won the second 25-21 both teams went to the locker room stanford was probably happy about that florida hated it stanford came out and easily won the third 25-18 and then went out to a big lead here to start the fourth nice up that's gonna be a double contact good dig again by knope lining up on plummer i think she has defended out of this season and i haven't seen every stanford match but out of anybody i think she's defended plumber the best on those hard driven cross court balls plumber was just exploding people last weekend with those same swings high up into the block pencil track that down oh olade the play was there and elated just didn't read it probably should have gone up and slammed that ball on the top of the net watch this deflection there's been several of those from the florida outside hitters but hence with the reaction and then a lot of they just couldn't made a decision too late one of the most important things is an early decision is a good decision it doesn't have to be perfect for morgan hence there is a gift from florida you don't see hence dig a ball back over the net more than two times or three times a season she has been flawless all year long 19 to 12. well looks like we're going to go five once again not quite the same drama so far as in the opening semifinal the three deuce sets mcclure right in our laps off the dig nobody's coming up with that alhassan straight down inside the three-meter line wow that was from what did you say the penthouse they set her at the right height and she just crushed that one cross-court but i love the hustle by megan mcclure taking out your monitor paul did you say that was okay they'll get it fixed florida's starting to dig some balls and get some transition opportunities wow florida is saying touch and that ball was very very close to the end line i don't think if you're married wise you use a challenge here you do risk burning one well you lose it whether you're correct or not when you're trailing 20 to 13. probably pretty judicious to keep it in the bank i think you're right paul down six or seven points you want to save them for the the game the likely set number five where you hope it's going to be a lot closer and have to make that critical play remember it was a couple of years ago florida was a few points away from winning a regional in texas got a really bad line call there and that that challenge would have helped them heating it up here offensively stanford's got to keep if you're stanford you got to keep some momentum they have outplayed florida decisively here in the third and fourth just like florida outplayed the cardinal in the first and second mcclure down the line again look at megan mcclure now with 11 kills on 21 swings you know how many errors she had against texas last week zero wow we have been impressed with her every match she seems to be getting better fulfilling her main role of ball control but also bringing them more offense efficient offense oh roofed on the outside by the six foot two cheyenne husky i think we jinxed it her first their first error in two matches in volleyball stats you get stuff straight down that's an error that's not good and you can't hit the ball out of bounds that is a big block and megan mcclure who's been having a superb semi-final so far with that block kevin hemley certainly not taking any chances remember stanford is still in another must-win situation their lead is 21-17 and rahmat al-hassan karch she's getting some really good sets lately and and making a living up in the penthouse yeah and and it started with some some shaky ones where it's just so hard when you when she touches 11-3 there's a low set at about her ear but then as the match has gone on she just takes the block out of the equation because she can contact it at a height that just takes it right over or around the blocker and when she's set at the proper height which is not an easy thing to do she's a real force which is why she's such an effective hitter hitting about 400 on the season and hitting 500 so far tonight in this semi-final al hassan 14 of 24 carly schneider with 13 kills and joseph with 10. this is about the best i've seen them set her in the last few matches making her reach much higher hitting the ball with a fairly straight elbow the ncaa women's volleyball championship coverage will continue with the national championship match saturday december 16th at 9 pm eastern on espn2 for more information be sure and go to ncaa.com your home for all 90 championships back with three-time olympic champion karch kurai and usa national team head coach i'm paul sunderland along with holly rowe on the sideline oh coming out of the timeout and missing that serve that is a gift for stanford the plural has also served very well that one handled nicely fits morris on the slide and nobody's going to track that one down and now stanford just two points away timeout called by florida abc has bowl game doubleheader on saturday beginning at noon with a celebration bowl between grambling and north carolina a and t and then at 3 30. it's the las vegas bowl between boise state and the oregon ducks both streaming live on the espn app just to recap florida won the opening set 25-23 easily in the second 25-21 and then it has been all stanford since there you see it will face the fifth seeded nebraska cornhuskers going for their fifth national championship saturday at nine eastern time stanford cardinal tied with penn state with seven titles apiece so if they were to come out on top in this semifinal then they would break the tie with penn state and have eight and stand alone well paul one of the things we expected up top was probably a lot of firepower a fun matchup at the net between chyna joseph and katherine plummer we haven't seen as much of that plumber struggling early but normally when she is swinging she's hitting more cross-court away from the line block of joseph and also the coaches switched the matchups just slightly to start this fourth set it's going to be really interesting to see what those head-to-head matchups are into the fifth because with monterrey or even huskies a better matchup with montserrat on the outside against plummer that's a no-go for florida here's mcclure florida's found some rhythm passing but better for fitzmorris denying the cross court to carly schneider for stanford just their sixth stuffed block the exact same number as florida set points now for stanford right to plumber who missed it into the top of the tape what a tig by morgan ents you see how far she traveled wow hence his numbers on the night i don't think she's played nearly as well as she capable her ball control has not been there but 19 digs set point again and jenna gray with a little reverse flipper putting that ball to the floor and so we're gonna go five it was all florida early karch but since then the defending national champion stanford cardinal with a couple of easy victories 25-18 and 25-18 it has been back and forth all night long but one has to think that now stanford probably has the momentum it's florida's turn to get this back on track florida and stanford it has been back and forth up and down each team not necessarily playing their very best but now they're going to need their best in the fifth set and morgan hence has started to heat it up carts at the defensive end well she has a combination of skills number one she can read hitters so well she knows where they're gonna go before they do practically but she also has tremendous range defensively watch stanford gives her the whole left side of the back court and she can come short or she can go deep and she keeps almost all of those on her side most people who track the ball that far it usually sprays with much less control and she pads it up in practice because she's on the floor just as much but she told us yesterday when we had our meetings with all of the athletes for these four semifinals take her a couple weeks for all the bruises to clear up at the end of the season stanford on the year this is their fifth five set match they are three and one florida on the other hand a perfect three-and-oh and megan mcclure who has had a brilliant semi-final the freshman out of rancho santa margarita will start things off and blocked by fitzmorris fifth set tie breaker to 15 points gotta win by two teams will change sides at eight even though the set is shorter each team does have two timeouts schneider good swing but dug by hands snyder again threw the block and down carly schneider now 14 kills on the night and florida's highest scoring server carly snyder at the line worked on this jump serve her entire career at florida handled pretty well by stanford but that ball set way off the net right side to fitz morris missed out of bounds but there was a touch off the block followed by the first referee just finding the right hand of the middle blocker kramer at six foot eight a long target joseph over the top of the block very little defense and morgan hints is on the sideline so even she couldn't track that one down trying to match hence dig for dig she's got 16. and rebel that's nice stab in the right back able to put that ball away it was in that close five-set match last week against usc in the regional final where florida really relied on china joseph down the stretch look for a lot of joseph coming at stanford ripped to the floor beautiful delivery that time once again by ali montserrae number 22 the diminutive i guess everybody's dominion and next to al hassan and kramer along with maretta lutz i gotta give the florida setters credit they're connecting much better with her than they did last weekend sir taken legally overhand back to alhassan again why not this time from the other set center cheyenne husky just like that florida on top now in the fifth great work and transition vermont all of a sudden what she wants to do is get distance off the net she got beyond that three meter line and then came back and got fed a really nice high quick set got a challenge courtside kevin hamley has challenged a net violation must have come earlier in the rally because that is uh absolutely clean yep watch the right side of your screen oh yeah yeah that's a net violation yep right there yeah oh wow what christian wow the ruling was that she was transitioning and no longer in the act of blocking wow that's going to be controversial but nothing indecisive about that plumber comes right back tied at four hence is all over that lots the tough swing and sokolowski who we haven't heard from in a while getting that ball through the seam and down only her 14th swing five kills three errors but she sure swung with confidence on that give her credit here is hammonds again the chance for florida to extend the lead mcclure can't get the ball over the top of ramada hassan you weren't with us earlier six foot four with a six foot eight wingspan and a jump touch of 11-3 can't track it down florida now on top seven four one point away from the side change timeout called by stanford so stanford now in trouble after winning the fourth third and fourth easily and that block on mcclure watch all hassan just standing there you'll take them any way you can get them yeah she's back on the ground when you're trying to make your first final since 2003 beware the late arriving middle you can't coach tall and not coach at all the fourth meeting all time between stanford and florida in the ncaa tournament stanford a perfect 4-0 and it's been kind of a i guess interesting is a fair word just back and forth i mean florida was completely out playing stanford through the first two sets they were passing way above their season averages and then stanford came out and and really took care of florida 25 18 25 18. to set up this fifth set look at those numbers championship experience but this is still a very young stanford team there is chyna joseph the emotional leader for the florida gators and i think stanford has been set serving too much to number seven with the orange headband paige hammond she's passing in system at 65 she's the best passer right now for florida and i think they'd be wise to go elsewhere and try to challenge some other passers you just haven't one of the reasons you've seen al hassan get so many opportunities this set is because of the ball control on the floor the florida side of the net stanford's got to get out of this rotation melanie out of the middle nice stop by alhassan snyder kept alive by florida and mcclure misses it out of bounds megan mcclure who's been so good all night long a rare mistake she's been blocked once that's the first ball that mcclure in 24 swings is hit out of bounds teams will change sides florida 8-4 advantage last week they were looking up at an 8-4 deficit against usc in the fifth and came back to steal that regional final after being down match point yes 24 23 in the fourth and scoring three straight points to force it to five hammonds really has done a nice job serving and receiving that's a tough serve that is a tough serve mcclure is stuffed husky along with alhassan time out called by stanford it's a 9-4 advantage watch how well husky sets up this block sometimes when players run and swing their arms to jump they start inside and run outside they have a tendency to jump sideways and drift husky jumps straight up and puts herself in the perfect position for that stuff and here's chyna joseph again taking over the timeout just like coach mary white said she does she waits for her to finish leading the team before she'll jump in and there she goes the eighth semi-final appearance for florida they advanced once to the national championship match that was in 2003 and have not been this deep into the tournament since that is a long wait for what has been a very successful program well not only are they five points away from going on to the ncaa final five points away from winning the pac-12 or sorry six points six point thank you for pointing that out six points away they beat us ucla usc and on the in a great spot six points away from beating the pac-12 champion stanford the winner of this fifth set will take on the nebraska cornhuskers on saturday night at nine eastern time on espn2 stanford has got to get out of this rotation and you're quite right karch paige hammond is a 6-1 freshman out of louisville kentucky has done a really good job at the service line and her receiving has been impeccable she is the best receiver on either team in this match tonight at 65 in system and missed that serve out of bounds but still if any lead in a national semi is comfortable florida with some separation up 9-5 and interesting they put paige hammond's short in this passing formation and it worked out beautifully lots down through the block of florida from schneider and alhassan and just like that back-to-back points from loretta lutz and the stanford cardinal so florida is dedicating paige hammonds to take all those short serves that morgan hence has been hitting for stanford there she is again not such a good pass that time ball tight to the net good rip that time by snyder what a wonderful swing from almost on the three meter line that was just a bold swing paul swinging high for those hands that is not an easy play to make she was almost falling backwards here's hargreaves on to serve play some defense for florida a chance to extend the lead free ball mcclure tipping over the top and out of bounds the lead now is 11-6. close the assistant coach knew it was out of bounds before anybody else schneider florida's really playing some good defense both in block and back court stanford is running out of time 11-7 they are looking up at florida and remember florida their offensive spark plug chyna joseph waiting to check into the game after the next point that florida wins that's exactly where they want to have her is on the floor in the front court late in this fifth set schneider into the antenna you look at the numbers in this set florida hitting 316 stanford really struggling only 0.56 11-8 nice pass by hammons again and husky missed it out of bounds but a pretty good choice but cheyenne husky the sophomore just missed it long time out of your florida coach either that or they bring monserrae in just to help them win one point so that she can then go back to serve so florida is going to challenge mary wise was looking at whether or not there might have been a net violation and so florida challenges and gets to slow things down a little bit without using one of their timeouts and florida's got two huddles going right now the first team on the floor waiting for the call in the second team firing each other up back in the corner florida had seemingly a comfortable advantage moments ago we were told they were challenging a net but clearly based on that they're looking at whether or not there's a touch and it has to be clear and incontrovertible the ball was called out of bounds i don't see anything neither do i it was directed at fitzmorris number 12 and i don't see any movement on either of her hands it's a big call huge call stanford right back in this if the call stands at 11-9 and it's not a bad play to challenge paul because this is longer in some ways than a timeout as long as you're allowed and you are allowed to as a coach to talk to your team is essentially an extra time out for this fifth set another look i don't see a touch there that's out of space yep i don't see anything there well the decision has been made the second referee is informing the scorers table and if it stands stanford is back within two so now kate formico has had to wait a long time before serving this ball and chyna joseph waiting a long time over on the bench wanting to get back in this game in the front court for florida overpass on the slide fits morris down the line what a dig by canoe along with kramer what a huge play for florida and then he checks joseph and in checks one of florida's top servers ali montserrae been giving fits to the stanford passers stanford had a lot of opportunities there to get back within one over what a read by hence china joseph off the block oh what a save by hence joseph again couple of just spectacular plays 13 to 9. wow that net was all over the place and that ball tipped into the net that was a net on stanford but no call the point goes to florida and now five match points just out of bounds 14 to 10. joseph out on the left along with kramer but she'll go around to the right sideline florida one point away from getting to the championship match for just the second time cramer with the winner what an interesting match karts kurai was so much on the line just both teams took turns playing well and then at the end florida was just so much better particularly in serve receive in the fifth set and you've got to give a big thumbs up to paige hammonds time and time again making wonderful plays in the backcourt well so there were 64 then there were four and now there are two nebraska in the championship for the eighth time florida karch in for just the second time that's coming up on saturday coming first time since 2003 and what a match that should be once again our final score of florida on top of the defending champions from stanford three sets to two coming up next it's sportscenter be sure to join us on saturday at nine eastern for the championship match nebraska and florida good night everybody from kansas city you

Channel: NCAA Championships

Views: 181,960

Keywords: NCAA, ncaa sports, college sports, Florida women's volleyball, women's volleyball, Stanford women's volleyball, florida vs stanford volleyball 2017, florida vs stanford volleyball, florida vs stanford, national semifinal, full game, full replay, full match, florida volleyball 2017, five sets, ncaa women's volleyball 2017, ncaa women's volleyball, florida stanford volleyball, 2017 women's volleyball championship, UF volleyball, uf volleyball 2017

Id: 3A4R-PGYETQ

Length: 130min 37sec (7837 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 07 2020