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NCAA Women's Volleyball Tournament: Stanford advances to Final Four, Oregon exits in quarterfinals

by Sarah Kezele
Dec 8, 2018
Oregon Athletics

Stanford and Oregon represented the Pac-12 in Saturday's quarterfinal play of the 2018 NCAA Women's Volleyball Tournament. Here's how they fared:

Stanford

#1 Stanford 3, #8 Penn State 1

For the third year in a row, Stanford is on to the Final Four. It's the program's 22nd overall trip to the NCAA semifinals. 

No surprise here, but Kathryn Plummer was instrumental in the Cardinal's effort. After Stanford dropped the first set to the Nittany Lions, it got caught in a back-and-forth battle to decide the second set. Plummer went to work with her squad trailing 20-18 and scored six of Stanford's last seven points in the frame, splitting the sets at one apiece. 

That set the tone for the rest of the night as the Cardinal kept a comfortable margin in the third and fourth sets. It's only fitting that the final point of the night came from Plummer to cap off her 23-kill performance. 

Up next: Stanford faces off against No. 4 BYU in the first of the two semifinal matches on Dec. 13 in Minneapolis. BYU handed Stanford its only loss of the season back on Aug. 31, a five-set showdown in Provo.

 

Oregon

#7 Nebraska 3, #15 Oregon 0

The Ducks put up one heck of a fight in Saturday's quarterfinal match in Minneapolis, but let the Huskers get away from them in the third set. Lauren Stivrins was responsible for three of Nebraska's last five points, locking up the final frame at 25-17.

Oregon's offensive efforts were stifled by Nebraska's work in its back row as three Huskers reached double-digit digs on the night. But while we're talking defense, we have to shout out Duck freshman Brooke Nuneviller for her unending energy on this play:

 

 

Oregon concludes its season at 23-11. Nebraska prepares to face #3 Illinois in the semifinals on Dec. 13. 

 

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