Against Miami in the NCAA tournament, the Jackrabbits got handed their third loss on the season and second loss in a row. The Jackrabbits got swept for the first time all year and are now a first-round exit in the NCAA volleyball tournament.
“There were moments in this match that looked like we just hadn’t been on this stage before and that’s okay,” head coach Dan Georgalas said on the loss versus Miami. “This program hadn’t been to the NCAA tournament in a long time. But with the group, we have returning and with the floor of this program getting even higher, our expectations and goals continue to get bigger. So we’re really confident that this is just a stepping stone for us and we’ll be able to build off of this and win our own conference tournament on top of winning the regular season and we will be on this stage again.”
The opening set of the Jackrabbits NCAA tournament started in a tight battle against eighth-seeded Miami. The two teams traded points back and forth to put the score at 6-6 before Miami hit the accelerator and pulled out to a 23-13 lead. A Sylvie Zgonc kill and a couple of Sydni Schetnan blocks put the score at 24-17 before Miami ended the first set with a final score of 25-17 to take a 1-0 lead over the Jacks.
Down 1-0 in the match, the Jacks came out of the gates firing in set number two. SDSU took a 3-0 lead, which eventually turned into a 10-3 lead, which then led to 15-7, in favor of the Jacks. But Miami wasn’t done fighting and ripped off a 7-0 run to come within one point of the Jacks. SDSU responded with a Zgonc kill, but Miami then tied it up 16-16 and took their first lead of the set, 18-17. SDSU kept fighting back and eventually took a 23-22 lead before Miami went on a 3-0 run to go up 2-0 in the match.
The Miami Hurricanes had control of the third set for the most part. They took an early 10-5 lead and continued to stretch the lead to 18-7 over the Jacks. That gap remained pretty steady the rest of the set as the Jacks found themselves down 24-15 before a final Miami kill put the nail in the coffin of SDSU’s season as the Jackrabbits lost 25-15 and got swept 3-0 by Miami.
SDSU struggled offensively in all three sets against Miami. Zgonc led the Jacks in scoring with nine kills and one ace. Schetnan was second in scoring with six kills and three total blocks.
Miami had a couple of great scoring performances. Flormarie Heredia Colon led the Hurricanes with 21 kills, followed by Grave Lopez, who notched 12 kills. The Hurricane setter Ariana Rodriguez also had a stellar night with 35 assists.