Eagles Soar Into NIVC Semifinals on Saturday Night
December 08, 2022 | Volleyball, #ForBoston Files
BC hosts Southern Miss on Saturday at 4 p.m.
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. -- Wednesday night's National Invitational Volleyball Championship quarterfinal was the first time Boston College and Xavier ever met on a volleyball court. Both were 20-plus win programs representing a cross-section of the sport's geographic divide, and the matchup pitted a high mid-major program playing in a league capable of making a case to the top of the national landscape against a power conference team whose league record was the product of playing against national championship contenders. It was the perfect combination, and as the match roared through its first three sets, the explosive powder keg finally looked ready to erupt.
The Eagles hadn't lost a set in either of their first two matches, but after going the distance in a two-set split to start Wednesday, the Musketeers had taken the all-important third set with a 25-19 before leading the fourth set by a 9-4 advantage. It sent a nervous energy through the attendees in the stands at the Margot Connell Recreation Center, and for the first time in the 2022 postseason, it felt like BC's season was approaching the live-or-die rubicon associated with the single elimination format.
The team needed that fourth set to extend the season by even a few more minutes, and the set required a rally from a team that wasn't ready to sunset its time together. The Eagles needed to answer the bell, and after scoring 11 of the next 14 points as part of a 25-18 win the fourth set, they blew open a critical wound on Xavier that ended only when BC advanced to the NIVC semifinals with a 23-25, 25-22, 19-25, 25-18, 15-10 win over a team that arguably deserved a chance to play for a championship just as much as anyone else.
"They are the third best team in the Big East," said head coach Jason Kennedy earlier this week. "They played St. John's twice and beat them twice, and that was one of our common opponents, and they're a program that's from a hotbed for volleyball. The Cincinnati area produces some really good talent, and they have been able to keep kids from Ohio to do a good job with that geography. That's why they're always going to be a good team."
BC hadn't needed to extend a match with a fourth set since the Eagles traveled to Duke in mid-November, but the Eagles rallied despite the gym holding a completely different sense of urgency from when they forced the fifth set in the loss to Blue Devils. They twice rallied from four-point deficits after the media timeout and used kills from Silvia Ianeselli, Katrina Jensen and Kate Brennan to bookend attack errors from Brooklyn Cink before a seven-point swing included six kills, including two more from Haggerty, to open up a 17-13 lead for the Eagles.
At that point, the momentum previously clasped squarely into Xavier's bench loosened, and the Musketeers lost the set after Anna Taylor and Lucia Corsaro committed errors down the stretch. Taylor was able to rebound by scoring the first point of the decisive fifth set, but two additional four-point runs pushed the set to a 6-2 lead before the teams traded points into the final moments, where Xavier scored two consecutive points against BC's double match point before kills from Brennan and Haggerty ended the match with a 15-10, fifth set winner.
"We try to run the ball offensively as fast as possible," Brennan said last week, "and that works really well for my position. On any team, the middle usually runs the fastest ball, and it's a quick set in the middle of the court. But it really helps me out when we run fast on the pins as well because outside and right side blockers can't sit on me and wait for me to hit the ball. Our system allows for me to have more gaps in the block and to be able to score at different angles because of how fast we run to the outside and the right side, which is really cool."
That system was key to BC's victory on Wednesday against Xavier's possession-based, Ohio style. Every part of the country has its own way of blending styles, but the Musketeers were primarily built from a homegrown, gritty market. The Cincinnati-based team received 16 kills apiece from Cink, a Southern Mississippi transfer, and Delaney Hogan with an additional 11 kills from MaryAnn O'Toole and Angel Robinson, none of which matched the height of Ianeselli, Brennan, Jensen, or Clavenna.
They played mostly through Carrigan O'Reilly's 52 assists, a number that nearly outnumbered the combination from Grace Penn and Sophia Lambros, and her 139 total attacks were roughly 53 more than Penn's possessions. In total, O'Reilly had a hand in just under 79 percent of all of Xavier's attacks, a number that indicated the possessive style that ran in contrast to the high-flying, fast attack from BC's California-based and Texas-based roster.
"[BC associate head coach] Marissa Prinzbach is from Ohio," Kennedy said, "and she would tell you about the Midwest ball control [attack]. I think it's pretty true [because] they control the ball really well and pass really well. They play a lot of volleyball out there, and where they might not be the biggest or most physical athletes like you get out of the West Coast or Texas kids, they're going to be very good volleyball players.
"They are good fundamentally," he explained, "and they understand the game. They play with a high IQ because they play so much volleyball in that region, and I think that's what separates those kids. It's a strong region, and certainly we've tried to recruit some of it, but kids are excited about schools like Xavier [and] sometimes want to stay a little bit closer to home."
The win improved BC to 22-13 and continued a record-setting season that rewrote the program's all-time wins total with last week's wins over Buffalo and St. John's, and it advanced the Eagles into a first-ever matchup with Southern Mississippi in their first appearance in the NIVC Semifinals. The Golden Eagles advanced by defeating Western Carolina in their own five-set thriller and twice rallied after losing a set in a 22-25, 25-15, 15-25, 25-22, 15-12 victory.
The win improved Southern Miss to 21-11 on the season and clinched its first 21-win season in 2016. The fourth place team in the Sun Belt Conference's West Division, the Golden Eagles went 7-5 in division play as part of a greater, 10-6 finish. They were one of three teams from the conference to win 20 matches this year and were one of two teams, along with Troy, to participate in the NIVC after James Madison went to the NCAA Tournament as the conference champion.
The match was announced late on Wednesday as being hosted by BC at the Connell Center with a 4 p.m. start on Saturday. The winner advances to meet one of four teams currently still playing on the opposite side of the bracket, with the winners of Pacific's matchup against Drake and Texas-Rio Grande Valley's game against Davidson advancing to the semifinals later this week.
The Eagles hadn't lost a set in either of their first two matches, but after going the distance in a two-set split to start Wednesday, the Musketeers had taken the all-important third set with a 25-19 before leading the fourth set by a 9-4 advantage. It sent a nervous energy through the attendees in the stands at the Margot Connell Recreation Center, and for the first time in the 2022 postseason, it felt like BC's season was approaching the live-or-die rubicon associated with the single elimination format.
The team needed that fourth set to extend the season by even a few more minutes, and the set required a rally from a team that wasn't ready to sunset its time together. The Eagles needed to answer the bell, and after scoring 11 of the next 14 points as part of a 25-18 win the fourth set, they blew open a critical wound on Xavier that ended only when BC advanced to the NIVC semifinals with a 23-25, 25-22, 19-25, 25-18, 15-10 win over a team that arguably deserved a chance to play for a championship just as much as anyone else.
"They are the third best team in the Big East," said head coach Jason Kennedy earlier this week. "They played St. John's twice and beat them twice, and that was one of our common opponents, and they're a program that's from a hotbed for volleyball. The Cincinnati area produces some really good talent, and they have been able to keep kids from Ohio to do a good job with that geography. That's why they're always going to be a good team."
BC hadn't needed to extend a match with a fourth set since the Eagles traveled to Duke in mid-November, but the Eagles rallied despite the gym holding a completely different sense of urgency from when they forced the fifth set in the loss to Blue Devils. They twice rallied from four-point deficits after the media timeout and used kills from Silvia Ianeselli, Katrina Jensen and Kate Brennan to bookend attack errors from Brooklyn Cink before a seven-point swing included six kills, including two more from Haggerty, to open up a 17-13 lead for the Eagles.
At that point, the momentum previously clasped squarely into Xavier's bench loosened, and the Musketeers lost the set after Anna Taylor and Lucia Corsaro committed errors down the stretch. Taylor was able to rebound by scoring the first point of the decisive fifth set, but two additional four-point runs pushed the set to a 6-2 lead before the teams traded points into the final moments, where Xavier scored two consecutive points against BC's double match point before kills from Brennan and Haggerty ended the match with a 15-10, fifth set winner.
"We try to run the ball offensively as fast as possible," Brennan said last week, "and that works really well for my position. On any team, the middle usually runs the fastest ball, and it's a quick set in the middle of the court. But it really helps me out when we run fast on the pins as well because outside and right side blockers can't sit on me and wait for me to hit the ball. Our system allows for me to have more gaps in the block and to be able to score at different angles because of how fast we run to the outside and the right side, which is really cool."
That system was key to BC's victory on Wednesday against Xavier's possession-based, Ohio style. Every part of the country has its own way of blending styles, but the Musketeers were primarily built from a homegrown, gritty market. The Cincinnati-based team received 16 kills apiece from Cink, a Southern Mississippi transfer, and Delaney Hogan with an additional 11 kills from MaryAnn O'Toole and Angel Robinson, none of which matched the height of Ianeselli, Brennan, Jensen, or Clavenna.
They played mostly through Carrigan O'Reilly's 52 assists, a number that nearly outnumbered the combination from Grace Penn and Sophia Lambros, and her 139 total attacks were roughly 53 more than Penn's possessions. In total, O'Reilly had a hand in just under 79 percent of all of Xavier's attacks, a number that indicated the possessive style that ran in contrast to the high-flying, fast attack from BC's California-based and Texas-based roster.
"[BC associate head coach] Marissa Prinzbach is from Ohio," Kennedy said, "and she would tell you about the Midwest ball control [attack]. I think it's pretty true [because] they control the ball really well and pass really well. They play a lot of volleyball out there, and where they might not be the biggest or most physical athletes like you get out of the West Coast or Texas kids, they're going to be very good volleyball players.
"They are good fundamentally," he explained, "and they understand the game. They play with a high IQ because they play so much volleyball in that region, and I think that's what separates those kids. It's a strong region, and certainly we've tried to recruit some of it, but kids are excited about schools like Xavier [and] sometimes want to stay a little bit closer to home."
The win improved BC to 22-13 and continued a record-setting season that rewrote the program's all-time wins total with last week's wins over Buffalo and St. John's, and it advanced the Eagles into a first-ever matchup with Southern Mississippi in their first appearance in the NIVC Semifinals. The Golden Eagles advanced by defeating Western Carolina in their own five-set thriller and twice rallied after losing a set in a 22-25, 25-15, 15-25, 25-22, 15-12 victory.
The win improved Southern Miss to 21-11 on the season and clinched its first 21-win season in 2016. The fourth place team in the Sun Belt Conference's West Division, the Golden Eagles went 7-5 in division play as part of a greater, 10-6 finish. They were one of three teams from the conference to win 20 matches this year and were one of two teams, along with Troy, to participate in the NIVC after James Madison went to the NCAA Tournament as the conference champion.
The match was announced late on Wednesday as being hosted by BC at the Connell Center with a 4 p.m. start on Saturday. The winner advances to meet one of four teams currently still playing on the opposite side of the bracket, with the winners of Pacific's matchup against Drake and Texas-Rio Grande Valley's game against Davidson advancing to the semifinals later this week.
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