On Saturday night, the eight remaining teams in the 2017 NCAA Division I women’s volleyball tournament faced off to determine which four would advance to the Final Four in Kansas City next week. 

The top three seeds of the tournament — Penn State, Florida, and Stanford — won their regional final matches to move on; however, No. 4 seed Kentucky lost to Nebraska.

Nebraska def. Kentucky 3-1 (25-19, 25-22, 25-27, 25-22)

The Wildcats of Kentucky rallied from behind to win their first-, second-, and third-round matches of the NCAA tournament in five, so when they were staring down a Nebraska match point, trailing 22-24, in the third set of the regional finals, they weren’t ready to give up.

The Comeback ‘Cats fought off three Husker match points, with opposite Brooke Morgan stuffing Mikaela Foecke to push the match to four.

In the fourth, however, it appeared the go-juice had finally run out for Kentucky, which accomplished plenty of firsts this year, including its inaugural appearance in the Elite Eight. The Wildcats could never secure a lead, and Nebraska punched its ticket to its third Final Four in a row with a four-set win.

Foecke led the Huskers with 18 kills, hitting .375, and Annika Albrecht contributed 14 kills and 11 digs.

Nebraska won the serving battle with five aces and eight errors, compared to Kentucky’s one ace and 12 errors; however, otherwise the two teams were evenly matched on the stat sheet. Nebraska had 54 digs to Kentucky’s 58, 61 kills to Kentucky’s 60, and each team tallied 12 blocks.

Penn State def. Michigan State 3-0 (25-23, 25-17, 28-26)

In the two previous meetings between Penn State and Michigan State this season, the Nittany Lions won in four, but the third sets in both matches were absolute battles, going to extra points.

That trend continued in the regional final match between the two Big Ten conference foes; however this time, Penn State secured the third-set victory 28-26 to win the match in straight sets, and move on to the Final Four for the 13th time in school history.

Big Ten Player of the Year Simone Lee led the Nittany Lions with 12 kills, but Haleigh Washington was uncharacteristically quiet offensively, contributing only five kills with two errors on 17 attempts to hit .176. However, Penn State opposite Heidi Thelen had a stellar night, smashing nine kills to the floor with zero errors, to hit .643, and Washington put up great defensive numbers, tallying seven blocks.

Florida def. USC 3-2 (25-23, 20-25, 18-25, 26-24, 15-11)

There was no lack of drama inside Florida’s O’Dome as the Gators clawed their way back from down 1-2 to USC and trailing 12-19 in the fourth.

Even facing match point for USC at 24-23, Florida didn’t give up, and thanks to two kills from senior opposite Shainah Joseph and a block by senior middle Rhamat Alhassan and freshman outside hitter Paige Hammons, Florida pushed the match to a tie-breaking fifth set.

The comeback road continued in the fifth set, as USC took a 9-5 lead before Florida setter Allie Monserez went on a five-point service run to give the Gators an 11-9 lead. 

From then on the Gators never trailed, and at the very end it was senior Carli Snyder, one of the best servers in the country, who dished up an ace to give Florida match point, and senior opposite Joseph who terminated the final kill of the match.

USC sophomore outside hitter Khalia Lanier had 23 kills to lead the match, bringing her season total to 511. As a team, the Trojans, who held Florida to a .086 hitting percentage in the third set, were ferocious from behind the service line, dishing up 11 aces to Florida’s two, and they out-dug the Gators 86 to 79.

In the blocking game, however, Florida had a big advantage, getting 12 stuff blocks to USC’s seven. Alhassan had six of those blocks, Snyder with five, and Rachael Kramer with four.

Stanford def. Texas 3-0 (25-21, 25-21, 25-21)

Texas roared out to a 5-0 lead in the first set of the Palo Alto regional final, but Stanford fought back slow and steady, taking the lead at 16-15 in the first set, and then maintained the lead for almost the entire rest of the three-set match. 

Behind Kathryn Plummer’s 19 kills, Stanford won the rematch of last year’s national championship match and earned its spot in Kansas City, where the Cardinal will pursue a repeat title.

The Final Four, in which Stanford will take on Florida in the national semifinals, will be a homecoming for Stanford starters Audriana Fitzmorris and Jenna Gray, who are from the Kansas City area.