Finally, the NCAA Women’s Volleyball Final Four is here, and Oregon will hold it down for the Pac when the Ducks take on top-seeded Penn State in the national semifinals at 6:00 p.m. PT. If you’re looking for a good omen, Duck fan, Oregon beat Penn State on the road the last time these two teams met at the beginning of the 2011 season. On the other hand, before UCLA won it all last season, Penn State had claimed four straight NCAA titles. Should be a heck of a battle.
Also in the world of volleyball, the AVCA All-American Teams were released yesterday, and, as expected, there were plenty of Pac-12 players to make one of the three teams. Here are your first-teamers: Alaina Bergsma and Lauren Plum from Oregon, USC’s Natalie Hagglund, UCLA’s Tabi Love and Stanford’s Carly Wopat.
This just in as of yesterday evening from Pullman – Washington State AD Bill Moos found no abuse in the review of the football program, as prompted by Marquess Wilson’s claims when he announced his departure from the team earlier this year.
Bowl season is just around the corner, and it gets kicked off on Saturday with Arizona’s gander on over to New Mexico to take on Nevada in the New Mexico Bowl. AZ Desert Swarm gets Wildcats fans prepared for the Saturday game with the back story behind Nevada head coach Chris Ault and the pistol offense. As Ryan Finley puts it, a win would be good in so many ways for Arizona.
Meanwhile, UCLA has sold out its ticket allotment of 11,000 to the Holiday Bowl, which is two weeks from today against the Baylor Bears.
Washington’s trip to Sin City for the Vegas Bowl will be the last game for the seniors. Then, it’s on to real life, writes Gregg Bell, who, by the way, is one of the best athletic department reads in all of the Pac-12. Entertaining, insightful, witty – he does it all.
With a rare December off, the Utes are now looking forward to the 2013 football season. They’re not used to not playing in bowl games in Salt Lake City, and Whittingham and Co. will make sure next year doesn’t produce a similar fate to the one endured in 2012.
Cal fans, here is your last chance to own a piece of the old Memorial Stadium.
With sophomore tennis player Zoe Scandalis helping USA to victory as a member of the Master’U BNP Paribas team, Amy Rodriguez picking up her 100th cap with Team USA in women’s soccer and future women’s water polo players Ioanna and Stephania Haralabidis helping Greece win gold at the FINA Youth World Championships last Sunday, it has been global domination for past, present and future USC Women of Troy.
Did you know that Arizona State-DePaul was the only men’s basketball game last night between BCS schools? Well, it didn’t go down well for the Sun Devils, who were cracked by DePaul’s pressure in a 78-61 loss. Hey, at least Arizona State’s women’s hoops team throttled San Diego, 72-39, earlier in the day.
André isn’t the only Roberson doing big things on the hoopcourt in Boulder. Sister Arielle Roberson is making her mark for the Buffs’ women’s basketball team, averaging 16.5 points and 6.1 rebounds thus far this season.
Stanford men’s basketball players have rallied around Dwight Powell in a tough time, as his mother passed away before school started this year.
Oregon State post Joe Burton draws motivation from the injured Angus Brandt to succeed and hold it down for the bigs in Corvallis.