The Tennessee Volunteers Women’s Volleyball Team faced the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers in the second round of their NCAA Playoffs. Both the Volunteers and the Hilltoppers had qualified for the second round via clean sweeping victories. However, their clash resulted in Tennessee taking the win.

Western Kentucky was on a flamboyant 25-match winning streak and had advanced to the second round after a tough first-round fight. However, they failed to increase their electrifying streak to 26, as the Volunteers eliminated them from the NCAA Championship with a clean sweep.

Tennessee Volunteers clear second round of NCAA playoffs with flying colors

Tennessee Volleyball tweeted about the Sweet 16 win of its team via its official X account. The tweet carried the caption, “Moving Up and Moving On!!” The Tennessee Volunteers emerged on top of the WKU players in a topsy-turvy match. While the Volunteers almost breezed through the first two sets, the third set proved to be very difficult for them.

Not only did Western Kentucky equalize every point Tennessee made, it also broke away with a 4-0 scoring run near the end of the third set. However, not wanting to get knocked out of the NCAA Women’s Volleyball Championship, Tennessee responded with a scoring run of its own. WKU wasn’t willing to hit the brakes just yet and pushed hard once again to take the set to a deuce.

But, Tennessee didn’t let anything slip out of its hands and clinched the deuce as well. Tennessee claimed the match with scores of 25-20, 25-16, and 26-24. While the WKU Hilltoppers performed their absolute best in the final set, they failed to recover from the loss they encountered in the second set. In fact, this very fate was suffered by their opponents in the NCAA playoffs opener.

A bad set that cost Western Kentucky its championship dream

The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers displayed their absolute best in a dogged chase after the players of Tennessee. However, they failed to overcome the nasty shock they received in the second set of the game with just 16 points on the board. A similar result was faced by the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers in the first round of the NCAA playoffs when they faced WKU.

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The Chanticleers fought with all their might in the third set of the game but eventually lost. They didn’t get a chance to carry their momentum in the next set, as they had already missed a major chance in the first set. This time, however, it was WKU that lost, while the Tennessee Volunteers cleared the final set challenge thrown their way. Will the Tennessee Volunteers be able to surpass the upcoming challenges and claim the 2023 NCAA Volleyball Championship?

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