Rebels Sweep West Virginia to Advance to the NIVC Championship

Photo by Petre Thomas/Ole Miss Athletics

The Ole Miss volleyball team swept the West Virginia Mountaineers 3-0 in the semi-finals of the National Invitational Volleyball Championship on Saturday in Oxford.

The Rebels took the first set of the match with the score of 25-23. Ole Miss fed off of the intensity of the fans.
“[It was] a total team effort tonight,” Ole Miss Head Coach Steven McRoberts said. “Emily Stroup led us with a ton of kills, and Kate Gibson also produced a lot of kills in three sets as well. West Virginia is a very good team, very well coached. There is a reason why they made it this far, and it took everything we had to get the win. I want to give a shout out to our fans – [they made] a huge difference in this match.”
Sophomore Emily Stroup played lights out against the Mountaineers with 19 kills throughout the three sets of the match.
“Stroup had another monster match again offensively,” McRoberts said.
Preparing for West Virginia was a challenge because the Rebels had not faced them in a while.
“We knew that they had a lot of hard swinging outsides, and we went through the same routine as we did with any other team in the SEC,” Stroup said. “It was different, never playing them before, and I really liked it because we are used to playing a faster pace. It was different and fun.”
Ole Miss took set two by the score of 25-22 in a back-and-forth set. In the final set, the Rebels won 25-17 over the Mountaineers.
“We are all really excited for the championship,” Stroup said. “I thought it was a really good team win. The fans were awesome, and the atmosphere was so much fun. We are playing so well at the end of the year, and we all want to keep playing with Kate and Lexi because they only have a couple of days left. We are all happy we have gotten this far and continue to play together.”
The Rebels will play host to the Texas Tech Red Raiders on Tuesday night at 6 p.m. for the NIVC championship.
“We will start watching film on them immediately,” McRoberts said. “I know Texas Tech is a well-coached team. I think we will come in tomorrow and watch film and use it as a recovery day … It’s really nice that we get to stay at home.
“Overall, we are excited to get to play for a championship and really excited that Lexi and Kate get three more days of volleyball. I think that this is a great way to end this season. We have had so many successes this year, and I am really proud of them, that we just get this opportunity to play on our home court and for a national championship up in this tournament.”

Adam Brown is the sports editor of HottyToddy.com. He can be reached at adam.brown@hottytoddy.com