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GoFrogs: Volleyball Defeats Washington in Four Sets to Advance to Round of 32 of NCAA Tournament

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Lifelong Frog

GoFrogs: TCU Defeats Washington in Four Sets to Advance to Round of 32 of NCAA Tournament

MADISON –
A vision nearly 12 months in the making was realized on Friday for TCU volleyball.

Since his hire on Dec. 20, first year head coach Jason Williams promised to not only return the Horned Frogs the NCAA Tournament, but win.

And in its first trip to the Big Dance in six years, TCU announced itself as a postseason player for the foreseeable future.

The Horned Frogs stunned Washington in four sets, 25-18. 24-26, 25-20, 25-21, in the round of 64 inside the UW Field House.

The win – TCU's third-ever in the NCAA Tournament – punched the Horned Frogs' ticket to the round of 32, where they'll meet No. 3 overall seed and site host Wisconsin at 6 p.m. CT on Saturday.

It'll count as an upset on the surface.

UW sported the No. 25 ranking in the AVCA Coaches' Poll and the No. 2 seed in the region. The Huskies (20-11) entered Friday's tilt having won 20 consecutive first round matches. For TCU, 16 of the 19 players on the Horned Frogs roster made their NCAA Tournament debuts.

But make no mistake, TCU (17-10), now winners of six straight and eight of its last nine, was the superior squad from the opening bell.

The Horned Frogs led wire-to-wire in sets one and three and did not trail by more than a point in the fourth-and-final frame.

TCU feasted on the Huskies' bunch read, hammering home 56 kills – 36 of which came from Audrey Nalls and Jalyn Gibson – and landing 14 total blocks to finish with a 75-67 edge in points.

Behind an opportunistic block and 56 digs, the Horned Frogs pestered the Huskies into 43 combined errors and a .183 hitting percentage.

Nalls' 25 kills were the most in an NCAA Tournament match in program history. She was responsible for nine of TCU's 18 kills in the decisive fourth set. Nalls' nine spikes were her most in a set this season. Set two saw the 6-2 senior notch her 400th kill in 2022. She is the first player in TCU's Big 12 era to reach the milestone.

Gibson's emergence – TCU is 8-1 since inserting the freshman in its starting rotation – freed Nalls from the back row early in the match. She tallied eight of her kills in the first two frames. Gibson also connected at a team-best .360 hitting clip.

The tandem was the beneficiary of a match-best 44-assist effort from Callie Williams. The setter dished out her 1,000thassist of her swan song season in set four.

Nalls and Williams narrowly missed out on achieving double-doubles, as the each finished with nine digs.

Sabrina Sustala led all players in the category with 17.

Perhaps the biggest x-factor, though, in TCU's defensive effort, was Zoe Hall. Playing as both a middle blocker and outside hitter, Hall registered a career-high nine blocks, five of which came in TCU's set three dismantling of the Huskies.

TCU raced out to a 1-0 match lead behind four 3-0 scoring spurts in set one. The team's first run staked the Frogs to a 4-2 head start, as Nalls and Gibson bookended kills around Hall's first block of the evening. TCU's three-point stretch extended the lead to 11-7 behind two more kills from Gibson and a service ace by Julia Adams (9.5 points, 7 kills). A service ace by Riley Weigelt capped TCU's third run and widened the lead to 17-12. UW cut the deficit to two points at 20-18 but TCU slammed the door with five straight points.

The Horned Frogs pestered UW into 13 combined errors in set one.

Set two resembled an offensive blitzkrieg. Both teams racked up 16 kills. UW hit .400 while TCU maintained a similar efficiency, posting a .355 hitting percentage.

The Huskies nearly became the newest addition to TCU's laundry list of come-from-behind pursuits in the frame.

The two teams found themselves tied up at 10 separate junctures over the first half of set two to the tune of a 17-17 gridlock. UW then worked its way to a 24-20 advantage, only for TCU to stave off set point four times. Gibson's eighth kill of the night began the comeback. Nalls followed with a kill of her own. Hall joined the rally with a block before Nalls brought the Horned Frogs all the way back to even with another kill. The Huskies then forced a 1-1 match tie with two straight kills out of a timeout.

TCU firmly wrested control of the match from UW in set three. Nalls quickly doubled up the Huskies at 6-3 behind a kill – her 11th at that point in the match – and a service ace on consecutive plays. Mykayla Myers later landed three blocks in a five-play sequence to inch TCU further ahead, 12-8. The Horned Frogs then used a 7-0 run to double up the Huskies 20-10. TCU maintained eight-point leads at 22-14 and 24-16, respectively, behind Hall's final block of the match and a kill from Gibson. UW scored four straight points to briefly halt TCU's romp but Gibson lasered in a kill out of a timeout to stymie any drama.

The Horned Frogs left nothing to chance the fourth set. UW briefly led 11-10, but the brief bit of separation proved to be the Huskies' last time ahead on the scoreboard. Nalls ran her kill tally to 22 with two as a part of a 4-0 run to give the Horned Frogs the lead for good. TCU took a 15-12 lead into the media timeout. A 5-0 surge, aided by a trio of UW errors and two kills by Adams, then had the Huskies on their last legs at 21-16. Nalls delivered TCU's next three points via kills to position the Horned Frogs for match point at 24-20. The Horned Frogs clinched the set and the match two plays later off one final UW attack error.

TCU is now 3-3 all-time in the NCAA Tournament with Friday's result.

Saturday's match vs. the Badgers is the symbolic intersection of TCU's past and present in 2022. The Horned Frogs fell in straight sets to Wisconsin in their season-opener on Aug. 26 in Fort Worth. Tbe defeat was a part of an 0-2 start vs, two top-five foes to begin the season. Since then, TCU is has gone 15-5.

The contest will air on ESPN+.
 
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