{"id":104730,"date":"2021-04-15T09:49:21","date_gmt":"2021-04-15T13:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=104730"},"modified":"2024-01-04T15:04:02","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T20:04:02","slug":"ddn-raiders-make-history-with-ncaa-tourney-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2021\/04\/15\/ddn-raiders-make-history-with-ncaa-tourney-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Dayton Daily News: Raiders make history with NCAA tourney win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Excerpt<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Wright State planned for a long stay when it left Sunday for the NCAA volleyball tournament.<\/p>\n

The entire event is being held in Omaha, Neb., and the coaches and players stuffed their suitcases with enough outfits and gear to get them through an extended run.<\/p>\n

Asked after a first-round win Wednesday how much they packed, coach Allie Matters said: \u201cNot like a \u2018Final Four\u2019 amount of clothes, but we did bring detergent in case we had to do laundry. I think we\u2019ll be good going into tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Raiders were beyond good against Samford while breezing to a 3-0 victory, winning 25-20, 25-12, 25-15.<\/p>\n

They became the first Horizon League team to notch an NCAA victory. The conference had been 0-29.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll play in the second round at 7 p.m. today against Texas (23-1), the Big 12 champs and No. 4 overall seed. The winner will advance to the Sweet 16 on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew if we played well, we had a really good chance of beating (Samford),\u201d Matters said. \u201cBut we didn\u2019t think it\u2019d be as dominant as it was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lainey Stephenson, the league setter of the year, had 27 assists in the match \u2014 blowing past her season average of 6.3 per set \u2014 and added four kills and 10 digs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just becomes contagious. As much confidence as our hitters get from Lainey, Lainey gets confidence when our hitters are putting balls away,\u201d Matters said.<\/p>\n

Teddie Sauer, a first-team all-league pick, had five kills and six solo blocks on the way to a team-high 13 points. She also had four aces and kept the Bulldogs (15-4) off balance with her deliveries.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s been really feeling it this year, and she was good yesterday in practice,\u201d Matters said of Sauer\u2019s serving. \u201cWe let her go for it, and she looked really fresh.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was able to contribute in a lot of statistical categories. She put the team on her back and really got everyone pumped.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Raiders (17-1), who won their first league tourney title this year, had hitting percentages of .324, 308 and .281 in the three sets. Their average was .218 (fifth in the league).<\/p>\n

\u201cMaking history again is just crazy awesome,\u201d Sauer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur connections were just on point tonight,\u201d she added. \u201cIt feels a little unreal, but it\u2019s on to the next one.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the first set, the Bulldogs chopped a 24-16 deficit to 24-20 but lost on a service error. The final two sets were tension-free.<\/p>\n

Megan Alders and Nyssa Baker had nine kills each. Alders tied Celia Powers for the second-most points with 10.<\/p>\n

\u201cMegan has had a tough couple of matches, but I thought tonight she came in all fired up and focused,\u201d Matters said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause you don\u2019t hear her name often, I don\u2019t think Samford was necessarily planning for her to do so well. She made them have to pay attention to her, and I don\u2019t think they did very well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Raiders avoided having to open against a Power-5 behemoth since the field was trimmed from 64 to 48 because of the pandemic (the top 16 teams received first-round byes).<\/p>\n

They were blasted by Purdue in their first NCAA trip last season.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll find out how far they\u2019ve progressed when they tangle with fifth-ranked Texas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe majority of the season, there\u2019s been a lot of pressure on us to perform and win. As far as I\u2019m concerned, the pressure is on Texas, not us,\u201d Matters said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Texas wants to mess around, we\u2019ll be ready. It\u2019s up to Texas whether they want to respect us or not. We\u2019re really, really excited, and we\u2019ll take that energy into tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

View the original story at daytondailynews.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wright State planned for a long stay when it left Sunday for the NCAA volleyball tournament. The entire event is being held in Omaha, Neb., and the coaches and players stuffed their suitcases with enough outfits and gear to get them through an extended run. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":104738,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[730],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wright-state-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104730"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145512,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104730\/revisions\/145512"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}