PRINCETON, N.J. – Penn State won the EIVA Tournament for the 37^th time in program history, taking down No. 19 Princeton 3-0 (25-20, 27-25, 25-19) in the championship match Saturday at Dillon Gymnasium. The Nittany Lions swept all three of their opponents in the tournament to improve to 14-15 and grab the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers, who won the regular season title and hosted the event as the top seed, closed the season at 15-11 overall.

Matthew Luoma led the offensive effort with 18 kills, while Ryan Merk anchored an outstanding defensive performance by Penn State with his 12 digs. The Nittany Lions held the Tigers to .159 hitting, which was well below their final season efficiency of .277.

Michael Schwob tallied 35 assists and led Penn State to .290 hitting. His bigger production came from the service line, where he recorded three aces for the fifth-consecutive match. His nine aces through three matches this week played a large role in his receiving the EIVA Tournament Most Outstanding Player award. Schwob was joined on the EIVA All-Tournament Team by Luoma, Merk, and Will Kuhns.

Gaige Gabriel contributed both offensively and defensively in the win, hitting .667 with eight kills while also leading the team in blocks with five. Kuhns finished with nine kills and three blocks, Carter Dittman contributed six kills and two blocks, and Owen Rose chipped in with two kills and two blocks. Rose helped Penn State get to the championship match with great numbers through the first two wins as he hit .733 with 2.00 kills/set and 1.67 blocks/set in sweeps over Harvard and NJIT.

Saturday marked Penn State’s first EIVA Tournament win at a location other than Rec Hall since securing the title at Rutgers-Newark in 1996.

Princeton was paced by Nyherowo Omene with 13 kills, three aces, and two blocks. He was joined on the All-Tournament Team by setter Henry Wedbush.

Set 1
Luoma hit .357 with seven kills to lead Penn State to a 25-20 win in the opening set. Schwob racked up 12 assists and recorded his first ace of the night. The Nittany Lions started to pull away early with a 4-0 run that put them up 8-4. Luoma was in on the first three points of the run with a pair of kills and a block alongside Kuhns and Gabriel. Schwob capped it with an ace. They went on to lead by as much as eight at 14-6 following a kill by Dittman, but Princeton was able to fight back and get as close as one at 16-15 after an ace by Wedbush. Penn State responded with a 4-0 run and never looked back. Set point was later scored on a kill by Luoma.

Set 2
Set two was much more closely contested with 13 ties and six lead changes before Penn State came through with the 27-25 win. Luoma again led the way with seven kills, while Schwob again tallied 12 assists. The largest lead by either team was three, which Princeton had at 10-7 after an ace by Wedbush and again at 11-8 with a kill by Omene. Penn State led by three at 18-15 following a kill by Gabriel. Penn State clawed its way to 24 first with a kill by Kuhns to make it 24-22. Princeton avoided two straight set points with a solo block by Owen Mellon and an attack error by the Nittany Lions. Schwob followed with a kill but Omene responded with another kill for the Tigers to knot the score at 25-all. A service error by the Tigers made it 26-25, and the Nittany Lions capitalized with a kill by Gabriel for set point.

Set 3
Gabriel, Luoma, and Kuhns contributed four kills apiece as Penn State hit .375 and rolled to a 25-19 win in the third set. Schwob added 11 more assists and two more aces. The Nittany Lions used a 6-0 run to go up 10-4 and led the rest of the way. The first four points of the run went in the order of Gabriel kill, Schwob ace, Gabriel kill, and another Schwob ace to force a Princeton timeout. The Nittany Lions came out of the timeout with two more points on kills by Gabriel and Luoma. Penn State went on to lead by as much as nine at 19-10 after a kill by Schwob. Match point was later scored on a kill by Luoma to secure the EIVA Championship for the Nittany Lions.

Up Next
The NCAA Tournament selection show will air live on April 27 at 4 p.m. ET on NCAA.com.

LINCOLN, Neb. – The Nebraska volleyball team took the court for the first time under head coach Dani Busboom Kelly and impressed with a sweep of Kansas in front of a sold-out crowd of 8,592 in John Cook Arena at the Bob Devaney Sports Center on Saturday night.

The teams agreed to play four sets no matter the outcome, and the Huskers showed out with a 25-20, 25-18, 25-21, 25-22 win while experimenting with different lineup combinations throughout the match.

Andi Jackson and Rebekah Allick each had 11 kills and four blocks while hitting .556 and .524, respectively. Hunter tallied 11 kills and hit .563 in her first action as a Husker. Harper Murray chipped in 10 kills, and Teraya Sigler had six kills and Taylor Landfair posted four. 

Bergen Reilly and Campbell Flynn split time at setter. Reilly had 19 assists and eight digs, while Flynn had 23 assists and three digs. 

Laney Choboy and Olivia Mauch both wore the libero jersey for two sets. Choboy had 18 digs and Mauch had 12. 

For the match, NU hit .285 and Kansas hit .214. The Huskers had eight blocks and served six aces. Kansas had four blocks and served four aces.

Set 1: Nebraska used a 4-0 run to take a 7-4 lead, keyed by Murray’s jump serve. She had an ace, and Landfair and Jackson each had kills. Allick pounded two kills to help NU to an 11-6 lead, and kills by Murray and Jackson made it 15-11 at the media timeout. After Kansas cut it to 15-13, Jackson had a kill and Allick had a solo block to help NU back to an 18-13 lead. But the Jayhawks answered to get within 19-18 after a 5-1 spurt. Allick terminated to keep the Huskers in front, 20-18. Allick and Jackson posted back-to-back kills to make it 23-19, and Pierce and Jackson combined for a block for set point. The Huskers won 25-20. 

Set 2: NU got off to a hot start with kills by Allick and Murray. Freshman Ryan Hunter then had a kill and a block with Allick in her first collegiate action to make it 4-1. Murray and Jackson recorded kills to keep NU on top, 8-6, and Hunter tacked on two more kills for a 12-8 Husker advantage. Murray and Jackson put NU up 15-10 at the media break. Jackson smashed back-to-back kills for an 18-13 advantage, and Reilly served an ace before a kill by Allick made it 21-15. The Huskers closed out a 25-18 win to go up 2-0. 

Set 3: The Huskers fought to a 9-6 lead with Hunter posting three kills, Sigler two, and Choboy serving an ace. Landfair’s second kill of the set and another by Sigler made it 11-7. Sigler tacked on another before Ryan followed suit for a 13-10 lead. But the Jayhawks answered with a 5-1 run to go ahead 15-14. Kansas then served long and Landfair tipped a kill to NU back in front. With the score tied 16-16, Allick posted a kill, and Hunter and Sigler stepped up once again for the Big Red to make it 19-17. Allick terminated again, and a block by Sigler and Jackson put the Huskers up 22-18. Hunter notched her ninth kill, and Jackson’s 10th earned set point. NU won 25-21.

Set 4: Kansas came out strong, taking a 12-8 lead. Murray stepped up with two kills and a block with Jackson to help NU rally to tie the score at 12-12 with Choboy serving the 4-0 run. Grace Nelson answered with two kills for KU to put the Jayhawks back up 14-12, but Jackson combined with Flynn for a block and tallied a kill before a Mauch ace sparked the Huskers to a 19-15 lead. Kansas stormed back to tie the score at 20-20, but the Huskers were up to the task, scoring a 4-0 run with an ace by Keri Leimbach, a block by Allick and Hunter, and a kill by Murray. Another Murray kill ended the match, 25-22.    

Up Next: The Huskers will head to Ord next Saturday for a match against South Dakota State at 2 p.m. It will be broadcast on Nebraska Public Media and the Huskers Radio Network. 

Ryan Hunter highlighted a terrific debut for the Nebraska volleyball freshman class as the Huskers beat Kansas 4-0 in a spring exhibition match Saturday night.

The win was Dani Busboom Kelly’s first public match at the Devaney Center as Nebraska’s head coach, and the fans showed out in support with an announced attendance of 8,592. The teams agreed to play at least four sets regardless of result in the first three, but Nebraska won all four — 25-20, 25-18, 25-21, 25-22.

“I really wasn’t nervous,” Busboom Kelly said of her debut. “It was more excited and just grateful to be here at a place where you can sell out a spring game, and it’s a big deal to people to get in. So it was more gratitude … I knew we’d play fairly well, just the way we’ve been practicing, and I knew they were excited to play an opponent.”

The team’s veteran middles were the only Huskers who played all four sets, and both terminated at a high level. However, it was Hunter, the freshman opposite hitter who shined the brightest in her debut — 13 months removed from a torn ACL.

“I feel great,” Hunter said. “I feel like I worked really, really hard to get to where I am right now, and I think I kind of proved out on the court today. I’m just really excited to be here … I wasn’t very nervous at all. I was kind of just really excited to be on the court with my sisters. I took it all in, took in all the emotions. The day before, I’m pretty sure, Andi just texted me, like, ‘just take in everything, take in all the emotions,’ and it was really helpful, because I feel like I did that, and it made playing volleyball and the experience 10 times better.”

Hunter played in the final three sets, totaling 11 kills on .563 hitting plus two blocks and two digs.

“I’m so proud of Ryan,” Andi Jackson said. “She has worked so hard to get to this point, especially coming off of an injury that she had, you would never be able to tell. I’m just really proud of her and her adversity, and she’s been an amazing teammate through the entire thing, which is, in my opinion, the coolest thing, because it’s one thing to be an amazing volleyball player, but it’s another thing to be an even more amazing person. So I’m really proud of her.”

Rebekah Allick and Jackson matched Hunter with 11 kills each, hitting .524 and .556, respectively. Setting the middles more has been a major focus so far in practice this spring, and they took advantage of that emphasis on Saturday.

“I think Bekka had an awesome match,” Busboom Kelly said. “She’s taking to heart that we need her to kill balls, and that’s going to be a big part of our offense. So to see her do that tonight was really encouraging.”

Harper Murray had a big fourth set to finish with 10 kills as Nebraska hit .285 for the match. She also debuted a new top-spin jump serve, accounting for one of Nebraska’s six aces.

“I think it just makes her a more aggressive player,” Busboom Kelly said. “When she went back to serve, I think in game two, I told her to float, because she also has a great float and a great yo-yo serve, a short serve, and I think she kind of was mad at me. I was glad that she wanted to keep top-spinning. So just an aggressiveness; she wants to score points, and that’s just another way for her to score more points.”

Kansas hit .214. Busboom Kelly rotated liberos between Laney Choboy and Olivia Mauch, with Keri Leimbach and Maisie Boesiger seeing the floor in a defensive specialist or serving sub role as well. Choboy posted a match-high 18 digs and an ace while Mauch added 12 digs plus six assists and an ace, with each playing in three sets.

As Busboom Kelly promised on Tuesday, she changed her lineups from set to set.

Bergen Reilly started the match at setter with Murray and Taylor Landfair on the left side, Skyler Pierce on the right, Jackson and Allick in the middle and Choboy at libero with Boesiger serving and playing in the back row for Hunter.

“That’s what I kind of wanted to do, and we talked as a staff about just starting the veterans,” Busboom Kelly said of the veteran starting group. “They earned it, and I’ve been saying all week that it’s been pretty even statistically, so why not let the returners start, because we knew we were going to try to play everybody almost as evenly as we could with making adjustments if we needed to.”

Nebraska hit .194 as Reilly’s connection with her pins was a little rocky, but the middles carried the load. Jackson and Allick had four kills apiece on a combined 11 errorless swings. Kansas hit .079 as Choboy recorded nine digs.

In the second set, Reilly played alongside Murray and freshman Teraya Sigler at outside, Hunter at opposite and Mauch at libero with Leimbach playing defensive specialist for Hunter.

Nebraska’s offense took off in set two as the pins joined the middle blocker party. Nebraska hit .379 behind four more kills on four swings from Jackson. Murray added four kills and Hunter chipped in three on five swings. Kansas hit .306 while Mauch recorded six digs and four assists.

In the third set, freshman Campbell Flynn made her debut at setter with Landfair and Sigler on the left side, Hunter on the right, Choboy at libero and Mauch at defensive specialist.

Game three was a shootout with Nebraska hitting .375 to Kansas’ .375. The Jayhawks only recorded one attack error.

Campbell racked up 15 assists as Nebraska recorded 19 kills. Sigler put down six kills on nine attacks after not taking a swing in the second set. Hunter also went six-for-six, showing off some craftiness to go with the power she displayed in set two.

“[She was] just super aggressive,” Busboom Kelly said of Hunter. “For a freshman to come out there and swing away, and some of those out-of-system swings were pretty insane. That sets the tone for her, like she’s going to go after it and go for kills. I told her — she didn’t play beach, so we did some training with her — your job is to block balls and kill balls and let’s not worry about anything else, and she did that tonight, so it’s good to see her do her job.”

In the fourth set, Hunter remained at setter with Murray and Pierce at outside hitter, Hunter at opposite, Mauch at libero, Choboy at defensive specialist for Hunter and Leimbach as a serving specialist for Pierce.

The Huskers fell behind 9-5 early after a 4-0 Jayhawk run, but Nebraska rallied to tie it at 12-12 and 14-14 before Mauch served a 5-0 run to put the Huskers in front 19-15. Kansas tied it again at 20-20, but Nebraska responded with a 4-0 run including a Leimbach ace then Murray capitalized on Nebraska’s third set point with her fifth kill of the frame.

Nebraska hit .156 and held Kansas to .118. The Huskers recorded four blocks in the fourth, matching their total from the first three sets combined.

“I thought it was a great spring match, really good competition,” Busboom Kelly said. “One of our biggest goals was to keep the level of play consistent no matter who was out there, and I thought we did that. I think it was a great way to showcase our team this early in the year.”

The match was the team’s first without John Cook on the bench, though he was in the building as a member of the broadcast team for Big Ten Network. Allick said it felt weird at first, but things settled in and started to feel natural midway through the first set.

“I was telling Olivia this, that being out there, going through technically old experiences but with a missing piece, without John Cook, like you’re used to him walking out, having his pep talk, and it’s like something feels like it’s missing,” Allick said. “So it was weird, and then it started to feel like home again. Honestly, it was just like being a freshman all over again. Knowing that I’m wrapping up my time here, I’m just trying to take it in, and so it felt really good to be back.”

The Huskers will get another week on the practice court before departing for Ord, Nebraska, to wrap up the spring with the team’s traditional traveling exhibition. Nebraska will take on South Dakota State on Saturday.

LOS ANGELES – Battling back from a three-goal halftime deficit to tie the game 8-8 with 5:17 to play in the third quarter, the 4-seed and No. 22-ranked San Diego State water polo team was outscored by 1-seed and No. 9 ranked Loyola Marymount 8-2 in the final 13:17 and came up on the short end of a 6-11 decision in its Golden Coast Conference Tournament semifinal game on Saturday afternoon at Burns Aquatics Center.

With the loss, San Diego State (15-14) plays in the third-place game against 3-seed Pacific (13-10) on Sunday at 11 a.m. (PT).

Sammi Byers, Shannon Murphy and Mimi Stoupas each scored a team-high two goals, with Sydney Gish, Rose Kanemy, Makena Macedo, and Claudia Valdes each scoring a single goal. In the cage, Mady Lagerlof (1-2) made a season-high 12 saves against 16 goals allowed with three steals. 

Kanemy, the program’s career assist leader, added three more today. The Montreal, Canada, native has 65 assists for the year, the third most in a season in program history, and is four behind Anique Hermann’s 2014 record 69 assists. In addition, Kanemy became the only player in San Diego State history to surpass the 200 assists for her career, standing at 201 heading into tomorrow’s season-finale.

The Lions scored the first goal of the contest with a powerplay strike at 7:24. But, Byers continued her strong play in the tournament with a goal 18 seconds later, on Kanemy’s first assist of the game, to make it 1-1. LMU responded with a pair of goals, the first at 6:01 and the second 5:25, to lead 3-1. Then at the 5:04 mark, Kanemy and Byers reversed roles from their first score. Kanemy scored the goal with the assist going to Byers and it was 3-2 LMU. Loyola Marymount made it 4-2 and then 5-2 on goals at 4:25 and 3:56.

Valdes drew the Scarlet and Black to within a pair of goals, 5-3, with a tally with 3:44 to play in the opening stanza and Kanemy got her second assist in the game. Then within a 16-second span, the team each put a score on the board. LMU’s came at 2:19 and the Aztecs’ Murphy answered at the 2:03 mark. Valdes assisted on Murphy’s strike and the game went to the second quarter with SDSU trailing 6-4.

Loyola Marymount (19-11) got the first score of the second on a penalty shot at 4:55 making it 7-4, but on Byers’ second goal of the game and fifth in the last two days, at 4:20, it was 7-5. Megan Holcomb assisted on the goal. The Lions responded 12 seconds later to get its advantage back to three goals, 8-5. Inside two minutes before the intermission, Lagerlof stopped a penalty shot to keep the margin to three goals as the teams went to halftime.

Coming out of the break, Stoupas sliced the lead to 8-6 on a powerplay goal at 7:29, and then Gish made it a one-goal game at 7:01 with Julianne Stark getting the assist. The Aztecs tied it at 8-8 on Stoupas’ second of the quarter and the game. The tally came at 5:17 with Kanemy notching her third assist of the contest.

Loyola Marymount ended the Aztecs’ run and the period with three straight strikes: at 4:12, 2:58 and 1:45, to regain its three-goal lead 11-8, which was the score heading into the final quarter.

The first two minutes of the fourth was tame, but then the team combined for three goals in 41 seconds. The Aztecs’ score, on Murphy’s second of the contest, came at 5:25, and was sandwiched between Lions’ scores at 5:44 and 5:03 to make it 13-9. LMU pushed it to 14-9 with 4:03 to play, 15-9 at 3:29 and then 16-9 at 1:41. Macedo ended the four-goal run with a strike, assisted by Luna Sarmiento, to make the score 16-10 with 1:02 to play. Neither team scored in the final 62 seconds and San Diego State came up five goals short.

San Diego State: 4-1-3-2 – 10
Loyola Marymount: 6-2-3-5 – 16

San Diego State Goals: Byers (2), Murphy (2), Stoupas (2), Gish, Kanemy, Valdes
Loyola Marymount Goals: Gerber (7), Arino Ruiz (3), DeMattia (2), Larson, Lopez, Magano, Nankervis 

San Diego State Saves: Lagerlof (12)
Loyola Marymount Saves: Barnuevo (11)

Lewis “Pepaw” Patrick Shipley

Lewis “Pepaw” Patrick Shipley, 92, of Chattanooga, Tennessee passed away Thursday, April 24, 2025 at his home.

Born in Chattanooga, he was a veteran of the U.S. Army, a former employee of TVA, a member of Woodland Park Baptist Church and a member of IBEW Local #175.

Lewis was an avid quilter, loved NASCAR, sports and enjoyed playing golf, but most of all he loved being “Pepaw”.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Erma Henry Shipley; daughter, Sandy Shipley; parents, Harry Thomas Shipley and Dorothea Rebecca Patrick Shipley and brother, Wendell Shipley. Lewis is survived by four daughters, Debbie (Gary) Holder, Joy (Walter) Nolan, Jennifer (Rodney) Walker and Rebecca Shipley; son, Patrick Lee (Deborah) Shipley; brother, Perry Wayne Shipley; sister-in-law Linda Campbell; nine grandchildren, Amanda Coots, Zachary (Jaden) Shipley, Chase (Emily) Walker, Alexandria Shipley, Anna Brooke Shipley, Jordan Shipley, Savannah Walker, Shawn Rogers and Chad Rogers; two great grandchildren, Nolan Walker and Leilani Coots; several nieces and nephews.

Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, April 29, in the funeral home chapel, with Brother Jim Barkley officiating. Interment will follow at Hamilton Memorial Gardens. The family will receive friends from 11 a.m.– 1 p.m. on Tuesday at the funeral home.

Visit the online obituary at www.heritagechattanooga.com to post tributes and share memories.

Arrangements are by Heritage Funeral Home, East Brainerd Chapel.