PITTSBURGH – The America East champion UMBC Volleyball team season came to end as No.4 Pitt swept an NCAA Tournament first round match-up (25-10, 25-17, 25-13) on Friday night. 

Jalynn Brown led the Retrievers with eight kills, while Pittsburgh-area native Hannah Dobbs added seven kills, three digs and a block. 

Hannah Howard tallied a match-best 11 digs and ended the season with 457 digs, the tenth most in a single season in UMBC history.

Laura Fuehrer had four kills and two blocks and finished the season with 114 blocks and 101 assisted blocks, good for sixth and fifth most, respectively, in a single season in program history. 

Claudia Lllamas picked up six kills, Helen Frankovich had four on .500 hitting with two blocks and Izzy Ostvig added a kill with 12 assists and a team-high three blocks

Serin Maden had 13 assists and finished her stellar career in the black and gold with 2,461 assists.

Ella McAllister chipped in with two digs and Ema Djordjevic also saw action in the contest.

This was both the Retrievers fifth America East championship and NCAA Tournament appearance in the past six seasons.

TCU’s just-passed 8-4 regular season had many in the purple people masses as angry as a tourist who just paid $40 to park, and for many others as disappointed as when Junior brought home an F in civics.

Many have expressed themselves in much the same way of our old friend, the frontier prospector Gabby Johnson of “Blazing Saddles” fame: No sidewindin’, bushwackin’, hornswagglin’ cracker croaker is gonna rouin me bishen cutter!

TCU Athletic Director Mike Buddie gets it.

“I think there were 11 teams in our league this year whose fan bases wanted their coaches fired,” Buddie said on Friday morning at the FIFA World Cup Draw party at Billy Bob’s Texas, the world’s largest honky tonk. “That’s the culture that we live in. You can win [against a] ranked opponent, [next week against] ranked opponent, [a third straight win against a] ranked opponent, and then lose — they want you gone.

“It’s a new day and age.”

Like the mood of Paris in 1793 — cheers in the morning, pitchforks and the guillotine by dusk.

TCU finished in the middle of a congested Big 12 at 5-4. To put some perspective on its season, Texas finished 9-3. Of course, many UT fans think the Longhorns should win every game, too. No. 25 Missouri, like TCU, finished 8-4. So, too, did Tennessee and Iowa, two teams receiving votes in the AP poll. In the end, after 12 regular-season games, only two teams finished undefeated — Ohio State and Indiana. One of those teams will lose this weekend; they play each other.

North Carolina — guided by renowned football genius Bill Belichick — stumbled to 4–8, taking a season-opening black eye from TCU.

Just last year, Ohio State fans wanted coach Ryan Day on the nearest interstate out of town after the Buckeyes took the worst kind of a second loss of the season — to Michigan. That was on Nov. 30. By the end of January, they wanted to elect him governor after winning the national championship. 

The Horned Frogs will learn their postseason bowl destination on Sunday.

Dykes has gone 35-17 over four seasons at TCU, including 13-2 and a berth in the College Football Playoff championship game in his first season. That campaign included a victory over No. 2 Michigan in the Fiesta Bowl CFP semifinals.

TCU slipped to 5-7 in 2023 but went 9-4 last year and could do the same in 2025 with one last victory.

“We need to be better,” Buddie said. “We’re committed to getting better. I’m excited because nobody realizes that more than Sonny Dykes.

“He’s committed to addressing some needs that I think we have and more than ever before, what I do and how we strategically fundraise and approach people financially has a direct impact on your football program. I think Texas Tech showed us all that if you can build the most talented roster and develop them, really good things happen.”

Texas Tech, which is playing in the Big 12 Championship Game on Saturday against BYU, spent, according to reports and speculation, as much as $28 million on its football roster this season. The Red Raiders are No. 4 in the most recent CFP rankings.

Spending that kind of money is the result of a completely transformed landscape in college football. Colleges can now spend as much as $20.5 million on payroll for athletes in its various programs. That mostly impacts football and men’s basketball — those sports that generate the most revenue, the “revenue sports.”

Before that, each Division I school had an adjacent collective designed to allow athletes to cash in on their name, image, and likeness. That quickly evolved — devolved? — into merely paying athletes by writing checks out of the collective’s pool. Now completely legal after a U.S. Supreme Court case permitting athletes to receive compensation beyond traditional scholarships. The collectives simply became the mechanism to funnel those payments.

Most, if not all, of the collectives have now been merged with universities’ traditional athletics fundraising arm. NIL endorsement deals are now supposed to be just exactly that — an athlete endorsing a product, for example. I’m not exactly sure how all that sorts out.

“The landscape has changed, but we still have a ton of advantages in facilities and where we’re located and historical success,” said Buddie, who added that TCU also is “thoughtful and strategic in how we employ people.”

“We’re not in the business of paying $50 million buyouts for people to go away. And when you believe you’ve got the right person who’s already proven that he can win in the College Football Playoff, it’s incumbent on me to provide him every resource that he needs to be successful.”

» Michigan swept Xavier in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

» Allison Jacobs tallied a match-leading 19 kills on a .326 hitting percentage.

» Maddi Cuchran recorded four aces, becoming just the fifth Wolverine with four or more aces in a tournament match.

» Serena Nyambio hit .583 with eight kills on 12 swings.

PITTSBURGH, Pa. — The University of Michigan volleyball team swept eighth-seeded Xavier 25-19, 25-15, 25-23 on Friday (Dec. 5) in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament at the Petersen Events Center.

Michigan (22-10) was led by Allison Jacobs, who tallied a match-leading 19 kills on a .326 hitting percentage. She was the only player who recorded double-digit kills in the match. Ella Demetrician had nine kills, including Michigan’s final two and Serena Nyambio hit .583 with eight kills on 12 swings. Maddi Cuchran tallied four service aces to become just the fifth Wolverine in program history with four aces or more in an NCAA Tournament match. Morgan Burke and Camille Edwards led the U-M offense to a .287 hitting percentage, with Burke recording 17 assists and two aces while Edwards had 18 assists and one ace.

A kill from Nyambio opened the match, but Xavier (26-5) responded with a kill. The Wolverines used a kill from Jacobs and an ace from Cuchran to take the lead. Xavier tied the set at five and six, but U-M kept the Musketeers from taking the lead. Michigan followed with a 4-1 run, led by an ace from Burke and a block from Nyambio and Cymarah Gordon. Xavier brought the set to within one at 10-9, but a Nyambio kill ended the threat and jump-started four straight Michigan points. A block from Gordon and Jenna Hanes put Michigan up 15-11 going into the media timeout. The Musketeers took two of the next three points out of the timeout, and Michigan followed with a 5-2 run with kills from three different players and an ace from Burke to go up 21-15. Xavier took four of the next five points to force a Michigan timeout. Out of the timeout, Jacobs recorded a kill followed by a block from Hanes and Gordon to reach set point. The Musketeers called their second timeout of the set, and out of the timeout, Jacobs ended the set with a kill for a 25-19 set one win.

Xavier started the second set with two quick points to take an early lead, but it was all Michigan after that. A 5-0 run led by Cuchran, who recorded her third ace of the match, put the Wolverines ahead 8-3. After the teams traded points midway through the set, U-M went on a 4-0 run to build a 15-7 advantage, but Xavier countered with a 4-0 run of its own. A Nyambio kill and Musketeers attack error forced Xavier’s second timeout of the set, trailing 17-11. After the timeout, Michigan took eight of the final 12 points, with a kill from Demetrician finishing off the set 25-15.

In the third set, the Wolverines jumped out to an early lead, once again 8-3, led by service runs from Edwards and Jacobs. Xavier hung around and tied the match at 11 before taking the lead. A kill from Gordon tied the match at 12 and Cuchran’s fourth ace put Michigan back in front. From there, neither team held a lead bigger than two points the rest of the way, with the final 14 points alternating back and forth. Demetrician tallied the final two Michigan points as U-M took the third set 25-23 to advance to the second round.

The Wolverines will take on either top-seeded and No. 4-ranked Pittsburgh or UMBC on Saturday (Dec. 6) at 7 p.m. in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at the Petersen Events Center. The match will be streamed live on ESPN+.

Holy Cross Richard L. Ahern ’51 Director of Cross Country and Track and Field Egetta Alfonso has announced the Crusaders’ 2025-26 indoor track & field schedule for the men’s and women’s programs.

The Crusaders are set to open the season on Saturday, Dec. 6 at the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener hosted by Boston University and the Alden Invitational hosted by Brown. Next weekend, Holy Cross heads to New Hampshire for the Dartmouth December Invitational that will be held on Dec. 12 and 13.

Following a break for the holidays, the team returns to action on Jan. 17 at the URI Invitational and the Suffolk Ice Breaker on Jan. 18. The women’s team will compete on Jan. 30 at the David Thomas Terrier Classic in Boston followed by the men on Jan. 31 with the order of events staying the same for the River Hawk Invitational hosted by UMass Lowell on Feb. 6 and 7.

Holy Cross will then compete in meets at Boston University/URI (Feb. 14) and Brown (Feb. 21) in preparation for the 2026 Patriot League Indoor Track & Field Championships that will be hosted by BU on Feb. 28 and March 1.

The annual New England Indoor Championships are slated to be held on March 7-8 at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston

FOLLOW THE CRUSADERS

Be sure to follow the Holy Cross track & field and cross country teams — and all things Crusader Athletics — on social media!

X – @HCrossTFXC | @goholycross

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JR Motorsports has issued a statement

Former NASCAR driver Michael Annett has passed away.

Annett climbed from the ARCA Menards Series to the NASCAR Cup Series. He ran with JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series from 2017-2021.

He was a Daytona winner with JR Motorsports. He won the season opener in the 2019 NASCAR Xfinity Series season.

He also spent three years in the NASCAR Cup Series. He raced for Tommy Baldwin Racing (2014), HScott Motorsports (2015), Hillman-Circle Sport LLC (2015) and H Scott Motorsports (2016).

Annett was 39 years old.

At this time, there is no further information on his death.

JR Motorsports statement

JR Motorsports posted the following on Friday night:

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the entire Annett family with the passing of our friend Michael Annett,” JR Motorsports posted.

The team added, “Michael was a key member of JRM from 2017 until he retired in 2021 and was an important part in turning us into the four-car organization we remain today.”

Annett suffered a leg injury and retired following the 2021 season.

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LYNCHBURG – Coming home with a pair of event titles and several personal bests, the Elon University women’s track and field team wrapped up competition Friday at the Liberty Kickoff inside the Liberty Indoor Complex.
 
Isabella Johnson led the Phoenix in the shot put with a fourth-place finish. The sophomore recorded a personal-best throw of 13.99m, moving into fifth on the program’s indoor performance list. Adriana Clarke placed fifth with a personal-best toss of 13.01m.
 
On the track, Elon earned two event wins as Jasmine Young and Winter Oaster claimed titles in the 5,000 meters and the mile, respectively. Young posted a time of 17:26.66, while Oaster crossed the line in 5:10.95. Shayla Cann added a sixth-place finish in the 500 meters with a time of 1:15.63.
 
In the high jump, Hannah Schonhoff finished third after clearing 1.68 meters. Newcomer Eloise Mulready placed fifth with a clearance of 1.63 meters. In the 400 meters, Duna Viñals finished fourth with a time of 57.73 while Mary Sollars took sixth in a personal-best 58.74.
 
Caden Cerminara finished seventh in the pole vault, clearing 3.75m, while Ja’Mia Johnson placed eighth in the finals of the 60-meter hurdles with her time of 8.91.
 
ON DECK
Select members of the Phoenix distance group will compete at the Sharon Colyear-Danville Opener tomorrow, hosted at Boston University.
 

— ELON —