NCAA Women's Volleyball National Semifinal: Illinois vs. USC (Game Thread

via basketball.ballparks.com

For the USC Women's Volleyball team, this is what they have been waiting for. After two difficult five-set struggles against Hawaii and Pepperdine in Honolulu, the 29-4 Women of Troy have earned their spot in the national semifinals, and tonight they will be playing against the 31-4 Illinois Fighting Illini. The winner advances to the National Championship game against either Florida State or UCLA.

The game will be broadcast on ESPN2 at 6:00 PM PT, or after the conclusion of the FSU/UCLA game. This will be our game thread. More on the matchup after the jump.

For USC, this is their second consecutive national semifinal, and they hope to avoid last year's letdown, when they fell to Cal in straight sets. In order to fuel their offense, they will need exceptional performances from their All-Americans: libero Natalie Hagglund, setter Kendall Bateman, and outside hitter Alex Jupiter. Jupiter in particular has changed the course of many matches throughout the season by coming through when the team needs her most. In both regional games last week, she was stopped by Hawaii and Pepperdine's blocking corps through the first three sets, but in the fourth set she managed to find a rhythm and gave USC the momentum they needed to secure the victory.

No other team has taken a tougher road to get here than the Women of Troy, but hopefully they will prove that the challenges they have faced have only made them stronger. Last week they played for a combined 4 hours and 50 minutes against Hawaii and Pepperdine. It was the first time since the very beginning of the season that USC faced a five-set situation, but they came back from 2-1 deficits to make it. Now a chance to earn a possible final showdown with the Bruins as well as USC's seventh women's volleyball national championship is theirs for the taking.

I will post updates on this thread. Again, the game is at 9 ET/6 PT on ESPN2 and ESPN3.com.

FIGHT ON!