Last night, the defending state volleyball champion Gators beat the Liberty Lions on Xavier's home court 3-0 (25-16, 25-16, 25-19) to advance out of the State Quarterfinals. They will play #4 Casteel in the Semifinals at 6:00 pm this Thursday, November 13, at Xavier.

In the first set, the score was knotted at ten apiece before Xavier took off on two runs of three consecutive points and a run of five, quickly changing the complexion of the game with a 21-12 advantage. The Gators won the first set 25-16.

In the second set, the Lions used a run of three consecutive points early to tie the game at three, but the Gators quickly responded with a five-point run, the catalyst to their unrelenting domination of game two. However, Liberty did manage to sneak in a four-point run between Xavier's 24th and 25th points but came up short again, 25-16.

After stringing four consecutive points together prior to Xavier's winning point in the previous set, the Lions carried that small piece of momentum to a seven-point advantage, 13-6, in the third set. However, the rest of the way included two 3-point runs, a 4-point run, and a 5-point run by Xavier to erase any hopes of a game-three upset by Liberty.

Liberty put up a good fight, but Xavier dominated the net with many, many blocks and some very powerful kill shots. You will see this come to life in the highlight videos below.

THE IMPORTANCE OF SLOW MOTION
Slow motion allows the sports fan an opportunity to more fully perceive and appreciate instances of athleticism that too often go underappreciated during real-time observation and watching videos at normal speed. 

I demonstrate this with a play from last night's volleyball match. In this particular play, setter Selah O'Connor sets the ball to Tessa Larkin, who slams the ball with great force directly to the floor, none of the Liberty players coming even close to touching the ball. What most people will "ooh aah!" and "wow!" at is Tessa's amazing kill shot.