Incredible rally during women’s collegiate volleyball game features diving save that sends table crashing

A University of Houston volleyball player made a miraculous save during an opening-round NCAA tournament match on Friday that some have described as a play of a lifetime.

In perhaps evoking for the spectator an image of what often occurs in a WWE tussle, Junior Kate Georgiades went diving out of bounds into a table and over it while keeping the epic rally against the University of South Dakota Coyotes alive.

Georgiades managed to run back to the court while the rally was still active and even helped keep it going.

Houston won the point in footage that has gone viral on social media, prompting an outpouring of joy from Georgiades and her teammates. They subsequently prevailed in the match in five sets.

The outcome on Friday was reportedly the Houston’s first tournament win in nearly three decades and first post-season appearance in about 20 years.

“Georgiades could have either given up on the play, reached out as far as she could and hope to make a play, or yeet herself into the tables with reckless abandon. She chose the third of three options,” Outkick noted.

Watch:

https://twitter.com/espn/status/1598836718404358145

The Cougars are ranked fifth in the tourney and went on to defeat Auburn on Saturday. The third round commences later next week when they will face Stanford, which is ranked number one.

In 2021, Georgiades was named the American libero of the year, along with other honors on her resume.

According to the team website, the Texas native, 2019 National Honor Society member, and Humane Society volunteer is pursuing a college major in “exercise science with hopes to become an orthopedic physician’s assistant.

The libero is defensive specialist on a volleyball court subject to certain rules limitations.

In the Houston-South Dakota match, the video depicts each libero wearing a black jersey (as required for the distinctive attire in a player in that position) in contrast to the colors worn by their teammates.

https://twitter.com/UHCougarVB/status/1598891129973641216

The national semifinals and championship games for the talented and lucky teams that emerge victorious in the regionals are set to be held in Omaha, Neb., at the CHI Health Center on December 15 and 17, respectively.

Parenthetically, University of Houston volleyball team is reportedly the school’s first women’s sports program that has signed a name, image, and likeness (NIL) deal for the entire squad, and possibly the first team-wide volleyball arrangement in the U.S., the Daily Cougar reported in late November.

Broadly given the green light by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 2021 NCAA v. Alston case, the NIL process allows college athletes to make money while they are still considered amateurs.

Typically, male players in the high-profile football and basketball programs — which university spin-doctors traditionally and euphemistically referred to as student-athletes despite what sometimes has allegedly occurred under the table as well as their iffy class attendance — are the those who seem to cash in the most with NIL marketing benefits.

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