Volleyball Today: Huskers at Wisconsin; ASU tops BYU; 21-0 Jackrabbits; PVF sets 2025 slate
USC’s Ally Batenhorst hits out of the back row against UCLA/Andy J. Gordon photo
The NCAA Division I volleyball spotlight shines on Madison on Friday when Nebraska, No. 2 in the VolleyballMag Super 16 Media Poll, plays at No. 7 Wisconsin. Nebraska, which is 20-1 and 10-0 in the Big Ten, has won 17 in a row. Wisconsin (15-4, 9-1) has won nine in a row.
The only undefeated team, South Dakota State, won in four at Omaha on Thursday to extend its unbeaten record to 21-0 as the Jackrabbits took a two-game lead in The Summit League loss column.
In the only match between ranked teams, No. 13 Arizona State won in five at No. 20 BYU in the Big 12.
Lindenwood fell out of first place in the Ohio Valley when it was knocked off by Morehead State.
Athletes Unlimited begins the start of the last round of its five-week season when Team (Madi) Kingdon Rishcl plays Team (Bethania) De La Cruz–Mejia at 8 p.m. Eastern in Mesa, Arizona, followed by Team (Brittany) Abercrombie vs. Team (Dani Drews). Both matches can be seen on the FanDuel Sports Network and Volleyball World TV.
Many of the AU players also are on Pro Volleyball Federation rosters and Thursday the PVF, which begins it second season in January, released its composite schedule.
It’s all in this edition of Volleyball Today:
NCAA volleyball Friday
Nebraska-Wisconsin is the top rivalry in college volleyball these days and the matches rarely disappoint. From Wisconsin: “Big Ten rival Nebraska leads the Badgers overall, 20-13-1. Before the five-set heartbreaker last season in Lincoln, the Badgers had won ten in a row against the Huskers. UW has not lost at home to Nebraska since the 2013 season.”
It’s worth noting that Penn State (21-1, 11-0) has won 13 in a row and is alone in first in the Big Ten.
Also in the B1G, speaking of Penn State, the Nittany Lions play host to Iowa, No. 10 Purdue is at Maryland, No. 14 Minnesota is at Michigan State, Illinois is at Northwestern and Indiana goes to Rutgers.
In the SEC, Missouri, which has won six in a row, goes to No. 9 Texas, No. 16 Kentucky goes to South Carolina, Tennessee is at Georgia and Alabama is at Texas A&M.
There are eight ACC matches but none involving two ranked teams. No. 1 Pittsburgh is at Virginia, No. 4 Louisville is off, AVCA No. 6 Stanford is at Miami, No. 11 SMU is at Virginia Tech, No. 16 Georgia Tech is at Duke, No. 23 Florida State is home for Cal, No. 25 North Carolina is home for Clemson and Boston College is at Wake Forest.
The three Big 12 matches show No. 17 Baylor home for Colorado, No. 18 TCU home for Iowa State and Cincinnati at Houston.
Fifth-ranked Creighton, riding a 12-match winning streak, plays a Big East match against visiting St. John’s. Marquette, a game back in the standings, is home for Villanova.
Western Kentucky, 19-6 and 12-0 in Conference USA, puts its 15-match winning streak on the line against visiting NM State and, hopefully, both head coach Travis Hudson and assistant Craig Bere will be on the sidelines. They have both been on the DL since getting hurt playing, of all things, volleyball. Hudson completely blew out a knee with multiple injuries and then later, in the same game, Bere tore his Achilles.
Northern Iowa, which leads Drake by a game in the Missouri Valley and has won 11 in a row, goes to Murray State, while Drake is at Belmont.
Winless watch: The 0-24 Hampton Pirates play at College of Charleston, one of four teams tied for the CAA lead.
NCAA volleyball Thursday
Arizona State (21-9, 9-1) won its ninth in a row and is a game back of idle Kansas in the Big 12 after its 25-23, 17-25, 25-23, 25-14, 15-7 victory at BYU (13-7, 6-4). Shania Cromartie had 16 kills, an assist and 19 digs, and Geli Cyr had 15 kills, an ace, 119 digs and two blocks, one solo. Savannah Kjolhede had 12 kills with no errors in 18 attacks and six blocks and setter Argentina Ung had a killl, 56 assists, an ace and five blocks, one solo. Claire Little led BYU with 20 kills, seven digs and a block. Alex Bower had a kill, 46 assists, 15 digs and a block … Also in the Big 12, No. 22 Utah (17-5, 7-3) won 25-20, 21-25, 25-20, 26-24 over visiting Arizona (13-7, 2-7) as Kamryn Gibadlo had 19 kills, hit .348 and had an ace, a block and seven digs. Arizona’s Jaelyn Hodge had 20 kills, three blocks and 12 digs … Kansas State (8-11, 6-4) beat visiting West Virginia (8-13, 2-8) in five as Aliyah Carter had 20 kills, an assist, an ace, 11 digs and two blocks. Libero Ella Larkin had 23 digs, seven assists and two aces. West Virginia’s Hailey Green had 23 kills, hit .315, and had two digs and four blocks. Laila Ibrahim had 10 kills, two digs and 10 blocks, two solo …
No. 21 USC (15-6, 7-4) hit .362 and got a much-needed Big Ten sweep at UCLA (10-10, 4-7). Ally Batenhorst led with 16 kills and hit .536 after having one error in 28 attacks to go with 10 digs and two blocks, one solo. Mia Tuaniga had six kills with one error in 11 tries, 40 assists, an ace, three blocks and eight digs …. In the other Big Ten match, Ohio State (9-12, 2-9) broke its five-match skid with a sweep of visiting Iowa (9-14, 3-8) …
South Dakota State (21-0, 10-0) came away with a 25-18, 12-25, 25-20, 25-16 Summit League victory at Omaha (11-11, 9-2). Sylive Zgonc had 13 kills, two assists, a block and 14 digs. Omaha’s Kali Jurgenmeister had 17 kills, hit .342, and had three blocks and two digs … Also in The Summit, North Dakota State won in five at Oral Roberts, St. Thomas beat visiting Denver in four and South Dakota beat visiting North Dakota in four …
Loyola Marymount built its lead over idle Pepperdine to a half game with a WCC sweep of visiting Washington State … San Diego stayed a game off the lead with a sweep of visiting Santa Clara as the Toreros hit .378 … Oregon State swept visiting Gonzaga and Lauren Rumel had 20 kills with two errors in 34 attacks to hit .534 to go with an assist, eight digs and a block … Saint Mary’s got 19 kills from Genevieve Bane, who hit .304, in a five-set win over visiting San Francisco. Bane had two assists, eight digs and three blocks, one solo. …
Lindenwood dropped out of first place when it got swept at Morehead State and returns there Friday for another Ohio Valley match. Lindenwood, which had won seven in a row, hit .036 and trails idle Southeast Missouri State by a game in the loss column … Wofford maintained its slim SoCon lead with a sweep of visiting The Citadel. Bri Mahoney had 13 kills, an assist, two aces, 12 digs and two blocks, one solo … Also in the SoCon, Samford swept at Western Carolina and Kaleigh Meritt had 17 kills, hit .529, and had seven digs and a block …
Southeastern Louisiana (19-4, 11-0) won its 19th in a row, a four-set Southland Conference victory at Nicolls as Cicily Hidalgo had 18 kills, hit .417 and had two assists, six aces, 13 digs and six blocks. India Bennett had seven kills with no errors in 15 attacks, three digs and 11 blocks … Also in the SLC, Stephen F. Austin (18-6. 10-1) kept pace and hit .429 in a sweep at New Orleans. Izabella Ortiz had 13 kills with one error in 15 swings to hit .800 and had an assist, an ace, seven digs and two blocks, one solo … Northwestern beat visiting Houston Christian in five as Teresa Garza had 23 kills, hit .333, and had an assist, three aces, 14 digs and a block. HCU’s Emerald Jacobs had 26 kills, hit .308, and had four assists, two aces, 19 digs and a block …
Idaho State stayed a game of Big Sky-leading idle Northern Colorado with a five-set win at Montana … Also in the Big Sky, Bridgette Smith of Sacramento State had 17 kills and hit .438 with two aces, four digs and two blocks in a sweep of Idaho, which has lost 14 in a row … second-place UTEP, coming off back-to-back losses to Western Kentucky, swept its Conference USA match with visiting Middle Tennessee as Landry Braziel had 10 kills with no errors in 14 attacks … Troy swept Louisiana-Monroe in the only Sun Belt match and Tori Hester had 19 kills, hit .326, and had an ace and eight digs … In Utah Valley’s WAC sweep of visiting Seattle U, Kennedi Knudsen had 18 kills with one error in 32 attacks to hit .531 and she had four digs and three blocks. Cassidy Fried had seven kills in eight errorless attacks and eight blocks, three solo …
There were no forfeits in the Mountain West where first-place Colorado State swept visiting UNLV and San Jose State won in five at Air Force to stay a game off the lead. Fresno State swept New Mexico and Addison Haluska had 18 kills, an ace, 11 digs and two blocks … Utah State beat visiting Boise State as Andrea Simovski had 20 kills, four digs and three blocks.
Pro Volleyball Federation 2025 schedule
The second PVF season has the eight teams playing 28 matches each, facing the other seven teams four times, twice at home and twice on the road.
The season begins January 9, starting with San Diego at Orlando.
Click here for the PVF news release and complete composite schedule.
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