Nebraska sweeps Penn St.; Texas tops Houston; big win for FGCU; Citadel gets to 20-0
There was a record crowd at the Fertitta Center on Saturday at Houston for its match against Texas/Joe Buvid photo
Nebraska not only stayed unbeaten as it swept Penn State, but the No. 2 team in the VolleyballMag.com Super 16 Media Poll improved to 17-0 and at 8-0 moved a half game ahead of idle Wisconsin atop the Big Ten standings.
No. 6 Texas won at Houston, which set a home attendance record as spectator marks continue to be broken in college volleyball.
FGCU took over first in the ASUN, The Citadel is 20-0 after sweeping at ETSU and St. John’s is in first place in the Big East.
Line of the day: Iona won in four at Manhattan as Morgan Madasz had 27 kills and hit .467 to go with three aces, five digs and and three blocks.
The recaps and highlights for every conference that was in action Saturday follows, but first a look at Sunday’s NCAA Division I women’s volleyball schedule.
Houston, which set a home attendance record for Saturday’s match, plays host to Texas again at noon Central and that match is on ESPN.
The match of the day in the SEC has VBM No. 10 Tennessee at home for Kentucky, which is No. 23 in the AVCA top 25. VBM No. 13 Arkansas is home for Alabama, LSU is at Georgia, South Carolina is at Texas A&M and Ole Miss is at Missouri.
The Big Ten has No. 1 Wisconsin home for Maryland, AVCA No. 15 Purdue at Ohio State, AVCA No. 24 Minnesota home for Northwestern and Rutgers at Illinois.
There are seven ACC matches, but none of the ranked teams play each other. VBM No. 8 Louisville is home for Virginia, No. 7 Pittsburgh is at Notre Dame and No. 12 Georgia Tech is home for Miami. Florida State is at Clemson, North Carolina is at Boston College, Duke is at Syracuse and Virginia Tech is at NC State.
There are six Pac-12 matches, three involving ranked teams. Third-ranked Stanford is home for UCLA, No. 4 Washington State is home for Colorado and No. 5 Oregon is home for AVCA No. 19 Arizona State. Arizona is at Oregon State, Utah is at Washington and USC is at Cal.
The Big 12 has the day off.
Creighton, receiving votes in the VBM Poll and AVCA No. 17, has a Big East home match against Villanova.
Saint Peter’s goes at it again when the 0-21 Peacocks play at Fairfield, which has won five in a row and is in a three-way tie with Marist and Quinnipiac in the loss column atop the MAAC standings. Hampton, 0-10, was scheduled to play back-to-back NEC matches at Northeastern but they were canceled”due to health concerns within the Hampton program.”
Want to watch? We have the conference-by-conference schedule with viewing links for any match that is being shown in our VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings.
BIG 12: It was a win-win, if you will. No. 6 Texas (12-3, 7-0) won 25-21, 17-25, 25-23, 25-17 at AVCA No. 21 Houston (9-6, 2-4), but there were 7,054 fans in the Fertitta Center, a Houston program record and largest in the volleyball-rich state of Texas this season. Texas , which won its seventh in a row, hit .322 and outblocked Houston 14-6. Madi Skinner led with 21 kills, hit .354 and had an assist, two aces, four blocks and 10 digs. Jenna Wenaas had 14 kills, hit .308 and had two assists, a block and four digs. Molly Phillip had eight kills with one error in 18 attacks, a dig and five blocks, one solo. Bella Bergmark had six kills with one error in 13 swings and four blocks, and Asjia O’Neal had six kills, two aces, two digs and nine blocks. Kenna Sauer led Houston with 23 kills as she hit .356 and had two blocks and 16 digs. Abbie Jackson had 16 kills, an assist, three aces and nine digs …
No. 10 BYU (16-3, 5-2) swept visiting Texas Tech (8-12, 1-7). Whitney McEwan-Llarenas led with nine kills as she hit .438 and had three aces and three blocks. UCF (16-2, 7-0) stayed tied with Texas atop the standings with its eighth win in a row, a five-set win over visiting Kansas State (10-7, 4-4). K-State’s Aliyah Carter had 22 kills. VBM No. 15 Kansas (13-4, 4-3) swept Oklahoma (6-10, 0-7) as Ayah Elnady had 15 kills with one error in 25 attacks and Reagan Cooper had 15 kills with two errors in 32 swings. West Virginia (8-12, 1-6) broke into the win column as it beat visiting TCU (12-7, 5-3) in five in a wild one 28-30, 34-32, 16-25, 25-21, 15-11. Bailey Miller had 23 kills and Hailey Green 17. Audrey Nalls had 22 kills for TCU.
BIG TEN: Nebraska (17-0, 8-0) took it to visiting Penn State (13-4, 7-1) 25-22, 25-22, 25-19. Merritt Beason had 13 kills, hit .333 and had an assist, three blocks and four digs. Lindsay Krause had 13 kills, hit .300 and had an assist, two aces, two blocks and three digs. Harper Murray had 10 kills, three assists and eight digs. Lexi Rodriguez had 18 digs and four assists and Reilly Bergen had two kills, 33 assists, three blocks and nine digs. Her team hit .269 and had two aces and 13 serving errors. Penn State, which hit .117 and had no aces and eight errors, got 12 kills from Jess Mruzik, who added six digs and four blocks, one solo.
Michigan State (12-7, 4-4) won in four at Iowa (8-12, 0-8) as Taylah Holdem had 22 kills and hit .432 to go with an ace and 12 digs. And Indiana swept visiting Michigan behind 18 kills by Candela Alonso_Corcelles, who hit .390 and had six digs and a block.
Davidson’s Sola Omonije hits against Dayton/Tim Cowie, DavidsonPhotos.com
Around the nation
The Citadel (20-0, 8-0 SoCon) swept at ETSU as Ali Ruffin had 18 kills, two assists, an ace, a block and 15 digs. Only Wisconsin, Nebraska and The Citadel remain unbeaten …
Florida Gulf Coast (15-5, 8-0) broke its tie at the top of the ASUN standings with visiting Lipscomb (12-6, 7-1) with a 21-25, 25-23, 25-20, 26-28, 15-5 victory. Alexandra Zakutney, a fifth-year outside sfrom Ottawa, Canada, led with 21 kills, an ace, for blocks and nine digs. Reese Burry had 24 digs, two assists and an ace. Lippy got 16 kills each from Meg Mersman and Courtney Jones and Delaney Smith had 30 digs, five assists and an ace … Bellarmine is a game back of Lipscomb after winning in five at North Florida. Bellarmine had six players with eight or more kills …
Dayton (20-2, 9-0), ranked No. 18 in the AVCA poll, won swept its Atlantic 10 match at Davidson as Lexie Almodovar had 22 kills, hit .364, and had an ace, six digs and two blocks, one solo. The Flyers’ Amelia Moore had 10 kills in 15 errorless attacks and six blocks, one solo. Also in the A10, Addie Barnes had 18 kills and hit .429 for Loyola Chicago in a four-set win at George Mason …
St. John’s (15-5, 7-1) beat visiting Marquette 25-23, 23-25, 22-25, 25-22, 15-13 to force a tie with the Golden Eagles atop the Big East. Marquette is 11-8 and also 7-1 and they lead Xavier by a game. Xavier swept at Providence. Erin Jones led St. John’s with 22 kills, 14 assists, an ace, 17 digs and four blocks. St. John’s reported that it was the program’s first triple-double in more than a decade. Teammate Giorgia Kowalczwk had 19 kills, an ace, a block and 12 digs. Marquette’s Aubrey Hamilton had 22 kills, two assists, a block and seven digs. Also in the Big East, UConn beat Butler in four and Taylor Pannell had nine kills in 14 errorless attacks and three blocks, one solo, and in Seton Hall’s five-set win over DePaul, DePaul’s Jill Pressly had 25 kills, an ace, 14 digs and three blocks …
In the American Athletic Conference, SMU keps its one-game lead over Rice and Wichita State in the win column in the overall standings with a sweep of Tulsa. Jamison Wheeler led SMU with 15 kills, hit .371 and had seven digs. Wichita State hit .373 and swept Tulane and Rice was off …
There’s still a three-way atop the Big Sky at 6-1 in the conference after Montana State beat Idaho in four, Weber State swept at Portland State behind 19 kills from Dani Richins, and Sacramento State swept Idaho State as Bridgette Smith had 17 kills, two assists, two aces, nine digs and three blocks …
High Point maintained its one-game Big South lead over Winthrop by sweeping at Charleston Southern. Winthrop swept UNC Asheville as Brookelyn Thomas had 12 kills, two aces, five digs and five blocks, two solo …
Idle UC Santa Barbara is two games up in the Big West, but Hawai’i and Long Beach State are tied at 6-2 after Hawai’i won in four at Cal Poly and Long Beach swept visiting UC Riverside. Long Beach, which hit .381, got 10 kills from Natalie Glenn, who had no errors in 18 swings, an assist, an ace, four digs and three blocks …
Eight CAA teams are within each other at the top of the standings. Towson is a game up on idle Northeastern in the loss column after the Tigers won in four at UNC Wilmington behind 18 kills by Nina Cajic, who had no errors in 30 attacks to hit .600. She had three assists, two aces, 13 digs and two blocks. N.C. A&T won in five at Elon as Naiya Sawtelle had 23 kills, two assists, 13 digs and two blocks …
Western Kentucky (18-4, 8-0) maintained its three game lead in the loss column in Conference USA with a sweep at NM State. Kaylee Cox had 23 kills with two errors in 38 attacks to hit .553 and had six digs and a solo block. In UTEP’s five-set CUSA win at Sam Houston, Marian Ovalle had 21 kills, hitting .421. Middle Tennessee swept Louisiana Tech and Laura Jansen had 14 kills with two errors in 20 attacks, an ace and eight digs …
Five teams are bunched at the top of the Horizon League standings. Milwaukee and Wright State lead at 7-2 after Milwaukee got swept at Cleveland State and Oakland, Northern Kentucky and Green Bay are a game back at 6-3. Cleveland State hit .347 against Milwaukee as Liberty Torres had 15 kills with one error in 21 swings, JeriLynn Koehler had seven kills in 12 errorless attacks and four blocks, and Ainslie McLaughlin had six errors in 10 errorless attacks. Wright State swept Purdue Fort Wayne as Callie Martin had 12 kills with one error in 26 attacks, two assists, two aces, 11 digs and two blocks, one solo. Oakland tightened things up with its five-set win over visiting Green Bay as Patti Cesarini had 21 kills, an ace, 21 digs and a block. Northern Kentucky swept visiting IUPUI as Allie Siefke had eight blocks and three kills in seven errorless attacks …
Yale improved to 7-0 and holds a two-game lead in the loss column over Princeton and Brown in the Ivy League after sweeping visiting Dartmouth. Yale, which hit .345, got nine kills from Mila Yarich, who had one error in 18 attacks, two assists, 14 digs and a block. In Brown’s sweep of Harvard, Beau Vanderlaan had 13 kills with one error in 20 attacks and six blocks, one solo …
In the MAAC, where Marist (9-1), Fairfield (8-1) and Quinnipiac (8-1) are in a virtual tie for first, Marist’s Sasha van der Merwe had 26 kills in a four-set win at Canisius. van der Merwe hit .352 and had an assist, 21 digs and two blocks. Fairfield swept Rider and Quinnipiac did the same to winless Saint Peter’s as Yagmur Gunes had 17 kills, hit .500, and had an assist, an ace and 10 digs. Iona won in four at Manhattan as Morgan Madasz, a senior from St. Petersburg, Florida, had a career-high 27 kills and hit .467 to go with three aces, five digs and and three blocks …
Saturday’s MACtion, in which Toledo knocked off visiting Buffalo, has things pretty tight in both divisions (click here for the standings).
Toledo beat Buffalo in five as Taylor Alt had 20 kills, 11 digs and a block. Bowling Green won in four at Ohio as Lauryn Hovey had 19 kills, an assist, seven digs and five blocks, one solo. and Miami won in four at Kent State despite 21 kills by Mackenzie McGuire …
Northern Iowa’s Layanna Green, left, and Emily Holterhaus block Kelly Franklin of SIU/UNI photo
In the Missouri Valley, Northern Iowa, Drake and Illinois State all swept to stay 1-2-3 atop the standings. UNI beat Southern Illinois, Haley Bush had 15 kills with no errors in 34 swings and nine digs and two blocks as Drake beat Missouri State, and Illinois State beat Murray State as Aida Shadewald had 23 kills with two errors in 43 swings to hit .488 to go with an assist and nine digs …
Utah State built its Mountain West lead over idle Boise State to a full game with a sweep at San Jose State. Wyoming’s Rylee Schulz had 21 kills and hit .385 to go with five digs and two blocks as Air Force got knocked into third place. Colorado State hit .374 as the Rams swept at New Mexico …
In the NEC, Sacred Heart is 7-0 and stayed two full games up on Fairleigh Dickinson and LIU after keeping 0-17 Le Moyne winless …
Eastern Illinois and Southeast Missouri both won to stay tied atop the Ohio Valley, two games ahead of Lindenwood and Western Illinois. EIU beat Lindenwood in four as Natalie Mitchem had 19 kills with four errors in 37 attacks to hit .405 and she had six blocks. SEMO swept at Tennessee State behind 12 kills each by Lucy Arndt, who had one error in 35 attacks, and Talie Gouard, who had four errors in 19 swings to hit .421. Morehead State beat visiting Southern Indiana in five and M.E. Hargan had 26 kills, two assists, eight digs and four blocks …
Idle Colgate is 8-0 in the Patriot League with a two-game lead over Army West Point after Army lost in five at Lehigh, which got 14 kills from Lylah Washington, who had three digs and three blocks, one solo…
Southeastern Louisiana is 9-1 and maintained its one-game lead in the Southland Conference win column over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi with a sweep of Northwestern State. Kailin Newsome had 21 kills, hit .366 and had two aces, 18 digs and a solo block. TAMUCC swept Nicholls as eight players had kills …
Omaha won its seventh in a row and still leads Kansas City by a game in The Summit League win column after beating North Dakota in four. McKenna Ruch had 3 kills, an assist, two aces and four blocks and Brynless McCormick had 13 kills and three blocks. Kansas City beat South Dakota in five as Odyssey Warren had 21 kills, four assists, an ace, 13 digs and two blocks …
In the Sun Belt, South Alabama stayed atop the West with a four-set win at Louisiana in which Hannah Maddux had 20 kills, two aces, two solo blocks and a dig. Coastal Carolina maintained its lead in the East with a four-set win over Old Dominion as Jasmine Rivest had 17 kills, three aces, seven digs and six blocks. App State beat visiting Louisiana-Monroe in five as ULM got 20 kills each from Brynn Botkin and Logan Jeffus …
Stephen F. Austin won its eighth in a row to get to 8-0 and build its WAC lead over idle Grand Canyon (6-1). SFA hit .372 as it swept Abilene Christian …
Pepperdine (7-1), which has won 10 in a row, was off and saw its lead cut to one game in the loss column by Loyola Marymount (7-1) as the Lions beat Santa Clara in four. Kari Geissberger had 16 kills, hit .538 after having two errors in 26 attacks, and added an ace, two digs and three blocks.
Northern Iowa’s Grace Mikota digs against Southern Illinois as Kira Fallert looks on/UNI photo
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