NCAA report: B1G matches Wednesday; AVCA updates; wins for UNI, Omaha, Wright St., FGCU

Buffalo’s Maria Futey chases down a ball against Akron/Paul Hokanson, UBBulls.com

We’re still a few days away from the Big Ten showdown, No. 1 Wisconsin at No. 2 Nebraska, with plenty of NCAA Division I women’s volleyball before Saturday..

Both teams play Wednesday when Wisconsin (17-0, 8-0) is home for Ohio State (7-10, 4-4) and Nebraska (17-0, 8-0) is at Northwestern (9-9, 3-3). Also in the Big Ten, Indiana (15-6, 5-3) goes to Purdue (11-6, 5-3) and Michigan (3-14, 1-7) is at Michigan State (12-7, 5-3). 

Texas (13-3, 8-0), the No. 6 team in VolleyballMag.com Super 16 Media Poll, has the only Big 12 match of the day at TCU and it’s on ESPN2. TCU (12-7, 5-3) enters a brutal make-or-break stretch where the Horned Frogs, mid-40s in the RPI, play the Longhorns, AVCA No. 14 Kansas and then No. 24 UCF twice.

The lone ACC match has Pittsburgh, tied for seventh in the VBM Poll, home for Virginia.

The two SEC matches have Alabama at South Carolina and Ole Miss at Georgia.

Saint Peter’s gets another shot when the 0-22 Peacocks (0-11 in the MAAC) play host to NJIT.

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.

AVCA POLL: The top six in this week’s AVCA Division I Women’s Volleyball Poll mirrors that of the VolleyballMag.com Suepr 16 Media Poll. Those six, in order, are the two unbeatens, Wisconsin and Nebraska, Stanford, Washington State, Louisville and Texas.

But in the VBM Poll, Arkansas is tied with Pittsburgh for No. 7. In the AVCA, Pitt is alone in seventh, followed by Oregon, BYU and Arkansas. 

Two teams moved into the AVCA top 25, UCF at No. 24 and Western Kentucky is back in at No. 25. Minnesota and Iowa State dropped out.

To compare, click here for the AVCA Poll and here for the VBM Poll.

AVCA POW: The AVCA national player of the week is Evansville’s Giula Cardona. The 5-foot-11 junior outside hitter from Rosario, Argentina, tied the Missouri Valley Conference single-match kills record with 40 in a victory last Friday over UIC. The last players to get 40 were USA national-teamers Khalia Lanier for USC in 2019 and Jordan Thompson twice that year for Cincinnati.

Cardona has 27 kills in a win over Indiana State on October 9, and her 40 against UIC included 20 errors on 94 swings in a match when she added an assist, an ace, 16 digs and a block. In a loss to Valparaiso on Saturday, Cardona had 19 kills, an assist, four aces, four digs and four blocks, one solo. Her previous high for attacks was 81 when Cardona had 36 kills on September 23 in a win over Belmont. That day, she hit .370.

The last Valley player to be so honored by the AVCA was Missouri State’s Lily Johnson in 2017. 

NATIONAL STATS: Florida State leads the nation in hitting percentage (.321), just ahead of Stanford (.318) and Wisconsin (.317). Texas A&M-Corpus Christi leads the nation with 1,088 kills, 11 more than Southeastern Louisia.

Chattanooga has 1,474 digs, far ahead of Oakland’s 1,436. Hofstra leads with 182 aces, one more than Bryant. 

Texas A&M leads in block assists (398) and blocks per set (3.18). Second in blocks is UTEP at 62, and Pitt is second in blocks per set (3.16).

The aforementioned Cardona leads in kills with 402, far ahead of Tulsa’s Kayley Cassaday (378). Ali Ruffin of unbeaten The Citadel is third with 365. Cardona (5.58) and Cassaday (5.18) are also 1-2 in kills per set.

The blocks leader is Texas A&M’s Ifenna Cos-Okpalla, who had 118, two solo. Both Kjersti Strong of Saint Mary’s and Northwestern State’s Reaghan Thompson have 116, 11 solo. 

Indiana’s Camryn Haworth leads with 49 aces, four more than Buffalo’s Katrin Trebichavska.

Iona’s Hope Matschner leads in digs. (512) and digs per set (6.65). The next closest is Jada Wills of Drake, who had 464. Matschner, who has had 30 or more digs on five occasions this season, had 51 in a win at Canisius last month.

CHAT WITH THE CHAIR: On Monday, Emily Ehman and VBM editor had their weekly NCAA Zoom visit and were joined by Loyola Chicago’s Holly Strauss-O’Brien. She’s the chair of the NCAA Division I volleyball committee, which selects the tournament bracket:

NCAA volleyball chair Holly Strauss-O’Brien joins the VBM Zoom

MONDAY’S RESULTS: There were six matches, including a win at the top of the Missouri Valley for Northern Iowa in front a record Drake crowd of 1,807. The Panthers (15-6, 9-0) won 25-21, 25-19, 23-25, 25-22 at Drake (14-7, 7-2), which dropped into a second-place tie with Illinois State (9-12, 7-2), which beat visiting Bradley 7-15, 0-9) in five. Layanna Green led UNI with 16 kills and hit .500 to go with three digs and seven blocks, three solo. Emily Holterhaus had 15 kills, four digs and six blocks, one solo … 

There were three matches in the SWAC when Southern swept Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Alabama State did the same to Mississippi Valley, and Grambling beat Alcorn in four. Grambling’s Zyonn Smith had 19 kills, an assist and 11 digs … 

In the WAC, Grand Canyon swept at California Baptist to get to 7-1 in league play, a game behind idle 8-0 Stephen F. Austin. GCU’s Tatum Parrott had 22 kills, hit .415, and had an assist, an ace, six digs and a block.

TUESDAY’S RESULTS: Omaha (9-10, 8-1) rolls on in The Summit League, where the Racers won in four at Oral Roberts. Shayla McCormick had 17 kills and Rachel Fairbanks 16 as Omaha won its eighth in a row. Kansas City (16-4, 7-1) stayed a half game back with a sweep at St. Thomas. Also in the Summit, North Dakota State swept North Dakota and South Dakota pulled off a reverse sweep to beat South Dakota State in five. Kylen Sealock had 16 kills for South Dakota and added two assists 12 digs and a block. Madison Harms had 16 kills, too, and eight blocks. South Dakota State’s Sylvie Zgonc had a career-high 26 kills — 12 in the second set — an ace, 11 digs and three blocks … 

Wright State (12-9, 8-2) pulled a half game up on idle Milwaukee atop the Horizon League standings with a sweep of visiting Youngstown State. Sam Ott had 12 kills in 21 errorless attacks, an ace and eight digs … Also in the HL, third-place Northern Kentucky, a game back in the loss column, beat visiting Robert Morris in four as Joy Banks had 19 kills, hit .326, and had an ace, eight digs and two blocks. Anna Burke had 28 digs and five assists … 

There was MACtion as East leader Buffalo (17-4, 7-2) swept Akron (10-10, 5-4), dropping the Zips into a tie with idle Ohio. Western Michigan (19-2, 9-0) and Ball State (12-8, 9-0) remained tied atop the West after WMU swept visiting Northern Illinois and Ball State did the same to Toledo. WMU’s Anna Calgano had 17 kills, hit .375 and had an assist, 18 digs and three blocks, two solo. Also in in the MAC, Bowling Green hit .423 and swept at Miami. Lauryn Hovey had 13 kills, hit .391, and had an ace, four digs and two blocks … 

Hawai’i (14-6, 7-2) stayed two games behind idle UC Santa Barbara and a half game up on Long Beach State with a Big West sweep at UC Davis. Amber Igiede had 12 kills with two errors in 22 attacks, an assist, an ace, five digs and a block … In the only ASUN match of the day, league-leading Florida Gulf Coast battled to a five-set win over visiting FIU as Courtney Glotzbach had 15 kills — all in the last three sets of a 20-25, 25-20, 22-25, 25-11, 15-8 victory — with one error in 19 swings and three blocks. FGCU has won nine in a row … In the only Mountain West match, New Mexico (14-6, 6-3) hit .350 and tightened the race by sweeping visiting Air Force. New Mexico is two games behind Utah State (14-5, 7-1) and game back in the loss column behind Boise State (10-8, 6-2).

Olivia Tjernagel of UNI hits against the Drake block of Haley Bush, left, and Kacie Rewerts/Ginnie Coleman photo

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