Pitt sweeps GT; UCLA beats WSU; Iowa St., TCU get Big 12 upsets; more titles clinched
Yet another get-your-attention Friday in NCAA Division I women’s volleyball.
Pittsburgh made a statement with sweep at Georgia Tech.
UCLA greatly improved its NCAA Tournament chances with a hard-fought, five-set win at Washington State.
Kansas was upset by Iowa State. Baylor was upset by TCU. And USC kept on rolling with a sweep at Washington.
A few teams clinched regular-season titles, including The Citadel in the SoCon, Wright State in the Horizon and Northern Iowa in the Missouri Valley.
Lines of the day: Korrin Burns had 34 kills, the most for Saint Francis (PA) since 2001 as the Red Flash beat Fairleigh Dickinson in four. Burns, who had 10 kills in the fourth set, hit .547 and had an assist, a block and nine digs. Evansville beat Belmont in four and NCAA kills leader Giula Cardona had 31 kills with four errors in 62 swings to hit .435 to go with two assists, two aces, eight digs and three blocks. And Iowa State’s Nayeli Gonzales had 31 kills in the upset of Kansas, hitting .344 to go with an assist, three aces, 12 digs and two solo blocks.
Friday’s recaps and top performances follow, but first a look at Saturday’s schedule.
The lone Big Ten match pits second-ranked Wisconsin at AVCA No. 19 Penn State.
There are three Big 12 matches, including No. 4 Texas home for Cincinnati. No. 14 Kansas is at Iowa State and AVCA No. 20 Baylor is home again for TCU.
The four-match Pac-12 slate includes No. 3 Stanford home for Oregon State, No. 6 Oregon at Cal and No. 16 Arizona State home for Utah. Colorado is at Arizona.
The ACC and SEC have the day off.
AVCA No. 18 Dayton, which swept VCU on Friday for its 23rd win a row, plays host to the Rams again in the Atlantic 10.
Southeastern Louisiana, which has clinched the Southland, goes for victory No. 20 in a row when the Lions close out the regular season at McNeese.
SFA, which won the WAC, goes for No. 16 in a row when it plays at California Baptist.
Hampton, 0-18, gets another shot in the CAA when the Pirates play host to Charleston. And Saint Peters’s, 0-28, has two matches left to get that first win when the Peacocks play hose to Fairfield on Saturday and Quinnipiac on Sunday.
BIG TV MOVE: There was huge news about the NCAA Tournament selection show on Sunday, November 26. ESPN announced that the 6 p.m. Eastern show will be on ESPN for the first time, not ESPNU. We also learned that the ESPN Fifth Set wraparound show will return during the tournament.
ACC: Pitt, ranked No. 8 in the VolleyballMag.com Super 16 Media Poll, not only won at Georgia Tech, it swept the Yellowjackets 25-13, 25-14, 25-19 and is in a three-way tie for first with No. 5 Louisville and Florida State as GT dropped a game off the pace. Pitt hit .440, which included Olivia Babcock getting 15 kills with no errors in 23 attacks to go with two aces, three digs and four blocks. Emma Monks had six kills in as many tries and eight blocks. GT hit .057 … Louisville swept Duke as Charitie Luper had 13 kills, hit .407 and had two aces, three digs and three blocks … FSU won in four at Syracuse as Khori Louis had 15 kills with one error in 22 swings, three digs and three blocks … North Carolina won in five at Wake Forest, Clemson won in four at Notre Dame and NC State won in four at Boston College. BC’s Audrey Ross had 23 kills.
BIG 12: TCU, which had lost five of six, stunned AVCA No. 20 Baylor on its home court 25-16, 26-24, 21-25, 29-27. Melanie Parra had 24 kills, two assists, 15 digs and two blocks. Baylor’s Elise McGhee had 21 kills … VBM No. 13 BYU swept again at UCF, hitting .400. Erin Livingston had 17 kills with one error in 32 attacks to hit .500 and had two aces, four digs and a block … Iowa State knocked off VBM No. 14 Kansas in five as Nayeli Gonzales had 31 kills, hit .344 and had an assist, three aces, 12 digs and two solo blocks … AVCA No. 23 Houston swept at Oklahoma and Texas Tech beat visiting West Virginia in five.
BIG TEN: Second-ranked Wisconsin hit .475 and swept at Maryland as Sarah Franklin had 10 kills and hit .320. Carter Booth had nine kills with no errors in 12 attacks, Devyn Robinson had nine kills with one error in 14 swings and Julia Orzol had five kills in 13 errorless attacks. Orzol was moved to outside hitter from libero because Anna Smrek didn’t make the trip. Maryland, which hit .037, got 15 kills from Sam Csire in the 25-10-, 25-21, 25-9 outcome …
AVCA No. 16 Purdue won 17-25, 25-22, 25-18, 25-17 at Minnesota as Eva Hudson had 17 kills and Raven Colvin and Chloe Chicoine 14 each … AVCA No. 19 Penn State swept visiting Michigan, Illinois swept at Iowa and Indiana swept visiting Rutgers.
PAC-12: There were only two conference matches, but the Los Angeles teams both won as AVCA No. 25 USC swept at Washington and UCLA came away with a five-set victory at No. 9 Washington State. Skylar Fields continued to lead USC, this time with 22 kills as she hit .346 and had an ace, five digs and two blocks … UCLA won 25-20, 24-26, 25-16, 25-27, 17-15 after trailing 6-0 and 8-2 at the turn in the fifth set. And the Bruins were down were down 14-12. They won it on a big block by Desiree Becker — who had seven total — and Audrey Pak and then a kill by Iman Ndaiye, who had nine of her 21 kills in the fifth set. In that fifth set she had one error in 14 attacks. Ndiaye added an ace, four blocks and four digs. Anna Dodson had 17 kills, hit .577 and had five blocks and two digs. UCLA, which has won four of five, moved up from No. 54 in the RPI to 38 with the victory and WSU dropped to No. 16, putting its hopes for being a first- and second-round NCAA Tournament hopes in jeopardy. WSU has lost three of four. WSU’s Pia Timmer had 22 kills, two assist, an ace and eight digs.
SEC: No. 12 Arkansas and No 10 Tennessee stayed a game back in the loss column of idle Kentucky atop the standings as Arkansas swept Alabama and Tennessee beat Georgia in four. Arkansas hit .422 at Bama as Jillian Gillian had 15 kills with one error in 31 swings, Maggie Cartwright had 13 with one error in 27 attacks, and Taylor Head had 13 kills with three errors in 32 attacks. Tennessee got 21 kills from Morgahn Fingall, who hit .425, and 20 from Jenaisya Moore, who hit .474. AVCA No. 21 Florida swept visiting LSU and Missouri beat visiting Texas A&M in four as the Tigers moved up to No. 30 in the RPI and dropped A&M to No. 34.
UCSB puts up the triple block against Long Beach’s Hanna Lesiak/UCSB photo
Around the nation
Marquette and No. 15 Creighton both won to stay tied atop the Big East. Marquette swept Georgetown while the Bluejays swept at Seton Hall as Norah Sis had 16 kills, hit .414 and had two aces and three digs. In Butler’s sweep of UConn, Abby Maesch had 17 kill, hit .417 and had three digs and two blocks. DePaul won in four at Villanova and Jill Pressly had 20 kills, an assist, three aces and 17 digs …
The Citadel, having the best season by far in program history, beat ETSU in four and clinched the Southern Conference regular-season title for the first time. The Bulldogs (25-2, 13-2) had five players with nine or more kills, 14 by Ali Ruffin, who had two assists, two aces and 16 digs …
Wright State clinched the regular-season title as it swept at Purdue Fort Wayne and saw its Horizon League lead grow to two games when Milwaukee was knocked off by Cleveland State. Cleveland State’s Liberty Torres had 22 kills, hit .346 and had an ace, four digs and two blocks. Milwaukee’s Madi Malone had 21 kills, hit .429 and had two aces, 14 digs and two blocks …
Northern Iowa (22-6, 16-0), clinched at least a share of the Missouri Valley regular-season title with a sweep at UIC. The Panthers, who have won 17 in a row, got 13 kills from Kira Fallert, who hit .367 and had two assists, four aces, five digs and two blocks, one solo. Also in the MVC, Evansville beat Belmont in four as Giula Cardona had 31 kills with four errors in 62 swings to hit .435 to go with two assists, two aces, eight digs and three blocks. Her teammates combined for 22 kills. Taylor Oberpriller had 22 kills and hit .476 as Drake won in four at Valparaiso. She had an assist, an ace, 19 digs and two blocks …
There’s a tie atop the NEC between Sacred Heart, which swept Stonehilll, and Fairleigh Dickinson, which lost in four to Saint Francis (PA) ad Korrin Burns. Sacred Heart’s Camryn Luginbuhl had 11 kills with one error in 12 attacks, a dig and a block. SFU’s Burns had 34 kills with five errors in 53 attacks to hit .547 and had an assist, nine digs and a block. It was the most kills in an SFU match since 2001 …
Dayton (28-2, 17-0) wrapped up the Atlantic 10 regular season title as the AVCA No. 18 Flyers swept VCU. Lexie Almodovar had 18 kills, three aces, two digs and two blocks. Also in the A10, Loyola Chicago hit .519 (42 kills with two errors in 77 attacks) in a sweep of Rhode Island …
AVCA No. 23 Western Kentucky, which already clinched Conference USA, won in four at Middle Tennessee as Paige Briggs had 17 kills with two errors in 41 attacks, two assists, an ace, eight digs and four blocks
UMBC swept NJIT to stay a game ahead of New Hampshire in the America East. Both teams play again Sunday to end the regular season. Mia Bilusic had 15 kills and hit .414 for UMBC to go with an assist, an ace, eight digs and two blocks. UNH’s Marisa Armer had 11 kills with one error in 20 attacks, a dig and a block in a sweep of Bryant …
Coppin State, which leads the MEAC by two games over Howard, improved to 24-4, 13-1, the most wins in program history, with its sweep of Morgan State. TaKenya Stafford had 11 kills with no errors in 28 attacks, 11 digs and two blocks …
In Princeton’s four-set Ivy League win over Dartmouth, Kamryn Chaney had 25 kills, hitting .417 …
In MACtion, Bowling Green’s Lauryn Hovey had 26 kills and hit .380 in a four-set win over Buffalo. Hovey had an assist, two aces, nine digs and three blocks. 26-2 Western Michigan, which already won the MAC regular-season title, beat Toledo in four for its 16th victory in a row as Keona Salesman had 18 kills with two errors in 30 attacks to hit .533. Callie Minshaw had 28 kills for Eastern Michigan in its four-set win over Kent State. She had an assist, an ace, 11 digs and a block …
High Point won its Big South match in four at Radford as Dylan Maberry had 19 kills, hit .359 and had three aces, four digs and two blocks. Presbyterian beat Charleston Southern in five, but CSU’s Skylar Yates had 20 kills, two aces and 12 digs …
Eastern Illinois is alone in first with a one-game Ohio Valley lead after sweeping at SIUE. Second-place Southeast Missouri lost in four at Tennessee Tech, which got 20 kills from Madolyn Isringhausen, who had an assist, an ace, 15 digs and three blocks … Alabama State and Prairie View both swept to remain 1-2 in the SWAC. In ASU’s win over Mississippi Valley, which used only six players, Jada Rhodes had 18 kills, hit .389 and had two aces and seven digs. PVU hit .364 and swept Texas Southern …
Texas State and Troy are tied atop the Sun Belt West Division after Texas State beat East-leading Coastal Carolina in four and Troy lost in five to Georgia Southern …
SMU hit .343 and won its 10th in a row, a sweep at Tulane, and kept its two-game American Athletic lead on Wichita State, which beat UTSA in four. WSU’s Sophia Rohling had 17 kills, hitting .417. In South Florida’s five-set win over East Carolina, Buse Hazan had 24 kills and Maria Clara Andrade 22. North Texas beat Rice in five but Rice’s Emilia Weske had 28 kills and four aces and Danyle Courtley had 22 kills. Tulsa’s Kayley Cassaday, second in the NCAA in kills, had 28 in a four-set win over Memphis …
ASUN-leading FGCU pulled off a reverse sweep to maintain its two-game lead in the loss column over Lipscomb. FGCU, which won its 16th in a row, came away with a 24-26, 22-25, 25-20, 25-22, 15-11 victory at North Florida. Skylar English had 18 kills with one error in 38 attacks, an assist, two aces, nine digs and three blocks. Lippy hit .351 as it swept North Alabama and Meg Mersman had 17 kills with one error in 29 swings, an assist, an ace, a dig and a block. Also in the ASUN, Anabelle Standish had 28 kills, 13 digs and a block for Stetson in a five-set win at Jacksonville. And in Central Arkansas’ five-set loss at Austin Peay, Laci Bohannan had 28 kills and Mackenzie Vernon had 22, while Mikayla Powell had 22 for Austin Peay …
Sacramento State, which had won seven in a row and could have claimed a share of the Big Sky regular-season title, lost a wild one at Portland State 25-16, 24-26, 25-17, 30-32 but still maintained a 1.5-game lead over idle Weber State …
UC Santa Barbara built its lead to two games over second-place Long Beach State by beating the 49ers in four. It’s the first time UCSB has swept the season series with Long Beach since 2004.
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