Arkansas rallies; Texas, EIU clinch titles; Arkansas St., App State advance in Sun Belt
Sarah Martinez of Arkansas State gets the pancake against Georgia State in the Sun Belt Championship/Bobby McDuffie, McDuffie Images
Arkansas, tied for 10th in the VolleyballMag.com Super 16 Media Poll, lost the first two sets and then stormed back to win at Ole Miss on Wednesday night in the SEC.
In the Big 12, No. 6 Texas battled to a four-set win over visiting Iowa State in the Big 12, where AVCA No 19. Kansas swept No. 23 Baylor and No. 21 Houston swept TCU.
In the Sun Belt Championship, Arkansas State and App State both won in four and play as the tournament continues Thursday.
The Summit League ended its regular season with a four-way tie for first as Kansas City and Denver won, tying them with Omaha and South Dakota. Kansas City got the top seed for the conferece tournament.
Eastern Illinois wrapped up the Ohio Valley Conference regular-season title.
There was MACtion, which included victory No. 18 in a row for Western Michigan, and in the Missouri Valley, Northern Iowa won its 19th in a row.
Lines of the day: Eastern Michigan’s Callie Minshew had 31 kills in a five-set MAC loss to Central Michigan. Ohio State’s Emily Londot had 30 kills in a five-set Big Ten loss to Illinois.
The recaps and top performances follow, but first a look at Thursday’s schedule.
The only Power 5 teams in action are No. 7 Kentucky at Texas A&M in the SEC, where Kentucky leads Arkansas by a game in the loss column.
There are also full slates in the Big Sky, Mountain West and WCC, including Pepperdine at Pacific, where the Waves are riding a 17-match winning streak.
The Sun Belt Championships continue with four matches in Foley, Alabama.
The ASUN gets underway in Fort Myers, Florida, including top-seeded FGCU facing Bellarmine and No. 2 Lipscomb vs. Stetson.
The CAA gets going in Towson, Maryland, and the Southland begins in Corpus Christi, Texas.
And the WAC begins in Orem, Utah, including top-seeded Stephen F. Austin, which has won 16 in a row, facing Abilene Christian and second-seeded Grand Canyon taking on California Baptist.
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.
SEC: Arkansas (23-4, 13-2) moved a game ahead of idle Tennessee (21-3, 12-2) and into a tie in the win column with idle Kentucky (15-7, 13-1) in the SEC standings with its 21-25, 23-25, 25-21, 25-15, 15-8 victory at Ole Miss. Jillian Gillen had 24 kills, hit .333, and had three assists, 16 digs and a block. Taylor Head had 17 kills, two assists, 17 digs and a block, and Maggie Cartwright had 15 kills, two aces, six digs and three blocks, one solo. Julia Dyess had 19 kills for Ole Miss to go with nine digs and three blocks, two solo … also in the SEC, Mississippi State dealt Auburn a tough five-set loss that will seriously hurt its NCAA Tournament seeding. Karli Schmidt led State, which had five players with seven or more kills, with 17. Akasha Anderson had 20 for Auburn to go with two aces, 14 digs and two blocks, one solo. Kendal Kemp had 10 blocks, five solo …
BIG 12: Texas (20-4, 15-1) clinched the Big 12 title and the NCAA Tournament bid with its seventh league titlle in a row, a 25-14, 24-26, 25-18, 25-20 victory over visiting Iowa State (17-9, 8-7). Madisen Skinner led with 22 kills, an assist, two aces, four blocks and 14 digs. Jenna Wenaas had 15 kills and Molly Phillips had eight kills in 18 errorless swings and four blocks. Annie Hatch had 11 kills for the Cyclones …
Kansas (20-5, 11-4) swept visiting Baylor (14-12, 8-8) as Reagan Cooper had 17 kills with one error in 31 attacks to hit .516. She also had a dig and a solo block. Ayah Elnady had 12 kills with one error in 27 attacks, an assist, an ace, nine digs and a blocks, and Toyosi Onabanjo had eight kills in 11 errorless swings, a dig and a block in the 25-16, 27-25, 25-21 victory. Baylor’s Elise McGhee and Allie Sczech had 12 kills kills and Manuela Bibinbe had 11 … Houston (17-7, 10-5) won its eighth in a row, a 25-17, 25-22, 25-21 sweep of visiting TCU (15-13, 8-9), which desperately needed to win to stay in NCAA tourney consideration. Abbie Jackson led Houston with 17 kills, eight digs and four blocks, one solo.
App State’s Alyssa McBean looks on as McCall Denny passes against Louisiana-Monroe in the Sun Belt Championship/Bobby McDuffie, McDuffie Images
SUN BELT: Arkansas State (16-13) ousted Georgia State (5-23) in four sets in a match that two 2 hours, 29 minutes. Ilayda Dincer had 15 kills, three aces, 10 digs and two blocks, and Kaitlin Whitlock had 14 kills, two aces, 18 digs and two blocks … App State (14-12) beat Louisiana-Monroe (7-24) in four. McCall Denny led with 13 kills and hit .400 after having one error in 30 attacks. She added an assist, an ace, 11 digs and two blocks, one solo. Lulu Ambrose had 11 kills, two digs and three blocks.
Thursday, Georgia State plays Arkansas State, Louisiana-Lafayette plays Old Dominion, Troy plays App State and Marshall plays Southern Miss. The two top seeds from both divisions, Coastal Carolina, James Madison, Texas State and South Alabama, await Friday’s quarterfinals.
SUMMIT LEAGUE: Denver swept Oral Roberts and Kansas City did the same to St. Thomas, creating a four-way tie for first and now the conference bracket is set. Play begins Sunday. Kansas City and Omaha got to the top two seeds and await in Monday’s semifinals. Denver is No. 3 and plays South Dakota State on Sunday and South Dakota is No. 4 and plays North Dakota State. Against ORU, Denver’s Cassie Davis had 14 kills, hit .379 and had an assist, two aces, 12 digs and a block. Kansas City’s Carly Gillen had 11 kills, hit .391 and had an assist, a dig and four blocks.
EIU wins the 2023 Ohio Valley regular-season title
OHIO VALLEY: Eastern Illinois (24-4, 14-3) beat visiting Western Illinois in four to win the regular-season title by two games over Southeast Missouri, which lost in four to Lindenwood. EIU had not won the conference title outright since 1998. Kaitlyn Flynn and Giovana Larregui Lopez, who also had nine digs and three blocks, had 15 kills each for EIU. Christina Martinez Mundo had 29 digs, three digs and three aces. WIU’s Keyana Cruse had 17 kills, an ace, 10 digs and three blocks, one solo … Lindenwood’s Anna Kraemer had 12 kills, hit .346 and had an assist, two digs and three blocks … Morehead State swept Tennessee State and Irene Wogenstahl had 10 kills in 17 errorless attacks and six blocks, two solo … Little Rock swept SIUE and Southern Indiana beat UT Martin in four as Leah Anderson had 19 kills, 25 digs and five blocks.
MAC: Western Michigan swept at NIU to finish the regular season 28-2, 18-0. Anna Calcagno had 14 kills, an assist, an ace, 14 digs and two blocks … Toledo swept visiting Ball State as Taylor Alt had 12 kills, an assist, three aces and nine digs … Bowling Green swept Miami behind 16 kills from Lauryn Hovey, who hit .480 and had two aces, four digs and two blocks … Ohio won in four at Kent State as Caitlin O’Farrell had 18 kills, hit .419 and had three digs and three blocks, one solo … Buffalo hit .306 in a sweep of Akron. Katrin Trebichavska had 10 kills, four aces, seven digs and two blocks … Central Michigan beat Eastern Michigan in five as four players had 10 or more kills, 14 by Krystina Kasson, who hit .387 and had four digs and three blocks. Elly Medendorp had 10 kills with no errors in 19 attacks, two digs and four blocks.
Not to be lost in the shuffle was EMU’s Callie Minshew, who had 31 kills, an ace, 15 digs and three blocks.
ALSO: Illinois (15-12, 10-7) beat visiting Ohio State (10-16, 7-10) in the five in the Big Ten as Raina Terry had 27 kills in the 25-18, 24-26, 20-25, 25-19, 15-6 victory. Terry had three aces, six digs and two blocks, one solo. Brooke Mosher had four kills in nine errorless tries, 50 assists, seven of her team’s 12 aces, 16 digs and a block. Ohio State’s Emily Londot had 30 kills and 13 digs … Butler won its Big East match in four at Xavier as Elise Ward had 19 kills, hit .333 and had two aces, nine digs and two blocks, one solo.
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