Big upset win for Fresno St.; Nebraska vs. Wisconsin, round 2
Nebraska celebrates beating Wisconsin in Lincoln on October 21/Nebraska photo
The first big upset of the postseason ensured that the Mountain West Conference will get two teams into the NCAA Tournament after fifth-seeded Fresno State knocked out No. 1 Utah State.
Utah State, a runaway MWC regular-season winner, was No. 16 in the most recent NCAA RPI and even with the loss is still No. 22 in the update KPI.
That was one of four Thanksgiving Day results in NCAA Division I women’s volleyball, which now turns its focus to the rematch: VolleyballMag.com Super 16 No. 1 and unbeaten Nebraska at No. 3 Wisconsin.
Nebraska is 27-0, 18-0 in the Big Ten, which includes beating visiting Wisconsin on October 21 — 25-22, 17-25, 20-25, 26-24, 15-13 — in what was then a battle of unbeatens.
The Badgers (24-3, 15-3) have lost twice since, in four at Penn State and in five at Purdue, but played both without 6-foot-9 Anna Smrek.
Nebraska is 10th in hitting percentage (.286) and leads the nation in opponent hitting percentage (.131).
Wisconsin is second nationally in hitting percentage (.308) and fifth in opponent hitting percentage (.148).
Nebraska, which leads the series 20-13-1 after breaking a 10-match losing streak to Wisconsin in that match a month ago, have staged some epic battles over the years. The penultimate was Wisconsin’s five-set win in the 2021 NCAA title match.
Nebraska’s 18-0 B1G start a program best since joining the conference in 2011. Since 1996 — when Nebraska began a 20-match league schedule in the Big 12 — the Huskers have gone undefeated in conference play four times, but never in the Big Ten. The last time was 2004 in the Big 12. Nebraska went 34-0 in 2000, coach John Cook’s first season, when it won the NCAA title.
Also in the Big Ten on Friday, No. 14 Penn State is at Ohio State, AVCA No. 16 Purdue is at Michigan, Rutgers is at Maryland, Iowa is at Northwestern and Illinois is at Minnesota.
There are two ACC matches when No. 4 Pittsburgh goes to Syracuse and Duke goes to North Carolina.
The Pac-12 shows No. 2 Stanford home for UCLA, No. 6 Oregon at Oregon State, No. 11 Washington State at Washington and Colorado at Utah. The league finishes Saturday with Arizona at AVCA No. 18 Arizona State.
The lone SEC match has No. 10 Arkansas at Auburn. The SEC wraps up with five matches Saturday, including AVCA No, 20 Florida at VBM No. 8 Kentucky.
The Big 12 is off and wraps up its regular season Saturday.
An NCAA bid will be claimed by either third-seeded Montana State or fourth-seeded Weber State — which upset No. 1 Sacramento State — in the Big Sky.
Action continues in the Mountain West, Big West and Big East tournaments.
For the complete schedule with viewing links to every match, go to the VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings.
Mountain West
Fresno State (19-13) is in the Mountain West title match for the first time in its history after upsetting Utah State (24-6). Addison Haluska led Fresno with 18 kills in the 26-24, 17-25, 25-18, 25-21 victory. She had two errors in 29 attacks to hit .552 and added an assist, three digs and five blocks. Ella Rud had 13 kills, two assists, an ace and three digs. Jenna Legault had 12 kills and Kasey Purry had two kills and eight blocks. Fresno was 1-17 in the MWC is 2022
Utah State, which finished the Mountain West regular season 17-1, had won 14 in a row. Tatum Stall led the Aggies with 14 kills, two assists, an ace, 11 digs and two blocks, one solo …
Malaya Jones had 25 kills as second-seeded Colorado State (19-11) hit .378 and swept sixth-seeded New Mexico (19-12). Jones had three errors in 44 swings to hit .50 and had an ace, 11 digs and a block in the 25-18, 25-18, 29-27 win. Karina Leber had 11 kills with one error in 13 attacks, two digs and two blocks.
Uxue Guereca had 11 kills and Kaitlynn Baissou 10 for New Mexico.
Fresno State beat CSU in five this season in their only regular-season meeting.
Big Sky
Weber State (20-9) came away with a stunning 25-21, 23-25, 22-25, 25-23, 15-7 win over Sacramento State (21-11). Dani Richins had 14 kills, four of her team’s 17 aces and six digs. Saane Katoa had 12 kills with one error in 22 attacks to hit .500, an assist and four blocks, one solo.
Sacramento State got 18 kills from Bridgette Smith, who had two assists, an ace, four block and four digs …
Third-seeded Montana State (21-7) beat seventh-seeded Eastern Washington (13-17) as eight players had kills in the 25-22, 16-25, 25-18, 28-26 victory. Kira Thomsen led with 18 kills, three assists, two aces, a block and eight digs. Jourdain Kamps added 12 kills, an assist, two aces, 15 digs and three blocks, one solo.
EWU, which stunned No. 2 Northern Colorado on its home court in the quarterfinals, got 22 kills from Sage Brustad against Montana State. She hit .347 and had 12 digs.
In the regular season, Montana State beat visiting Weber State in five on November 11.
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