Creighton wins at Minnesota; 35s for Briggs, Cassaday; big matchups Sunday
Florida State’s Khori Louis hits against the Hawai’i block of Kennedi Evans/Matt Smith photo
The pre-conference season finishes with a flourish Sunday with three big-time matches as No. 1 Wisconsin goes to No. 3 Florida in a battle of unbeatens on ESPN, No. 5 Stanford goes to unbeaten No. 2 Louisville on ESPN2, and unbeaten No. 4 Nebraska is home for No. 20 Kentucky on the Big Ten Network.
This puts a bow on four weekends of competition for which the coaches of top teams should be commended for scheduling each other and providing a fantastic month of NCAA Division I women’s volleyball.
Two other ranked teams are in action Sunday, with No. 7 Oregon at Marquette and No. 10 Georgia Tech playing San Diego.
There was one upset Saturday, when No. 14 Creighton won in five at No. 9 Minnesota.
Nine other ranked teams won Saturday and all but one swept.
Arizona State, Cal, The Citadel and Wyoming all won to stay undefeated. Virginia Tech and Brown took their first losses.
Army West Point has non-conference losses, but the Black Knights are atop the Patriot League — which got an early start at 2-0.
35: Paige Briggs had 35 kills for Western Kentucky and Kayley Cassaday had 35 kills for Tulsa.
And the other team in the Nebraska Volleyball Day festivities, Omaha, got its first win to finish the pre-Summit League season 1-9.
Ranked results
Creighton (9-2) of the Big East continued to play without its best player, Norah Sis, as the Bluejays battled to a 25-15, 16-25, 25-20, 22-25, 15-9 victory at Minnesota (4-4) after losing the first six times the programs had played. Ava Martin led Creighton with 22 kills, a block and 11 digs. Destiny Ndam-Simpson had 12 kills, two digs and two blocks, one solo, and Kiana Schmitt had 10 kills and five blocks. Kendra Wait had four kills in 10 errorless tries, 42 assists, six blocks and a match-high 22 digs. Her team hit .227.
“We knew Minnesota was kind of up-and-down and it was true to form,” Creighton coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth said. “After we won the first game we were like ‘listen, they do this a lot. They get killed and then they come back.’ And sure enough, they dominated game two. I like how we bounced and won three and five, which was really important. It’s a good win. I’m really proud of them and they worked hard.”
Minnesota’s Lydia Grote hits past Creighton’s Destiny Ndam-Simpson/Matt Krohn photo
Lydia Grote led Minnesota with 20 kills and hit .474 after having two errors in 38 attacks to go with two aces, two blocks and 13 digs. Kylie Murr had 14 digs, eight assists an an ace. Taylor Landfair was held to nine kills with seven errors, but she had five aces. Minnesota, which hit .177, went most of the fourth set and half of the fifth, when the Gophers fell behind 9-1, without setter Melanie Shaffmaster, who sat out after taking a spill. All four of the Gophers’ losses are to ranked teams …
No. 8 Pittsburgh hit .557 and swept James Madison with 48 kills and only four errors in 79 attacks. Olivia Babcock had 10 kills with one error in 16 attacks, two aces, four blocks and four digs …
Tenth-ranked Georgia Tech swept Howard as Liv Mogridge had nine kills with one error in 12 attacks, three digs and five blocks. Larissa Mendes had nine kills with one error in 18 swings, two aces and three blocks …
No. 12 BYU swept at Utah State as Erin Livingston had 11 kills …
No. 13 Penn State beat visiting Seton Hall in four as Jess Mruzik had 20 kills, an ace, eight digs and three blocks, two solo …
No. 16 Arkansas swept Bryant as the Razorbacks hit .384 and got 13 kills each from Taylor Head and Jillian Gillen and 12 from Maggie Cartwright …
No. 20 Kansas swept Texas State as Ayah Elnady and London Davis had 13 kills each …
No. 23 Iowa State swept Drake. Lilly Wachholz had 13 kills, an assist, an ace, two blocks and three digs. Maya Duckworth and Naveli Gonzalez had 12 kills each …
No. 24 Auburn hit .386 and beat Samford in four as Akasha andereson had 19 kills, hitting .410, to go with an ace, two blocks and nine digs …
No. 25 Dayton swept North Dakota as Lexie Almodovar continued to lead the Flyers, this time with 12 kills while hitting .391.
Unbeatens
Arizona State (12-0) hit .426 and swept Southern Miss in Memphis and finished pre-conference play unbeaten for the first time since 2015. Marta Levinska led with 21 kills and had one error in 33 attacks to hit .606. She had two assists, an ace, three blocks and three digs. The Sun Devils open Pac-12 play Thursday against Arizona …
Cal is 11-0 for the first time since 2011 after winning in four at Nevada (4-7) of the Mountain West. The Bears, who open Pac-12 play Tuesday at home against Stanford, got 19 kills from Ava Mehrten, who hit .452 and had nine blocks, two solo. Maggie Li had 16 kills, three assists, an ace, 12 digs and two blocks, one solo. Ellie Hamm had nine blocks to go with six kills …
The Citadel won in five at Charleston Southern to get to 12-0, the best start ever for a program that has won 12 matches total in a season just two times previously. The Citadel, which had never been better than 3-0 before, was 11-19 last season. The Bulldogs, who open SoCon play at Chattanooga on Friday, got 21 kills from Ali Ruffin against crosstown foe Charleston Southern. She had two assists, two blocks and 21 digs …
Wyoming (11-0) is unbeaten before conference play for the first time ever after beating Idaho State in four. The Cowgirls hit .340 as Rylee Schulz led with 19 kills while hitting .441 to go with an assist, two blocks and five digs. Tierney Barlow had 18 kills, hit .419 and had two digs and seven blocks, three solo. Idaho State’s Jamie Streit had 17 kills, hit .382, and had an assist, 15 digs and three blocks, one solo. Wyoming opens Mountain West play Thursday at Utah State …
Virginia Tech and Brown both were undefeated until Saturday.
Virginia Tech (10-1) lost to East Carolina (9-2) in five. ECU’s Angeles Alderete had 19 kills, two assists, four aces and nine digs, and Francesca McBride had 15 kills, hit .353, and had three digs and five blocks, one solo. VT’s Elayne Duprey had 19 kills, hit .318, and had two aces, three blocks and 15 digs. Iliana Rodriguez had 24 digs, six assists and an ace …
Brown dropped to 8-1. After beating Binghamton in five, the Bears lost in four to Michigan State. Michigan State’s Aliyah Moore had 25 kills with one error in 36 attacks to hit .667 and added six digs and six blocks, one solo. Amani McArthur had six kills in 12 errorless attacks and nine blocks, three solo …
The only other unbeatens are the top four teams in the AVCA Poll, Wisconsin, Louisville, Florida and Nebraska.
Around the nation
Outcomes and performances of note:
Kayley Cassaday had 35 kills and 19 digs as Tulsa pulled off a 22-25, 25-27, 25-17, 27-25, 15-13 reverse sweep against Sam Houston. Cassaday, a graduate-student outside, has had 20 more kills in five of Tulsa’s six matches. Against Sam Houston, she had six errors in 88 attacks to hit .330 and more than half of her team’s 69 kills. She also had four blocks …
Paige Briggs also had 35 kills as she set the Western Kentucky program record in a four-set win over Western Michigan. Briggs, who is from Michigan, had five errors in 62 attacks to hit .484 and had two assists, an ace, a block and eight digs …
Hofstra improved to 11-1 with a sweep of Elon in which Izadora Stedile had 22 kills, hit .436, and had four assists, three aces and 10 digs … In Hawai’i’s sweep of Florida State, Amber Igiede had 14 kills with two errors in 26 attacks, an ace, two digs and three blocks, one solo … Danyele Courtley had 23 kills for Rice and hit .404 in a sweep of Kansas State. She had five digs and three solo blocks … In William & Mary’s five-set win over College of Charleston, Taylor Burrell had 23 kills with two errors in 44 attacks … Jenna Otts had 22 kills and four blocks, one solo, for Chattanooga in a five-set win over Gardner-Webb …
Jurnee Robinson had 18 kills with two errors in 29 attacks to hit .552 for LSU in its sweep of Texas Tech … Southeastern Louisiana’s Jacqueline Arrington had 12 kills in 13 errorless attacks in a sweep of Louisiana Tech and also had three blocks … Wake Forest beat Davidson in five and Jackie Bardin had 23 kills, three digs and two blocks, one solo … Yale’s Betsy Goodenow had 17 kills with one error in 38 attacks in a four-set win over Loyola Chicago …
San Francisco beat CSUN in five and Maria Petkova had 19 kills, an assist, six digs and six blocks, one solo … Alabama improved to 10-1 with a sweep of Grambling and Kendyl Reaugh had 13 kills in 31 errorless swings, an assist, two aces, 12 digs and a block … In UNC Asheville’s five-set win over UNC Greensboro, UNCA’s Matilde Teixeira had 23 kills and UNCG’s Aylin Baran had 27 … Ashley Wang had 20 kills and hit .450 for Harvard in a five-set win over Providence. She had 24 assists, an ace, 13 digs and five blocks … Eastern Washington’s Sage Brustad had 26 kills in a four-set win over Gonzaga. She had an assist, an ace, 20 digs and four blocks, two solo … Portland State beat Oregon State for the second time this season for its first season sweep of the Beavers since 1986. Sophia Meyers led the Vikings with 20 kills, two aces, a block and 19 digs …
Omaha (1-9) swept Bradley at Northern Colorado as Shayla McCormick had 12 kills, hit .333, and had two aces, five blocks and five digs. Brynlee Arnold had nine kills in 14 errorless attacks. Bradley hit .000 … Previously winless Winthrop broke through after 10 losses to knock off South Carolina in four, beating the Gamecocks for the first time since 2013. Karlie Shepherd, who had two aces, two blocks and 16 digs, and Reece Rhoads had 16 kills each.
PATRIOT LEAGUE: American is the only PL team who hasn’t played a conference match. Army, which beat Bucknell on Friday, swept at Lafayette, which opened with a sweep of Holy Cross. Army, which hit .354 against Lafayette, got nine kills from Paige Fixemer, who had no errors in 14 attack, three digs and two blocks, one solo. Also Saturday, Colgate beat Bucknell in four despite 18 kills by Bucknell’s Catherine Jamison, who hit .424, and Lehigh swept Holy Cross. American lost in five to Rhode Island of the A10, which got 24 kills from Madi Disu, who had two assists, two aces, six digs and three blocks. American later hit .427 and swept Stonehill.
Florida State’s Maddie Snider (10) jousts with Kennedi Evans of Hawai’i as Caylen Alexander looks on/Matt Smith photo
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