NCAA volleyball: Stanford, Baylor win; Horizon opens play; big comeback for UNLV
Fourth-ranked Stanford opened the final season of the Pac-12 with a sweep Tuesday over previously unbeaten Cal, No. 18 Baylor swept Stephen F. Austin, there were five Horizon League winners as that conference got underway, and UNLV pulled off a reverse sweep to win its Mountain West opener.
The recaps and best performances follow, but first a look at Wednesday’s NCAA Division I women’s volleyball schedule:
One of the nation’s fiercest and oldest rivalries plays the first of its final two matche in the Pac-12 — both teams move to the Big Ten next year — when USC goes to UCLA. It will be the 121st meeting between them and can be seen on the Pac-12 Network at 7 p.m. Pacific.
The Big 12 season gets after it with its first match, No. 20 Houston at No. 10 BYU as the two schools meet for the first time since 2010. It can be seen on ESPN2 at 7 p.m. Mountain. Side note: BYU gets no breaks in its Big 12 debut. After playing Houston, it entertains Baylor and then goes to No. 9 Texas for back-to-back matches.
Two of the three ranked ACC teams are in action as No. 13 Georgia Tech goes to Clemson and No. 8 Pittsburgh entertains UMBC of America East.
The Big Ten has two matches including one ranked team, No. 15 Penn State, which plays host to Rutgers. Illinois goes to Indiana. Both matches are on the Big Ten Network.
There are two SEC matches as No. 14 Tennessee plays host to Missouri and Mississippi State goes to Texas A&M. The State-A&M match is on the SEC Network.
There are 23 matches on the Wednesday schedule and if a match is not on a linear cable outlet, it is being streamed. 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.
Stanford, Baylor win
Stanford beat a previously undefeated team for the second straight match. Three days after pulling off the reverse sweep at Louisville, the Cardinal (8-2) opened Pac-12 play with a 25-19, 25-22, 25-19 victory at Cal (11-1) in the rivalry they call the Big Spike. Stanford had three players with nine kills each, Kendall Kipp, who had five blocks, Caite Baird and Sami Francis. Kami Miner had three kills in eight errorless tries, and had 35 assists, two digs and two blocks. Her team hit .228. Cal, playing before its largest crowd in years — 1,100-plus — hit .076, lowest against Stanford this season. Maggie Li had 10 kills …
Baylor’s Alicia Andrew is stifled by SFA/Amanda Paver photo
Baylor (6-4) of the Big 12 hit .449 and rolled to a 25-14, 25-15, 25-21 sweep of visiting Stephen F. Austin (11-3) of the WAC. Alicia Andrew had 10 kills in 10 errorless attacks, three blocks and 10 digs. Elise McGhee had 11 kills with two kills in 16 attacks, an assist, an ace, two blocks and two digs. Kyndal Stowers had 10 kills with two errors in 22 attacks, two blocks and seven digs.
Horizon League
Defending-champion Wright State (5-7) won in four at Robert Morris (3-9) by the scoreline of 25-23, 22-25, 25-21, 25-6. Megan Alders and Aaliyah Byers had 16 kills each and Callie Martin had 13 with one error in 16 attacks to go with three blocks and 17 digs. …
Oakland (7-6) swept at Purdue Fort Wayne (5-8) as Patti Cesarini and Ainsley Guse had nine kills each. LonDynn Betts of PFW, a hometown sophomore, had a career-high 31 digs and two assists … Northern Kentucky (6-6) won in four at Youngstown State (5-7) as Joy Banks had 21 kills, two assists, three blocks and 19 digs. YSU’s Josi Borun had 13 kills, 20 assists, an ace and 16 digs … Cleveland State (7-5) swept at IUPUI (6-6). Laken Voss had 10 kills, an assist, two aces, a solo block and four digs … Also, Milwaukee (8-6) of the Horizon had to go five to beat independent Chicago State (7-4). Ari Miller had 17 kills and hit .405 to go with an ace, three digs and eight blocks, two solo. Yanlis Feliz, the senior outside from the Dominican Republic, led Chicago State with the line of the day, 28 kills while hitting .304 to go with 10 digs.
Around the nation
UNLV (9-4) beat visiting San Diego State (5-7) in the Mountain West season opener, coming back from 0-2 to win 21-25, 16-25, 25-20, 25-20, 15-13. UNLV, which has won five in a row, went on an 8-3 run to finish the third set and pulled away with a 7-3 burst to end the fifth. 2022 Mountain West player of the year Isabel Martin had 21 kills, two assists, four of her team’s nine aces, nine digs and four blocks, one solo. Gabrielle Arretche-Ramos had 15 kills, two blocks and three digs. Setter Arien Farard had five kills in 14 errorless tries, 30 assists, eight digs and a solo block. SDSU’s Madison Corf had 17 kills, hit .448, and had an assist, an ace, two digs and three blocks, one solo …
CSU Bakersfield (5-8) won the Big West season opener, beating visiting CSUN (2-10) in five. Ava Palm had 18 kills with one error in 41 attacks to hit .415 in the 25-20, 20-25, 25-22, 24-26, 15-11 victory. She had two assists, two aces, five bloks and 16 digs …
Florida State (6-6) of the ACC hit .369 and swept visiting North Florida (6-7) of the ASUN as Maddie Snider led a balanced attack with 10 kills in the 25-21, 25-15, 25-19 victory. Snider had one error in 16 attacks …
Lipscomb (5-5) of the ASUN swept visiting Nashville rival Belmont (6-8) of the Ohio Valley. Five Bisons had seven or more kills, 10 by Courtney Jones …
ODU 8-6) of the Sun Belt beat visiting Liberty (7-5) of Conference USA in five as Myah Conway had 16 kills, an assist, an ace, five blocks and five digs.Liberty’s Kate Phillips had 19 kills, an assist, three blocks and six digs and Sydney Whitfield had 15 kills …
Howard (4-8) of the MEAC beat visiting American (6-5) of the Patriot League in four as Rya McKinnon had 21 kills, hit .318, and had an assist, four of her team’s 16 aces, a block and six digs …
Gardner-Webb (6-6) of the Big South won in four at Queens (3-9), which is making its Division I move into the ASUN. G-W had four players with nine or more kills, 15 by Jenna Otts, who had an assist, a dig and two blocks, one solo. Sophia Kotsovolos had 31 digs, nine assists and an ace. Queens had four players with 10 or more kills, 12 by Jordyn Johnson …
The Southland’s McNeese (3-11) beat visiting Louisiana-Monroe (4-10) of the Sun Belt 26-28, 25-23, 25-20, 28-26 as Carissa Chainey had 22 kills, hitting .367, to go with six assists and 20 digs. Bailey Tillmand had 28 digs and three assists.
Carissa Chainey of McNeese hits against Louisiana-Monroe/Raymond Stewart photo
The post NCAA volleyball: Stanford, Baylor win; Horizon opens play; big comeback for UNLV appeared first on Volleyballmag.com.
Read More Volleyballmag.com NCAA Women, Indoor