Penn St. tops Minnesota; Nebraska rallies at IU; Cincinnati, Iowa St. win

Minnesota’s Melani Shaffmaster gets up to set against Penn State/Christopher Mitchell photo

No. 15 Penn State kept its Big Ten “0” intact before a hostile house of more than 5,000 in a tense four-setter with No. 13 Minnesota in the only match involving teams ranked in the VolleyballMag.com Super 16 Media Poll.

Elsewhere on a busy Saturday night, undefeated Nebraska survived a first-set speed bump against Indiana, which set a program attendance record at its Wilkinson Hall; Cincinnati recorded its initial victory as a member of the Big 12; while Iowa State, Marquette, Dayton, Virginia Commonwealth and Rice remained unbeaten in their respective conferences.

The stat line of the night went to Xavier’s Carrigan O’Reilly, who scored the winning kill in a 17-15 fifth set during a Big East victory at Georgetown. That punctuated an effort that saw the Musketeers setter rap 10 kills on 21 attempts (with one error), dish out 35 assists, make 11 digs and get four blocks (one solo). The triple-double was the third of the graduate student’s career. O’Reilly became the only active D-I setter to have reached the milestones of 500 kills and 1,000 digs.

The recaps and top performances follow, but first a look at Sunday’s NCAA Division I women’s volleyball schedule as the calendar turns to October.

The big match of the day is in Eugene, where Washington State, the No. 6 team in the VolleyballMag.com Super 16 Media Poll, tackles No. 7 Oregon in a key Pac-12 showdown. Also in the Pac-12, No. 3 Stanford is home against Arizona, Utah is at UCLA, Arizona State tries to bounce back from its first defeat when it travels to Cal and Colorado is at USC.

A full slate in the ACC sees Louisville, No. 5 in the VBM Super 16, play at NC State. No. 9 Pittsburgh hosts Syracuse, No. 12 Georgia Tech visits Wake Forest, Boston College is at Virginia, Virginia Tech is at Clemson, North Carolina is at Miami and Duke is at Florida State.

Top-ranked Wisconsin heads the Big Ten schedule when the Badgers are home for Michigan. Maryland is at Ohio State, Rutgers is at Michigan State, and Purdue is home for Northwestern.

In the SEC, No. 4 Florida is at South Carolina, No. 11 Tennessee is at Ole Miss, Georgia is at Auburn in a match televised on ESPN2 at 1 p.m. Eastern, Missouri is at Texas A&M, Kentucky goes to Alabama and Mississippi State is at LSU.

No. 16 Creighton has a home Big East test against Seton Hall. The lone Big 12 match pits Baylor against host Iowa State.In the AAC, Wichita State visits SMU (ESPNU, 1 p.m. Eastern).

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.

BIG TEN: No. 15 Penn State (10-3, 4-0) ground out a four-set victory on the road against No. 13 Minnesota (6-2, 2-2), disappointing a crowd of 5,312 at the Maturi Pavilion. A kill by Allie Holland and an errant swing by the Gophers’ Mckenna Wucherer closed out a nail-biting 28-26 fourth set that was tied 12 times and saw five lead changes. Jess Mruzik led the Nittany Lions with 21 kills, two aces and 15 digs. … A program-record 2,632 fans jammed Wilkinson Hall and for one glorious set they were happy Hoosiers. But No. 2 Nebraska (13-0, 4-0) righted the ship against Indiana (12-5, 2-2) after dropping the opener by two points and sweating out the second 25-23. The Cornhuskers won the last two sets 25-15, 25-19. Usual suspects Merritt Beason (22 kills) and Harper Murray (17 kills) stepped up on the pins for the victors. Senior middle Savannah Kjolhede helped keep the Hoosiers in the match with 10 kills on a .643 hitting percentage and four blocks. … Illinois (7-7, 2-2) took care of business before 2,109 partisans at Huff Hall with a sweep of Iowa (8-8, 0-4), although the visitors did push the first and third sets to 28-26 scores. Raina Terry rained 19 kills on the Hawkeyes.

BIG 12: New conference member Cincinnati (8-5, 1-2) recorded its historic first league victory, taking down host Kansas State (8-5, 2-2) 25-21, 18-25, 25-16, 25-19 before 3,044 disappointed Wildcats fans. Freshman Zeta Washington’s 12 kills on .409 hitting with two aces and four block assists loomed large for the Bearcats. Junior setter Katelyn Lefler contributed 36 assists, 10 digs and five blocks. … Iowa State (12-2, 3-0) stayed perfect in the Big 12 but required five sets to take down visiting Baylor (6-6, 0-2), pulling out the tiebreaker 15-8. A crowd of 2,325 in Ames went home happy when,  in the fifth, the Cyclones hit .533 and Nayeli Gonzalez ripped six of her 24 kills. … At Kansas (12-2, 3-1), 1,488 watched the Jayhawks top Houston (7-5, 0-3) in three. Reagan Cooper pounded 15 kills on 25 swings without an error. … Host West Virginia (7-9) was pushed to five by independent Chicago State (8-5) before prevailing 15-11 in the deciding set.

BIG EAST: After takings its lumps during a daunting pre-conference schedule that included losses to Purdue, Kansas, Pitt, Tennessee and Wisconsin, Marquette (7-7, 3-0) has found momentum in league play. The Warriors pushed their winning streak to three with a four-set score over host UConn (5-10, 0-3). Aubrey Hamilton led the way with 13 kills, two aces, two blocks and seven digs. … Visiting Xavier (10-5, 3-1) pulled out a five-set reverse sweep over Georgetown (11-5, 2-2), 17-15 in the fifth. A solo block by Caroline Speelman and a kill by setter Carrigan O’Reilly (11 kills, .429 hitting, 35 assists, 11 digs) sealed the deal for the Musketeers. … Jill Pressly’s 21 kills and 10 digs keyed a road sweep by DePaul (9-5, 2-1) over Providence (6-0, 0-3). … Butler swept host Villanova.

ATLANTIC 10: Host Dayton (15-2) improved to 4-0 in the conference after sweeping Fordham (10-4, 1-3) for the second consecutive match, holding the Rams to .031 hitting. The Flyers, who have won 10 in a row, dialed up 12 aces, four by Taylor Russell. … Virginia Commonwealth (7-7) also remained perfect in four A10 matches with a four-set victory over visiting Duquesne. Jasmine Knight ripped 16 kills and made six block assists. … Loyola-Chicago (4-11, 2-2) pulled off a road sweep against Davidson (10-4, 2-2) behind Anna Feldkamp’s nine kills on an errorless 17 swings and eight blocks (three solo). … George Washington picked up its first A10 victory, topping visiting Rhode Island in three. Liv Womble notched 15 kills on .481 hitting. … Carlie Rodgers had 22 digs and three aces in a sweep by Saint Louis over host George Mason.

AMERICAN ATHLETIC: Emilia Weske cracked 19 kills with four blocks (one solo) and six digs as Rice (11-4, 5-0) swept visiting Texas-San Antonio (8-8, 1-4). …  Behind the 1-2 punch of Adrianna Beckham (22 kills on .613 hitting) and Valeria Rosado (21 kills, 17 digs), Florida Atlantic (10-8, 2-3) recorded a road upset of East Carolina (12-4, 3-2) in a four-setter, 26-24 in the fourth. … South Florida went to 4-1 in the AAC with a sweep of visiting UAB. Buse Hasan logged 17 kills and two aces… Host Charlotte defeated Memphis in four.

Pepperdine’s Emily Helmuth attacks in the Waves’ sweep of San Francisco/Jeff Golden photo

Around the nation

UC Santa Barbara (14-2) and UC Davis (9-5) remained atop the Big West standings at 4-0. UCSB demolished UC Irvine in three lopsided sets, hitting at a .408 clip while limiting the visitors to .024. … UC Davis needed four to put away host Cal State Northridge. … Hawaii, Cal Poly and UC Riverside kept pace at 3-1 in the Big West with victories over host UC San Diego (a sweep), visiting Cal State Fullerton (four sets)  and host Cal State Bakersfield (in four), respectively.

In Missouri Valley Conference action, Kira Fallert’s 17 kills and 10 digs propelled host Northern Iowa (10-6, 4-0) to a four-set triumph over Illinois-Chicago (12-6, 3-2). … Host Southern Illinois moved to 3-1 in the Valley, topping Indiana State in a four-setter. … Illinois State won on the road in three against Belmont … Kate Owens’ 20 digs helped Missouri State post a home-court sweep over Evansville. … Host Murray State swept Bradley.

Meg Brown collected 11 kills on .556 hitting with four blocks as host Pepperdine (8-6) improved to 4-0 in the West Coast Conference, sweeping San Francisco. … Also in the WCC, visiting Loyola Marymount topped Gonzaga, host Pacific crunched Santa Clara and San Diego blasted host Portland, all in sweeps.

Ball State is 4-0 in the Mid-American Conference after dumping host Eastern Michigan in three. … Unbeaten in three MAC matches is Toledo, a four-set victor at Central Michigan. … Buffalo went to 3-1, defeating visiting Ohio U. in four sets. … Also 3-1 is Northern Illinois, which tripped visiting Miami of Ohio in five.

North Carolina Wilmington has opened the Coastal Athletic (CAA) season with five victories, but was extended to five (15-12 in the tie-breaker) on its home court by Campbell. … In the Horizon League, Milwaukee and Green Bay are 4-0. The former won in four at Youngstown State and its Badger State rival to the north took a four-setter at Robert Morris. … Host Yale prevailed in four over Princeton to go to 3-0 in the Ivy League.

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