Texas escapes TCU; Wisconsin, Nebraska, Purdue, Pitt all win; Saint Peter’s falls again
Alexa Rousseau
The schedule was light but the action was heavy Wednesday, especially in Fort Worth, where No. 6 Texas barely got out with a five-set Big 12 victory at TCU and its record crowd.
In the Big Ten, top-ranked Wisconsin and No. 2 Nebraska swept, Purdue got revenge on Indiana, surprising Michigan State is tied with Indiana for fifth in the B1G after beating Michigan.
Seventh-ranked Pittsburgh got an ACC sweep over Virginia and in the MAAC, Saint Peter’s was so close again, but fell to 0-23 when the Peacocks lost in five to visiting NJIT.
Recaps and top performances follow, but first a look at Thursday’s NCAA Division I women’s volleyball schedule on a day when the ACC, Big Ten, SEC and Pac-12 are off.
The Big 12 shows No. 10 BYU home for Iowa State, Cincinnati at West Virginia and Kansas State at Oklahoma.
There are three Big Sky matches in a conference where Sacramento State, Montana State and Weber State are tied for the lead. Sacramento State is home for Montana, Montana State is at Portland State and Weber State is home for Northern Colorado. Also, Northern Arizona is at Idaho State.
It’s a busy night in the Big West where league-leading UC Santa Barbara is at UC Bakersfield. Long Beach State, two games back, is at UC Irvine. Also, UC San Diego is at Fullerton, Cal Poly is at CSUN and UC Davis is at UC Riverside.
Mountain West-leading Utah State is at UNLV, while Boise State, a game behind in second place, is at San Diego State. Also, Nevada is at Wyoming, Fresno State is at Colorado State and New Mexico is at San Jose State.
The five matches in the Southland include first-place Southeastern Louisiana, a game up on Texas A&M-Corpus Christ in the win column, at Houston Christian, while TAMUCC is at McNeese. Also, UIW is at Lamar, Texas aA&M-Commerce is at Nicholls and New Orleans is at Northwestern State.
Red-hot Omaha, winner of eight in a row and up by a game in the win column over Kansas City in The Summit League, is at South Dakota. Kansas City is off, but Denver, a game back, is at North Dakota. Also, St. Thomas is at South Dakota State and Oral Roberts is at North Dakota State.
WAC-leading Stephen F. Austin, a game up on Grand Canyon and riding an eight-game winning streak, is at Utah Tech, while GCU is home for Utah Valley. Third-place UTRGV is at Abilene Christian and UT Arlington is at Southern Utah.
Pepperdine leads the West Coast Conference at 7-0, Loyola Marymount is 7-1 and San Diego is 6-1. Pepperdine has a chance to open the game at LMU, while USD is home for Portland. Also, San Francisco is at Santa Clara and Saint Mary’s is at Pacific.
In the American Athletic, Memphis plays East Carolina. Binghamton plays UMBC in the America East. N.C. A&T is at William & Mary in the CAA. The one SoCon match has ETSU at Furman. Sun Belt action has Louisiana at Old Dominion and Southern Miss at Arkansas State.
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.
TEXAS ESCAPES TCU: Texas (14-3, 9-0 Big 12) won 14-25, 25-22, 21-25, 25-23, 15-13 before a record crowd of 7,412 at TCU (12-8, 5-4). Madisen Skinner had 19 kills for Texas to go with an ace, six digs and three blocks, one solo. Asjia O’Neal, who had four blocks, and Jenna Wenaas had 10 kills each. Ella Swindle had five kills in 11 errorless tries, 45 assists, three blocks and 11 digs. Audrey Nalls had 24 kills for TCU and hit .541 to go with an assist, an ace and 14 digs. Melanie Parra, playing against her old team for the first time, had 20 kills, an assist, two aces, two blocks and nine digs.Lily Nicholson had three kills in seven errorless attempts, 58 assists, a block and 13 digs. TCU hit .329 while Texas hit .268.
BIG TEN: Wisconsin (18-0, 9-0) made short work of visiting Ohio State (7-11, 4-5) and Nebraksa (18-0, 9-0) did the same at Northwestern and now all eyes can turn to Saturday’s Wisconsin-at-Nebraska match. Sarah Franklin had 16 kills for Wisconsin, while Merritt Beason had 13 for Nebraska, which hit .395 …
Purdue (12-6, 6-3) beat visiting Indiana (15-7, 5-4) in four a week after losing to the Hoosiers in four in Bloomington. Eva Hudson had 19 kills, a block and nine digs … Michigan State (13-7, 5-4) beat Michigan (3-15, 1-8) in four as Taylah Holdem had 16 kills, hit .353 and had an assist, two aces, a block and seven digs. The Spartans won both regular-season matches with Michigan for the first time since 2006 and also surpassed its B1G win total from a year ago.
Around the nation
In the SEC, Georgia held off visiting Ole Miss in five as Erica Staunton had 17 kills and Kacie Evans and Sophie Tucker had 16 each and South Carolina beat Alabama in four despite 22 kills by Bama’s Kendyl Reaugh …
Pitt routed visiting Virginia in the ACC as the Panthers got kills from eight players, 10 by Chiamaka Nwokolo …
Saint Peter’s is 0-23, 0-11 in the MAAC after losing to visiting NJIT 25-21, 19-25, 25-14, 27-29, 15-10. It’s the second time in four matches that the Peacocks have lost in five.
Nebraska’s Harper Murray attacks against Northwestern/Zach Schuster photo
The post Texas escapes TCU; Wisconsin, Nebraska, Purdue, Pitt all win; Saint Peter’s falls again appeared first on Volleyballmag.com.
Read More Volleyballmag.com Indoor, NCAA Women