Two big ACC battles highlight Friday’s NCAA volleyball schedule
Western Michigan’s Maggie King hits over the CMU block/Ashley Huss, WMU Photographer
The ACC takes center stage Friday in NCAA Division I women’s volleyball.
Thursday’s recaps and top performances follow after a day in which some league races tightened, but first a look at Friday’s schedule
The featured match of the day is at Louisville, when the Cardinals (14-2, 5-1), ranked No. 8 in the VolleyballMag.com Super 16 Media Poll, play host to No. 7 Pittsburgh (15-2, 6-0) in the downtown KFC Yum! Center. Something’s got to give in their first meeting since Louisville beat the Panthers in the 2022 NCAA national semfinals 25-18, 23-25, 25-22, 22-25, 15-2. Louisville has lost only to No. 3 Stanford in five before getting upset in ACC play by NC State. Pitt has won nine in a row and is tied with Florida State atop the standings. The 7 p.m. Eastern match is on ESPNU.
Speaking of FSU (12-6, 6-0), the Seminoles are at No. 12 Georgia Tech (14-2, 5-1). GT has won the last seven matches between them; FSU received votes in our poll this week. That one can be seen on ACC Network Extra.
Also in the ACC, Wake Forest (14-4, 5-2) tries to keep pace when the Deacons at NC State (13-4, 3-3), which has lost to Miami and FSU, both in five, since upsetting Louisville. Miami is at Clemson, Duke is at Boston College, Virginia is at Notre Dame and North Carolina is at Syracuse.
In the Big 12, AVCA No. 20 Baylor is back at Cincinnati, where the Bears won in four on Thursday, and No. 10 BYU is at Texas Tech. Saturday, in Houston, the Fertitta Center is sold out in advance for first time in program history as Houston, No. 22 in the AVCA poll plays host to VBM No. 6 Texas.
No ranked Big Ten teams play each other. Top-ranked Wisconsin is home for Rutgers, No. 2 Nebraska plays host to Michigan State, No. 13 Penn State is at Iowa, Illinois is at Ohio State and Maryland is at Northwestern.
There’s a big match in the SEC when league-leading VBM No. 9 Tennessee plays host to AVCA No. 22 Auburn. Florida, No. 11 in the VBM Poll and AVCA No. 14, is at Mississippi State, VBM No. 13 Arkansas is home for Ole Miss and Texas A&M is at LSU.
There are six Pac-12 matches, including Stanford (13-2, 6-0) home for USC (11-5, 5-1), which is tied with Arizona State, Oregon and Washington State for second. No. 4 WSU (15-2, 5-1) is home for Utah, No. 5 Oregon (15-2, 5-1) is home for Arizona and Arizona State (17-1, 5-1), in the AVCA Poll at No. 19 and receiving votes in the VBM Poll, is at Oregon State. Also, Colorado is at Washington and UCLA is at Cal.
Dayton (18-2, 7-0), AVCA No. 18 and receiving VBM votes, has an Atlantic 10 match at Dayton. The Flyers have won 13 in a row.
In the Big East, conference-leading Marquette (10-7, 6-0) is at Seton Hall, second-place St. John’s (13-5, 5-1) is home for DePaul and third-place Creighton (13-4, 4-2) is home for Georgetown. Xavier (11-6, 4-2), tied with Creighton, is UConn. Marquette and Creighton are receiving VBM votes.
The Citadel (18-0, 6-0) tries to extend its unbeaten streak at Furman (15-3, 6-1) in the SoCon as the top teams play in Greenville, South Carolina.
James Madison, which swept at Georgia State in the Sun Belt on Thursday, is back at GSU again as the Dukes (14-4. 7-0) try to extend their seven-match winning streak, all in the conference.
The top two teams in Conference USA got at it when Western Kentucky (16-4, 6-0) is at NM State (13-6, 6-2).
The only winless team in action is Le Moyne (0-15), which has an NEC match at Central Connecticut 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.
In the only Big 12 match, Baylor (9-7, 3-3) won in four at Cincinnati (9-7, 2-4) as Elise McGhee had 16 kills, an ace and four digs and Riley Simpson had 15 kills, an ace, a solo block and three digs. Cincinnati’s Carly Glendinning had a season-high 15 kills and 10 digs …
There’s a three-way tie for first at 5-1 in the Big Sky between Weber State, Sacramento State and Montana State after Weber State swept at Sacramento State and Montana State swept Eastern Washington …
In the only Big West match, league-leading UC Santa Barbara (17-2, 7-0) swept visiting Cal Poly (11-8, 5-2) for its seventh win in a row. Tasia Farmer had 18 kills with two errors in 24 attacks to hit ,667 and had two blocks and four digs. Andi Kreiling had nine kills with two errors in 12 attacks and four blocks, three solo, and Briana McKnight had eight kills in 18 errorless attempts, two aces, four digs and two blocks, one solo …
Pepperdine hit .375 and maintained its lead in the West Coast Conference with a sweep of visiting Santa Clara. The Waves, 11-6, 7-0, have won 10 in a row. Grace Chillingsworth had 18 kills with one error in 33 attacks to hit .515 and had eight digs and a block. Meg Brown had 12 kills with two errors in 16 attacks to hit .625 and had a dig and five blocks … Second-place Loyola Marymount (13-4, 6-1) won its fifth in a row, a four-set victory over San Diego (9-7, 5-1) that knocked the Toreros out of first place …
Stephen F. Austin kept rolling in the WAC. SFA is 18-3, 7-0, and has won seven in a row after sweeping visiting Tarleton State … Grand Canyon (13-5, 6-1) is alone in second after it pulled off a reverse sweep at UTRGV (11-9, 5-2) as Tatum Parrott had 26 kills, hitting .308, in the 18-25, 23-25, 25-17, 25-16, 17-15 victory. Parrott had a block and four digs and Stella Gkiourda had 13 kills, an assist, three aces, a block and 10 digs. GCU had a 14-10 fifth-set lead before UTRGV forced extra play … Also in the WAC, Abilene Christian won in five at UT Arlington as Abilene’s Bryley Steinhilber had 23 kills and so did UTA’s Brianna Ford
All three MAC matches ended in sweeps. Western Michigan (17-2, 7-0) won its seventh in a row as it beat visiting Central Michigan. Anna Calcagno had 14 kills, hit .423, and had an ace, two digs and two blocks, one solo. Maggie King had 12 kills in 27 errorless attacks, three aces, two blocks and eight digs. Ball State beat visiting Akron and NIU beat visiting Eastern Michigan despite Callie Minshew getting 17 kills …
Southland-leading Southeastern Louisiana swept at Lamar as the Lions hit .354. Kaitlin Newsome had 16 kills, hit .433, and had two assists, an ace, 11 digs and a block. Also in the SLC, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi swept New Orleans as Leah Stolfus had 10 kills in 13 errorless attacks …
Kansas City kept moved into a tie with idle Omaha in The Summit League with a sweep of North Dakota. Four players had 10 or more kills ..
In the Mountain West, three of the five matches went five. Colorado knocked Air Force out of a tie for first with a five-set win as Malaya Jones had 22 kills to go with an ace, nine digs and two blocks. New Mexico got 15 kills from Kaitlynn Biassou and 14 from Uxue Guereca as it beat Wyoming in four. Fresno State beat San Diego State in four despite 21 kills by Taylor Underwood, Nevada beat UNLV in five and Boise State swept at San Jose State to stay a game back in the loss column of idle and league-leading Utah State …
In the SoCon, Wofford swept at Western Carolina to stay a game back in the loss column behind The Citadel and third-place Mercer kept pace as it won in five at Samford. Samford’s Kaleigh Merritt had 22 kills and hit .353 to go with two aces, two assists, 16 digs and a block.
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