NCAA volleyball: San Diego, BYU, San Jose State, Wright State all roll on

Fourth-ranked San Diego and No. 12 BYU had West Coast Conference sweeps Thursday, San Jose State stayed unbeaten in Mountain West play, Wright State did the same in the Horizon League, and the line of the night goes to Colorado State’s Kennedy Stanford, who had 28 kills, hit .370 and had an assist, 15 digs and three blocks, one solo, in a five-set win at Fresno State.

The recaps and top preformances follow, but first a look at Friday’s NCAA Division I volleyball schedule 

It’s showdown time in the Big East. The two ranked teams face off with No. 16 Marquette at No. 21 Creighton.

There are five Big Ten matches, but only one between ranked teams when No. 14 Penn State goes to Nebraska. No. 5 Wisconsin is at Iowa, No. 9 Purdue is at Indiana, No. 24 Michigan is at Michigan State and Maryland is at Northwestern.

The ACC has seven matches including No. 2 Louisville home for Georgia Tech, No. 8 Pittsburgh home for Miami and No. 11 Georgia Tech at Duke. Also, Florida State is at Virginia, Boston College at North Carolina, Wake Forest at Duke and Syracuse at NC State.

Both ranked teams in Conference USA are in action with No. 22 Rice at UAB and No. 23 Western Kentucky at North Texas.

In the American Athletic Conference, league-leading Houston, the last team out of the AVCA top 25, plays a key match against SMU, while No. 24 UCF is home for Temple. 

There are six Pac-12 matches. No. 7 Stanford, tied atop the standings with No. 15 Washington and USC, goes to Arizona. Washington is at Utah and No. 17 Oregon is at USC. Oregon State is at UCLA, Washington State is at Colorado and Cal is at Arizona.

The SEC slate shows No, 13 Florida at Mississippi State and Tennessee at Arkansas, while Alabama plays host to the SWAC’s Alabama State.

The lone WCC match has No. 20 Pepperdine at Loyola Marymount. 

The Big 12 is idle.

Want to watch a match? We have the viewing links on the VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings page.

WCC: San Diego (16-1, 7-0) won 25-17, 25-23, 25-15 at Pacific (10-9, 2-5) as Breana Edwards and Katie Lukes had 11 kills each. Edwards hit .360 and had a block and a dig, while Lukes hit .409 and had an assist and a dig. Pacific hit .052 … BYU (14-3, 7-0) kept pace with a 25-18, 25-3, 25-14 sweep at Saint Mary’s (6-9, 3-4). The Cougars, who hit .378, got 11 kills from Erin Livingson and 10 from Whitney Llarenas, who had one error in 16 attacks and four blocks, two solo. Elyse Stowell had nine kills with one error in 13 attacks and two blocks, Kate Grimmer had eight kills with one error in 13 attacks and Heathre Gneiting had seven kills with one error in 13 attacks and six blocks … Santa Clara got 17 kills from Julia Sangiacomo and beat visiting Portland in five and San Francisco broke its nine-match losing streak by sweeping visiting Gonzaga. Orsula Staka had 12 kills with one error in 19 attacks, an assist, an ace, a dig and three blocks, one solo.

BIG SKY: Portland State (11-7, 6-1) maintained its half-game lead over Weber State (11-6, 5-1) as both teams swept. Portland State won at Idaho State (10-9, 2-4) as Ashlyn Blotzer had 11 kills, hit .529 and had two blocks, one solo. Weber State beat visiting Sacramento State (9-10, 5-2), which was tied for the lead in the loss column, despite hitting .128. Emma Mangun had 10 kills, hit .318 and added an ace, two digs and five blocks, two solo … Paige Clark had 25 kills as Montana (11-7, 4-2) beat visting Northern Arizona (2-11, 1-5) in five. Clark hit .321 and had an ace, five digs and four blocks … Northern Colorado (9-8, 3-3) won in five at Montana State (6-12, 2-4) despite 20 kills by MSU’s Kira Thomsen, who hit .306 and had four assists, two aces, a block and 13 digs.

MOUNTAIN WEST: San Jose State (13-4, 7-0) swept visiting New Mexico (11-6, 2-5)  to stay unbeaten in league play and maintain its one-game lead over UNLV (15-3, 6-1) and Colorado State (13-5, 6-1). UNLV beat visiting Utah State (13-6, 5-3) in five and Colorado State won in five at Fresno State (6-13, 0-7).

San Jose State got 12 kills from Blaire Fleming, who hit .350 and had two digs and four blocks. New Mexico hit .023 … UNLV’s Chloe Thomas and Gabrielle Arretche-Ramos had 12 kills each … Colorado State’s Stanford had 28 kills, hit .370 and had an assist, 15 digs and three blocks, one solo and the Rams hit .331 … Wyoming won in four at San Diego State as Tierney Barlow had 10 kills, hit .444 and added an assist, two digs and five blocks …  Nevada beat visiting Air Force in four.

SUMMIT LEAGUE: Now, South Dakota (17-2, 6-1) and North Dakota State (13-6, 6-1) are tied for the lead and Omaha (11-7, 6-2) has moved into third after knocking off North Dakota (8-10, 5-2). 

South Dakota swept visiting Oral Roberts behind 24 kills from Elizabeth Juhnke, who had two errors in 42 attacks and hit .524. She had an assist, 11 digs and three blocks … North Dakota State swept at Denver after dominating the first set 25-11 but winning 27-25, 26-24 in the last two. Ali Hinze had 17 kills, hit .429 and had an assist, three blocks and seven digs. Syra Tanchin had 16 kills, hit .39 and had nine digs and three blocks, one solo … Omaha recorded its sixth sweep in a row its win over UND, which hit minus .019. Omaha’s Kali Jurgensmeier had 11 kills in 17 errorless attacks, three digs and three blocks … Kansas City won in four at South Dakota State. Odyssey Warren led with 17 kills, an assist, 10 digs and two blocks.

AROUND THE NATION: Wright State (16-3, 8-0) won its 11th in a row and built its lead in the only Horizon League match of the night with a 25-8, 25-14, 25-14 sweep of visiting Robert Morris (8-12, 1-7). Wright State, which hit .411, got 14 kills from Taylor Bransfield, who had no errors in 20 attacks and two blocks. Robert Morris hit .033 … 

Connecticut beat visiting Villanova in four in the Big East. Caylee Parker had 16 kills with one error in 29 attacks to go with two aces, three digs and three blocks, two solo … In the Big South, Winthrop swept visiting Presbyterian as Alayna Jansky had 11 kills with one error in 31 attacks, two aces, eight digs and three blocks, one solo … In the Southland, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi swept visiting Houston Christian and now both teams are tied for first at 6-2. Texas A&M-Commerce swept visiting Southeastern Louisiana to drop the Lions a game off the lead, Lamar beat visiting New Orleans in four, McNeese beat visiting UIW in four, and Northwestern State beat visiting Nicholls in five. TAMUCC’s Kyndal Payne had 15 kills, hit .364 and had an assist, an ace and 12 digs … 

In the only Sun Belt match, South Alabama swept visiting Louisiana. Hannah Maddux had 14 kills, three aces, a dig and three solo blocks … 

WAC-leader UTRGV was idle but second-place Stephen F. Austin kept pace with a sweep at Seattle U as SFA hit .303. Ielan Bradley had 14 kills, hit .455 and had two digs and five blocks, and Payton Cerny had 13 kills with one error in 22 attacks … Utah Valley stayed even with SFA in the loss column with a four-set win over visiting UT Arlington. Caleigh Vagana had 10 kills with no errors and nine blocks … Grand Canyon won in four at Tarleton State ... Utah Tech won four at Sam Houston as Kate Hardy had 12 kills, seven digs and eight blocks … California Baptist had 1,870 fans on hand and beat visiting Abilene Christian in four as Christine Graf had 16 kills and four blocks and Laura Walewska had 14 kills, hit .522, and had four blocks … NM State of the WAC swept former WAC member and independent Chicago State. Mari Sharp had 11 kills with no errors in 20 attacks and Molly Johnson had 11 kills with one error in 33 swings.

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Lee Feinswog

Lee Feinswog is the publisher and editor of VolleyballMag.com
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