Kentucky, ranked No. 17, lost an SEC match for the first time since 2017 when previously slumping Texas A&M pulled off a sweep Saturday on its home court.
Elsewhere in NCAA volleyball, Gonzaga got its first West Coast Conference win by upsetting No. 22 Pepperdine, the first victory over a ranked team in program history.Â
Also, No. 9 Minnesota beat No. 12 Purdue, handing the Boilermakers their third loss in a row.
The recaps and top performances follow, but first a look at Sunday’s NCAA Division I volleyball schedule, which starts with showtime in the ACC, when No. 2 Louisville goes to No. 8 Pittsburgh. Both teams are 9-0, two games ahead of No. 10 Georgia Tech, which is home for fourth-place Syracuse. Also in the ACC, Notre Dame is at Virginia, Boston College is at Clemson, North Carolina is at Duke, Virginia Tech is at Miami, and Wake Forest is at Florida State.
There’s also a battle for the lead in the Pac-12 when No. 7 Stanford goes to USC. Both teams are 8-1 in the conference, two games up on No. 15 Washington, No. 17 Oregon and Washington State. Washington is home for Arizona, Oregon plays host to Colorado, Washington State is home for Arizona State, Utah is at Oregon State, and UCLA is at Cal.
The three matches in the Big Ten have No. 5 Wisconsin at No. 25 Michigan, No. 13 Penn State home for Rutgers, and Indiana at Michigan State.
In the SEC, Kentucky is home again for A&M, Alabama goes to Georgia, and LSU is home for South Carolina.
No. 23 Western Kentucky plays a Conference USA match against Middle Tennessee.
In the American Athletic Conference, No. 24 Houston is home for Tulsa.
Minnesota’s Naya Gros goes up to hit against Purdue/Kelly Hagenson photo
BIG TEN: Purdue (15-5, 6-4) has now dropped three in a row after losing 25-27, 23-25, 22-25, 25-19 at Minnesota (12-6, 7-3). Taylor Landfair led the Gophers with 21 kills, two assists, three blocks and four digs. Mckenna Wucherer had 16 kills with two errors in 31 attacks to hit .452 and added a block and three digs. Naya Gros had eight kills, two digs and six blocks, two solo. Melani Shaffmaster had three kills, 47 assists, an ace, three blocks and 20 digs. Her team hit .263.Â
Eva Hudson led Purdue with 21 kills, an ace and eight digs. Madeline Koch had 12 kills, an assist, a block and a dig. Emma Ellis had 10 kills, three blocks and three digs. The Boilermakers hit .160 …Â
Northwestern (15-7, 4-6) swept at Maryland (12-10, 3-7) as Temi Thomas-Ailara had 18 kills and hit .342 in a 25-23, 25-20, 25-20 victory. Kathryn Randorf had 12 kills, hit .385 and had two blocks and two digs. The Wildcats hit .295, while Maryland hit .173. Sam Csire had 15 kills, three blocks and five digs for the Terps …Â
Third-ranked Nebraska (18-1, 10-0) hit .320 and rolled on with a 25-14, 25-16, 25-22 sweep at Illinois (9-11, 4-6). Whitney Lauenstein led a balanced attack with 13 kills as she hit .346 and had an ace, three blocks and five digs. Raina Terry had 13 kills for Illinois, which hit .161.
SEC: Texas A&M, which had lost six in a row, stunned visiting No. 16 Kentucky 25-23, 27-25, 25-20. The Aggies got 10 kills each from Madison Bowser, who had four blocks, and Lexi Guinn. Logan Lednicky added nine kills, two aces, four blocks and eight digs. A&M hit .252. Kentucky, which hit .203, got 13 kills from Reagan Rutherford, who hit .333 and had an assist, an ace, a block and six digs. Azhani Tealer had nine kills, hit .350 and had five blocks and three digs …Â
Georgia (14-5, 5-3) beat visiting Alabama (7-14, 1-8) in five. Amber Stivrins led with 19 kills, an assist, an ace, two blocks and seven digs. Sophie Fisher had 18 kills, hit .375 and had eight blocks. Kacie Evans had 17 kills, an ace, three blocks and 11 digs. Bailey Cox had 28 digs, seven assists and an ace. Alabama’s Alyiah Wells had 15 kills, hit .353 and had an assist, an ace, five digs and eight blocks, two solo …
Ole Miss (9-10, 5-4) beat visiting Missouri (8-11, 1-8) in five despite 34 kills by Mizzou’s Kaylee Cox, who hit .394 and had two aces, two blocks and 10 digs. Anna Dixon added 17 kills. Ole Miss got 16 kills from Sasha Ratliff, who hit .419 and had three blocks and two digs. Vivian Miller had 13 kills, an assist, two aces and nine digs, and Payton Brgoch had 12 kills, hit .435 and had eight blocks, one solo.Â
Ole Miss coach Kayla Banwarth remains suspended but is still listed as the head coach. There is still no reference to the situation on the school’s website.
Ella Foti of Maqrquette tips over the St. John’s block of Lucrezia Lodi, left, and Ludovica Zola/Marquette photo
AROUND THE NATION: There were two Big 12 matches as top-ranked Texas hit .380 and routed visiting West Virginia, and No. 14 Baylor won in four at Kansas State …
Both ranked Big East teams swept, No. 18 Creighton at Georgetown and No. 19 Marquette against visiting St. John’s …Â
Hawai’i is alone atop the Big West, a game up on UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly after the Rainbow Wahine beat visiting CSB in four and UC Irvine beat visiting Cal Poly in four …
South Dakota maintained its one-game lead in The Summit League with a four-set win at Omaha that dropped the Racers into third. Elizabeth Juhnke cranked out another 26 kills and had 15 digs and two solo blocks. Second-place North Dakota State stayed a game back with a sweep of St. Thomas …Â
Texas State, South Alabama and Troy are now tied for the Sun Belt West lead at 8-2 after South Alabama beat Texas State in five and Troy hit .330 as it swept Louisiana-Monroe. The line of the day went to Janell Fitzgerald, who had 28 kills for Texas State as she hit .317 and had an assist, 17 digs and a block …
Loyola Marymount won in five at Portland and pulled a half-game ahead of BYU into second place. LMU has won eight in a row since opening the WCC season with losses to BYU and USD …Â
Mahalia White went off for 26 kills as North Florida upset Kennesaw State in the ASUN. She also had nine digs and two blocks. KSU is now tied for the lead at 8-2 with Liberty, which won in four at FGCU, and Lipscomb, which won its fifth in a row, a sweep of North Alabama …Â
Loyola won its 11th in a row and swept Rhode Island to keep its one-game lead in the Atlantic 10 loss column over Davidson, which swept Fordham. Also in the A10, Dayton beat George Washington in five and Lexie Almodovar had 23 kills, hit .340 and had an ace, nine digs and two blocks …Â
Portland State beat Sacramento State to maintain its one-game lead atop the Big Sky over Weber State, which won in four at Montana State …Â
Hofstra won its 11th in a row as it beat visiting Delaware in four to build its CAA lead to 1.5 games over idle Towson. Hofstra’s Zyare Abdul-Rahim had 16 kills, hit .394 and had seven blocks …Â
Wright State had to go five to get past visiting Cleveland State and stay unbeaten atop the Horizon League, coming back from 2-1 and winning 16-14 in the fifth. Callie Martin had 18 kills, 22 digs, two aces and two blocks …Â
MAAC-leading Fairfield beat Niagara in four as KJ Johnson had 19 kills, hit .381 and had 14 digs and four blocks …Â
UNI rolled on in the Missouri Valley as Inga Rotto had 16 kills with one error in a four-set win at Evansville …Â
UNLV pulled back into a tie with idle San Jose State for first in the Mountain West with a four-set win at Nevada. Colorado State stayed a game back with a four-set win at Utah State … Wyoming won its MWC match in five at Boise State despite 24 kills by Boise’s Lauren Ohilinger, who had an assist, three aces, 14 digs and three blocks …Â
OVC-leader UT Martin swept Lindenwood as Logan Wallick had 14 kills with one error in 26 attacks. Also in the OVC, Little Rock beat visiting Southern Indiana in five, but Southern Indiana’s Leah Anderson had 26 kills, an assist, an ace, 18 digs and three blocks …Â
ETSU and Samford both won to stay 1-2 in the Southern Conference … There’s a tie atop the Southland between HCU and McNeese as HCU got swept at Southeastern Louisiana and McNeese swept at Texas A&M-Commerce. SLU is a game back and tied for third with New Orleans and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi …
In the WAC, UTRGV maintained its one-game lead and stayed unbeaten in league play with a sweep at California Baptist, while Utah Valley stayed a game back with a four-set win at Southern Utah.
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