If the second Saturday of the NCAA women’s college volleyball season is a harbinger of things to come, well, pretty much anything can happen.
For example, No. 7 Creighton lost at home to No. 18 USC, but then bounced back to beat Northern Iowa. But USC fell to No. 13 Kentucky.
No. 5 Penn State, coming off its four-set win over top-ranked Stanford, was down 8-5 in the fifth before coming back to beat host Texas A&M.
No. 15 Florida State was swept at home by Colorado State.
No. 16 North Carolina lost in four to Auburn in Puerto Rico.
All the results follow, but first, there are just 11 matches on tap for Sunday and some are pretty intriguing.
No. 1 Stanford, coming off that loss to Penn State on Friday night, is at Texas A&M, which has to shake off being so close to beating the Nittany Lions.
In Puerto Rico, No. 3 Florida plays reeling North Carolina and Auburn plays NC State, No. 22 Utah plays at Hawai’i and two teams to always keep an on, Pittsburgh plays at Dayton. And in Tallahassee, TCU takes on Florida State.
Big Ten: An upset-free Saturday in the league
Penn State (5-0) won at A&M 24-26, 25-19, 25-23, 24-26, 15-12, going on a seven-point run after trailing by three in the fifth set. Simone Lee was the go-to, with 30 kills in 56 swings for a .456 attack percentage. She also had six digs. Ali Frantti had 16 kills and hit .324 to go with 13 digs, while Haleigh Washington had 12 kills, hit .417, and had six blocks, one solo.
A&M (2-1) got 28 kills from Hollann Hans, who had 58 attacks and hit .328. She also had six digs and a block. Kaitlyn Blake and Camille Conner had 12 kills each and Kiara McGee 11. Blake had seven blocks and seven digs.
Second-ranked Minnesota swept UTSA (25-12, 25-17, 25-14) and Tennessee (25-22, 25-15, 25-20) to improve to 5-0. Freshman Stephanie Samedy had 11 kills against UTSA and 17 more against the Vols.
Sixth-ranked Wisconsin improved to 5-0 by sweeping the home team at the Kansas State Invitational 25-17, 25-16, 25-20. In a match in which the Badgers held an 11-3 blocking advantage, Madison Duello led with eight block assists and 12 kills. Kelli Bates added 11 kills and 10 digs.
Kylee Zumach led K-State (2-4) with 10 kills.
No. 12 Nebraska swept Saint Mary’s 26-24, 25-22, 25-18. Briana Holman had nine kills, hit .316 and had seven blocks, giving her 25 kills and 18 blocks for the three-match tournament.
Michigan is 5-1 after the 16th-ranked Wolverines beat Green Bay 25-20, 23-25, 25-13, 25-16. Carly Skjodt led with 15 kills. She hit .333 and had seven digs and two solo blocks. Katherine Mahlke added 14 kills and hit .435.
No. 20 Ohio State (4-2) won twice on Saturday, beating Oakland 25-14, 19-25, 25-19, 25-23 before sweeping Lipscomb 25-19, 27-25, 25-15. Audra Appold had 18 kills against Lipscomb and hit .441 to go with 14 digs.
Missouri State was crowned champions of the 2017 Sports Imports D.C. Koehl Classic based on a most sets won tiebreaker with Lipscomb and Ohio State. All were 2-1 while Oakland was 0-3.
Purdue, ranked 21st, is 6-0 after the Boilermakers swept Eastern Michigan and Wyoming. Senior Danielle Cuttino became the 26th Purdue player to reach 1,000 career kills. Her sophomore sister, Shavona, has 12 kills in 18 swing with no errors and 16 blocks in her last four matches.
No. 23 Michigan State (5-1) beat Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 25-20, 25-11, 25-18 as Autumn Bailey led with 16 kills. She hit .552 and had eight digs. Alyssa Garvelink added 10 kills and hit .692.
Illinois got a nice victory over Louisville in a match that featured two head coaches who sat together last year on the Nebraska bench. Chris Tamas’ Fighting Illini beat host Louisville and coach Dani Busboom Kelly 25-18, 25-15, 25-20.
Jacqueline Quade led with 13 kills and had five digs. Blayke Hranicka had 11 kills and hit .625 to go with four blocks and Ali Bastianelli had nine kills and six blocks.
Earlier Saturday, Illinois swept No. 24 Western Kentucky behind 12 kills by Beth Prince and 11 from Bastianelli, who had no errors in12 attacks and hit .917. The Illini hit a program-best .652.
Louisville, which hit .041 and got aced eight times, fell to 2-3. Tess Clark led with 11 kills and Melanie McHenry had 10.
Also in the Big Ten, Maryland improved to 6-0 by beating Elon and Furman, both times in four sets … Indiana is also 6-0 after beating LIU Brooklyn in four … Iowa is 6-1 after getting past Coastal Carolina in five and Indiana State in four … Northwestern swept UNC Wilmington and is 5-1 for the first time in three years … Indiana is also 6-0. The Hoosiers beat Hofstra and LIU-Brooklyn as Hayden Huybers had 23 kills and hit .432 for her three matches in Washington, D.C. … Rutgers is 3-3. The Scarlet Knights lost twice Saturday, to Buffalo and Seton Hall.
Pac-12: Washington sweeps twice, unbeaten Bruins win again
Eighth-ranked Washington rolled past Seattle (25-12, 25-16, 25-22) and Cal Poly (25-20, 28-26, 25-17) to improve to 5-1.
Carly DeHoog had a big Saturday. Against Cal Poly, she had 11 kills with an error in 20 swings and hit .550. She also had three blocks and three digs. Against Cal Poly, DeHoog had 10 kills and hit .643 and also had seven blocks and two aces.
Courtney Schwan had 14 kills against Cal Poly, which is also 5-1. Torrey Van Winden, the UCLA transfer, led Cal Poly with 19 kills and hit .351 with nine digs, while her older sister, Adlee, had 10 kills.
UCLA is 5-0 after beating UNLV 25-18, 25-19, 25-21. Freshman Mac May led with 16 kills and hit .500. She also had nine digs and two aces.
No. 18 USC (4-2), a team with so many new and/or young players is riding the roller coaster. Saturday morning the Women of Troy upset Creighton, sweeping the Bluejays on their home floor. And then Saturday afternoon they lost in four to Kentucky.
USC beat Creighton 26-24, 25-16, 25-18 for its first sweep of the season. Khalia Lanier had 23 kills. She hit .476 and had seven digs and an ace. Megan Ballenger led Creighton with 11 kills and hit .500.
But then Kentucky took care of USC 25-16, 11-25, 25-19, 25-19. Lanier was big again, this time with 15 kills, nine digs and two aces, and Niki Withers added 13 kills while hitting .476. But they were no match for the firepower of Kentucky’s Leah Edmond, who had 21 kills, hit .347 and had five digs, four aces and two blocks. Avery Skinner had 15 kills and hit .345 for UK.
Oregon State has the best record in the league at 6-0. The Beavers won twice Saturday, sweeping Fresno State and then beating host Portland (5-1) in four. Oregon State is 6-0 for the first time in three years. Mary-Kate Marshall led OSU with 19 kills and nine digs. Kory Cheshire and Haylie Bennett had 10 kills each.
Colorado is 5-0 after sweeping Wake Forest and Rice. Alexa Smith had 14 kills against Wake Forest and she had nine more against Rice. Teammates Naghede Abu and Joslyn Hayes also had nine kills.
Cal beat Eastern Michigan and Texas Tech to get to 5-1. Antzela Dempi had 19 kills and hit .515 against Texas Tech. Carmen Annevelink had 17 kills.
Also, No. 14 Oregon swept Northern Illinois as Lindsey Vander Weide had 14 kills and .440 … Arizona was up 2-0 at home but lost to Radford 15-25, 20-25, 25-22, 25-17, 15-9 to fall to 4-2. Kendra Dahlke and Paige Whipple had 12 kills apiece for Arizona. Radford of the Big South is 6-0. Maddie Palmer led with 16 kills. And Arizona State is also 4-2 after losing to Portland State.
ACC: FSU, UNC knocked off
The league’s two ranked teams both lost on Saturday. Florida State coach Chris Poole said before the season he expected an up-and-down ride from such a young team and Colorado State’s 25-21, 25-23, 25-15 backs him up. The Rams are 5-1, while FSU is 4-1.
Breanna Runnels had a big match for Colorado State with 15 kills while hitting .483. Teammate Jasmine had 15 kills as well, hitting .452.
Kubura Milica led Florida State with 14 kills while hitting .455. FSU plays TCU on Sunday.
North Carolina is 0-3 after losing to Auburn 25-23, 25-22, 25-27, 25-21. Auburn, a team to watch out for in the SEC, is 4-1.
Carolina, which previously lost to Minnesota and Wisconsin, got 12 kills each from Beth Nordhorn, who hit .417, and Taylor Leath, UNC’s go-to player who hit minus-.020.
Auburn got 11 kills from Shaina White and nine each from Brenna McIlroy, Gwyn Jones and Anna Stevenson.
Miami and Notre Dame are both 6-0.
Miami swept FGCU 25-16, 25-23, 28-26 for its best start since 2011. Olga Strantzali had 21 kills for the Hurricanes and hit .326.
Notre Dame swept Toledo 25-19, 25-19, 25-17 and has its best start since 2005. Jemma Yeadon led with 10 kills.
Virginia Tech and new coach Jill Wilson are 5-1. The Hokies swept SMU 25-23, 26-24, 25-20 as Kaity Smith had 16 kills and Ester Talamazzi 13.
Also Saturday around the ACC, Louisville lost to Illinois but beat swept Kent State … Pitt lost a tough one to No. 25 Iowa State 25-16, 25-19, 16-25, 25-19, 19-21 to fall to 1-3. Nika Markovic had 16 kills, hit .344, and had five digs, four blocks and three aces. … Virginia lost to Towson but bounced back to beat Appalachian State in four … Duke is 4-2 after losing to South Carolina of the SEC 19-25, 25-20, 25-21, 25-16.
Big 12: Texas, Kansas keep winning
Morgan Johnson led No. 4 Texas with eight blocks — three solo — as the Longhorns beat No. 17 San Diego 20-25, 25-19, 25-10, 25-16. Texas (4-1) had a 13-1 blocks advantage. Lexi Sun had 16 kills and hit .452 to go with six digs and two solo blocks. Micaya White had 13 kills, hit .382 and had six digs and three block assists. Jayden Kennedy and Roxie Wiblin led the home team (4-2) with 12 kills each.
Earlier in the day Texas crushed Georgia Tech 25-13, 25-10, 25-16 as White had 10 kills and hit ..450 to go with five blocks.
Kansas is 6-0 after sweeping Montana in Utah 25-9, 25-22, 25-16. Madison Rigdon had 11 kills and seven digs for the Jayhawks. Kelsie Payne had 10 kills and six digs.
Also in the Big 12 on Saturday, TCU swept UNC Asheville, West Virginia improved to 4-2 with wins over Tennessee and UTSA.
The league had some tough losses. Oklahoma was swept by Georgia, K-State lost to Syracuse in four, Baylor lost in five to College of Charleson and Texas Tech lost to Cal.
SEC: LSU is 6-0, Georgia 6-1
As mentioned above, Florida plays Sunday, Kentucky beat USC, Texas A&M lost to Penn State and Auburn beat North Carolina.
LSU, which missed the NCAA Tournament the past two years, swept Iona 25-17, 25-12, 25-19 at Connecticut to win back-to-back tournaments to open a season for the first time since 2010. Jacqui Armer, who had 17 kills and eight blocks over three matches, was MVP.
Georgia and new coach Tom Black continue their strong start. The Bulldogs beat Oklahoma 25-16, 26-24, 25-18 as Rachel Ritchie had 17 kills and hit .313 to go with six digs and two blocks.
Around the SEC, Alabama lost to Southern Miss but beat McNeese State … Arkansas swept Syracuse as red-hot Pilar Victoria had 19 more kills … Ole Miss lost to Arkansas State … Mississippi State was swept by Stephen F. Austin … Missouri was swept by Boise State … Tennessee got swept twice, by West Virginia and Minnesota … And South Carolina beat Duke as Mikayla Shields had a monster match with 26 kills. She hit .511, with only three errors in 45 swings, and had 11 digs and three blocks.
