Plenty of ranked teams played Saturday, but the only one that lost in NCAA Division I women’s college volleyball was No. 13 Purdue, although West Virginia took No. 6 Texas to five. There are still five teams that haven’t lost, and one of them, James Madison, won again.
All the recaps follow, but first a look at Sunday’s schedule.
In the Big Ten, the league dominates ESPN, as both matches are on the Worldwide Leader’s main network. No. 1 Minnesota plays host to Michigan State at 1 p.m. Central and No. 5 Wisconsin — coming off that upset loss to MSU — is home for No. 20 Michigan at 3 p.m.
The Big 12 gets a piece of the national TV-audience action, too, as No. 12 Kansas goes to Kansas State for a noon Central match on ESPN2.
The Pac-12 has four Sunday afternoon matches, all on the Pac-12 Networks, as No. 4 Stanford goes to No. 25 Colorado, No. 16 Utah plays host to Cal, No. 21 USC is home for Oregon State and No. 7 Washington goes to Arizona State.
The SEC has a full slate, including No. 3 Florida back in action at Arkansas. Tenth-ranked Kentucky has LSU, Missouri goes to Texas A&M, Auburn is at Georgia, Mississippi State at Tennessee and Alabama at Ole Miss. The Kentucky-LSU match will cap a big weekend for current LSU assistant Sarah Rumely, who missed her team’s win over Texas A&M on Friday. That’s because she was already in Lexington where she was inducted into the University of Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame. Rumely, who is from New Palestine, Indiana, led her team to the NCAA tournament four times, from 2006-09. She finished her career as the UK leader in career assists (5,703) and aces (165).
And the ACC has a full schedule, too. The league’s ranked team, No. 19 Florida State, is home for Virginia Tech. North Carolina, desperately in need of a win, plays host to Louisivlle and Notre Dame goes to NC State. Also, Virginia is at Miami — one of just five unbeaten teams left in the nation — Boston College is at Pittsburgh, Clemson goes to Wake Forest and Georgia Tech is at Duke.
There are 58 matches on the NCAA scoreboard. See them all here.
Where to watch any of those matches? VolleyballMag.com lists every NCAA Division I match that is being televised and/or streamed.
Big Ten: Purdue falls to Ohio State, Penn State, Maryland rebound
Up-and-down Ohio State followed the lead of Luisa Schirmer and won at Purdue 25-19, 25-22, 32-34, 25-23) to improve to 9-2, 2-0 Big Ten, as Purdue dropped to 11-2, 1-1.
Schirmer had 25 kills, hit .385 and had six digs. Madison Smeathers added 16 kills and hit .419 to go with five blocks.
Purdue got 23 kills from Danielle Cuttino, who hit .333. Sherridan Atkinson added 13 kills and Azariah Stahl had 11 and nine digs.
No. 2 Penn State, coming off a loss to Nebraska, beat Iowa 25-13, 25-19, 23-25, 25-17. The Nittany Lions (11-1, 1-1) got 22 kills from Simone Lee, who hit .409 to go with 10 digs. Haleigh Washington added 12 kills as she hit .360 and had four digs and six blocks, one solo. Ali Frantti added 10 kills as she hit .348 to go with seven digs and two blocks, one solo.
Iowa’s Taylor Louis had 17 kills and hit .351. Claire Sheehan had 14 kills and nine digs for the Hawkeyes (12-3, 1-1).
Maryland (12-2, 1-1) also evened its league record with its 25-17, 25-19, 26-24 win at Indiana (11-3, 0-2).
Maryland, which matched its overall win total from last year, got 11 kills from Gia Milana and nine from Hailey Murray, who hit .667 and had four blocks, one solo. Indiana’s Kendall Beerman had 12 kills.
Nebraska blasted Rutgers 25-15, 25-20, 25-11. The Huskers (9-3, 2-0) got 12 kills from Annika Albrecht and 11 from Mikaela Foecke. Rutgers is 5-9, 0-2.
And Illinois (11-2, 2-0) beat Northwestern 25-23, 25-19, 25-13. Jacqueline Quade and Beth Prince had 10 kills each. Northwestern (10-4, 0-2) got 13 kills from Symone Abbott.
Big 12: Texas escapes, Baylor, ISU win
West Virginia almost pulled off its biggest victory since coach Reed Sunahara took over, but ultimately the Longhorns came away with a 27-25, 23-25, 21-25, 25-16, 15-12 victory that left Texas 9-2 and WVU 12-3 in the league opener for both teams.
West Virginia held a 9-4 lead in the fifth before Texas tied it 10-10 and then pulled away and won on a service error.
Micaya White led with 16 kills and 15 digs. Lexi Sun had 13 kills and 11 digs to go with six blocks, and Chiaka Ogbogu had 13 kills, hit .619 and had three blocks. Morgan Johnson had five kills and 10 blocks.
WVU got 21 kills from Payton Caffrey, who also had four aces and 15 digs. Katelyn Evans had 16 kills and Mia Swanegan added 13, hit .409 and had four blocks.
“I thought we played pretty well,” Sunahara said. “I thought we had momentum going into the fifth set, but it was a heartbreaker. I’m proud of our girls and our players. I think we did a nice job. We just have to build on that and get better.”
Baylor (12-3, 2-0 Big 12) went to TCU and came away with a sweep of the Horned Frogs (8-5, 0-2) 25-22, 25-17, 25-23 as Katie Staiger led with 17 kills and hit .412, over .400 for the fourth time in five matches. She also had a team-high 10 digs and her team hit .306 overall. Shelly Fanning added 10 kills.
Anna Walsh led TCU with 13 kills. She hit .458 and had three blocks.
Iowa State is 10-1 as it won its league opener over visiting Oklahoma (3-11, 0-2) 29-31, 25-15, 25-23, 25-22. Samara West led with 18 kills as she hit .371 to go with four blocks. Jess Schaben had 17 kills, nine digs and six blocks, one solo. Alexis Conaway had 12 kills, nine digs and three blocks and Grace Lazard had 11 kills.
Alyssa Enneking continued to lead Oklahoma, this time with 21 kills and 18 digs. Madison Drescher added 17 kills.
Pac-12: Washington State tops Wildcats
Washington State made the trip to Tucson worth it with a 25-22, 25-21, 24-26, 25-17 victory. The Cougars are 12-2, 1-1 Pac-12 after Taylor Mims had 16 kills and eight digs. McKenna Woodford and Jocelyn Urias had 10 kills each. Urias hit .556 and had an ace and four blocks.
Arizona (7-4, 1-1) got 19 kills from Kendra Dahlke, who had 23 digs. Elizabeth Shelton had 13 kills while hitting .476.
WCC: BYU, San Diego win
No. 14 BYU stepped out of conference and got a 25-21, 22-25, 26-24, 25-17 win at Utah Valley. Veronica Jones-Perry led BYU (11-1) with 23 kills. McKenna Miller added 13. Utah Valley (5-10) got 12 kills from Lexi Thompson.
No. 17 San Diego got a league win by sweeping Santa Clara 26-24, 25-19, 25-19 . It was the eight sweep of the season for the Toreros (9-3, 2-0 WCC). Jayden Kennedy led with 13 kills as she hit .385. Kaity Edwards had 12 kills and hit .526 and Roxie Wiblin had 10 kills.
Santa Clara (7-7, 0-2) 13 kills from Michelle Gajdka and 10 from Jensen Cunningham, who hit .500.
Northern Iowa, Colorado State get wins: No. 22 Northern Iowa is 12-4, 2-0 in the Missouri Valley, after beating Loyola 25-14, 25-22, 25-8. Piper Thomas led with 13 kills, hit .323 and had four blocks. Karlie Taylor had 11 kills and seven digs. Also in the Valley, Missouri State beat Bradley in four to get to 10-5, 2-0 as Lynsey Wright had 20 kills and hit .469, while Lily Johnson had 19 kills and hit. 364. Johnson also had 20 digs …
No. 23 Colorado State made short work of UNLV 25-16, 25-19, 25-8 to improve to 12-2 overall, 2-0 in the Mountain West. CSU hit .425, while holding UNLV to minus .042. Jasmine Hanna had 12 kills and hit .360 to go with three blocks, while Breana Runnels had nine kills and hit .533.
Also in the MW, Boise State improved to 9-5, 2-0 with a sweep of San Diego State, once again playing without offensive leader Sierra Nobley. Sabryn Roberts had 12 kills and hit .370 to lead the Broncos. And Utah State is 10-4, 2-0 after beating Fresno State in four …
Around the nation: James Madison is 10-0 after beating William & Mary in its Colonial opener 25-14, 25-17, 21-25, 25-16. Bryn Recker had 15 kills, five blocks and an ace for the Dukes, who also got 10 kills and 11 digs from Kelly Vahos. Its JMU’s best start in 33 years …
North Dakota is 17-2. UND went to Northern Colorado and came away with a 25-18, 27-25, 25-20 victory that left it 2-0 in the Big Sky as Faith Dooley had 12 kills in 16 swings with one error to hit .688. UNC fell to 8-7, 1-1. Kortney Lockey had 12 kills for the Bears … Also in the Big Sky, Sacramento State is 11-7, 2-0 after sweeping Idaho State and Portland State is 11-3, 2-0 after sweeping Weber State, 25-6 in the third …
Cal Poly is 3-0 in the Big West. The Mustangs (13-2) swept visiting UC Riverside for their eighth consecutive win as Torrey Van Winden had 15 kills and 11 digs. Also in the Big West, Hawai’i won its sixth in a row with a sweep of visiting UC Davis …
Butler is 11-3 as it evened its Big East record at 1-1 with a four-set win at Xavier … UIC is 11-4 and 2-0 in the Horizon under first-year coach Justin Ingram after beating Cleveland State in four … Let’s go Peay: Austin Peay is 13-2 and 2-0 in the Ohio Valley after beating Eastern Illinois in four. Christina White had 18 kills and 12 digs … Stephen F. Austin won again, beating Northwestern State in four to get to 14-4, 2-0 in the Southland. Corin Evans had 16 kills and hit .316 to go with six digs … North Dakota State beat South Dakota in four to improve to 10-3 in its Summit opener.
