Two lopsided victories and a big surprise punctuated Wednesday’s NCAA Division I women’s volleyball action.
Second-ranked Stanford took it to visiting No. 18 UCLA on Wednesday night and No. 3 Minnesota simply overpowered visiting No. 6 Wisconsin.
And in Columbus, where Ohio State upset Penn State on Sunday, the Buckeyes lost to Indiana at home for the first time since 2008. What’s more, the Hoosiers doubled their Big Ten victory output from last year. by getting their second league win of the season.
Texas, ranked No. 4, made short work of visiting No. 21 Baylor, No. 11 Florida won at LSU and No. 16 Purdue won at Maryland.
The recaps follow, but first a look at Thursday’s schedule that starts with red-hot No. 1 BYU playing host to Gonzaga in a West Coast Conference match. Also in the WCC, San Diego is home for Portland, Loyola Marymount goes to Santa Clara and Pepperdine plays at San Francisco.
Western Kentucky, off to an 11-5 start, 2-0 in Conference USA, goes to Southern Mississippi.
There are five matches in the Big Sky, including league leader Montana at Northern Colorado.
The MAC slate has two matches, as co-East leaders Miami and Bowling Green go at it and Western Michigan plays at co-West leader NIU.
Co-leader Colorado State at San Diego State tops the four-match Mountain West schedule that includes co-leader Wyoming at Fresno State.
There are five matches in the Southland Conference where four teams are 2-0, including co-leader Stephen F. Austin home for Houston Baptist and co-leader Sam Houston State at Incarnate Word.
And in the WAC, the four-match slate includes UMKC home for Chicago State.
Any NCAA Division I women’s volleyball match that is being streamed or broadcast can be found in the VolleyballMag.com TV listings.
Stanford sweeps UCLA: The Cardinal (11-1, 3-0 Pac-12) laid the hammer down on UCLA 25-18, 25-19, 25-17 behind a career-high 14 kills from freshman middle Holly Campbell, who hit .400 and had six blocks. Kathryn Plummer had 17 kills, hit .289, and had nine digs and two blocks. Meghan McClure had 12 kills, hit .435 and had seven digs and three blocks.
UCLA (6-4, 1-2), which hit .121 while Stanford was hitting .316, got nine kills from Mac May, who had two digs and her team’s two aces. Madeleine Gates had seven kills.
Minnesota, Indiana, Purdue win in B1G: The Gophers (9-2, 3-0 Big Ten) lambasted Wisconsin 25-17, 25-21, 25-15.
Stephanie Samedy and Alexis Hart had 14 kills apiece for Minnesota. Samedy hit .545 and had 10 digs and a block, while Hart had no errors in 33 attacks, hit .609, and had a dig. Adanna Rollins had eight kills, an assist, an ace, a block and six digs. The Gophers hit .386.
Wisconsin (9-2, 2-1) hit .232. Dana Rettke led with 12 kills, hitting .370, to go with an assist, an ace, a block and three digs. Madison Duello and Grace Loberg had eight kills each.
Indiana (11-3, 2-1) won at Ohio State (10-5, 1-2) 25-21, 18-25, 25-20, 25-8 for its first B1G road victory since November 20, 2016, at Rutgers.
Three players — Hayden Huybers, Breana Edwards and Kendall Beerman — had 10 kills each for Indiana. Hayden hit .563, had two assists, an ace and three digs. Edwards had 10 digs and a solo block and Beerman had five digs and two blocks, one solo. Deyshia Lofton added eight kills, hit .313, and had a dig and two blocks.
Ohio State hit .121. Madison Smeathers led with 11 kills, two digs and three blocks and Vanja Bukilic had 10 kills.
Purdue (13-1, 2-1) won at Maryland (10-5, 1-2) 15-25, 25-21, 25-23, 25-21. Grace Cleveland led with 15 kills, hit .313, and had two digs and two blocks, one solo. Sherridan Atkinson had 11 kills, three aces, eight digs and five blocks, two solo. Caitlyn Newton had 10 kills, a dig and three blocks, two solo. Setter Hayley Bush had 43 assists, a kill, eight digs and two blocks.
Erika Pritchard led Maryland with 17 kills. She hit .300, had an assist, an ace, two blocks and 17 digs. Katie Myers had 11 kills and hit .409 to go with four digs.
Texas, KU, WVU get Big 12 wins: Texas (7-3, 2-0) beat visiting Baylor 25-23, 25-16, 25-15 as Micaya White had 10 kills in 17 errorless swings for a career-high .588 hitting percentage. She added nine digs. Texas, which hit .333, got six kills each from Logan Eggleston, who hit .385 and had two block and ace, and Brionne Butler, who had an ace and six blocks, one solo. Setter Ashley Shook had a kill, seven digs and five blocks. Morgan Johnson had five kills in 11 errorless attacks to hit .455 and had six blocks.
Baylor (9-5, 1-2) hit .107. Yossiana Pressley led with 11 kills but hit minus .128. She had five digs and a block. Aniah Philo and Gia Milana had eight kills each. Texas leads Baylor 82-2 in the all-time series, 43-0 in Austin.
Visiting Kansas (9-4, 2-0) held off Oklahoma (9-6, 1-2) 22-25, 25-16, 18-25, 25-20, 15-10. Jada Burse led with 20 kills, two digs and three blocks, one solo. Ashley Smith had 14 kills, hit .343, and had five digs and three blocks, one solo. Freshman Rachel Langs had a school-record 14 block assists. to go with 10 kills as she hit .350, and had three digs and an assist.
OU’s Alyssa Enneking had 12 kills, three assists, 19 digs and two blocks, one solo. Paige Anderson had 11 kills, an assist, two digs and seven blocks, and Sarah Mara had 10 kills, an ace, 13 digs and three blocks, one solo.
West Virginia (8-7, 1-2) swept visiting Kansas State (10-4, 0-3) 25-21, 25-15, 25-17 behind 11 kills from Natania Levak and 10 by Katelyn Evans. Levak had no errors in 17 attacks and hit. 647, while Evans had three digs and two blocks. K-State’s Kylee Zumach had seven kills.
Florida, State get SEC victories: Florida (12-3, 3-0) won at LSU 25-23, 25-21, 25-19 as Thayer Hall had 11 kills, four digs, a block and two aces and Holly Carlton had 10 kills, two digs, an ace and five blocks, one solo. LSU (5-9, 0-3) got 12 kills from Milan Stokes and 11 from Taylor Bannister.
Mississippi State (5-11, 1-2) beat visiting Auburn (7-6, 0-3) 21-25, 12-25, 25-22, 25-23, 15-13. State hit just .137 but got 18 kills from Paige Shaw, who had four digs, an ace and four blocks, two solo. Amarrah Cooks had 10 kills, a dig and three blocks, one solo.
Auburn’s Brenna McIlroy had 19 kills, an ace, eight digs and three blocks, one solo. Gwyn Jones had 17 kills, hit .394 and had five blocks, one solo.
North Carolina beats NC State: UNC (5-7, 1-2) got a much-needed home win over NC State (7-6, 1-2) 17-25, 25-22, 25-23, 25-22 as Ava Bell had 12 blocks — two solo —12 kills and hit .400. She added an ace and two digs. Destiny Cox had 19 kills, four digs and four blocks, one solo. NC State’s Melissa Evans had 14 kills, 12 digs and two blocks, and Jade Parchment had 11 kills, 14 digs and a block.
Around the nation: North Dakota (10-8, 2-1 Summit League) beat North Dakota State (2-12, 0-3) 25-22, 25-20, 18-25, 24-26, 15-9 as Jordan Vail had 19 kills, hit .567 and had a dig and six blocks, two solo. Brynn Nieukirk had 18 kills, three digs and three blocks, two solo. Allie Mauch had 19 kills, four digs and two blocks, one solo, for NDSU …
In the Mountain West, New Mexico (8-7, 2-1) knocked off UNLV (11-4, 2-1) 25-14, 19-25, 25-23, 25-10 as Lauren Twitty had 15 kills, hit .333 and had nine digs, a block and two aces. UNLV’s Mariena Hayden had 18 kills and eight digs …
Fairfield (6-8) is 5-0 in the Metro Atlantic after sweeping Marist (6-8, 3-1) 25-19, 25-23, 28-26. Mayda Garcia led with 16 kills and 10 digs …
Western Carolina (7-8, 1-3 Southern Conference) swept UNCG (7-8, 1-2) …
And Tulsa of the American Athletic Conference (10-4) beat North Texas of Conference USA (5-13) in five as Emily Thorson had 18 kills and 25 digs. Rhett Robinson had 22 kills and 16 digs for North Texas.
