Top-ranked BYU stayed unbeaten with another sweep, this time at Portland, to improve to 21-0, 11-0 in the West Coast Conference.
Races stayed tight in the Big Sky, Mountain West and Southland. The recaps and notes follow, but first a look at Friday’s schedule.
The nation’s other unbeaten team, No. 5 Pittsburgh, heads up a seven-match ACC slate when the Panthers got to Wake Forest. Second-place and No. 22 Louisville is home for Boston College. Also in the ACC, Virginia is at Duke, North Carolina at Georgia Tech, NC State at Clemson, Virginia Tech at Miami and Syracuse at Notre Dame.
The big guns are in Big Ten action as No. 3 Michigan goes to Michigan State, No. 4 Penn State is home for Indiana, No. 7 Wisconsin is at No. 12 Michigan, and No. 17 Purdue is at Rutgers.
Second-ranked Stanford at No. 15 USC highlights the Pac-12 schedule. No. 16 Oregon is at Arizona State, No. 19 Washington State is at Colorado, No. 20 UCLA is home for Cal, No. 21 Washington goes to Utah, and Oregon State is at Arizona.
There is one Big 12 match when Kansas State goes to Iowa State.
Two of the SEC’s ranked teams are in action as No. 14 Kentucky goes to Georgia and No. 24 Missouri is home for LSU, while No. 11 Florida is idle. Also, Alabama is at Texas A&M and Ole Miss goes to Auburn.
The Big East showdown, round two, is at Marquette when the No. 18 Golden Eagles play host to No. 10 Creighton. Creighton swept their first meeting, a month ago in Omaha.
No. 11 Cal Poly (19-1, 9-0) has a huge Big West showdown in Hawai’i (13-6, 9-1) as the Rainbow Wahine try to get revenge for their only league defeat.
The newest addition to the top 25, UCF, plays a home American Athletic Conference match against Houston.
NCAA.com has the complete Friday schedule.
And to watch any NCAA Division I women’s volleyball match that is being broadcast or streamed, get the link at the daily VolleyballMag.com TV listings.
BYU wins, USD stays two back: The Cougars beat Portland (16-6, 4-6) 25-21-25-16, 25-20 as Heather Gneiting had 13 kills, hit .524 and had a dig and nine blocks, one solo. Roni Jones-Perry had 13 kills, two assists, two digs and three blocks, and McKenna Miller had 11 kills with no errors in 20 attacks to hit .500 and had an ace and 11 digs.
Portland’s Izzy Guzik led with nine kills …
San Diego (12-9, 9-2) won at Gonzaga (6-15, 3-7) 25-22, 25-15, 25-22 behind 10 kills each by Addie Picha and Roxie Wiblin … Loyola Marymount (16-6, 6-5) broke a three-match losing streak as it beat visiting San Francisco (8-14, 1-10) in four and Pepperdine (14-7, 8-3) did the same to Santa Clara (6-17, 1-10). LMU’s Sara Kovac had 21 kills, hitting .364, while Shannon Scully had 15 kills for Pepperdine to go with eight digs and four blocks.
Big Sky: All four matches ended in sweeps, including league-leading Idaho (15-8, 9-2) winning again. Sarah Sharp had 14 kills with no errors in 27 swings to hit .519 for Idaho, which beat visiting Idaho State (12-12, 6-5) …
Northern Arizona (13-12, 8-3) created a three-way tie for second place when it beat Sacramento State (13-12, 8-3). Ryann Davis led with 11 kills … And the other team in second place, Weber State (13-7, 8-3) swept at Eastern Washington (8-15, 0-11) as Megan Gneiting had 13 kills, hit .423, and had an ace, nine digs and four blocks … Also, Portland State (4-19, 3-8) won at Southern Utah (3-20, 2-9).
Mountain West: Fresno State (17-6, 9-1) maintained its half-game lead over Colorado State (17-6, 9-2) as both won.
Fresno State won in four at Wyoming (15-8, 7-4) as Taylor Slover had 20 kills, hit .429, and had seven digs, a block and two assists. Wyoming is alone in third place … Colorado State swept visiting San Diego State (7-17, 5-6), which hit .041. Paulina Hougaard-Jensen had 14 kills with no errors in 20 swings to hit .700 and had a dig, an assist and two blocks …
Also in the MWC, Boise State (14-8, 6-5) swept Nevada (8-14, 1-10), UNLV (16-8, 7-5) swept Air Force (13-11, 3-7) and San Jose State (10-10, 5-6) won in four at Utah State (4-18, 2-9).
Southland: League-leader Stephen F. Austin (24-2, 11-0), which has the most wins in the nation, kept on rolling with a sweep at McNeese State (7-19, 5-6) despite hitting .176. Peyton Redmond led with nine kills … Second-place Sam Houston State (18-5, 10-1) stayed a game back with a five-set win at Texas A&M Corpus Christi (6-18, 5-6). Taylor Cunningham led with 19 kills, hit .348 and had 20 digs, an ace, and nine blocks, one solo … Also in the SLC, Central Arkansas (19-5, 9-2) swept Lamar (6-16, 3-8) to stay two games back, while Abilene Christian (12-11, 9-2) lost in four at Houston Baptist (12-13, 5-6). Mikayla Vivens had 18 kills for HBU.
Around the nation: There were two Big West matches Thursday as UC Davis (13-9, 5-5) knocked off Long Beach State (13-11, 5-6) and UC Irvine (13-8, 7-2) beat CSUN (6-16, 2-8).
UC Davis hit .305 as Brianna Karsseboom led with 18 kills. She hit .349 and added three assists, 14 digs and a block. Emily Allen had 17 kills, hit .351, and had seven digs and a block. Abby Marjama had 15 kills for UCI, adding an assist, two aces, a block and six digs. Aeryn Owens had 19 kills for CSUN, hitting .375 with 13 digs, three aces and two blocks, one solo …
Cal Baptist (19-5, 9-2 WAC) won its eighth in a row as the Lancers swept visiting Chicago State (8-18, 2-8). Morgan Sester led with 17 kills, three digs and three blocks, one solo … Also in the WAC, Utah Valley (12-11, 4-6) beat Seattle (8-14, 1-8) in four and Kansas City (16-8, 7-3) beat CSU Bakersfield (11-12, 4-6) in four. Kazna Tarawhiti had 19 kills for Utah Valley, while Tyrecia Lukes had 13 kills, hit .370, and had seven blocks, one solo, for UMKC …
In an Atlantic 10 battle of the Georges, George Mason (8-12, 6-4) won in four at George Washington (8-14, 2-8) as ShaLi Niu had 16 kills, 19 digs, three assists and five blocks …
Colonial leader James Madison (18-4, 10-1) stayed two games up on idle Hofstra with a four-set win at Charleston (15-9, 6-4) as M’Kaela White had 15 kills, hit .306, and had thre digs and six blocks. Rachel Devon had 19 kills and 18 digs for Charleston, which got 35 digs from McKala Rhodes …
MAC-tion included Central Michigan (5-18, 2-9) beating Eastern Michigan (14-11, 6-5) in four and Ohio (10-14, 5-6) sweeping Kent State (11-14, 4-7). Kalina Smith had 15 kills for CMU. Stephanie Olman had 12 kills for Ohio, hitting .571 after making no errors in 21 swings.
