The NCAA Division I women’s volleyball schedule is relatively light Wednesday, but a few showcase matches spice the slate.
Start with the Big Ten, where No. 5 Wisconsin plays at No. 7 Illinois. Both teams are 3-1 and Illinois is coming off its first loss, this past Saturday to No. 3 Nebraska.
Sixth-ranked Minnesota goes to Northwestern and third-ranked Nebraska plays host to Iowa. Minnesota and Nebraska sit atop the league at 4-0.
Fourth-ranked Texas highlights the Big 12 schedule when it plays at TCU. The league also has Texas Tech, tied with the Longhorns at 3-0, plays at Kansas State. Kansas, at 2-0 the other unbeaten team in conference play, is home for West Virginia and Oklahoma goes to Iowa State.
The SEC has two matches as Georgia goes to Auburn and Alabama plays at Tennessee.
There is one match in the ACC when Clemson goes to Georgia Tech and the Pac-12 is idle.
No. 20 Marquette plays a Big East match early Wednesday when Xavier visits Milwaukee for an 11:30 a.m. first serve. The other ranked Big East team, No. 10 Creighton, is off, and so is top-ranked BYU of the West Coast Conference.
VolleyballMag.com has all the TV and streaming listings for any NCAA match that is being shown.
Tuesday’s recaps: We’ll start with the Mountain West, where Wyoming beat visiting Colorado State 25-19, 18-25, 25-14, 25-18. Both teams are 11-6 overall and 3-2 in the MWC.
Jackie McBride led a balanced Wyoming attack with 10 kills. She had one error in 20 swings and hit .450 to go with four digs and nine blocks, three solo. Faith Waitsman had nine kills, hit .333, and had three digs and three blocks. Reed Copeland and Tara Traphagan had seven kills each.
“It was a great match,” Wyoming coach Chad Callihan said. “It’s kind of crazy how we can bounce back at times. We have not been playing what I think is our level. We ran into some good opponents over the weekend, but we have not been playing like that. It was great to be at home; great crowd and a great environment. We played this match here a year ago and we talked about how overexcited we were…I just thought we were in a much different place tonight.”
Breana Runnels led Colorado State with 17 kills and had six digs and a block. Paulina Hougaard-Jensen had 15 kills and hit .370 to go with two digs and two blocks and Kirstie Hillyer had 10 kills and five blocks. CSU, which had 30 attack errors, hit .144, its lowest since the first match of the season.
“We were really high in hitting errors tonight and Wyoming’s blocking contributed to that,” Colorado State coach Tom Hilbert said. “We just don’t have a lot of weapons right now. Tonight we had Paulina Hougaard-Jensen and people are figuring out how to stop Kirstie Hillyer and starting to figure out Breana Runnels.
“We need to start passing the ball better because that will open things up for other people. We had a couple of moments tonight that we were playing OK, but then we gave up too many point runs. Wyoming is very good and tonight they were significantly better than us. We need to go back, prepare and win some more conference games and then beat Wyoming when they come to Fort Collins.”
Also in the Mountain West on Tuesday, San Diego (7-8) played a non-conference match at San Diego State (3-14) and got swept 25-15, 25-19, 25-23. Ashlynn Dunbar led SDSU with 11 kills and hit .350 and Hannah Turnland had 10 kills and hit .692 as the Aztecs hit .410. Dunbar had two aces, six digs and four blocks. USD hit .125. Roxie Wiblin and Megan Jacobsen had eight kills each.
There was one match in the Big Sky as Weber State (9-5) won at Idaho State (10-8) 25-16, 32-30, 21-25, 25-21, leaving both teams tied for the league lead at 4-1, a half game up on Northern Colorado, Sacramento State and Montana.
Andrea Hale led the winners with 20 kills, 12 digs, an assist and four blocks, one solo. Hannah Hill had 12 kills with one error in 19 attacks and hit .579 to with a dig and eight blocks. Rylin Roberts and Aubrey Sanders had 10 kills each and Roberts had 17 digs, two blocks and four aces.
“I am so happy for our women,” Weber State coach Jeremiah Larsen said. “I have the utmost respect for Idaho State’s program. Getting a win in Pocatello is a huge thing for our program and our players.”
Nicole Lee led Idaho State, which had won five in a row, with 15 kills and four blocks. Abby Garrity had 14 kills, 13 digs, three assists and a block, and Brooke Pehrson had 11 kills, three digs and eight blocks, one solo.
“They’re a really good team,” Idaho State coach Rick Reynolds said. “You can’t feed a really good team with that type of momentum. They rode it into the second set, and it was a great match from then on. We battled back-and-fourth and every point mattered, every serve, every set and every swing. It’s just a great match in the Big Sky.”
Texas State is 14-5 overall and atop the Sun Belt at 5-0 after coming back strong from being down 0-2 to visiting UT Arlington (9-6, 3-2) and winning 20-25, 22-25, 25-10, 25-21, 15-8.
Sarabi Gilbert-Worsley led the Bobcats with 18 kills, hit .318, and had five digs and a block as Texas State won its ninth in a row. Volleyball Baton Rouge product Madison Daigle had 14 kills, hit .385, and added an assist, two aces, three digs and eight blocks, three solo.
The win was No. 882 for coach Karen Chisum, tying her with Kathy Gregory of UC Santa Barbara for 10th on the all-time NCAA list.
UTA’s Zhanelle Geathers led with 18 kills and hit .308 to go with a dig and three blocks, one solo. Madison Hill had 10 kills, hit .360, and had an assist, five digs and two blocks.
In the Big South, High Point and Presbyterian are tied for first. High Point (8-8, 4-1) swept Campbell 25-13, 25-21, 25-14 as Madison Smith had 12 kills, hit .556, and had two blocks. Abby Broadstreet had seven kills
“I thought we did a fantastic job coming out and setting the tone with our serving,” High Point coach Ryan Meek said. “We were able to affect what Campbell was able to run and set up our block and get transition opportunities. I was happy to see us stay poised, even when Campbell went on a run in the second set, and work our way back into the set..”
Campbell (5-10, 3-2) hit minus .051. Sara Colla led with six kills.
Presbyterian (6-9, 4-1) lost at Charleston Southern (8-5, 3-2) 16-25, 25-21, 23-25, 25-16, 15-9. Brooke Monssen led Charleston Southern with 17 kills, seven digs and five blocks, and Addison Kaderli had 14 kills, 11 digs and four blocks, one solo. Erin Eulitz led Presbyterian with 15 kills, 15 digs and and ace. Lauren Talbert had 12 kills, 18 digs, two assists, an ace and two blocks, one solo. Erin Cooke had 11 kills, 17 assists, an ace, 11 digs and a block.
In non-conference play, Gardner-Webb swept South Carolina State of the MEAC.
UC Santa Barbara beat CSUN in the Big West 25-20, 27-25, 25-12 as senior libero Emila Petrachi became the school’s all-time digs leader. Lindsey Ruddins led UCSB (12-6, 4-2) with 17 kills, hitting .405. She had five aces, 10 digs and three blocks. Petrachi had 15 digs.
CSUN (5-11, 1-3) got 11 kills each from Aeryn Owens and Nicole Nevarez.
