No. 12 USC swept visiting Oregon State, Ball State had five players combined for 50 kills in 109 swings with just five errors in a MAC sweep of Toledo, and a player named Hammer had 21 kills for Montana in a Big Sky win.
The recaps follow, but first a look at Friday’s key NCAA Division I women’s volleyball matches.
Top-ranked and unbeaten BYU makes its annual trip to San Diego in what is always a tough West Coast Coast Conference battle.
No. 2 Stanford heads a busy Pac-12 slate when the Cardinal play at No. 24 Utah. No. 15 Washington is at No. 21 Arizona, No. 17 UCLA plays at No. 20 Oregon, No. 22 Washington State goes to Arizona State, and Cal plays at Colorado.
In the Big Ten, No. 9 Penn State plays host to Maryland, No. 14 Purdue is at No. 16 Michigan, Indiana goes to Michigan State, and Ohio State plays at Rutgers.
Both of the ACC’s ranked teams play Friday, including No. 8 and unbeaten Pittsburgh, which plays host to Syracuse. No. 25 Louisville is home for Duke. Also, Florida State is home for NC State, Virginia Tech goes to Georgia Tech, Wake Forest plays at Notre Dame, Virginia is home for Boston College and North Carolina goes to Miami.
The two ranked SEC teams play Friday. No. 11 Florida is home for Texas A&M, while No. 18 Kentucky is at Mississippi State. South Carolina is at Missouri, and Ole Miss goes to Arkansas.
The Big 12 is idle.
Tenth-ranked Creighton plays host to Seton Hall.
NCAA.com has the complete list of Friday’s matches.
Links for all NCAA Division I matches that are being televised or streamed can be found in our listings on VolleyballMag.com.
USC sweeps Oregon State: The Trojans (12-4, 4-1 Pac-12) made short work of the Beavers (10-7, 0-5) 25-20, 25-18, 25-21 behind 17 kills from Khalia Lanier and 15 from Brooke Botkin.
USC, 54-9 all-time against Oregon State, hit .371. Lanier, who hit .400, had three aces, four digs and a block, while Botkin added nine digs and an ace.
Oregon State’s Maddie Goings had 12 kills, an assist, an ace and nine digs, and Amy Underdown and Maddy Gravley had nine kills each. Gravley had four blocks.
“We played well early and in spurts,” OSU coach Mark Barnard said. “Until they had one serving run late in the set, we were right there in it. Ultimately we made too many errors. USC served us hard. They made errors too, but really did a good job of keeping us off balance.
“Our inability to sustain a good level of play was our undoing. We would get a few points but then make a bad error and give one away. We’ll need to be better than that to win games in the Pac-12.”
Akron, Ball State get MAC sweeps: Akron (9-7, 1-4) broke through in MAC play with a 25-13, 28-26, 25-23 win over visiting Buffalo (10-7, 2-3) as Kayla Gwozdz had 15 kills, hit .429 and added an assist, two digs and a block. Ashley Richardson had 10 kills, hit .450 and added an assist and two blocks.
Buffalo’s Polina Prokudina had nine kills, hit .333, and had three blocks.
Ball State (13-5) hit .374 and stayed atop the MAC West, tied at 3-1 with Eastern Michigan ad Northern Illinois, by beating visiting Toledo (7-9, 2-3) 25-17, 25-18, 25-19 as five players combine for 50 kills in 109 swings with just five errors.
Ellie Dunn led with 15 kills in 38 errorless swings to hit .395. She added an assist, four digs and a block. Meg Starling, a 6-foot-6 middle, had 12 kills, hit .333, and had four of those five errors. But she added three blocks. Sydnee Vanbeek had 11 kills with no errors in 18 attacks and hit .611 and had six blocks, one solo. Jessica Lindsey added eight kills with one error in 23 swings to hit .304 to go with a dig and a block.
And setter Amber Seaman had four kills in six errorless swings to hit .667. She had 43 assists, two aces and three blocks.
Montana, NAU, Idaho, Portland State win in Big Sky: Montana (7-10, 4-1) stayed tied with Weber State and Idaho State at the top of the league as it rallied for a 16-25, 24-26, 25-23, 25-23, 15-13 win at Southern Utah. Mykaela Hammer had 21 kills, two assists, an ace, seven digs and three blocks, one solo for the Griz. Cassie Laramee had 18 kills, an ace, eight digs and two blocks.
Southern Utah (2-15, 1-4) got 25 kills from Janet Kalaniuvalu, who added an assist, an ace, nine digs and seven blocks, one solo.
NAU (11-7, 3-2) swept Montana State (6-10, 1-4) behind 12 kills from Kaylie Jorgenson, who hit .478 and had an ace and 14 digs … Idaho (9-8, 3-2) topped Sacramento State (9-8, 3-2) in four as Kaela Straw had 18 kills, hitting .474, and Sarah Sharp had 15 kills and three blocks … And Portland State (2-15, 1-4) broke through in league play with a five-set win at Eastern Washington (8-9, 0-5) behind 17 kills from Katy Wilson, who hit .429 and had four digs and five blocks. Jenna Mullen had 15 kills, 11 digs, two assists, an ace and two blocks. McKenna Davis had 15 kills, 14 digs, two aces and a dig for EWU.
Mountain West: Fresno State (12-5, 4-0) stayed atop the conference with 25-14, 25-22, 25-10 sweep at Utah State (3-13, 1-4). Taylor Slover and Kava Durr led with nine kills each and Aubrey Folk had eight. Utah State hit minus .045.
Wyoming (13-5, 3-1) beat visiting Air Force (11-7, 3-3) 22-25, 23-25, 25-20, 25-23, 15-12. Jackie McBrice had 13 kills for Wyoming to go with five digs and five blocks, one solo. Reed Copeland had 12 kills and 13 blocks,
Abigail Miksch had 16 kills for Air Force.
New Mexico (10-7, 4-1) held off visiting Nevada (8-8, 1-4) 25-14, 13-25, 25-17, 21-25, 15-4 as Lauren Twitty had 19 kills, hit .348, and had an ace, 11 digs and two blocks, one solo. Carly Beddingfield had 13 kills, hit .360, and had three blocks. Julia Minor led Nevada with 13 kills, eight digs and three blocks.
UNLV (12-5, 3-2) beat visiting San Jose State (6-8, 1-4) 25-19, 27-25, 26-28, 25-21 as Mariena Hayden had 18 kills, an ace, nine digs and three blocks, one solo. Kate Brenna and Thea Sweder had nine kills each. Lousi Latahevai led San Jose with 12 kills.
And San Diego State (4-14, 2-3) won at Boise State (10-6, 2-3) 18-25, 26-24, 25-23, 15-25, 15-11. Deja Harris led with 14 kills, hitting .458, and had two digs and eight blocks, one solo. Ashlynn Dunbar had 13 kills, six digs and five blocks. Sabryn Roberts had 20 kills, hit .333, and had 10 digs and a block for the Broncos.
West Coast: Pepperdine (11-5) is 5-1 in the WCC for the first time since 2011 after its 25-20, 25-20, 17-25, 25-11 victory over Pacific (6-10, 1-4). Hannah Frohling led with 16 kills, hitting .433. She had three digs, three aces and two blocks. Rachel Ahrens had 14 kills, three aces, three assists, two digs and five blocks. Kaitlyn Lines had 15 kills for Pacific, Riley Ramsey had 13 and Riley Patterson 12.
Gonzaga (5-11, 2-3) beat Santa Clara (5-12, 0-5) 25-16, 23-25, 23-25, 25-21, 15-12 despite a 24-kill performance by the Broncos’ Michelle Shaffer. She hit .388 and had three assists and eight digs. Sarah Penner led Gonzaga with 17 kills, four digs and four blocks.
Sara Kovac hit .500 with 18 kills on 30 swings as Loyola Marymount (14-3, 4-2) hit .375 and beat Saint Mary’s (11-4, 3-2) 25-19, 25-20, 25-19. Kovac had four aces, two blocks and 11 digs. Bo Kulo added 12 kills, hit .417 and had nine digs and a block. Sienna Young had 10 kills for Saint Mary’s.
And Portland (13-4, 1-4) broke a four-match skid by sweeping San Francisco (8-8, 1-4) 5-18, 25-21, 25-21. Reghan Pukis had 16 kills, hit .351 and had a dig and two blocks for the Pilots.
Southland: Stephen F. Austin (18-2, 5-0) swept Southeastern Louisiana (1-16, 0-5) 25-13, 25-21, 25-14 for its 15th win in a row. Haley Coleman led with nine kills and 15 digs and Peyton Redmond had eight kills, hit .350, and had an ace, 11 digs and a solo block.
Central Arkansas (14-4 4-1) beat Northwestern State (6-9, 2-3) in four behind 15 kills from Samantha Anderson, who had four blocks and three digs, and 14 kills, 10 digs and three blocks from Haley Tippett. Reagan Rogers had 15 kills and 16 digs for the Demons.
Texas A&M Corpus Christi (4-14, 3-2) beat Incarnate Word (4-12, 2-4) in four as Julia Carter had 16 kills.
And McNeese State (4-15, 2-2) beat UNO 10-10, 4-2) in five. Katelyn Elliott had 14 kills for McNeese and teammates Keegan Nelms and Ebony Lewis had 13 each. Kaitlyn Grice had 17 kills, two aces, three digs and four blocks for UNO.
Around the nation: Towson (7-11, 2-3 Colonial Athletic Association) won in four at Elon (8-7, 0-4) as Jocelyn Kuilan had 20 kills, hit .429, and had three aces, a dig and a block …
In the SWAC, Alabama A&M (12-12, 8-0) beat Alabama State (9-15, 6-2) in four as Jaelin Gant and Terra Brooks had 18 kills apiece. Gant had 19 digs and two aces, while Brooks had 14 digs, three aces and two blocks …
There were four WAC matches. Cal Baptist (12-5, 3-2) held off visiting Grand Canyon (7-9, 0-4) in four as Tessa Oaks had 20 kills, two aces, nine digs and a block. New Mexico State (13-5, 3-2) swept Kansas City (13-6, 4-1) and gave the Kangaroos their first league loss as Tatyana Battle had 13 kills, hit .333 and had seven digs and two blocks. UTRGV (13-6, 4-1) swept Chicago State (7-13, 1-3) as Ragni Steen Knudsen had 17 kills, two aces and two blocks, and Utah Valley (9-9, 1-4) beat Seattle (8-9, 1-3) in five as Kristen Allred had 17 kills, hit .333, and had 14 digs, two blocks, an assist and five aces.
And in a MEAC match, Morgan State (10-9, 2-1) swept Coppin State (5-16, 1-2).
