Top-ranked BYU, showing no signs of slowing down in the West Conference, swept San Francisco on Thursday night.
We have the results of that and every other NCAA Division I women’s volleyball match that was played in this recap, but first a look at Friday’s schedule.
The only other unbeaten team in NCAA Division I women’s volleyball, No. 6 Pittsburgh, plays at North Carolina in an early — 5 p.m. Eastern — match on a Friday night when the schedule is punctuated with some big-time matchups. The other ranked ACC team, No. 22 Louisville, is home for Virginia Tech. Click here for the complete ACC schedule.
The Big Ten has four matches, including No. 7 Illinois (15-2, 4-2) at league-leader No. 3 Minnesota (12-2, 7-0). No. 8 Wisconsin (11-3, 4-2) is home for Northwestern (10-8, 0-6), No. 13 Michigan (15-2, 4-2) is at Ohio State (11-7, 2-4) and Michigan State (14-5, 2-4) goes to Maryland (12-6, 3-3). Saturday’s schedule includes No. 5 Nebraska (15-2, 6-1)at No. 9 Penn State (14-3, 5-2) and Illinois at Wisconsin.
There are five matches in the Pac-12, where everyone is looking up at No. 2 Stanford. The next seven teams are within a game of each other, including four at 4-2.
The Cardinal (14-1, 6-0) plays host to No. 21 Washington State (13-3, 4-2). No. 14 Oregon (11-5, 4-2) is at Colorado (10-7, 2-4), No. 15 USC (12-5, 4-2) plays host to No. 25 Arizona State(14-4, 4-3), No. 18 Washington (12-4, 4-2) goes to Cal (9-8, 1-5), and No. 20 UCLA (9-5, 4-3) is home for No. 23 Arizona (14-4, 4-3).
In the SEC, No. 11 Florida (15-3, 6-0) goes to South Carolina (14-2, 5-1), which sits a half game back of idle No. 16 Kentucky (11-4, 5-1). Missouri (14-4, 4-2) goes to Ole Miss (11-8, 1-4), Auburn (8-8, 1-5) is at Texas A&M (10-7, 3-2) and Arkansas (7-9, 1-5) is home for Mississippi State (5-13, 1-4).
The Big 12 is off with just two matches Saturday, Kansas at Texas Tech and No. 4 Texas at Oklahoma.
Tenth-ranked Creighton (14-4, 6-0 Big East) is at surprising Georgetown (12-7, 5-2), while No. 12 Cal Poly (16-1, 6-0 Big West) is home for UC Santa Barbara (12-7, 4-3).
NCAA.com has the complete schedule of Friday matches.
And to watch any match that is being broadcast or streamed go to the daily VolleyballMag.com listings.
BYU cruises: The Cougars (17-0, 7-0 WCC) won 25-12, 25-20, 25-21 at San Francisco despite hitting .202. McKenna Miller led with 11 kills, four aces, three digs and two blocks. Roni Jones-Perry had nine kills, an assist, an ace, seven digs and three blocks. Heather Gneiting had five kills with no errors in six attacks, two aces and four blocks.
“I liked our fight tonight,” BYU coach Heather Olmstead said. “We stuck together and kept competing.”
Emily Zinger had 10 kills for San Francisco (8-10, 1-6). Victoria Rogers added eight kills.
The three other matches in the WCC were also sweeps. Portland (15-4, 3-4) beat Pacific (6-12, 1-6), San Diego (8-9, 5-2) beat Santa Clara (5-14, 0-5) and Saint Mary’s (12-5, 4-3) beat Gonzaga (6-12, 3-4).
Reghan Pukis led Portland with 11 kills. She had no errors in 26 swings, hit .423, and had a dig and two blocks. Liz Reich added 10 kills, hit .500 after having one error in 18 attacks, and had a dig and two blocks. Kaitlyn Lines had 14 kills, seven digs, two aces and a block for Pacific.
Addie Picha led USD with 11 kills. She had no errors in 17 swings and hit .647 to go with two digs and six blocks, two solo. And Sarah Chase and Lindsey Knudsen led Saint Mary’s with 10 kills each. Chase had eight digs, three aces and five blocks.
Utah beats Oregon State in five: The Utes (10-8, 2-5 Pac-12) played their second straight five-setter and fourth of the Pac-12 season by holding off Oregon State 25-18, 32-30, 22-25, 20-25, 15-13.
Dani Drews came up big for Utah with 23 kills while hitting .353. She had six digs and two blocks. Lauga Gauta had 13 kills, hit .308, and had three digs and two blocks. Megan Yett had 12 kills, an assist, 12 digs and a block, and Kenzie Koerber had 10 kills, four digs and nine blocks.
“I told my team to keep doing the work and good things will come,” Utah coach Beth Launiere said. “Statistically we’re in the top half of the PAC in almost every category and top three in a couple.
“We’re getting better each day and the young players are starting to gain confidence. We’re a good team that just needs to keep learning and maturing”.
Oregon State (10-9, 0-7), which had four set points in the second set but couldn’t close out, got 19 kills each from Maddie Goings and Haylie Bennett. Goings had two assists, two aces and 10 digs, while Bennett hit .412 and had a block and a dig. Amy Underdown had 13 kills, an assist, an ace, 10 digs and two blocks.
“We had a chance to win tonight and we haven’t been in that position in a while,” OSU coach Mark Barnard said. “Our first set was as poor as I’ve seen, but to come back and play so well from the second half of the set two through the fifth was a huge positive.
“We served well tonight and put a lot of pressure on Utah. Unfortunately our middles were ineffective offensively and defensively which hasn’t been the case for us this year.”
Big Sky: Weber State (11-5, 6-1) beat Portland State (2-17, 1-6) to stay a game ahead of the four-team pack at 5-2.
Hannah Hill had 15 kills with one error in 28 swings to hit .500 and added three digs and six blocks In the 21-25, 25-15, 25-20, 18-25, 15-10 victory. Rylin Roberts had 12 kills, an ace, 22 digs and three blocks, and Megan Gneiting had 12 kills, an ace, 15 digs and seven blocks.
Peyton McBride had 20 kills and 23 digs to go with two blocks for Portland State. Toni McDougald had 19 kills, three digs and a block.
Idaho State (11-9, 5-2) fell out of the lead when it got swept by Sacramento State (10-11, 5-2). Mikaela Nocetti led with 12 kills, an ace and six digs.
Montana (8-11, 5-2) kept pace with a four-set win over Eastern Washington (8-11, 0-7) as Mykaela Hammer had 18 kills, hit .361, and had two assists, an ace, 14 digs and two blocks.
And Idaho (11-8, 5-2) beat Montana State (7-11, 2-5) in four as Sarah Sharp had 18 kills and three blocks, one solo, and Carman Reece had 13 kills, six digs and five blocks.
Mountain West: Fresno State (13-6, 5-1) beat UNLV (13-6, 4-3) in four to keep its league lead.
Fresno hit .324 as Taylor Slover had 15 kills, hit .345, and had an assist, an ace, a block and 11 digs. Jessica Gilbert had 11 kills with no errors in 17 swings and hit .647 to go with three aces, two digs and three blocks, one solo. Mariena Hayden led UNLV with 16 kills, 12 digs, a block and two aces.
Three teams are tied for second at 5-2. Colorado State (13-6, 5-2) swept Boise State (11-7, 3-4), New Mexico (11-8, 5-2) lost in four at San Diego State (6-14, 4-3), and Wyoming (13-6, 5-2) swept Utah State (3-15, 1-6).
Colorado State’s Breana Runnels led the Rams with 12 kills and nine digs and Paulina Jensen-Hougaard had 11 kills and two blocks, one solo.
Victoria O’Sullivan had 15 kills for San Diego State, hit .400 and had a dig and two blocks. Deja Harris had 14 kills, hit .321, and had 11 blocks, two aces and two digs. And Tara Traphagan hit .684 for Wyoming after getting 13 kills with no errors in 19 attacks. She had two digs and three blocks.
Southland: League-leader Stephen F. Austin (20-2, 7-0) won for the 17th time in a row after sweeping Incarnate Word (4-14, 2-6). Haley Coleman led with 10 kills and 12 digs and Peyton Redmond had nine kills, three aces and nine digs.
Three teams are tied at 5-1, idle Central Arkansas, Sam Houston State, which swept Nicholls State, and Abilene Christian, which beat New Orleans in four. Taylor Cunningham had 21 kills for SHSU (13-5, 5-1), while Abilene Christian (8-10, 5-1) got 18 kills from Katelyn Mueller, who added seven digs and an ace against Nicholls (3-18, 1-7). Kaitlyn Grice had 14 kills, hit .323, and had a dig, an ace and seven blocks for UNO (10-13, 4-4).
Also in the SLC, Northwestern (7-10), 3-3) swept McNeese State (7-10, 3-4), Houston Baptist (10-11, 3-4) beat Texas A&M Corpus Christi (4-16, 3-4) in five, and Southeastern Louisiana (2-17, 1-6) beat Lamar (6-12, 3-4) in four for its first league win.
WAC: Cal Baptist won and UT Rio Grande Valley lost and now they’re tied for the league lead at 5-2.
Cal Baptist (14-5, 5-2) won at Seattle U (8-11, 1-5) as Tesa Oaks had 19 kills, hit .425, and had an ace and 14 digs.
Utah Valley (11-9, 3-4) beat UT Rio Grande Valley (14-7, 5-2) as Kazna Tarawhiti had 15 kills for the winners to go with eight digs, an ace, an assist and three blocks. Ragni Steen Knudsen had 24 kills, hit .315 and had seven digs and three blocks for UTRGV.
Also in the WAC, Chicago State (8-14, 2-4) beat UMKC (13-8, 4-3) in five and Grand Canyon (8-10, 1-5) held off CSU Bakersfield (11-8, 4-2) in five for its first league win.
In Chicago State’s first win over Kansas City after 17 losses, Lauryn Dela Cruz and Kirah Williams-Shephard led with 14 kills and three blocks each. Melanie Brecka had 20 kills and hit .340 for Kansas City.
Kayla Matthews led GCU with 18 kills, seven digs, three aces, an assist and three blocks, one solo.
Around the nation: In the Big West, UC Irvine (11-7, 5-1) swept Cal State Fullerton (6-13, 0-6) behind 12 kills and 11 digs from Abby Marjama, and UC Davis (10-9, 2-5) beat UC Riverside (6-11, 1-5) in five. Leonie Strehi had 18 kills, hit .333 and had a dig and two blocks for Davis, which also got 17 kills from Nicola Moore, who hit .519 …
There was one MAC match as Bowling Green (12-8, 6-1) beat Central Michigan in four to pull a half game ahead of Miami in the East. Katie Kidwell led with 14 kills and hit .464 to go with four digs and 10 blocks …
In the Ohio Valley, UT Martin (9-11, 3-4) beat Eastern Kentucky (3-16, 2-5) in four behind 14 kills from Megan Fair, who had 10 digs and a block …
Grambling (5-18, 3-6 SWAC) beat visiting Arkansas-Pine Bluff (5-15, 3-6) in four as Kevreion Ward had 15 kills, eight digs and three blocks, one solo.
