Jordan Thompson.
Wow.
The Cincinnati outside hitter, who leads the NCAA in kills, had an American Athletic Conference-record 44 kills — hitting .404 after taking 89 swings — in a five-set victory Sunday over Wichita State.
And for that matter, keep the spotlight on the AAC, where UCF (Central Florida) beat UConn. Cincinnati and UCF (which has an NCAA RPI of 14) are tied for the league lead at 7-0.
Unbeaten and No. 6 Pittsburgh won again Sunday to pull into a tie with idle No. 22 Louisville for first in the ACC, where there’s starting to be some separation at the top after Florida State beat Syracuse.
What would a day in NCAA Division I women’s volleyball be without an upset or two?
Thanks to the Pac-12, there were two as unranked Utah beat visiting No. 14 Oregon in four and Cal knocked off visiting No. 21 Washington State in four.
There is only one match on the NCAA slate Monday, when Bradley goes to Illinois State in the Missouri Valley Conference.
Terrific Thompson: We featured the 6-foot-4 junior from Edina, Minnesota, and her team three weeks ago, but what she did Sunday was off the charts.
Cincinnati (16-4, 7-0 AAC) won at Wichita State (9-9, 4-3) 23-25, 25-20, 29-31, 25-21, 15-11. Thompson, already the career leader in kills, broke the school record for kills and the WSU Koch Arena mark, too. Thompson also had nine digs and two aces.
She did an interview that includes match video:
We caught up with the Match MVP Jordan Thompson of @GoBearcatsVB! She had another stunning performance, and continued to make #AmericanVB history, setting the league's record with 44 kills. pic.twitter.com/fzbX3yMKMU
— American Volleyball (@American_VBall) October 14, 2018
Erica Kostelac had 15 kills with one error in 32 swings to hit .438 for Cincinnati.
Lost in all that was a big-time performance by Wichita State’s Tabitha Brown, who had 28 kills, 12 digs and two solo blocks.
UCF (16-3, 7-0) beat UConn (11-9, 3-4) 18-25, 25-19, 25-16, 25-16 as libero Jordan Pingel had 25 digs as she surpassed 2,000 and became her school’s all-time leader. McKenna Melville led with 17 kills, 14 digs, three assists and three blocks, one solo …
Also in the AAC on Sunday, Memphis beat SMU in five as Hannah Flowers had 20 kills, 10 digs, two aces and six blocks … Tulsa, two games off the lead, beat ECU in four behind 11 kills from Maggie Hembree, who hit .435 … USF beat Temple in five as Irem Asci had 22 kills, 21 digs, an ace and a block for Temple … and Tulane beat Houston in four.
In the Pac-12, Utah (11-8, 3-5) beat Oregon (12-6, 5-3) 25-22, 25-18, 24-26, 25-23. Dani Drews led with 18 kills, 10 digs and a block. Kenzie Koerber added 13 kills, hit .476 and had three blocks. Sumeet Gill led Oregon with 13 kills. She had no errors in 19 attacks and hit .684 and had an assist, four digs and three blocks …
Cal (10-9, 2-6) stunned visiting Washington State (13-5, 4-4) 32-30, 15-25, 25-23, 25-20. Mima Markovic and Maddie Haynes had 11 kills each and Lauren Forte 10 and 11 blocks, two solo. McKenna Woodford led WSU with 22 kills, hitting .319. She had an assist, two digs and two blocks …
No. 15 USC (14-5, 6-2) beat visiting No. 23 Arizona (14-6, 3-5) 25-18, 22-25, 25-17, 25-16. Brooke Botkin had 19 kills and hit a career-high .432 to go with five digs, an ace and two blocks, one solo. Emily Baptista had 15 kills and hit .464 to go with four blocks and setter Raquel Lázaro had not only 47 assists, but four blocks, six digs, two kills and two aces. Arizona’s Kate Smoot had 13 kills and Candice Denny and Paige Whipple 11 each as the Wildcats played without injured offensive leader Kendra Dahlke, out with a concussion sustained Friday at UCLA … And Colorado (11-8, 3-5) beat visiting Oregon State (10-10, 0-8) 25-18, 25-20, 28-26. Alexa Smith led with 12 kills, eight digs, four aces and two blocks.
The ACC had six matches on the schedule, including Pittsburgh (20-0, 8-0) beating NC State (9-9, 3-5) 25-22, 22-25, 25-20, 25-23 to not only catch idle Louisville, but also stay with idle BYU as one of two remaining unbeatens. Nika Markovic led with 17 kills, two aces, 11 digs and five blocks, one solo. Layne Van Buskirk added 13 kills and eight blocks, three solo. Teni Sopitan led NC State with 14 kills and seven blocks, five solo …
Florida State (11-7, 7-1) stayed a game back with a big comeback, a 23-25, 24-26, 25-16, 25-18, 15-12 win at Syracuse (10-6, 6-2) despite the Orange’s Polina Shemanova getting 30 kills. Payton Caffrey had 26 kills, hit .345, and had two blocks and nine digs. Taryn Knuth added 14 kills and eight blocks, two solo … Miami (10-5, 6-2) stayed a game back of Syracuse with a sweep at Boston College as Kolby Bird and Elizaveta Lukianova had 13 kills apiece …
Also in the ACC, Wake Forest beat visiting Clemson in five behind 21 kills from Carolina Rassenfoss … Georgia Tech beat Duke in four as Mikalia Dowd had 20 kills, 12 digs and three blocks, two solo … Notre Dame swept Virginia Tech and Virginia did the same to North Carolina.
There were two Big Ten matches as Michigan beat Maryland and Ohio State topped Michigan State.
Michigan (17-2, 6-2) won at Maryland (12-8, 3-5) 19-25, 25-18, 25-22, 25-15 behind 21 kills from Carly Skjodt, who hit .380 and had two aces and 14 digs. Erika Pritchard led the Terps with 18 kills, 13 digs and two blocks …
Ohio State (12-8, 3-5) beat the visiting Spartans (15-6, 3-5) 25-23, 25-19, 28-26. Bia Franklin led the Buckeyes with 14 kills, while Alyssa Chronowski had 12 for Michigan State.
Both ranked SEC teams won Sunday, as No. 11 Florida swept Alabama and No. 16 Kentucky did the same to Ole Miss.
Florida (17-3, 8-0) beat Bama (15-6, 2-5) 25-23, 25-18, 25-16 as Holly Carlton led a balanced attack with nine kills, hitting .471. She had three assists, four aces, two digs and three blocks. Hayley McSparin led Alabama with nine kills …
Kentucky (12-4, 6-0) beat Ole Miss (11-10, 1-6) 25-21, 25-14, 25-17. Leah Edmond led with 16 kills and Brooke Morgan had 12. Gabby Curry had a career-high 23 digs. Emily Stroup had 14 kills for Ole Miss …
Also in the SEC, Missouri (16-4, 6-2) stayed two games back in the loss column with a sweep of Mississippi State as Kylie Deberg had 13 kills, two blocks, an ace and seven digs … Texas A&M beat Georgia in five as Hollann Hans led with 23 kills, 15 digs, four aces, three assists and three blocks, offsetting a big match by Georgia’s T’ara Ceasar, who had 28 kills in 87 attacks … LSU swept Auburn behind 11 kills apiece from Taylor Bannister and Milan Stokes …
Around the nation: Stony Brook (12-8, 6-0 America East) swept UMBC for its eight win in a row. McKyla Brooks had 12 kills for the Seawolves … Also in the AE, Albany (11-8, 5-1) beat New Hampshire in five as Akuabata Okenwa had 16 kills and 19 digs …
VCU maintained its half-game lead atop the Atlantic 10 over Dayton as VCU beat George Washington in four and Dayton swept Rhode Island. VCU (12-7, 7-0) got 10 kills from Gina Tuzzolo, who had two aces, four digs and five blocks. Dayton (16-5, 7-1) was led by Lauren Bruns, who had 14 kills, hitting .429 … also in the A10, Maya Taylor had 20 kills, an ace and nine digs for Saint Louis in its five-set win over Fordham and Giovanna Charles added 19 kills, seven digs and three blocks …
Rice (16-4, 7-0) stayed unbeaten atop Conference USA with a sweep of North Texas as Nicole Lennon led with 15 kills, 14 digs, a block and an ace and Grace Morgan and Anota Adekunle had 13 kills each … UTSA (14-5, 6-1) kept pace with a four-set win over FAU as Hannah Froeschi had 18 kills, hit .516, and had two blocks …
James Madison (16-3, 8-0) swept UNCW in the Colonial, keeping its unbeaten spot at the time behind nine kills each from Briley Brind’Amour and Bryn Recker, who had 11 digs and three blocks …
Wright State’s Teddie Sauer had 19 kills, four aces, 11 digs and three blocks, one solo, in a five-set Horizon League win over Northern Kentucky …
Iona (11-5, 9-1) won again in the Metro Atlantic, beating Quinnipiac in four. Claire Archibald led with 16 kills, 13 digs, two aces and two blocks …
Denver and Omaha both won Sunday to get to 7-0 atop the Summit League standings. It sets up their big meeting in Omaha on Tuesday.
Denver (18-1) swept Western Illinois as Tina Boe led a balanced attack with eight kills as she hit .500 and had six aces, two digs and four blocks, one solo. Omaha (12-7) swept Oral Roberts. Isabella Sade led with 12 kills and hit .556.
