Now the only power-five conference teams that remain unbeaten in league play are No. 2 Texas of the Big 12 and No. 8 North Carolina of the ACC.
Down went the SEC’s Missouri, the last holdout, which lost at Texas A&M.
In Palo Alto, No. 17 Stanford demolished No. 7 Washington. In Atlanta, Georgia Tech beat Clemson to win its eighth in a row.
And at Maryland, the Terps shocked visiting No. 19 Ohio State for yet another Big Ten upset.
Another night of NCAA volleyball, another night of unpredictable fun.
But first, a look at Thursday’s schedule:
There are no matches Thursday involving any of the power-five conferences or any ranked teams.
The MAC is where it’s at on Thursday as Northern Illinois goes to Western Michigan and Bowling Green is at Miami. NIU (18-4, 10-0 in the MAC) leads the East Division, while Miami (also 18-4, 10-0) leads the West.
UNLV, 19-3, 8-2 in the Mountain West, is tied with Boise State (17-6, 8-2) and Colorado State (14-7, 8-2) for first place. UNLV plays host to San Jose State (10-12, 3-7), which just upset CSU, while Boise goes to Nevada (14-7, 5-4). CSU has the night off but Wyoming (14-9, 7-3) entertains Utah State (10-11, 5-5).
Among the matches to watch in the Big Sky, Northern Arizona (19-4, 10-1), which leads the South division, plays second-place Sacramento State (13-11, 7-3).
The Big Ten has all of its nine ranked teams in action Friday.
The Pac-12’s seven ranked teams also play Friday.
No Big 12 matches are on the slate, but Saturday is a big one when Texas plays at No. 6 Kansas.
Looking for another big one involving ranked teams? The West Coast Conference rematch is Friday in Provo when No. 5 San Diego goes to No. 16 BYU. USD swept the Cougars in San Diego earlier this season.
Texas A&M knocks off Missouri
The 22-25, 25-22, 25-20, 25-23 victory left the Aggies 13-7 and 7-2 in the SEC, while Missouri fell to 18-4, 9-1 after its 13-match winning streak was broken.
A post-match recognition in front of the home crowd had already been planned to honor Texas A&M coach Laurie Corbelli and her husband, associate head coach John Corbelli, who recorded their 500th victory at the school with a road win at Georgia last week.
No. 501 marked Texas A&M’s seventh victory in eight matches.
“I was prepared (to have the ceremony) either way,” Laurie Corbelli said. “I was really, really happy with the way the team fought back. Set one was pretty smooth for a while. We got into a bad rotation and couldn’t close out set one. But, the whole time we were in a position that we could seize the opportunity and put ourselves in a position to win.”
Junior outside hitter Kiara McGee led A&M with 16 kills. Junior opposite hitter Ashlie Reasor had 12 kills, and sophomore middle blocker Kaitlyn Blake and freshman outside hitter Hollann Hans had 11 apiece.
“Yes, this is the biggest win of the season,” Corbelli said. “ … I thought we had chances to get other big wins, but we weren’t able to capitalize. That was on my mind since we left Georgia. I know the players were thinking about the match. That was a big match. For us, it helped us recognize our identity, that we are capable of winning. The bubble just burst in the first and we had to find what we were missing in that first set. A lot like the Georgia game, getting off to a slow start. They had us trailing and we were off to one of the slowest starts of the season and we responded. I think the team started to feel it and understand it at that point. Even when we are down and struggling, we still have the emotion in us to win it. “
Senior middle blocker Jazzmin Babers led all players with seven block assists, giving her 446 for her career and putting her within 10 block assists of tying the school’s all-time record for block assists.
Junior Kira Larson led Missouri with 15 kills and hit .375. She also had seven digs and three blocks. Senior Carly Kan added 14 kills and 13 digs.
Also in the SEC, Arkansas beat Mississippi State in some tight sets 24-26, 25-22, 25-23, 27-25. Danielle Harbin led the Hogs with 23 kills.
Stanford snaps Washington’s winning streak
The Cardinal’s 25-16, 25-20, 26-24 victory broke Washington’s seven-match win streak and seven was the key number, because it was also the seventh consecutive time that Stanford beat UW in Palo Alto.
Stanford (13-6, 7-4 Pac-12) got 11 kills and 15 digs from freshman Kathryn Plummer, while senior middle Inky Ajanaku had 11 kills and hit .786, including a vicious swing on a slide to end the match.
Washington, 18-3, 8-3 got nine kills each from Courtney Schwan, Tia Scambray, and Crissy Jones.
“Stanford was outstanding in serving and passing and most of the time the team that does that will come out victorious,” Washington coach Keegan Cook said. “ … We hung in there, especially in the third set, but we couldn’t make it over the hump.”
Yellow Jackets flying high
Georgia Tech improved to 18-5, 9-2 in the ACC, with its 25-22, 27-25, 27-25 win over Clemson.
Sydney Wilson led all players with 13 kills and hit .550 to go along with eight block assists. Annika Van Gunst had seven kills and nine digs which included her 1,000th career dig. And Teegan Van Gunst had 10 kills and 12 digs.
“We want to be able to see what our team is made of and execute in those pressure situations,” Tech coach Michelle Collier said. “We learned a lot from tonight’s match. We controlled the match when we needed to control it. We stayed composed and found a way to win in the end. That’s what this team has done all year.”
Maryland knocks off Ohio State
Since winning at Nebraska on October 1 when it swept the top-ranked Huskers, Ohio State has gone 2-5.
The spiral continued Wednesday night at Maryland as the youthful Terps improved to 10-13, 2-9 in the Big Ten, with a 25-21, 22-25, 28-30, 25-19, 15-12 victory. Ohio State dropped to 14-9, 4-7.
Sophomore outside hitter Liz Twilley led with 13 kills, seven digs and six blocks. Sophomore opposite Angel Gaskin had 10 kills while senior middle blocker Ashlyn MacGregor, junior middle blocker Hailey Murray and freshman outside hitter Gia Milana had nine each. Murray also had eight blocks.
“I am really proud of how the program continues to develop and the players continue to grow,” said Maryland coach Steve Aird, whose team had lost its two previous Big Ten five-setters. “We had a swing for match point against Illinois and Michigan at home and couldn’t get it done. I am really happy for the kids and the people who support us. We start 3 freshman and 2 sophomores. Next year’s class is incredible and I think we are headed in the right direction.”
Freshman setter Taylor Smith, who had seven kills and hit .467, had the last of her four blocks to end the match.
Senior Taylor Sandbothe led Ohio State with 23 kills, hit .321 an had a career-high 56 swings. She also tied her best with seven digs and had seven blocks. She’s got 508, seven behind the all-time leader at Ohio State, Dawn McDougall.
Valeria Leon added 33 digs.
The same teams play Friday at Ohio State.
Big 12: Texas, Kansas, Iowa State win
The Longhorns made short work of Oklahoma 25-22, 25-19, 25-15 to improve to 17-2, 9-0.
Freshman Micaya White led with 14 kills and had nine digs and a season-high-tying two aces.
Junior Ebony Nwanebu had nine kills that came on 15 swings and a .600 hitting percentage, while senior Chloe Collins had a game-high 36 assists as well as a career-high-tying three aces.
Next up is Kansas, which Texas beat in Austin earlier.
“It would be awesome to sweep Kansas, but I’m pretty pumped about tonight,” Nwanebu said. “Kansas is a really good team, so we want to do what we did tonight and stay with it and be calm.”
OU is 12-10, 3-6.
Kansas is 19-2, 8-1 after sweeping Texas Tech 25-15, 25-16, 25-20. Junior outside Madison Rigdon led with 17 kills and three aces, while junior right side Kelsie Payne added 16 kills and 10 digs.
“We played very well defensively and that set the tone for the match,” Kansas coach Ray Bechard said. “We took some of (Texas Tech’s) energy just by how hard we were playing defensively – we wouldn’t let them get a ball on the floor. That can get frustrating for an opponent.”
Iowa State scored a big victory over Kansas State 23-25, 25-23, 26-24, 25-15.
Iowa State was paced by 13 kills each from Morgan Kuhrt and Samara West and Jess Schaben had 12 kills and 16 digs.
Iowa State is 12-9, 4-5, while K-State fell to 16-6, 5-4.
Around the nation …
Dayton is now 23-1 after sweeping Morehead State in a non-conference matchup … Temple kept pace by improving to 8-3 in the American Athletic Conference with a four-set victory over Connecticut … In an important Colonial result, Hofstra is 7-4 in the league after beating Northeast (8-3) in five … Marist knocked off Quinnipiac in the MAAC.
