Happy Halloween, where some scary matches are on tap for Wednesday, including No. 3 Minnesota at No. 5 Wisconsin in the Big Ten, and the showcase match of the SEC season as No. 11 Florida goes to No. 12 Kentucky for their only meeting of the year.
Tuesday saw Colorado State beat Wyoming on Tuesday night for its eighth win in a row and now the Rams lead the Mountain West by two games in the win column.
Denver had to go five with South Dakota, but the Summit League leader won its 21st match in a row.
No. 17 Cal Poly bounced back from its first Big West loss by sweeping UC Irvine and kept its hold on first place.
Murray State made things really interesting in the Ohio Valley Conference.
And Weber State’s Andrea Hale had the line of the night, but her 28 kills came in a loss to Idaho State.
The recaps and notes follow, but first a look at Wednesday’s NCAA Division I women’s volleyball schedule.
As mentioned, Minnesota, which leads the Big Ten by three games over second-place Wisconsin, Illinois and Penn State, goes to Wisconsin. No. 13 Purdue is home for Michigan State and No. 14 Michigan goes to Indiana.
In the Big 12, No. 6 Texas plays host to TCU and Kansas goes to West Virginia.
There is one match in the ACC as Boston College goes to Syracuse, where the “Let’s go Orange!” cheer is more than appropriate on Halloween.
Also in the SEC, Texas A&M goes to Auburn.
And in the Pac-12, Colorado goes to Cal.
A list of all of Wednesday matches can be found at NCAA.com.
As always, VolleyballMag.com has the TV and streaming listings for every NCAA Division I match that is being shown.
Colorado State beats Wyoming: They call their annual match the Border War and Colorado State, the No. 10 team in the VolleyballMag.com Mid-Major Poll presented by the NIVC, won 25-20, 25-19, 16-25, 25-22 to improve to 19-6 overall, 11-2 in the Mountain West. Idle Fresno State (17-7, 9-2) fell a game back in the standing.
Breana Runnels tied her career high with 20 kills and aded an ace, nine digs and three blocks. Jessica Jackson had 12 kills and Sasha Colombo had eight, hit .412, and added three aces, five digs and three blocks.
“We blocked balls at critical times and did a really good job in the second set. Then in the last set we created some error situations for Wyoming,” Colorado State coach Tom Hilbert said. “We also out-dug them which is a very good thing. I think we could even play a little bit better defense, but we played good enough defense to extend rallies, and many of those rallies ended on a Wyoming hitting error.
“Breana Runnels had a very productive night and so did Sasha Colombo, and that is where we thought we would get some productivity. I think we’ve played better than tonight and I think Wyoming has something to do with that. They do a nice job blocking and they changed their serving strategy throughout the course of this match, and it worked.”
Wyoming (16-9, 8-5), which won their first meeting in four earlier this month, got 14 kills from Halie McArdle, who had seven digs, an ace and a block.
Denver rolls on: The Pioneers (23-1, 12-0 Summit League) beat visiting South Dakota 25-15, 25-27, 27-25, 24-26,15-12 as Becca Latham led with 16 kills and two blocks. Katarina Marinkovic added 14 kills, an assist, seven digs, an assist and two blocks, one solo. Lydia Bartalo had 11 kills, an assist, two aces, two blocks and 13 digs.
Hayley Dotseth had 13 kills, 16 digs, three assists, an ace and three blocks for South Dakota (16-9, 10-3) … Also in the Summit, South Dakota State (5-20, 2-1) beat visiting North Dakota (13-5, 5-7) in five behind 23 kills by Ashlynn Smith, who hit .439 and had three blocks and five digs. Jordan Vail led UND with 17 kills hitting .371, and three blocks.
Cal Poly downs UCI: The Mustangs (20-2, 10-1 Big West), coming off a loss at Hawai’i, won 25-19, 25-23, 25-13 as they played at home for the first time in nearly three three weeks.
Torrey Van Winden led with 21 kills while hitting .375. She had two aces and 11 digs. Adlee Van Winden had nine kills, two aces, seven digs and a block.
UCI (14-9, 8-3) got 10 kills from Loryn Carter, who had no errors in 22 swings and hit .455 to go with an ace, three digs and a block … Also in the Big West, CSUN (7-17, 3-9( beat visiting UC Riverside (7-15, 2-8) in four behind 13 kills each by Aeryn Owens and Morgan Salone.
Around the nation: Watch out for Murray State.
The Racers (16-9, 10-3) won their 10th in a row by beating visiting Austin Peay (22-4, 11-2) in four to cut the lead in the Ohio Valley Conference to one game. Rachel Giustino and Dacia Brown led Murray State with 14 kills each in the 25-14, 25-15, 14-25, 25-11 victory. Logan Carger had 14 kills for the Govs, who had won six in a row …
Things stayed tight in the Southland Conference. League-leader Stephen F. Austin (25-2, 12-0) was off, but Sam Houston (20-5, 12-1) kept pace by sweeping New Orleans (11-17, 5-3). Taylor Cunningham led with 10 kills, seven digs and two blocks … Also in the SLC, McNeese swept Lamar and Abilene Christian swept Nicholls State …
The Big Sky’s Idaho State (14-12, 8-5) won a five-setter at Weber State (13-9, 8-5) despite Weber State’s Andrea Hale getting 28 kills. She hit .361 and had an ace, 16 digs, and two blocks, one solo in the losing effort. Teammate Megan Gneiting had 17 kills, two aces, seven digs and three blocks, one solo. Abby Garrity led a balanced ISU attack with 15 kills, an assist, two aces, 10 digs and a block. Nicole Lee had 17 kills and hit .371 and added a block. Brooke Pehrson had 13 kills and hit .500 to go with an ace, three digs and four blocks, and Alexis Simmons had 10 kills and seven blocks, one solo …
Stetson (14-10, 6-6) won an important ASUN match by sweeping North Florida (9-21, 4-10) to clinch a berth in the league tournament. Julie Varga led with 12 kills, hit .478, and had an ace and 11 digs … Also in the ASUN, Jacksonville swept Bethune-Cookman of the MEAC …
There were three matches in the Big South and all were sweeps, including Radford beating Presbyterian. Radford (19-3, 11-2) stayed a game in the loss column behind High Point as Stephanie Neast led with 10 kills, hitting .400, to go with a dig and five blocks … Also, UNC Asheville beat Charleston Southern and Hampton beat Norfolk State of the MEAC.
