Minnesota put an exclamation point on its three-game lead in the loss column in the Big Ten on Wednesday after the third-ranked Gophers won at No. 5 Wisconsin in four despite a monster night by Dana Rettke.
There was an upset in the B1G as Indiana knocked off No. 14 Michigan.
Kentucky’s lead in the SEC is now two games in the loss column after the No. 12 Wildcats spanked No. 11 Florida.
The recaps and notes follow, but first a look at Thursday’s schedule.
The only ranked team on the schedule Thursday in NCAA Division I women’s volleyball is No. 23 UCF, which plays an American Athletic Conference match at UConn.
Much of the action is in the West, including Mountain West leader Colorado State playing Air Force.
There’s a big one in the Southland Conference as Stephen F. Austin, which leads the nation in victories, plays second-place Sam Houston State.
NCAA.com has the complete Thursday schedule.
The link for every match that is being streamed or broadcast can be found in the VolleyballMag.com TV listings.
Big Ten: Minnesota (19-2, 13-0) won 16-25, 25-22, 25-19, 25-19 on a night when Wisconsin’s Dana Rettke had a school-record 30 kills in 50 attacks with only two errors to hit .560. She added three digs and four blocks.
The story was Minnesota’s balance as it beat Wisconsin for the eighth time in a row.
Adanna Rollins led with 17 kills and hit .395. She had 13 digs and an ace. Taylor Morgan had 15 kills, hit .385, and had three blocks. Stephanie Samedy and Alexis Hart added 12 kills each. Samedy had 15 digs and a block and Hart three digs and a block. Samantha Seliger-Swenson had 56 assists, six digs and three blocks.
“I thought it was a really good volleyball match with a lot of high-level stuff going on out there. For us to have 13 errors in 159 swings is pretty low,” Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield said.
“The difference tonight was that each team got on one or two scoring runs. We got one or two in the first set, and then the next three (sets), they got on one run each set, and that was the difference. We have to shorten that up a little bit. I’m proud of the effort. We still have a little bit more work to do to close the gap on those guys.”
Wisconsin (16-5, 9-4) got 11 kills from Grace Loberg, who hit .303 and had 16 digs and two blocks, and 10 kills from Madison Duello, who had three digs and a block. Like Seliger-Swenson, Sydney Hilley had 56 assists and added nine digs and a block.
“I’ve been doing this a long time, and that was about as good of a performance as I’ve ever seen,” Sheffield said. “And it wasn’t just Dana, it was the combination of her and Sydney.”
Indiana (15-9, 6-7) bounced Michigan 25-19, 25-19, 22-25, 25-17 for its first win over a ranked team since 2014. What’s more, the Hoosiers, who won one B1G match last year, tied their league win total from 2016.
Breana Edwards led with 16 kills, 10 digs and three blocks, one solo. Deyshia Lofton had 11 kills and hit .474 and had a dig and six blocks, one solo, and Lexi Johnson had 10 kills and four blocks.
“Michigan is missing one of their best kids and their setter is coming off an injury. They were battling. Michigan is a legit top-15 team and I don’t think this was their best night. I’m sure they would tell you the same thing. We are fortunate to win,” Indiana coach Steve Aird said. “It is a really tough conference. Lots of great teams, that is a great volleyball team with a great staff who has had success and once they get healthy I would not be shocked if they made a big run in the tourney.
“That being said I think our young kids played really well.”
Michigan (18-6, 7-6) got 17 kills each from Carly Skjodt and Paige Jones, who had 11 digs, a solo block and an ace. Skjodt had 12 digs and three assists. The Wolverines hit .135.
No. 13 Purdue (20-4, 9-4) beat Michigan State 25-18, 19-25, 25-18, 25-19 as Sherridan Atkinson had 18 kills and hit .417 to go with two aces, five digs and a solo block. Caitlyn Newton had 14 kills and hit .300 and Grace Cleveland had 12 kills.
Michigan State (15-11, 3-10) got 11 kills from Maddie Haggerty, who had two aces and 11 digs. Rebecka Poljan had 10 kills and hit .304 and had a dig and three blocks.
Kentucky sweeps Florida: The Wildcats won 25-15, 25-18, 25-20 in the only regular-season SEC match between them. It left Kentucky 17-4 overall, 11-0 in the SEC, after winning its 14th match in a row.
Florida is 19-5, 10-2, and fell into a tie for second with idle No. 20 Missouri (20-4, 10-2).
Leah Edmond led Kentucky with 16 of its 41 kills. She had an ace, 10 digs and two blocks. Alli Stumler added eight kills, seven digs and a block.
Florida middle Rachael Kramer had 11 kills with one error in 20 swings and hit .500. But her teammates combined for 20 kills and 19 errors in 86 attacks. That included Paige Hammons with nine kills. Florida had just two blocks.
“Obviously, the serving pressure we applied kept their middles out of the match as much as possible,” UK coach Craig Skinner said. “And you can tell – when they did pass – they were able to get their middles involved. Our team did a really good job. I loved our composure, focus and intensity. Our team has been ready to go for the last couple of days and it showed tonight.”
Also in the SEC, Texas A&M (13-11, 6-6) won in four at Auburn (10-12, 3-9) as Hollann Hans had a tremendous match. She had 24 kills, hit .408, and had 11 digs, an assist, five aces and two blocks, one solo. Tatum Shipes led Auburn with 11 kills.
Around the nation: There were two Big 12 matches Wednesday. No. 6 Texas (15-4, 10-1) beat TCU (12-10, 4-7) in four. Micaya White had 17 kills, five digs and five blocks, and Yaazie Bedart-Ghani had 14 kills, hit .480, and had four digs and four blocks. Anna Walsh led TCU with 13 kills and Sarah Swanson had 12 … Kansas (14-7, 7-3) won in four at West Virginia (10-13, 2-8) to break a three-match losing streak. Jada Burse led with 21 kills, hitting .348, and had a dig, an assist and four blocks, one solo. Katie DeMeo had 13 kills and hit .444 for West Virginia …
In the only ACC match of the day, Syracuse (14-7, 10-3) took over sole possession of fourth place with a four-set win over Boston College (13-12, 3-10) as Ella Saada had 20 kills, hit .463, and had 12 digs and three blocks. Jewel Strawberry led BC with 17 kills, five digs and a block.
In the Pac-12, the only match saw Colorado (14-10, 6-7) sweep Cal (12-12, 4-9) as Alexa Smith had 13 kills with no errors in 23 attacks to hit .394. She added 10 digs. Mima Markovic led Cal with 10 kills …
In the only MAC match, NIU (10-18, 8-5) beat Western Michigan (13-14, 3-10) in five as Jori Radtke had 17 kills, 11 digs and five blocks. Rachel Bontrager, who had 14 digs, two assists, an ace and a block, and Kate Carey had 16 kills each …
First-place ETSU (22-5, 11-1 Southern Conference) swept UNCG (11-5, 5-9) as AJ Lux had 13 kills and Leah Clayton had 12 kills, 16 digs and a block …
Hannah Oehlberg had 21 kills for IUPUI (6-21, 3-10 Horizon) in a five-set win over Cleveland State (16-9, 10-3).
