Top-ranked and unbeaten BYU won again Saturday, this time with a sweep of San Francisco, but the Cougars will play the rest of the season without junior outside McKenna Miller, their junior outside hitter who is second on the team in kills.
No. 4 Illinois won its ninth Big Ten match in a row and went 5-0 in five-set matches this season with a big home victory over No. 7 Penn State behind a huge performance by Jacqueline Quade.
No. 16 Cal Poly built its Big West lead back to a full game with a sweep of UC Irvine.
A handful of regular-season crowns were clinched on Saturday, including FGCU taking the ASUN and Green Bay winning its first Horizon title ever as the Wolf sisters had 19 kills apiece.
We have our first power-five conference coaching change of the year: Ed Allen announced he is leaving Alabama immediately. The Crimson Tide, ranked earlier this season, are in a three-way tie for seventh in the SEC and plays at No. 11 Kentucky on Sunday. Alabama went to the NCAA Tournament twice in his eight years, in 2013 and 2014. Assistant Ryan Freeburg will serve as the interim head coach for Alabama’s final five matches.
The recaps and notes follow, but first a look at Sunday’s NCAA Division I women’s volleyball schedule.
There are three matches in the Pac-12, featuring No. 19 Washington State at No. 13 USC. No. 20 Arizona goes to Colorado and Arizona State is at Utah.
All four ranked SEC teams are in action. No. 11 Kentucky is home for Alabama, No. 14 Florida goes to Auburn, No. 23 Tennessee is at Mississippi State, and No. 24 Missouri is home for Georgia. Also, LSU plays at Arkansas and Ole Miss goes to Texas A&M.
It’s a busy day in the ACC as No. 10 Pittsburgh, the league’s only ranked team, plays host to Duke. Florida State is home for Notre Dame, Louisville goes to Wake Forest, Syracuse is at Georgia Tech and Miami plays at North Carolina.
The Big Ten and Big 12 have the day off.
Both ranked teams in the Big East play Sunday as No. 9 Creighton is home for Villanova and No. 18 Marquette goes to Xavier.
No. 23 UCF plays an American Athletic Conference against East Carolina.
Sunday’s complete schedule can be found at NCAA.com.
And every NCAA Division I women’s match that is being streamed or broadcast can be found in the VolleyballMag.com daily TV listings.
BYU rolls on: The Cougars are 25-0 overall, and at 15-0 clinched at least a share of the West Coast Conference with their 25-12, 25-12, 25-9 victory over visiting San Francisco (8-19, 1-15). Roni Jones-Perry led with 12 kills and hit .526 and had two aces, eight digs and three blocks. Heather Gneiting had 10 kills, hit .571, and had six blocks. But the Cougars were without Miller, who tore her ACL when BYU beat Santa Clara on Thursday. Miller averaged 3.25 kills per set and was second on the team with 21 aces.
The second-place team in the WCC, San Diego (15-10, 12-3) beat visiting Santa Clara (6-22, 1-15) 25-20, 25-19, 18-25, 25-19 as Katie Lukes led with 16 kills, two digs and five blocks, one solo.
“As we head down the stretch right now, we just try to better ourselves every match,” said USD coach Jennifer Petrie, whose team has won eight of nine. “We’re trying to get into a groove going into the end of our conference season in the hopes of getting to the post-season, so I’m proud of the way that they keep persevering on.”
Third-place Pepperdine (17-8, 11-4) had to cancel its WCC match at Loyola Marymount because of the fires near and around Malibu.
Big Ten: The big match of the day saw No. 4 Illinois (24-3, 13-3) get all it could handle from Penn State (20-6, 11-5) as it beat the Nittany Lions in five (15-25, 25-22, 27-25, 23-25, 15-13) for the first time since 2014. Jacqueline Quade had one of the best matches of her career, leading the Illini with 29 kills, hitting .247 after taking 73 swings. She had 12 digs and two blocks. Beth Prince had 14 kills and Ashlyn Fleming had 11 and hit .476 to go with three blocks, one solo. Setter Jordyn Poulter had seven kills in 12 errorless attacks, hitting .583, had 55 assists, and added an ace, 13 digs and six blocks. Ali Bastianelli added five kills and seven blocks.
Jonni Parker led Penn State with 16 kills, hit .302, and had eight digs and three blocks. Nia Reed had 15 kills, two digs, an assist, and three blocks. Taylor Leath had 13 kills, three aces, nine digs and a block. Kaitlyn Hord had six kills, four digs and seven blocks.
Penn State led 6-3 in the fifth, but Illinois took an 8-7 lead. Penn State was up 12-11 before Poulter and Bastianelli combined for a match-winning block …
Minnesota (22-2, 16-0), which holds a three-game lead over Illinois in the standings, swept visiting No. 12 Purdue (21-6, 10-6) 25-10, 25-23, 25-19. Stephanie Samedy led the Gophers with 10 kills, hit .321 and had seven digs and blocks. Sherridan Atkinson led Purdue with 17 kills …
No. 6 Nebraska (20-6, 11-5) won at No. 15 Michigan (19-8, 8-8) 15-25, 25-20, 28-26, 26-24 behind 22 kills by Mikaela Foecke, who hit .465, had an assist, an ace, eight digs and five blocks, one solo. Lexi Sun had 17 kills, eight digs, an assist and two blocks, one solo. Lauren Stivrins added 13 kills and five blocks, one solo. Carly Skjodt led Michigan with 18 kills, 16 digs and three blocks, and Paige Jones had 17 kills and 14 digs …
No. 8 Wisconsin (18-6, 11-5) swept visiting Indiana (15-12, 6-10) 25-21, 25-14, 25-22 as Dana Rettke had 13 kills with no errors in 20 swings and hit .650. She had an ace, two digs and two blocks. Tionna Williams added 10 kills, hit .364 and had three blocks. Breana Edwards led IU with 10 kills …
Maryland (17-11, 8-8) won at Ohio State (12-16, 3-13) 27-25, 25-23, 25-12 behind 14 kills from Erika Pritchard, who hit .314, had four assists, three digs and a block. It’s the most league wins for Maryland in its first seasons in the Big Ten. Vanja Bukilic had 15 kills for Ohio State ..
Iowa (14-13, 6-10) won at Michigan State (16-13, 4-12) 20-25, 30-28, 25-19, 25-23 for its first season sweep of the Spartans since 1991. Taylor Louis led the Hawkeyes with 16 kills, three digs and two blocks. Meghan Buzzerio added 12 kills, 10 digs, an assist, an ace and a block. Maddie Haggerty led Michigan State with 16 kills, 12 digs, an assist and an ace …
And Northwestern (15-13, 5-11) beat visiting Rutgers (6-23, 0-16) 25-20, 25-17, 21-25, 25-14. Nia Robinson had 15 kills for Northwestern to go with four digs and two blocks, and Abryanna Cannon had 13 kills, 10 digs and four blocks. Rutgers’ Sahbria McLetchie had 13 kills, 10 digs and a solo block.
Pac 12: No. 25 Washington (17-9, 9-7) won at No. 21 UCLA (12-11, 7-9), sweeping the Bruins 25-15, 25-22, 25-15. Samantha Dreschel led UW with 11 kills, hitting .318, and had five blocks and two digs. Mac May led UCLA with nine kills …
No. 17 Oregon (17-9, 10-6) swept Cal (14-13, 6-10) as Lindsey Vander Weide led with 16 kills, hit .343, and had 13 digs, three blocks and two aces. Taylor Borup had 12 kills and 10 digs. Mima Mirkovic had 17 kills and hit .319 for Cal and had six digs.
Big 12: Fifth-ranked Texas (17-4, 12-1) beat visiting Kansas (15-8, 8-4) 25-20, 23-25, 25-18, 25-18 to clinch a share of the league title and improve to 43-5 all time against the Jayhawks. Yaazie Bedart-Ghani had 13 kills, hit .435, and had a dig and two blocks for Texas, which also got 12 kills from Micaya White, who had an assist, two aces, 11 digs and a block. Jada Burse had 19 kills for Kansas …
Baylor (17-7, 9-4) won at Kansas State (13-11, 3-10) 25-18, 25-17, 25-11 to win in a sweep in Manhattan for the first time since 1993. Shelly Fanning led with 11 kills, hitting .429, and had three digs and eight blocks …
Iowa State (13-13, 6-7) beat West Virginia (11-15, 2-10) 25-20, 23-25, 25-22, 25-15. Jess Schaben led the Cyclones with 22 kills, 18 digs and four blocks.
Around the nation: Cal Poly (23-2, 13-1 Big West) swept UC Irvine (16-11, 10-5) behind 22 kills from Torrey Van Winden, who hit .300 and had 10 digs, an assist and two blocks … Also in the Big West on Saturday, UC Riverside’s Marissa Holt had 25 kills, hit .353, and had three digs in a five-set win over CSUN … And Lindsey Ruddins had 23 kills, eight digs, two blocks and two aces for UC Santa Barbara in a four-set win over UC Davis …
Clemson (14-12, 5-8) won the only ACC match of the day by sweeping Virginia (8-15, 3-10). Brooke Bailey led the Tigers with 14 kills and three blocks …
VCU (18-8, 13-1) won the Atlantic 10 title with a 25-16, 25-18, 25-20 win over Davidson (12-13,5-9). Gina Tuzzolo led VCU with 17 kills, hit .600, and had three digs and three blocks … Also in the A10, Fordham’s McKenna Lahr had 23 kills, hit .345, and had 13 digs and four blocks in a five-set win over George Mason …
FGCU (24-6, 15-1) won the ASUN regular-season with a four-set win over Liberty (14-16, 10-6), its 13th victory in a row. Sharonda Pickering led with 12 kills, hit .647 after making one error in 17 swings, and had a dig and five blocks, one solo … Second-place Kennesaw State (23-6, 14-2) also won, sweeping Jacksonville (5-24, 3-13) …
The top two teams in the Big Sky, Idaho (20-8, 14-2) and Northern Arizona (21-8, 13-3) both won. Idaho beat Montana State in four behind 19 kills from Reece Carman, who hit .500 and had two digs and three blocks, while NAU beat Northern Colorado in five as Heaven Harris led with 19 kills, an assist, an ace, 20 digs and a block. Kortney Lockey had 24 kills for Northern Colorado …
High Point (19-9, 14-2) won the Big South regular-season title with a four-set win over Gardner-Webb (7-22, 1-15). Jordan Hefner led with 19 kills and hit .600 …
Nicole Lennon had 23 kills and hit .310 to with 11 digs and four blocks, but Rice (21-6, 12-2) lost at FIU (17-11, 9-5) to end the Conference USA regular season …
Horizon-leader Green Bay (18-10, 13-3) won in five over visiting UIC (17-12, 10-6) to win its first league title as Taylor Wolf and Jessica Wolf had 19 kills each. Taylor had 17 digs, three aces and four blocks, while Jessica had three digs and four blocks … Also in the Horizon, Haley Libs had 21 kills, hitting .311, and career-high 37 digs in Northern Kentucky’s five-set win over Cleveland State. Both teams are 11-5 in the league …
Kirstie Hillyer had 19 kills and hit .607 and had four blocks, one solo, as as Colorado State (22-6, 14-2) kept winning atop the Mountain West, beating Boise State (17-10, 9-7) in four …
Iona (17-7, 15-2) won the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title for the first time with a sweep of Marist (14-13, 11-6) … Also in the MAAC, Fairfield (12-14, 11-6) beat Niagara (9-17, 9-8) as Mayda Garcia had 29 kills and hit .349, to go with 26 digs, two blocks and two assists …
The Missouri Valley Conference leader, Illinois State (24-5, 16-1), beat Valparaiso (22-9, 9-7) in four as Kaylee Martin had 18 kills, hit .500, and Courtney Pence had 31 digs, while Northern Iowa (21-8, 15-1) kept pace with a sweep of Southern Illinois (5-24, 1-15). Kate Busswitz led with 12 kills, hit .407 and had two digs and three blocks… Also in the Valley, Erica Haslag had 28 kills and hit .386 as Bradley (22-7, 12-5) beat Loyola (15-13, 7-9) in five. Morgan Gresham had 19 kills and 22 digs for Loyola …
Austin Peay (25-4, 14-2) beat Eastern Illinois (10-21, 5-11) in four to claim the Ohio Valley Conference regular-season title. Cecily Gable led with 21 kills. She hit .465 and had an assist, an ace, six digs and three blocks … Also in the OVC, Eastern Kentucky lost to Tennessee State in five, but Cassie Knutson had 32 kills for EKU to go with four assists, an ace, 11 digs and a solo block …
Stephen F. Austin won again in the Southland. The Ladyjacks (29-2, 16-0) swept New Orleans (12-19, 6-10) as Ann Hollas had 10 kills, hit .368 and had 28 assists, two blocks and four digs.
Minnesota is 22-2, not 22-3. They lost the two in a preseason tourney on the west coast – Stanford 23-25, 25-23, 17-25, 23-25; and Oregon 23-25, 23-25, 27-25, 23-25
Good catch. It’s been fixed.