NCAA volleyball: Indiana stuns reeling Ohio St., Oregon escapes, UK sweeps Florida

Unranked Indiana dealt No. 5 Ohio State another defeat; No. 12 Oregon had to pull off a reverse sweep to beat USC; No. 18 Kentucky, swept the day before at No. 10 Florida, in turn swept the Gators; Cal, winless in the Pac-12 lost its fifth five-set match in a row; and 11 more automatic bids to the NCAA Tournaments were awarded.

We have all the details in another story, but it was quite a Sunday in NCAA Division I volleyball as bids went to Rice in Conference USA (although Western Kentucky will get a bid), UMBC in the America East, Loyola in the A10, High Point in the Big South, Wright State in the Horizon, Delaware State in the MEAC, Colgate in the Patriot, FAMU in the SWAC, Samford in the SoCon, Southeastern Louisiana in the Southland, and James Madison in the Sun Belt.

BIG TEN: Indiana (15-15, 8-10) had never beaten a top-five team before its 24-26, 25-17, 25-17, 20-25, 16-14 victory at Ohio State (19-7, 15-3) on Sunday. 

The Hoosiers were down 14-12 in the fifth before tying and then ending it on back-to-back kills by Mady Saris. Saris and Candela Alonso-Corcelles had 14 kills each for Indiana. Saris ahd two assists, five aces, a block and 10 digs. Alonso-Corcelles had three aces, four blocks and five digs. Kaley Rammelsberg had 10 kills, a dig and seven blocks, and Savannah Kjolhede had nine kills, an assist, a dig and six blocks, two solo. Camryn Haworth ahd eight kills, hit .333, and had 45 assists, an ace, 16 digs and four blocks, one solo. Paula Cerame had 29 digs, 12 assists and an ace. 

Ohio State, which hit .156, got 14 kills from Gabby Gonzalez, who had two assists, an ace, a block and 21 digs. Mac Podraza had three kills, 41 assists, four digs and four blocks, two solo. Adria Powell had three kills and eight blocks. The Buckeyes were without libero Kylie Murr, one of the best in the nation, and in her place Sarah Sue Morbitzer had 16 digs and four assists. Ohio State, which had won 14 in a row, lost at unranked Maryland on Friday …

No. 6 Nebraska (24-3, 16-2) cruised to a 25-22, 25-20, 25-11 sweep of visiting No. 19 Purdue (19-9, 10-8). Madi Kubik led the Huskers with 17 of their 40 kills. Purdue hit .016 … 

No. 9 Minnesota (18-8, 13-5) won 25-11, 25-19, 26-24 at Rutgers (8-22, 2-16). Carter Booth had eight kills in 13 errorless attacks and five blocks, one solo … Illinois (15-13, 10-8) swept visiting Iowa (8-21, 2-16) as Jessica Nunge and Raina Terry had 11 kills each in the 25-23, 25-15, 26-24 victory … Michigan State (12-17, 3-15) won its second match in three outings and dealt reeling Northwestern (17-13, 6-12) its sixth loss in a row with a 25-20, 28-26, 29-27 sweep. Emma Monks had 13 kills with one error in 21 kills for the Spartans go to with five blocks, one solo. Temi Thomas-Ailara had 17 kills for Northwestern.

PAC-12: Oregon (21-5, 15-3) continued to live on the edge. The Ducks pulled off a reverse sweep of visiting USC (20-9,12-6) for their third five-set win in four matches. Oregon, which has won 11 in a row, won 21-25, 23-25, 25-20, 25-20, 15-12 Mimi Colyer bolstered her chances for national freshman of the year with 29 kills. She had four errors in 54 attacks and hit .463 to go with an assist, four aces, four blocks and four digs. Brooke Nuneviller had 19 kills, hit .421, and had two assists, two aces, a block and seven digs. Hannah Pukis had two kills, 62 assists, two blocks and eight digs. USC’s Skylar Fields had 27 kills, hit .357 and had an assist, two blocks and six digs. Emilia Weske and Jordan Wilson had 15 kills each … 

No. 21 Washington (19-9, 11-7) got a much-needed sweep of visiting Utah (15-14, 8-10), which lost despite hitting .333. That’s because Washington hit .414 with 52 kills and 11 errors in 99 swings. Claire Hoffman led with 20 kills as she hit .412 and had an assist and three digs. Utah’s Madelyn Robinson had 16 kils with two errors in 34 attacks to hit .412 and had two digs … 

No. 25 Washington State (21-8, 13-5) beat visiting Colorado (18-10, 10-8), which is living in precarious the NCAAat-large territory, 25-20, 21-25, 25-19, 25-11. Magda Jehlarova had 16 kills with one error in 21 attacks for the Cougars and had a dig and eight blocks, one solo … 

UCLA won in four at Oregon State as four players had 10 or more kills, 18 by elan McCall, who hit .350 and had an ace and 11 digs … 

And Cal was so close again — it has lost five five-set matches in a row — but the Bears (7-21, 0-18) couldn’t hold on and lost to visiting Arizona State 25-23, 20-25, 21-25, 26-24, 15-5. Marta Levinska had 25 kills for Arizona State, hit .353 and had five blocks and 14 digs. Cal’s Lydia Grote had 22 kills, an assist, two aces, two blocks and seven digs.

SEC: Go figure Kentucky (18-7, 13-3). Swept the day before, the Wildcats came out and did the same to Florida (21-5, 13-3) to force another tie atop the conference with the 25-21, 26-24, 25-17 victory. Kentucky got 11 kills each from Adanna Rollins, Erin Lamb and Azhani Tealer, who had seven blocks, two solo … Arkansas swept visiting Alabama behind 14 kills from Jilian Gillen, who hit .343 and had an ace, six digs and, at 5-foot-7, six blocks. Tatum Shipes, who had four kills and five digs, had 13 blocks, one solo … 29 kills was the number as Tennessee beat visiting Mississippi State in five. Morgan Fingahl had 29 kills for Tennessee and hit .448 after having three errors in 58 attacks to go with an assist, an ace, a block and 13 digs. Gabby Waden had 29 kills for State as she hit .355 and had a block and four digs … Texas A&M swept at Missouri.

AROUND THE NATION: Hawai’i (20-6, 17-1) claimed at least a share of the Big West title with two matches left. The Rainbow Wahine crushed visiting CSU Bakersfield 25-13, 25-10, 25-12 as Amber Igiede had 16 kills in 27 errorless attacks to hit .593 and she had two assists, two aces, a dig and four blocks. Hawai’i, up by two games, can claim the Big West’s NCAA bid by winning at either second-place UC Santa Barbara on Friday or CSUN on Sunday. No Big West team will get an at-large …

Both ranked American Athletic teams won. First-place and No. 23 Houston beat visiting SMU in four for its 19th win in a row. Kortlyn Henderson had 14 kills, hit .500, and had three blocks. Henderson had a total of 26 kills in her previous six matches … No. 24 UCF swept Temple for its 13th win in a row. McKenna Melville had 18 kills, hit .471 and had 10 digs and three blocks, one solo …

In the ACC, Miami did nothing to hurt its at-large chances but had to work overtime to come away with a 24-26, 25-17, 23-25, 33-31, 15-13 win at Duke. Angela Grieve had 20 kills, two assists, an ace, three blocks and 19 digs … Wake Forest swept at Virginia.

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