Saturday action around the women’s game was just as fast and furious as Friday’s season-opening slate of contests.
In terms of top 25 notables, we have all the details of No. 3 Texas’ victory over No. 7 Florida and No. 2 Nebraska’s triumph over No. 18 Oregon at the VERT Challenge in Lincoln, Nebraska.
No. 10 USC defeated No. 13 Creighton in Los Angeles, while No. 17 Washington downed No. 14 San Diego for a second day in a row in Seattle. No. 5 Kentucky, also part of the field at USC, left Los Angeles without a win among the three matches it played.
No. 15 Colorado and No. 21 Iowa State also suffered defeats.
No. 1 Stanford opens its season on the East Coast Sunday in Washington, D.C., against American University and then travels across the district to Howard University on Monday.
Big Ten: No. 4 Minnesota moved to 2-0 on the season with a 3-1 win against North Carolina as part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge held at the Target Center in Minneapolis. Stephanie Samedy had 20 kills and four blocks for the Gophers, while Regan Pittman had 17 kills and four blocks. Jasmyn Martin had eight kills and four blocks, while Taylor Morgan had eight kills and nine blocks. Minnesota rallied from a 22-19 deficit in the fourth to win the contest. Minnesota held a 17-10.5 blocks advantage.
No. 6 Penn State wrapped up play in the Penn State Classic with a 3-0 win over Navy in a match that saw the Nittany Lions outscore Navy by 28 total points in the three sets. The Nittany Lions went 3-0 in the event.
Classic MVP Taylor Leath led Penn State with 15 kills and eight blocks, while hitting .387. Fellow outside hitter Nia Reed added 13 kills and hit .414. Setter Bryanna Weiskircher had 31 assists. Penn State hit .307. Reed and Kendall White joined Leath on the all-tournament team. White had 13 digs in the Navy win.
No. 9 Wisconsin also was in action at Target Center in Minneapolis as part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. The Badgers were 23-25, 26-24, 25-23, 25-22 winners against Florida State. Wisconsin went 2-0 against the ACC.
Madison Duello led Wisconsin with a career-high 15 kills, while hitting a match-best .379. Sophomore setter Sydney Hilley had 45 assists and 14 digs to earn her second straight double-double. Sophomore Grace Loberg had 13 kills and 15 digs, while redshirt sophomore Molly Haggerty had 10 kills and 10 digs to notch her first double-double since the 2016 season. Tiffany Clark had 14 digs and defensive specialist M.E. Dodge had 12 digs.
No. 12 Illinois needed five sets to outlast Northern Colorado 23-25, 25-23, 25-19, 20-25, 15-12 at Bank of Colorado Arena in Greeley.
Junior Jacqueline Quade had 22 kills, 14 digs and a career-high four aces for Illinois, while sophomore Megan Cooney had a career-high 19 kills. Senior Ali Bastianelli finished with 11 kills and hit .556 while putting up four blocks. Senior setter Jordan Poulter had 58 assists and 11 digs for her 25th double-double of her career.
No. 22 Michigan State was a 3-1 winner over Belmont at the Tennessee Classic. The Spartans also downed Chattanooga there 3-1 after losing to the host Vols 3-1 a day earlier. Alyssa Chronowski had 14 kills and hit .462 for Cathy George’s squad. It was her third double-digit kill effort of the event. Molly Johnson had 10 kills, while Jamye Cox (29 digs) and Meredith Norris (17) established new career bests in digs.
No. 23 Purdue swept Tulsa to go 3-0 at the inaugural Reamer Club Premier in West Lafayette, Indiana. Purdue hit .432 in the match, making only eight errors on 95 swings. Tulsa was limited to a .133 hitting percentage. Sherridan Atkinson led the way for Purdue with a match-high 18 kills, Blake Mohler and Caitlyn Newton each had nine kills.
Elsewhere among Big Ten teams, Indiana finished up play in the UNLV Invitational in Las Vegas with a 3-0 win over Southern Utah. Kendall Beerman had 13 kills and hit .571. The Hoosiers went 3-0 there. Iowa split a pair of matches at the LUV Invitational in Nashville. Iowa defeated SMU 3-1 and later fell to Lipscomb in five (13-25, 25-20, 25-16, 18-25, 15-10). Iowa faces Belmont today at 3 p.m., Central. Maryland swept UNC Greensboro and lost in five to Air Force at the Wake Forest/UNCG Tournament in Winston Salem, North Carolina.
Michigan swept Auburn to win the War Eagle Invitational at Auburn. Michigan defeated High Point earlier in the day. Senior libero Jenna Lerg led Michigan with 24 digs in three sets against Auburn. Northwestern defeated UW-Milwaukee to win the Panther Invitational title in Milwaukee, while Ohio State won the Sports Imports D.C. Koehl Classic in front of 4,000 at St. John Arena in Columbus, Ohio. The Buckeyes defeated Ohio in three and also downed Texas A&M in four. Rutgers lost in the Molten Classic finale to Chicago State.
Pac-12: Over in the Pac-12, No. 1 Stanford doesn’t open play until this afternoon at American University in Washington, D.C. (4 p.m., Eastern). The Cardinal then face Howard on Monday.
No. 10 USC won its own Trojan Invitational after a 3-2 victory over No. 13 Creighton at the Galen Center. USC won the match 28-26, 23-25, 25-22, 21-25, 18-16. Brooke Botkin led the Trojans with 25 kills on 57 swings, while Khalia Lanier had 20 kills. Raquel Lazaro had 53 assists and Victoria Garrick had 23 digs, while Lazaro also had 22 digs. USC downed Northern Iowa earlier in the day.
Taryn Kloth’s 25 kills led the way for Creighton. Jaali Winters added 19 kills and Megan Ballenger had 13 kills. Madelyn Cole finished with 54 assists and Brittany Witt had 25 digs for the Blue Jays, who went 1-2 in the event.
No. 11 UCLA defeated Gonzaga 25-18, 21-25, 25-20, 25-22 at the John Wooden Center. Mac May had 14 kills, while Jenny Mosser added 13 kills and Madeleine Gates had 10 kills for the Bruins. The two teams play again today at 1 p.m., Pacific in Los Angeles.
No. 15 Colorado lost in five sets to Wyoming in Laramie. The Buffs were down 2-0 but rallied with 25-21 and 25-16 set wins before the Cowgirls won it 15-13 in the fifth. Justine Spann had 16 kills for Colorado, while Alexa Smith had 15 kills and Anyse Smith had 10 kills for the Buffs.
No. 17 Washington downed No. 14 San Diego for a second night in a row at Alaska Airlines Arena in Seattle. Washington was a 25-15, 25-21, 25-16 winner in straight sets in Round 2. It’s the first time Washington has opened a season with consecutive wins against a Top 25 team. Kara Bajema led Washington with 13 kills, while Avie Niece had six kills and six blocks. Lauren Sanders had five kills and four blocks, while Samantha Drechsel had five kills, four blocks and three aces. Lauren Fuller had 14 kills to lead the Toreros.
No. 19 Utah won its own Utah Classic with a five-set win over Denver (2-1). Dani Drews led the Utes with 24 kills, while Lauga Gauta had 17 kills. Phoebe Grace had 13 kills and five blocks, while Kinzie Koerber had seven kills and four blocks.
Other Pac-12-related action saw Arizona State defeat Pacific to win its own Sun Devil Classic, while Oregon State defeated No. 21 Iowa State in five sets. Washington State started its season with a 3-0 win over Virginia Commonwealth. Arizona won the Hornet Invitational title with a 3-1 win over Sacramento State. Arizona is 3-0 to start the season. Cal also started the season 3-0 after defeating Colgate 3-0 to win the Molten Classic at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley.
Big 12: No. 16 Baylor downed Texas State and Marquette to win the Hampton Inn & Suites Waco North Baylor Invitational. Baylor’s Yossiana Pressley was named the tournament MVP and high-scorer. Redshirt junior Shelly Fanning was named best attacker.
The win against Texas State gave Baylor coach Ryan McGuyre his 400th career coaching win (401-165).
In No. 21 Iowa State’s loss to Oregon State, the Cyclones had four players in double digits for kills with Jess Schaben leading the way with 14. Eleanor Holthaus had 13 to go with six blocks. Grace Lazard had 12 kills and 11 blocks, while Avery Rhodes had 10 kills and four blocks.
Kansas defeated Arkansas on Friday and will face the Razorbacks again today in Lawrence, Kansas. Kansas State rolled to a season-opening sweep of Hawai’i. Oklahoma and new coach Lindsey Gray-Walton have started 3-0 after defeating DePaul and Northern Illinois Saturday at the NIU Invitational in DeKalb, Illinois.
TCU won its own Cowtown Classic Presented by La Quinta in Fort Worth, Texas with a 3-0 win against Southern Illinois-Edwardsville. The Horned Frogs moved to 3-0 on the season.
Texas Tech downed Rice in five to win the Raider Classic title in Lubbock, Texas, while West Virginia lost to Wright State 3-1 at the WVU Invitational, but still won the tournament title based on a set-percentage tiebreaker.
SEC: No. 5 Kentucky lost all three of its matches at the Trojan Invitational at USC in Los Angeles. The Wildcats lost in five sets Saturday to Northern Iowa to finish the tournament. Leah Edmond led Kentucky in that contest with 17 kills, followed by Allie Stumler with 14 kills. Kendyl Paris led with five blocks. Kentucky lost four matches all of last year.
In other SEC action from Saturday, Alabama was a 3-1 winner against Morgan State, while Texas A&M downed Albany 3-1. Missouri defeated Fairfield 3-0 and Georgia was a 3-0 winner over Furman. Tennessee defeated Belmont 3-0, while Ole Miss was a 3-2 winner against Oregon State.
Of note in Marquette’s 3-0 win against LSU, Marquette had just two solo blocks in the contest that featured a total of 206 attacks between the two teams.
South Carolina also defeated Clemson 3-0 and Mississippi State lost 3-2 to Georgia State.
ACC: No. 20 Pitt won its own Panther Challenge with a 3-0 mark. Pitt swept Pepperdine 3-0 in its final match after downing No. 24 Cal Poly and Butler a day earlier. Kayla Lund had 12 kills in the win against Pepp.
No. 8 BYU concluded its two-match season-opener at Duke with a 16-25, 25-19, 25-22, 25-17 win against the Blue Devils in Durham, North Carolina.
Sophomore middle blocker Kennedy Eschenberg had 13 kills and five blocks and hit .522, while freshman outside Madi Robinson had 12 kills and hit .632 off the bench. Lyndie Haddock-Eppich had 46 assists, while McKenna Miller had 13 kills and Mary Lake had 19 digs.
Elsewhere in the ACC, Georgia Tech won 3-0 against Abilene Christian and Georgetown. South Carolina downed Clemson 3-0. Miami lost 3-0 to Florida Gulf Coast but defeated Central Florida 3-0, while Boston College was 3-0 winner over Providence and downed Sacred Heart 3-1. Virginia lost 3-1 to Iowa State, while Virginia Tech defeated Presbyterian 3-0 and also scored a 3-2 win over host Charlotte. Wake Forest lost to Air Force 3-1 and by the same score to UNC-Greensboro.
Notre Dame won its own Golden Down Invitational title with a 3-0 win over Northern Kentucky. Jemma Yeadon, who was named the tournament MVP, led the Irish with nine kills and eight digs. Charley Niego had eight kills, while Rebecca Nunge had eight kills and six blocks.
Other Top 25: No. 24 Cal Poly swept Butler 3-0 to finish 2-1 at the Panther Challenge at Pitt. Cal Poly lost to No. 20 Pitt earlier in the tournament. Torrey Van Winden’s 14 kills led the way for the Mustangs. She also hit .440 and had eight digs. Sophomore middle Madilyn Mercer had career highs in kills with eight and blocks with six.
Colorado State, ranked 25th in the country, shook off a Friday loss to Illinois in five to defeat UNC Wilmington 3-0 at Moby Arena in Fort Collins.
