Fourth-ranked Wisconsin has just three losses this season, and now two of them are to No. 9 Purdue as three teams are now tied for first in the Big Ten.
No. 1 Louisville swept visiting No. 14 Georgia Tech in the ACC, but No. 3 Pittsburgh had to go five to escape Syracuse.
Brooke Nuneviller had 25 kills for Oregon in a five-set win over USC, and races tightened in the Big Sky, Ohio Valley, and Missouri Valley.
And what would a Friday night in NCAA Division I volleyball be without a reverse sweep? LSU did it at Ole Miss in their SEC match.
Click here for our preview of Saturday’s NCAA schedule that includes just one match pitting ranked teams, but quite a few with conference standings and NCAA seeding implications.
BIG TEN — Wisconsin, Nebraska and idle Minnesota are now in a three-way tie for first with Purdue and Penn State a game back.
Purdue (19-5, 11-4) hadn’t won both regular-season matches with Wisconsin (20-3, 12-3) since 2008 and hadn’t won in Madison since 2011. But the Boilermakers came away with a 25-20, 19-25, 25-22, 25-21 victory in which they held Wisconsin to their lowest hitting percentage in three years. Wisconsin also saw its 30-match home winning streak — 23 in the Big Ten — broken.
Purdue, which has won five in a row, beat Wisconsin two weeks ago in four in West Lafayette. This time, Caitlyn Newton led with 19 kills, an ace, six blocks, and nine digs. Jael Johnson had nine kills and hit .350 and had eight blocks, two solo. Marissa Hornung had 18 digs and two assists, and Jena Otec had 17 digs, two assists, and two aces. Purdue hit .197.
Wisconsin hit .128, which included Dana Rettke getting six kills while hitting .045. She had five blocks. Grace Loberg led the Badgers with 12 kills, two assists, two blocks, and three digs …
Penn State (18-7, 11-4) got 18 kills from Erika Pritchard and won 26-24, 23-25, 25-19, 25-22 at Michigan (14-10, 7-8). Pritchard hit .368 and had an assist, two aces, a block, and seven digs. Adanna Rollins had 14 kills, two assists, two blocks, and 12 digs. Kaitlyn Hord hit .417 as she got 12 kills and had two blocks. Gabby Blossom had three kills in four errorless tries, 55 assists, two aces, a block, and seven digs. Jenna Hampton had 27 digs. Michigan’s Jess Mruzik had 14 kills, three aces, and 12 digs. Paige Jones had 13 kills, a block, and 12 digs …
No. 11 Nebraska (18-6, 12-3) swept visiting Maryland (18-9, 6-9) 25-11, 26-24, 25-18 as the Huskers had a school-record 78 digs in a three-set match. Nebraska, which hit .170, got 14 kills from Madi Kubik, who had an ace, seven digs, and four blocks, one solo. Lauren Stivrins had seven kills with no errors in 12 attacks, an assist, a dig, and seven blocks. Lexi Rodriguez had 22 digs and five assists. Maryland hit .000 …
No. 25 Illinois (17-9, 9-6) swept visiting Indiana (9-18, 3-12) as Raina Terry had 20 kills in the 25-11, 25-18, 25-17 victory. Terry hit .395 and had two aces and seven digs. Megan Cooney had 12 kills, hit .455, and had two blocks and four digs … Michigan State (11-13, 4-11) downed visiting Rutgers (8-18, 0-15) 26-24, 25-20, 25-19. Biamba Kabengele had 11 kills with one error in 24 attacks and added an ace and eight digs.
PAC-12 — No. 17 Oregon (19-6, 10-5) won the hard way against visiting USC (10-14, 6-9) as Brooke Nuneviller had 25 kills in the 25-22, 25-20, 26-28, 21-25, 15-11 victory. Nuneviller had an ace, two blocks and 13 digs. The Ducks, who won for the fourth time in a row, got 14 kills from Morgan Lewis and 11 from Gloria Mutiri, who had three blocks and six digs. USC’s Emilia Weske had 18 kills, two assists, seven digs, and two blocks, one solo …
No 12 UCLA (20-3, 13-2) swept at Oregon State (4-21, 2-13) as Mac May had 19 kills in the 25-23, 25-14, 25-16 victory. She hit .308 and had an ace and seven digs … No. 16 Utah (17-7, 10-5) swept at Arizona (14-12, 6-9) as Dani Drews had 15 kills, four aces, two blocks, and seven digs in the 25-9, 26-24, 25-22 victory … Iman Isanovic had 26 kills as Arizona State (14-12, 7-8) beat visiting Colorado (14-10, 5-10) 25-16, 20-25, 25-22, 27-25. Isanovic had an assist, four aces, and 14 digs. Marta Levinska had 19 kills, an assist, an ace, a block, and 20 digs.
ACC — Louisville (24-0, 14-0) won 25-21, 25-21, 27-25 at Georgia Tech (21-4, 12-3), which dropped the Yellow Jackets to third place, tied in the loss column with idle Miami. Anna Stevenson led Louisville with 12 kills and four blocks, one solo. Claire Chaussee had 11 kills, hitting .360. GT’s Julia Bergmann had 15 kills, an assist, two blocks, and nine digs …
Pittsburgh (24-2, 13-2) won 25-17, 25-18, 16-25, 22-25, 15-9 at Syracuse (16-11, 5-10) as Leketor Member-Meneh tied a career high with 23 kills. Member-Meneh hit .362 and had an assist, two aces, and nine digs. Kayla Lund had 14 kills, four assists, a block, and 13 digs. Marina Markova had 20 kills for Syracuse to go with an assist, an ace, eight digs, and five blocks, two solo. Polina Shemanova had 19 kills, an assist, 18 digs, and three blocks, one solo … Notre Dame swept visiting NC State, Virginia won in four at Wake Forest, and North Carolina won in four at Virginia Tech.
BIG 12 — Second-ranked Texas (20-1, 11-1) swept visiting Oklahoma (10-15, 4-10) for the second straight night. The Longhorns, who hit .380 in the 25-8, 25-21, 25-14 victory, got 12 kills from Skylar Fields, who hit .333, and nine kills each from Logan Eggleston, who had three aces, and Asjia O’Neal, who had one error in 20 attacks, an ace, three digs, and five blocks, one solo …
No. 6 Baylor (15-5, 9-2) won 25-21, 19-25, 25-16, 26-24 at TCU (8-13, 2-9). Yossiana Pressley led with 16 kills, an assist, a block, and five digs. Avery Skinner had 14 kills, an assist, three blocks, and seven digs. Afedo Manyang had 16 kills and hit .500 for TCU to go with two blocks and three digs … West Virginia hit .402 and swept at Howard of the MEAC.
SEC — No. 22 Florida (16-6, 10-2) hit .365 and swept at Arkansas (17-7, 8-5) to stay a game back of idle Kentucky and Mississippi State. T’Ara Ceasar had 17 kills with one error in 29 attacks in the 25-12, 25-19, 25-20 victory. She added an assist, an ace, three blocks, and five digs. Lauren Forte had eight kills with no errors in 13 attacks and 10 blocks, one solo …
LSU (11-13, 7-8) rallied for a 23-25, 16-25, 27-25, 29-27, 15-11 victory at Ole Miss (18-7, 7-7). Taylor Bannister led with 20 kills, two aces, eight blocks, and 11 digs. Anita Anwusi had 16 kills, hit .417, and had seven blocks. Ella Larkin had 49 assists, two aces, four blocks, and 18 digs. Ole Miss got 17 kills from Anna Bair and 16 from Lauren Thompson, who had three aces, four blocks, and 15 digs.
AROUND THE NATION — No. 23 Creighton pulled ahead of idle Marquette by a half game in the Big East with a sweep at Georgetown …
Things tightened up in the Ohio Valley Conference when Southeast Missouri (22-7, 13-4) not only beat visiting Morehead State (18-10, 14-3), it swept the Eagles to close the gap atop the standings to a game. And Eastern Illiinois (11-16, 4-13) stunned third-place Austin Peay (19-11, 12-5). SEMO hit .316 and got 16 kills from Zoey Beasley, who hit .433 and had three blocks and two digs. Talia Gouard had eight kills in 20 errorless attacks and seven blocks, one solo. Morehead State’s Olivia Lohmeier had 16 kills and six digs … EIU’s Danielle Allen had 18 kills, three blocks, and three digs …
Iona, which had lost seven of its last eight matches and sits in seventh place in the MAAC, stunned visiting Fairfield with a five-set upset and beat the Stags for the first time since 2018. Iona’s Hope Matschner had a career-high 34 digs, four assists, and an ace. Fairfield, which had already clinched the league’s regular-season title, got 22 kills from Mikayla Haut …
The top of the Missouri Valley Conference got more interesting when Bradley won in five at Loyola Chicago and Illinois State won in four at Valparaiso. Loyola (19-8, 12-3) holds a one-game lead over Bradley (15-10, 12-4) and Illinois State (16-12, 12-4), and Illinois State plays at Loyola on Saturday. Bradley’s Kaylenn Hunt had 16 kills and three blocks. Addie Barnes had 19 kills, two assists, an ace, 10 digs, and seven blocks, three solo … Also in the Valley, Evansville’s Alondra Vazquez had 24 kills in a five-set win over Drake. She had two aces, 15 digs, and six blocks, one solo …
Northern Colorado hit .395 and pulled back into a tie for first with idle Weber State in the Big Sky with a sweep at Eastern Washington. Makenzie Harris had 16 kills and hit .565 … High Point swept UNC Asheville and Campbell did the same to Presbyterian as they stayed 1-2 in the Big South … Hawai’i swept visiting UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara swept Cal State Fullerton as the Rainbow Wahine won their sixth in a row and stayed a game ahead in the Big West. Hawai’i hit .340, led by Amber Igiede, who had 17 kills with no errors in 27 attacks, an assist, and five blocks, one solo …
Abbie Jackson had 17 kills, hit .444 after having one error in 36 attacks, as Houston won its fifth in a row and beat East Carolina in the American Athletic to stay two games back of idle first-place UCF … Also in the AAC, SMU won in four at South Florida and Rachel Woulfe had 20 kills with no errors in 37 attacks, two digs, and seven blocks, one solo … Cincinnati’s Maria Mallon had 25 kills in the Bearcats’ four-set AAC win at Tulane …
Dayton improved to 23-5, 16-0 in the Atlantic 10, and leads VCU by three games after beating Saint Louis in four. VCU hit .322 and swept George Washington …
In the Horizon League, Northern Kentucky swept at Cleveland State to pull into a tie in the loss column with idle first-place Milwaukee … UIC won its Horizon match in five at Robert Morris as Salma Abdelhady had 24 kills, hit .455, and had four digs and four blocks … Also in the Horizon, Green Bay won in five at Youngstown State despite Youngstown’ Paula Gursching getting 27 kills, two assist, four aces, 16 digs, and a block …
In the MAC, the division leaders won as Bowling Green swept Ohio behind 19 kills by Petra Indrova and Ball State won at Eastern Michigan in four as Jaclyn Bulmahn had 20 kills …
Delaware State took over first place in the MEAC by a half game over Howard, which was losing a non-conference match to West Virginia, by winning in four at UMES …
Bryant (19-10, 11-2) saw its NEC lead cut to a game when Sacred Heart (16-9, 10-3) beat the visiting Bulldogs in four … Wofford won its SoCon match in four at ETSU, but ETSU’s Sara Esposito had 23 kills, hit .353, and had an assist, an ace, six digs, and two blocks, one solo …
In the Sun Belt, UT Arlington won in five at Louisiana as Briana Brown had 24 kills, hit .404, and had a dig and two solo blocks. Alli Wells had 27 digs and eight assists … Also in the SBC, Texas State swept at Louisiana-Monroe and Janell Fitzgerald had 16 kills with no errors in 30 attacks, an ace, 10 digs, and two blocks, one solo … In the only West Coast Conference match of the day, Pacific beat Saint Mary’s in four as Sedona Sherman had 14 kills with one error in 23 swings, three digs, and three blocks, two solo.
Virginia did not win in 4 against WF
Good catch! Wake Forest won in four. Thanks.