Baylor and Texas won non-conference NCAA Division I women’s volleyball matches Wednesday, Villanova beat St. John’s in a Big East match, and Stetson and Arkansas-Pine Bluff got victories.
The recaps follow, but first the some coaching news.
Heather Mazeitis-Fontentot is retiring after 13 seasons at Louisiana. The Ragin’ Cajuns finished the fall season 17-7 overall, 11-15 in the Sun Belt. She won 186 matches in her time in Lafayette. She previously coached at Kansas City Community College and Louisiana Tech. Click here to read more.
The NCAA Division I women’s volleyball schedule is light again Thursday, but does include the Big 12‘s Texas Tech at Tarleton, the WAC school that earlier knocked off TCU. There are two Mid-American matches when league-leader Bowling Green is home for Eastern Michigan and Kent State is at Ball State. The Big South has four matches and the Southland three, including Stephen F. Austin at Nicholls.
The big kids are in action in NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball. In the Big West, Hawai’i is at UC Santa Barbara and UC San Diego is at UC Irvine, while in the MPSF Pepperdine is at UCLA and USC is at Concordia, and in the MIVA, Ball State is at Ohio State.
Want to watch a match? We’ve got the links in the VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings.
BIG 12 — Baylor (16-4) went to the Sun Belt’s Texas State (27-6) and hit .398 as the Bears came away with a 25-20, 25-18, 25-19 victory. Yossiana Pressley had 14 kills, hit .407, and had four blocks, and seven digs. Marieke van der Mark and Lauren Harrison had 11 kills each, and Kara McGhee had 10 kills with one error in 16 attacks and six blocks, one solo. Hannah Sedwick had three kills, 45 assists, and five digs. Shanel Bramschreiber had four aces, an assist and 15 digs.
“Great offensive performance for sure tonight,” Baylor coach Ryan McGuyre said. “I feel like it’s been a long time to have four people with double-digit kills in a three-set sweep. I thought Hannah did a good job running the show. That’s something that’s been missing for us a little bit this year.”
Janell Fitzgerald had 11 kills for Texas State to go with an assist, a block, and four digs.
“We are on the verge. I feel like we are not backing down or scared to play at this level but we have to get our confidence level up to know that we can compete consistently,” said Texas State coach Sean Huiet, whose Bobcats beat the BiTexas g 12’s TCU and Kansas State this spring but was coming off losses to Kansas and Texas.
“It is a process, but we know these are the matches that will prepare us for the NCAA Tournament and make a run there. It is frustrating because we do not like to lose, but we are going to learn from this and get better.”
In a match that fell completely below our radar yesterday (no mention of it in Wednesday’s roundup), Texas (19-0) hit .383 and swept visiting Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (7-4) of the Southland Conference. Melanie Parra had 10 kills and hit .333 in the 25-18, 25-20, 25-22 victory to go with an ace and seven digs. Skylar Fields had nine kills, hit .389, and had two blocks and a dig. TAMUCC’s Chloe Simon had 10 kills, an ace, and two digs. Carissa Barnes had 18 digs, two assists, and an ace.
AROUND THE NATION — Villanova (3-2, 2-1) lost the first set at St. John’s (5-3, 1-2), but then came back to win their Big East match 18-25, 25-22, 25-21, 25-20. Riley Homer led the Wildcats with 12 kills, an assist, three aces, five blocks, and two digs. Kiera Booth had 11 kills with two errors in 21 attacks and 10 blocks, one solo. Villanova outblocked St. John’s 17-6 as Maddie Barber had seven blocks, and Mallory Potts had six with nine kills.
Efrosini Alexakou had 21 kills for St. John’s and a block and 13 digs, and Rachele Rastelli had 14 kills, an assist, two aces, a block, and four digs …
Stetson (5-3, 4-3) won its ASUN match in four at Jacksonville (2-9, 0-7). The Hatters, who hit .301, got 15 kills from Elena Djokovic, who had nine digs and two blocks, one solo. Yamelis Mojica had 14 kills and hit .500 after having two errors in 24 attacks. She had an assist and two blocks, two solo. Kaylee Oscarson had 11 kills with one error in 24 swings and had an assist, two digs, and four blocks, one solo. Alexis Thompson had seven kills, five digs, and five blocks, two solo, and Chelcie Spence had 23 digs, two assists, and an ace. Sydney Bolding and Barbora Romancova had 12 kills each for Jacksonville and Hanna Edelman had 11, three aces, a block, and 14 digs …
In the SWAC, Arkansas-Pine Bluff (6-3, 5-3) beat visiting Southern (3-5) in four as 5-foot-6 Zyonn Smith had 19 kills, an assist, and 17 digs. Reagin Williams had 15 kills, three digs, and five blocks, two solo, and Destiny Thomas had nine kills with one error in 13 attacks, two digs, and three blocks. Nyah Ellis had 36 digs and three assists.
MEN — Conference Carolinas had four non-league matches and lost three of them. Only Emmanuel beat Tusculum, while Lees-McRae lost to Jamestown, King was swept by Queens, and Barton lost to Limestone.
