If it didn’t already, No. 15-ranked San Diego has everyone’s attention in NCAA women’s volleyball after sweeping No. 8 Ohio State on Saturday.Â
Also, No. 10 Pittsburgh scored a big victory at No. 7 BYU as the nonconference season continued to produce interesting results and big hitting numbers.
Sunday’s schedule is light but has some top-flight matchups, including: No. 1 Texas at No. 12 Stanford, Ohio State at No. 3, Louisville, No. 13 Florida at No. 4 Minnesota, No. 14 Washington vs. No. 19 Illinois, No. 5 Georgia Tech home for FIU, No. 6 Wisconsin home for High Point, Iowa vs. Colorado, and in a battle of 5-0 teams, Miami at UNLV.
TOREROS SWEEP BUCKEYES: San Diego (4-1) beat Ohio State 25-22, 26-24, 28-26 in Louisville to drop the Buckeyes to 0-3. They suffered back-to-back losses to Texas in their first two matches.Â
San Diego, which last weekend knocked off then-No. 6 Pittsburgh, hit .297 against Ohio State. Breana Edwards and Grace Frohling had 13 kills apiece. Edwards added an ace, two blocks and three digs, and Frohling hit .407 and had two assists, an ace and four digs. Ohio State’s Emily Londot had 19 kills, hit .378 and added an ace, a block and three digs.
Nebraska’s Kenzie Knuckles stretches out against Ole Miss/Lauren Penington, Nebraska Communications
BIG TEN: The B1G took some tough losses Saturday, not the least of which was Illinois (1-2) getting swept at Colorado (4-0). The Buffs hit .370 and got 13 kills from Maya Tabron, who added eight digs and three blocks, one solo. Illinois hit .185 … Maryland lost in five to South Florida, and Rutgers, which earlier swept Morgan State, lost in five to Towson …Â
Second-ranked Nebraska improved to 5-0 with a sweep of Ole Miss, coached by former Nebraska player and coach Kayla Banwarth. Madi Kubik had 13 kills and hit .400 to go with an assist, an ace and six digs. The Huskers hit .330 …Â
Iowa was swept by Washington, which got 13 kills from Claire Hoffman, who had two aces, a block and six digs …Â
No. 11 Purdue beat Milwaukee in three as freshman Eva Hudson continued to light it up, this time with 21 kills and a .395 hitting percentage. She also had an assist, two aces, two blocks and four digs … No. 21 Penn State improved to 6-0 with a sweep at LSU. Anjelina Starck had 13 kills, an ace, a block and six digs. Maddy Bilinovic added 21 digs, three assists and an ace … Michigan got past Loyola Chicago in five as Kendall Murray had 19 kills, Jess Mruzik 18 and Jess Robinson 15, to go with five blocks … Indiana won twice, beating Sam Houston and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi … Michigan State got past VCU in five.
PAC-12: As mentioned, Washington and Colorado had victories. No. 25 USC got swept by No. 16 Kentucky, which hit a whopping .494. Reagan Rutherford had 14 kills and hit .444. USC hit .258 and got 11 kills from Skylar Fields …Â
There were three five-setters. Oregon got past previously unbeaten Rice as Brooke Nuneviller had 20 kills, a block and 15 digs. Colby Neal and Mimi Colyer had 12 kills each. Rice’s Danyle Courtley had 22 kills, six digs and two blocks, one solo … Arizona, which dropped to 4-1, lost at North Carolina. Sofia Maldonado Diaz had 16 kills for Arizona and hit .357 to go with two aces, four blocks and two digs. UNC’s Mabrey Shaffmaster had 19 kills, an ace, a block and 15 digs …
Oregon State lost in five to Houston of the American Athletic Conference, which came back after losing the first two sets. Houston’s Abbie Jackson had 26 kills, hit .313 and added an assist, an ace, two blocks and 17 digs. Oregon State, which hit .178, got 17 kills and 12 digs from Vivian Light, who added two blocks, one solo. Mychael Vernon had 15 kills, an assist, an ace, nine digs and three blocks, one solo. Oregon State swept Central Arkansas earlier in the day …
Utah swept Bradley, and Arizona State lost in four to No. 5 Georgia Tech. Julia Bergmann led Tech with 23 kills, hit .400 and had two aces, 10 digs and a block. ASU got 15 kills apiece from Marta Levinska and Iman Isanovic.
SEC: The SEC went 10-4 Saturday with some very different results along the way.
Already noted was Ole Miss’ loss to Nebraska. Tennessee, which later swept NC State, lost in four to Colgate. Two of the league’s losses came to other Power 5 teams, as Texas Tech beat Georgia in four, and Penn State beat LSU. The other defeat was when South Carolina lost in four to Wake Forest.
No. 16 Kentucky, as noted, later swept USC, but earlier in the day beat No. 17 Creighton in four. Reagan Rutherford had a career-high 25 kills in the 19-25, 25-16, 25-5, 25-21 victory. Rutherford, a junior right side, had a previous best of 16 kills. Against Creighton she had three errors in 25 swings to hit .524 and had an assist, two aces, two blocks and 11 digs. The Wildcats hit .400; Creighton hit .433 …Â
Mississippi State (5-0) had a great day, beating Oklahoma in five and sweeping Ball State. Against Oklahoma, Gabby Waden had 25 kills, hit .420 and had a block and six digs. Shania Cromartie had 20 kills, hit .581 and had an assist, two blocks and four digs. State hit .302. In the win over previously unbeaten Ball State, Lauren Myrick had 18 kills, three aces and five digs, and Waden had 17 kills, hit .375 and added three blocks and five digs …Â
Georgia’s Kacie Evans had 20 kills in a sweep of Charleston and 18 more in the loss to Texas Tech … Logan Lednicky had 23 kills for Texas A&M in its win over TCU. She hit .395, and had an ace, five digs and two blocks.
ACC: No. 10 Pittsburgh came away with a big four-set win at No. 7 BYU of the WCC as Valeria Vazquez Gomez had 16 kills, hit .400 and added an assist, a block and four digs. Courtney Buzzerio had 15 kills, hit .357 and had four blocks and a dig. Erin Livingston led BYU with 20 kills. BYU had won 30 home matches in a row. Both teams are 5-1 …
Overall it was quite a good day for the ACC. Florida State beat Yale and Austin Peay, Virginia swept Purdue Fort Wayne and beat Eastern Michigan in five, Duke beat Northeastern in four and swept East Carolina, Syracuse swept North Florida, NC State beat Elon in four, Virginia Tech swept Old Dominion, Boston College swept Harvard and beat Bryant in four, Miami beat Weber State in four, Clemson swept Gardner-Webb but lost to The Citadel in five, and we already noted the victories by Pittsburgh, Wake Forest and Georgia Tech. Saturday night, Notre Dame was swept at Long Beach State as the Irish hit .071.
BIG 12: No. 9 Baylor hit .329 and swept UC Santa Barbara. Lauren Harrison had 13 kills with two errors in 24 attacks to hit .458 and added an assist, two digs and a block …
West Virginia got swept at Hawai’i. UH’s Amber Igiede had 16 kills with one error in 24 attacks, an assist, an ace, nine blocks — three solo — and two digs. West Virginia hit .010 …Â
Already noted was Texas Tech’s beating Georgia, and the Red Raiders also beat Charlotte in four … Iowa State beat Troy in five as Eleanor Holthaus had 25 kills, hit .377 and had two assists, an ace, four blocks and a dig …Â
Kansas State lost in five to UCF. K-State’s Elena Baka had 19 kills and seven digs. But the Wildcats were no match for UCF’s McKenna Melville, who had 27 kills, an assist, 12 digs and three blocks, one solo. The other Knights had 11 or more kills …Â
Kansas swept UConn, TCU lost in four to Memphis, and Oklahoma, which lost to Mississippi State, bounced back by beating host Lipscomb in four.
AROUND THE NATION:Â No 17 Creighton hit .327 in its win over Northern Iowa. Norah Sis had 13 kills and hit .355 to go with an ace and seven digs … No. 22 Western Kentucky swept Northern Kentucky as Lauren Matthews had 11 kills with one error in 21 attacks and three blocks …Â
Temple beat St. Francis Brooklyn in five behind Taylor Davenport, who had 27 kills and four blocks, one solo … Villanova beat New Hampshire in five, and Riley Homer had 23 kills, hit .500 and had an ace, six digs and three blocks … George Washington‘s Liv Womble and Brittany Myers had 20 kills each, and Elizabeth Drelling 19 in a win over LIU … Crystal Burk had 24 kills and hit .311 as South Dakota State beat Eastern Washington. She added an ace and 18 digs …Â
Omaha beat Northern Colorado in five; Omaha’s Marriah Buss had 24 kills and Shayla McCormick had 21. Kailey Jo Ince had 23 kills for UNC … Southern Miss got 25 kills and five aces from Mia Wesley in a win over Charleston Southern, which got 27 kills from Peyton Thompson. Thompson hit .667 with one error in 39 attacks and added three blocks, one solo …Â South Dakota beat UTEP in five, and Elizabeth Juhnke had 27 kills, an assist, two aces, four digs and three blocks …
San Francisco improved to 6-0 by beating Fresno State Shyla Richardson had 21 kills, an assist, two aces, 15 digs and three blocks in the win.
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Hawai’i’s Braelyn Akana, left, and Tiffany Westerberg block against West Virginia/UH photo
