The Pac-12 served notice Wednesday night that nothing can be taken for granted.
Eighth-ranked Washington went to Washington State and came home a four-set loser as the Cougars improved to 12-1.
And No. 25 USC went to UCLA, won the first set 25-12, and then lost in five.
Otherwise the ranked teams in action held form as Nos. 4, 5, 6, 10 and 18 won.
The recaps follow, but first a look at Thursday’s schedule.
There are three matches in the Pac-12, including No. 1 Stanford at Cal, at 10-0 one of the only two unbeatens left. Second-ranked Baylor is also 10-0. Stanford leads the series 76-12 and hasn’t lost to the Bears since 2011.
No. 24 Oregon goes to Oregon State and Arizona goes to Arizona State.
The Big Ten, ACC, SEC and Big 12 are idle.
It’s a busy Thursday in the West Coast Conference, where No. 9 BYU goes to Gonzaga and San Diego plays at Portland. Also, Santa Clara — off to a surprising 10-3 start — goes to Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine is home for San Francisco.
The Mountain West schedule includes No. 17 Colorado State home for New Mexico. The Rams — who jumped five spots in this week’s AVCA top 25, went 10-1 in the preseason. Nevada (10-2) opens at Fresno State. The other MW team off to a great start, 9-3 Boise State, opened with a sweep of Utah State on Tuesday.
There are four matches in the Big Sky, including Weber State (9-2) at Northern Arizona (7-5).
In the Colonial, 10-3 UNCW goes to James Madison.
The Southland has six matches on tap, including perennial favorite Stephen F. Austin (12-1) playing host to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
There’s a big one to start the Sun Belt season between two teams off to excellent starts as Arkansas State (9-3) goes to Troy (10-2).
And in the WAC, the five-match slate includes NM State (9-3) at Utah Valley and Grand Canyon, at 10-2 off to its best start since joining Division I, at Chicago State.
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Pac-12 upsets: The Cougars have won their 11th in a row with a 22-25, 25-22, 25-20, 25-20 victory over visiting Washington (9-2) in the conference opener for both teams.
Neither team was sharp offensively as Washington State hit .178 and UW .154.
Pia Timmer led WSU with 14 kills but hit .083. She added seven digs and two blocks. Alexcis Lusby had 10 kills, four blocks and a dig, and Magda Jehlarova had 10 kills, hit .304, and had six blocks, one solo. Libero Alexis Dirige had 24 digs and three aces, and setter Hannah Pukis had six kills, 41 assists, an ace, a block and 10 digs.
Kara Bajema led Washington with 19 kills, three aces, a block and seven digs. Samantha Dreschel had eight kills, three blocks and four digs, and setter Ella May Powell had two kills, 37 assists, three blocks and nine digs. Shayne McPherson had 25 digs …
UCLA (6-4) has lost its last two matches and couldn’t have looked worse in the first set before bouncing back for the 12-25, 25-21, 25-20, 26-28, 15-12 victory. The Bruins were buoyed by the return of setter Cali Thompson, who had three errorless kills in five attempts, 32 assists, an ace and 15 digs.
Savvy Simo led with 14 kills and added an assist, an ace, 15 digs and two blocks, one solo. Mac May had 13 kills, an assist, two aces, eight digs and two blocks. Emily Ryan had 10 kills and hit .600 to go with three digs and seven blocks.
USC (6-5) had four aces but 19 serving errors and out-hit UCLA .277-.219. The Trojans faced match point four times in the fourth set before forcing a fifth.
Khalia Lanier had 17 kills but hit .111 to go with a block and nine digs. Jasmine Gross had 16 kills and hit .565 and added an assist, an ace, a dig and eight blocks, one solo. Brooke Botkin had 14 kills, 12 digs and four blocks. Raquel Lázaro had two kills with no errors in three tries, 57 assists, an ace, nine digs and six blocks, one solo …
No. 18 Utah (9-3) dispatched visiting Colorado (8-3) 25-11, 25-22, 25-23. Dani Drews had 14 kills and 10 digs, and Kenzie Koerber and Berkeley Oblad had 10 kills each. Koerber hit .444 and had two assists, three of her team’s seven aces, three blocks and 11 digs. Oblad had two aces, three blocks and two digs. Justine Spann had 14 kills for the Buffs, who hit .132.
Big Ten sweeps: All three conference openers went 3-0.
Fifth-ranked Penn State (8-2) beat visiting Michigan State (9-2) 26-24, 25-21, 25-18 behind 16 kills from Jonni Parker.
Parker hit .343 and had two aces, four digs and three blocks, one solo. Tori Gorrell, Serena Gray and Allyson Cathey had six kills each. Gorrell had five of her kills in the third set, when the Nittany Lions had 17 kills and hit .566.
It was big night in more ways than volleyball for Gorrell. In support of International Week of the Deaf, fans remained silent until Penn State scored its ninth point of the first set, which came on a kill by Gray. The ninth point was chosen in honor of Parker, who is hearing impaired. The Lions also have a deaf student manager, Ryan Perry, who played an integral role in the execution of the event.
Michigan State, which hit .126, got 10 kills from Meredith Norris. Rebecka Pojan had seven kills, hit .417, and had an ace, a dig and four blocks …
Ohio State (8-5) won at Maryland (8-5) 25-19, 17-25, 25-20, 25-22. Elle Sandbothe, who played her first three seasons at Kansas State and whose sister, Taylor, was an All-American at Ohio State, led with 14 kills as she hit .611 and had four blocks. Adria Powell had 12 kills, two aces, three digs and a block. Katie Myers had 14 kills and hit .380 for Maryland and had an ace and nine blocks, one solo …
And Michigan (8-3) won at Rutgers (6-6) 25-14, 25-23, 25-14 as Paige Jones had 13 kills, hit .462 after having one error in 26 attacks, and added 10 digs and two blocks. The Wolverines hit .354, while Rutgers hit .080.
Big 12: Sixth-ranked Texas (7-2) got past injury-depleted Iowa State (9-4) with a 25-18, 18-25, 25-19, 25-22 victory. Micaya White led with 19 kills, an ace, two solo blocks, and 10 digs. Skylar Fields had 15 kills, hit .394, and had two blocks and a dig, while Logan Eggleston had 10 kills, hit .333, and added an assist, an ace and seven digs. The Longhorns hit .311.
Iowa State’s Josie Herbst had 15 kills, nine digs and a block. Avery Rhodes had 10 kills and hit .467 to go with three blocks, and Candelaria Herrera and Annie Hatch had nine kills each …
Oklahoma (9-3) swept visiting TCU (5-6) 25-17, 25-17, 25-23. Ashlynn Dunbar led with 13 kills, four assists, and eight digs. Kylee McLaughlin and Sarah Maras had seven kills each. McLaughlin hit .455, had 31 assists, an ace, seven digs and two blocks, one solo.
TCU, which hit .073, got eight kills apiece from Audrey Nalls and Katie Clark …
Texas Tech improved to 11-4 with a 25-23, 25-20, 23-25, 25-19 win over visiting West Virginia (8-4). Emily Hill led with 15 kills, two assists, 14 digs and a block. Allison White had 13 kills and hit .500 to go with two blocks and two digs, and Karrington Jones had 11 kills, hit .529, and had a dig and five blocks, two solo.
Kristina Jordan had 20 kills and hit .33 for the Mountaineers to go with two aces, five digs and four blocks, one solo. Katelyn Evans had 14 kills with no errors in 32 swings to hit .438, and had three digs and a block …
SEC: The league opener saw LSU (7-4) overpower visiting Arkansas (6-7) 25-15, 25-19, 25-20. Taylor Bannister led LSU with 15 kills, two assists, three of her team’s five aces, nine digs and four blocks. Milan Stokes had 13 kills with no errors in 28 attempts and hit .464 to go with three digs. Arkansas hit .118.
ACC: Fourth-ranked Pittsburgh (12-1) went to Virginia (8-6) and came away with a 25-17, 25-17, 25-23 victory, its eighth sweep of the season. Kayla Lund led with 12 kills and had one error in 19 swings to hit .579. She added two aces and four digs. Stephanie Williams had 11 kills and hit .421 to go with an assist, four of the Panthers’ 10 aces, eight digs and a block.
Jayna Francis led UVa with 10 kills, an assist, a dig and four blocks.
Big East: Marquette (11-2) made quick work of a 12:30 p.m. start as it dominated visiting Butler (3-1) 25-22, 25-17, 25-15. The upside of such an early start was that it was field-trip day and more than 1,000 school kids were in attendance.
Allie Barber led Marquette with 13 kills and two digs. Hannah Vanden Berg had seven kills and hit .400 to go with a block and a dig. Butler hit .097 …
Visting Xavier (4-7) beat DePaul (8-5) 25-23, 22-25, 20-25, 25-23, 16-14 to break a five-match losing streak. Norah Painter led with 15 kills, a dig and two solo blocks, while Lauren Hanlon and Moriah Hopkins had 13 kills each. And MaryAnn O’Toole had 12 kills, 17 digs and four blocks, two solo.
It offset a big match for DePaul’s Brittany Maxwell, who had 24 kills, an assist, and nine digs. Emma Price had 15 kills and four digs and Isabelle Banez had 37 digs.
Around the nation: East Carolina keeps rolling. The Pirates of the American Athletic Association won their eighth in a row with a 25-23, 25-18, 25-21 sweep of visiting Campbell of the Big South (6-7). Sydney Kleinman led with 17 kills, hit .652, and added three aces, two assists, a block and two digs. Natalie Tyson had nine kills with one error in 18 swings to hit .444. Sarah Colla led the Fighting Camels with 13 kills and hit .333 to go with three aces, five digs and two blocks, one solo …
Kelsi Hobbs had 15 kills and hit .343 and had seven digs, an ace and a solo block as Samford (7-4) swept Chattanooga (5-9) 25-19, 25-13, 25-17 in the Southern Conference opener for both teams. Dani Szczepanski had 13 kills and hit .385 for Chattanooga …
Siena (6-6) swept winless Binghamton. Ally-Reese Williams led with 13 kills and hit .526 and had nine digs. Binghamton (0-13) got 10 kills from Audrey Haworth …
Jacksonville State (7-6) swept Tennessee Tech (4-9). Lena Kindermann led with 14 kills and hit .545 and setter Lexi Libs had two kills, 45 assists, an ace and 12 digs.
And American (7-5) swept Rider (5-9). American hit .467 as five players had five or more kills. Zeynep Uzen had 11 kills, hit .455, and had two aces, a block and two digs. Morgan Romano had 12 kills for Rider.
