There were no upsets Friday, but third-ranked Nebraska got all it could handle as it won in five at No. 20 Illinois.
Other winners included Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa in the Big Ten, Oregon State is off to a 2-0 Pac-12 start, and the SEC’s Florida and Kentucky got victories. There were some big numbers put up around the nation, like 31 kills by Hartford’s Jenna Bridges.
The recaps and notes follow, but first a look at Saturday’s NCAA Division I volleyball schedule.
There are five matches in the Big Ten, one in which both teams are ranked, as No. 15 Purdue goes to No. 7 Minnesota. Nebraska gets no rest as the Huskers go to Northwestern, No. 5 Penn State plays host to Rutgers, Illinois has to bounce back quickly when Iowa visits, and Maryland is at Michigan State.
The two matches in the Pac-12 have No. 20 Cal, coming off its first loss, playing host to Washington State, while No. 25 USC is home for Arizona.
The four matches in the Big 12 include No. 2 Baylor at Kansas and No. 6 Texas home for Texas Tech. Oklahoma is at West Virginia and Kansas State goes to TCU.
The ACC has seven matches, including No. 4 Pittsburgh home for Virginia Tech and No. 23 Florida State at Wake Forest. Boston College is at Georgia Tech, Miami goes to Duke, North Carolina is at Louisville, NC State plays at Notre Dame, and Syracuse is at Clemson.
The SEC doesn’t play volleyball on football Saturdays.
Ninth-ranked BYU headlines the West Coast Conference slate when the Cougars go to Portland. San Diego is at Gonzaga, Santa Clara goes to Pepperdine and San Francisco is at Loyola Marymount.
In the Big West, No. 11 Hawai’i is back at it at CSUN, Cal Poly goes to UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara is at Cal State Fullerton.
Tenth-ranked Marquette is home again for another Big East match when St. John’s visits, and Seton Hall goes to DePaul.
Click here for the complete NCAA.com scoreboard and to watch any match that is being broadcast, go to the VolleyballMag.com daily TV and streaming listings.
Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa win in B1G: Nebraska (9-1) won the Big Ten opener for both teams as it survived a 25-22, 25-27, 26-28, 25-22, 15-10 battle at Illinois (5-5).
Jazz Sweet led the Huskers with a career-high 18 kills and hit .351 to go with four blocks and six digs. Three Huskers — Lauren Stivrins, Lexi Sun and Madi Kubik — had 11 kills each. Stivrins hit .318 and had five blocks and two digs, Sun had five blocks and 10 digs, and Kubik had an ace, two blocks and seven digs. Nicklin Hames had 58 assists and 11 digs.
Jacqueline Quade led Illinois with 18 kills and had three aces and 13 digs. Ashlyn Fleming had 14 kills with one error in 26 attempts and hit .500 to go with three blocks and two digs, while Megan Cooney had 14 kills, four blocks and six digs. Diana Brown had 51 assists, four kills, an ace, 11 digs and four blocks, one solo …
Minnesota (7-2) also opened B1G play with a win, demolishing visiting Indiana (11-3). Adanna Rollins led with 11 kills and hit .647 after having no errors in 17 swings. She added a block and seven digs. Taylor Morgan had eight kills, hit .538, and two digs and 11 blocks, two solo. While the Gophers hit .444, Indiana hit .011 …
No. 13 Wisconsin (5-4) beat visiting No. 15 Purdue (8-2) 25-22, 29-27, 25-15 as Dana Rettke had 12 kills, hit .476, and had an ace, a dig and six blocks, one solo. Madison Duello had nine kills and hit .389. Purdue hit .120. Caitlyn Newton led the Boilers with 13 kills …
And Iowa (7-5) won at Northwestern (9-4) 25-17, 23-25, 25-23, 25-22 as Courtney Buzzerio led with 15 kills, three aces, five assists, eight digs and five blocks, four solo.
Beavers win again: The only Pac-12 match Friday saw Oregon State (8-5) get off to a 2-0 league start for the first time since 2004 by beat visiting Colorado (8-4, 0-2) 22-25, 25-18, 25-19, 25-19. Haylie Bennett led a balanced attack with 16 kills and hit .367. She had two digs and five blocks, two solo. Justine Spann had 23 kills for Colorado to go with 12 digs, an assist, an ace and a block.
Florida, Kentucky win in SEC: The unranked teams provided the excitement, but No. 12 Florida swept Auburn and No. 16 Kentucky beat Mississippi State in four.
Florida (10-2) won its league opener 25-12, 25-18, 25-12 as Thayer Hall had 14 kills and hit .481 after having one error in 27 attacks. She added an ace, a block and four digs. Paige Hammons had eight kills in 16 errorless swings and Rachel Kramer, Marlie Monserez and Holly Carlton each had five kills with no errors as Florida hit .427. Auburn (6-6) hit minus .041 …
Alli Stumler had a career-high 20 kills as Kentucky (8-4) beat visiting Mississippi State (11-2) 25-17, 25-11, 21-25, 25-23 for its 28th league win in a row. Stumler hit .327 and had nine digs and two blocks. Avery Skinner had 11 kills and hit .500. Leah Edmond had three kills and left with a leg injury during the first set. State’s Deja Robinson had 11 kills and hit .389 …
Georgia (9-3) beat South Carolina (8-5) in five as Kianna Young had 14 kills and Sage Naves and Mallory Hernandez 13 each in the 22-25, 28-26, 27-25, 19-25, 15-13 victory. Setter Meghan Donovan had 53 assists and 18 digs … And Ole Miss (9-3) showed the parity in the league when the Rebels beat visiting Tennessee (6-5) 20-25, 26-24, 19-25, 26-24, 15-13. Emily Stroup led Ole Miss with 22 kills and had two assists, three aces, a block and 12 digs, while Anna Bair had 20 kills, three digs and three blocks, one solo. Ole Miss won despite hitting .175, while UT, hitting .204, got 19 kills from Tessa Grubbs and 17 from Danielle Mahaffey, who had 21 digs, three blocks — one solo, an assist and an ace.
FSU wins in ACC: The Seminoles (7-3) got 20 kills from Payton Caffrey in their 27-25, 25-21, 23-25, 25-15 victory over Duke (5-3). Caffrey, who hit .356, had three assists, two aces, 12 digs and two blocks. Morgan Chacon had 12 kills and 14 digs to go with a block. Duke’s Gracie Johnson had 13 kills and Ade Owokoniran and Lauren Cline had 11 each …
Louisville (8-3) went the distance to hold off visiting NC State (5-8) in a hard-fought 28-30, 25-12, 25-27, 25-19, 15-10 victory as Melanie McHenry had a career-high 29 kills. McHenry hit .344 and added an assist, two aces, 13 digs and three blocks, one solo. Aiko Jones had 15 kills and hit .308 to go with an assist, three aces, eight digs and two blocks, and Emily Scott had 14 kills and hit .345 and had six blocks, one solo. Melissa Evans led NC State with 20 kills, two assists, 11 digs and three blocks, and Jessica Kemp and Jade Parchment had 10 kills each …
Wake Forest (10-2) had a big pre-conference season, but got swept by Miami (5-4) as three Hurricanes — Janet Kalaniuvalu, Kennedy Prince and Elizaveta Lukianova — had 10 kills each … Virginia (9-6) beat Virginia Tech (7-7) in four as Mattison Matthews led a balanced attack with 12 kills and hit .429. Four Cavaliers had 10 or more kills. Marisa Cerchio led VT with 15 …
Georgia Tech (8-4) held off Syracuse (3-5) in four as Mikalia Down had 14 kills, hit .619, and had five digs and a block. Polina Shemanova had 17 kills, six digs and a block for the Orange … Notre Dame (8-3) swept North Carolina (3-8) as Charley Niego and Sydney Bent had 13 kills apiece … And Boston College (10-4) won at Clemson (6-6) in four as Jewel Strawberry had 18 kills, 11 digs and three blocks. Solei Thomas had 19 kills and hit .308 for Clemson.
Marquette, Creighton win in Big East: Marquette (12-2, 2-0) blasted visiting Seton Hall (5-10, 0-1) 25-19, 25-17, 25-13. Allie Barber led with 16 kills and hit .429 and had an assist, a block and a dig. Seton Hall hit .110 … No. 14 Creighton is 8-3 after beating Villanova (9-3) 25-16, 25-16, 25-19 in the league opener for both teams. Jessica Zimmerman led Creighton with 13 kills and hit .313 to go with two assists, an ace, a solo block and eight digs … Also in the Big East, Georgetown (11-4) continued its strong start as the Hoyas won at Providence (5-9) 24-26, 20-25, 25-17, 25-20, 15-8 behind 14 kills from Iva Vujosevic, who had two assists, three aces, six digs and a block.
Around the nation: No. 11 Hawai’i (11-1) won its Big West opener at Long Beach State (3-11, 0-2) 25-16, 21-25, 25-21, 25-16. Hanna Hellvig led with 17 kills and had an ace, three blocks and a dig. Brooke Van Sickle and Skyler Williams had seven kills each. Kashauna Williams led Long Beach with 14 kills … Also in the Big West, Cal Poly (9-5) swept Cal State Fullerton (8-5) and UC Santa Barbara (12-1) swept UC Irvine. UCSB has won 10 in a row …
Rice, ranked No. 22, improved to 12-1 as it swept UTEP (7-7) 25-20, 25-15, 25-18 in the Owls’ Conference USA opener. Nicole Lennon led with 14 kills as she hit .345 and had 11 digs, a block, an assist and an ace. UTEP hit .083 …
In the only WCC match Friday, Pacific (9-4), beat Saint Mary’s in five behind 23 kills by Riley Patterson, who had an assist, an ace and 13 digs. Allison Dennemann and Riley Ramsey had 15 kills each. Breyan Ashley had 19 kills for Saint Mary’s …
The big number in Connecticut was 31 as the line of the night went to Hartford’s Jenna Bridges, who had a career-high 31 kills as the Hawks (9-7) dealt an American East defeat to Stony Brook (3-10) 23-25, 25-17, 25-19, 25-23. Hartford teammate Megan Scherer had 31 digs as Hartford broke a six-match losing streak to the defending AE champs … Also in the AE, Albany beat UMBC in five as Akuabata Okenwa had 20 kills, hit .325, and had five blocks, one solo …
Kylie Jedlicka and Madison Hill had 17 kills apiece for UT Arlington (9-4) in a Sun Belt win over Louisiana-Monroe …
South Dakota is 12-1 after Sami Slaughter had 23 kills in a four-set win over Oral Roberts in a Summit League opener. Slaughter hit .419 as the Coyotes won their ninth in a row and also had two digs and three blocks, one solo. Teammate Elizabeth Juhnke had 17 kills, an assist, an ace, two blocks and 12 digs. CeCe Madison had 18 kills for ORU (4-10) … Purdue Fort Wayne (8-8, 2-0) surprised Denver (8-5) in four as Katie Crowe had 17 kills. It’s the first time Denver has lost a league opener since joining the conference in 2013 …
There were three sweeps and three five-setters in the American Athletic Conference. Cincinnati (9-4) whipped East Carolina (12-2) as hot Jordan Thompson led in kills. She had 16, but teammate Maria Mallon had 17, hit .314, and added an assist, three aces, 13 digs and a block … McKenna Melville had 15 kills for UCF in its sweep of UConn … Tulane (11-3), featured here Friday, had all it could handle in a 25-12, 25-21, 23-25, 22-25, 16-14 league opener at Memphis (11-2).
Lexie Douglas led with 18 kills, while Meredith Wallace had 19 for Memphis … Houston (7-10) beat SMU (7-4) in five as Megan Duncan had 18 kills, but Mekenzi Heckmann had 22 for SMU …
Streaking Troy (12-2) swept Little Rock in the Sun Belt … Texas State beat Louisiana in the Sun Belt as Cheyenne Huskey had 21 kills in the four-set victory, hitting .354 to go with two aces, 11 digs and two blocks …
What a pair of performances as LIU won in five at Central Connecticut and LIU’s Karolina Nova and Kora Schaberl had 23 kills apiece in the Northeast Conference victory. LIU won for just the second time this season as Schaberl had three aces, two solo blocks and 15 digs, while Nova had an assist, two aces, a solo block and 12 digs …
In the ASUN, Kennesaw State swept North Florida and FGCU did the same to North Alabama, while Lipscomb won in five at Stetson as Garrett Joiner and Bree Thompson had 18 kills each and Maddie Phillips had 17 …
Towson is 11-2 after beating Delaware, its fifth sweep in a row … Taylor Wolf and Alexis Domer had 19 kills each for Green Bay (9-4) in its five-set Horizon League win at UIC (11-4) …
And Bowling Green (7-6) won a MAC-opening match at Ohio (7-6) behind 21 kills by Petra Indrova, who hit .312 and had seven digs and two blocks,
Zoe McBride had 27 kills, four aces, nine digs and a block for Maryland Eastern Shore in its five-set MEAC win at Morgan State … Drake held off visiting Indiana State in five in the Missouri Valley as Haley Bush had 25 kills, an assist, 12 digs and a block … UNI beat Evansville in four as Karlie Taylor had 22 kills for the winners and Melanie Feliciano had 22 for the Purple Aces …
In the Patriot League, Hannah Wright had 19 kills, an ace, three digs and five blocks as Lehigh won in five against Lafayette, and Alli Lowe had 19 kills in a four-set win over American that broke a 16-match losing streak against the Eagles. It was the first time the school from upstate New York beat the conference power from D.C. since 2012.
