After a Tuesday in the West Coast Conference when No. 23 Pepperdine swept Portland in and Loyola Marymount beat Gonzaga for its 12th win in a row, the NCAA Division I women’s volleyball spotlight moves to the SEC on Wednesday.
The defending national champion, No. 6 Kentucky (8-3, 1-0), goes to the surprise of the young season, unbeaten Ole Miss (12-0, 1-0), unranked but getting votes in the AVCA Poll.
Florida (7-5, 1-1), ranked No. 22 and coming off a five-set loss to Mississippi State, goes to Georgia (4-8, 0-1). It’s the first time that Florida senior T’Ara Caesar, the Gators’ leading attacker, will play at Georgia since leaving that program in the midst of the 2018 season and transferring to Florida.
And No. 20 Tennessee (10-2, 2-0) plays host to Auburn (8-2, 0-1).
There are only 10 matches total on Wednesday.
In the Big Ten, No. 14 Penn State (9-3, 2-0) goes to Maryland, which upset then-No. 2 Wisconsin last Friday and then lost at Minnesota on Sunday. Maryland (13-1, 1-1), getting votes, is not ranked. You can only wonder what voters would have done had the order been reversed, with the Terps losing at Minnesota on Friday and then beating Wisconsin on Sunday. Penn State is coming off a win over Ohio State.
Ohio State (10-2, 0-2), which dropped five spots to No. 8 after losing at Purdue and Penn State, is home for Indiana (7-7, 1-1).
Second-ranked Pittsburgh (12-0, 2-0) has an ACC match against visiting Virginia (8-4, 1-1).
There’s a key battle in the American Athletic when Houston (11-3, 1-1) goes to Tulane (9-5, 2-0).
Also Wednesday, Wofford plays The Citadel in the Southern Conference, UT Martin plays Southeast Missouri State in the Ohio Valley, and Quinnipiac plays Marist in the Metro Atlantic.
Want to watch a match? We have the links. Go to our VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming listings to find any match that is being shown.
TUESDAY — Pepperdine (11-1, 3-0) won its fifth in a row as it swept Portland (4-7, 1-1) to move into a first-place West Conference tie with Loyola Marymount, which beat Gonzaga, and idle BYU.
Rachel Ahrens led Pepperdine with 14 kills as she hit .458 and had an assist, an ace, a block, and 12 digs. Grace Chillingworth and Meg Brown had 10 kills each. Chillingworth hit .333 and had two aces and five digs, while Brown hit .600 and had two assists, two blocks, and a dig. Isabel Zelaya had two kills, 35 assists, three blocks, and seven digs … LMU (12-1, 3-0) won its 12th in a row since losing to Purdue in four to open the season. The Lions hit .364. Kari Geissberger led with 14 kills, four blocks, and seven digs. Gonzaga (4-9, 0-2) got 14 kills from McKenna Marshall … Alexa Edwards had 14 kills, an ace, 11 digs and three blocks as Pacific (4-10, 1-2) beat San Francisco (0-11, 0-3) in four … Saint Mary’s 7-5, 1-2) beat visiting Santa Clara (4-9, 0-3) in five. Chandler Cowel led with 13 kills, an assist, two blocks, and seven digs. Santa Clara’s Michelle Shaffer had 19 kills, hit .310, and had seven aces, six blocks, and seven digs …
Western Michigan (10-4, 3-0) beat visiting Northern Illinois (7-6, 1-2) in four in the lone Mid-American Conference match of the day. WMU’s Julia Marr had 18 kills with two errors in 31 attacks to hit .516. Meredith Phillips and Andelyn Simkins had 11 kills each. Katie Jablonski had 14 kills for NIU with an assist, an ace, a block, and 15 digs. Francesca Bertucci had 30 digs, an assist, and an ace …
Colorado State (7-5, 3-0) swept visting Wyoming in the only Mountain West match of the day. Annie Sullivan led with 14 kills as she hit .387 and had two digs and three blocks, two solo. Karina Leber had eight kills with one error in 15 attack and five blocks …
Something had to give in the Summit League when Denver (12-1, 3-0) swept at Kansas City (11-4, 2-1). The Pioneer hit .333 as Erica Andrich had 11 kills with no errors in 20 attacks, three blocks, and four digs. Hailey Green had 11 kills, hit .364, and had four blocks and three digs … Also in the Summit, South Dakota hit .427 and swept North Dakota State, while Chloe Stitt had 20 kills for South Dakota State in a four-set win over North Dakota …
In the Big West, Long Beach State hit .345 and swept Cal State Fullerton, winning the third set 25-8. Kashauna Williams had 18 kills, hit .400, and had two digs and four blocks. Kameron Bacon had four kills in eight errorless attacks and eight blocks … There were three Horizon League matches Tuesday as Cleveland State beat IUPUI in five, Oakland did the same to Purdue Fort Wayne, and UIC swept Green Bay, leaving all three teams tied atop the league at 3-0. Briana Brown had 21 kills for Cleveland State to go with two ace, six digs, and five blocks. Oakland got 14 kills apiece from Kerra Cornist and Patti Cesarini, while PFW’s Katie Crowe and Maggie Castleman had 18 kills each …
High Point won its Big South match at N.C. A&T as Dylan Maberry had 16 kills, three digs, and two blocks …
