NCAA Division I college volleyball fans who watched matches around the country Friday night got their money’s worth.
There were some great battles and, of course, the upsets that occur on a regular basis now that conference play has begun.
Like who would have imagined Minnesota not only losing back-to-back matches, but getting swept in both? It happened again Friday when the No. 3 Gophers ran into a buzzsaw at No. 8 Nebraska.
No. 21 Florida State, the only ranked team in the ACC, got swept at Louisville.
And Towson, the No. 23 team in the VolleyballMag.com Mid-Major Poll, were unbeaten. The Tigers, however, got swept by visiting Hofstra.
The remaining two unbeatens, both won, as Miami, Fla., won at Notre Dame and James Madison beat UNCW.
Recaps and results follow, but first a look at Saturday’s schedule.
And a reminder:
VolleyballMag.com has all the TV and streaming listings every day for every match that is being shown.
There are six Big Ten matches on tap, including No. 7 Wisconsin at No. 8 Nebraska. No. 3 Penn State plays host to Northwestern, No. 3 Minnesota goes to Iowa, No. 16 Michigan State takes on visiting Ohio State, No. 19 Purdue returns the match from Wednesday and goes to Indiana, and No. 23 Michigan entertains Maryland.
The Big 12 has three matches Saturday. No. 6 Texas plays host to Kansas State, No. 11 Kansas is home for TCU and Baylor takes on visiting Oklahoma.
In the Pac-12, No. 12 Oregon is at Colorado, while No. 15 Utah plays host Oregon State. No. 20 USC plays host to Washington State and Arizona is at Cal.
Neither the ACC nor SEC play on football Saturdays.
The two ranked West Conference teams play Saturday when No. 9 BYU goes to No. 17 San Diego.
Creighton of the Big East, ranked 14th, goes to St. John’s.
The Missouri Valley’s Northern Iowa, ranked No. 22, plays host to Illinois State.
And in the Mountain West, No. 24 Colorado State goes south to the Air Force Academy.
Big Ten: Predictable night except for Nebraska
No. 3 Penn State, No. 7 Wisconsin, No. 16 Michigan State and No. 23 Michigan all won, and Northwestern swept Rutgers, so there were no surprises.
But on a night when Nebraska retired the jersey of former star and Olympian Jordan Larson, the Huskers manhandled Minnesota 25-21, 25-18, 25-13.
Nebraska (10-3 overall, 3-0 B1G), got 11 kills each from Lauren Stivrins, Briana Holman and Annika Albrecht. Stivrins hit .526 and had five blocks, Holman .hit 500 and Albrecht had nine digs and 11 kills. Mikaela Foecke had 10 kills and 11 digs.
Minnesota (12-2, 1-2), which was coming off a sweep by Michigan State, hit just .183. Alexis Hart led with 13 kills and Stephanie Samedy had eight. Their teammates combined for just 12 more kills.
Also in the B1G, Penn State (12-1, 2-1) beat visiting Illinois (11-3, 2-1) 25-19, 25-17, 26-24. Haleigh Washington had 11 kills and hit .647 …
Wisconsin won at Iowa 25-17, 25-22, 25-17 as the Badgers hit .402. Freshman middle Dana Rettke led with 12 kills, didn’t commit an error in 20 swings and hit .600. Wisconsin is 13-1, 2-1. Iowa (12-4, 1-2) hit .090 …
Michigan State (10-2, 3-0) dispatched Maryland 25-14, 25-14, 25-21 as Holly Toliver had 12 kills and hit .476. Maryland is 12-3, 1-2 …
Michigan drew a record home crowd of 8,137 as the Wolverines (11-4, 1-2) beat Ohio State 25-15, 25-20, 22-25, 25-22. Michigan had 15 blocks, including nine from Claire Kieffer-Wright, who had 13 kills. Carly Skjodt and Adeja Lambert had 14 kills apiece. Ohio State (9-5, 2-1) hit .160. Luisa Schirmer had 17 kills but hit .037 …
And Northwestern (11-4, 1-2) won at Rutgers 25-19, 25-13, 25-12 as Symone Abbott had 13 kills and hit .553. Rutgers is 5-10, 0-3.
ACC: Louisville upsets FSU, Miami wins again
Louisville got 18 kills from Melanie McHenry as the Cardinals (8-5, 2-1) knocked off Florida State (8-3, 2-1) 25-20, 25-20, 31-29. Jasmine Bennett added 13 kills. FSU got 11 kills each from Milica Kubura and Christina Ambrose …
Miami, which goes to Louisville on Sunday, is 9-0 overall, 3-0 in the ACC after winning by the unusual scoreline of 25-22, 25-23, 11-25, 32-30. Olga Strantzali had a big night with 25 kills and 17 digs. Kolby Bird added 17 kills and their team won despite hitting .099. Notre Dame (10-4, 0-3), which also hit .099, got 13 kills apiece from Jemma Yeadon and Lauren Woodard …
NC State stayed unbeaten in league play as the Wolfpack (8-6, 3-0) got out of Georgia Tech with a 25-23, 25-23, 18-25, 25-20 victory. The Wolfpack got 18 kills and 13 digs from Julia Brown. Bree Bailey added 15 kills. GT (6-8, 1-2) got 20 kills from Gabriela Stavnetchel …
North Carolina (5-6, 1-2) won at Clemson (5-10, 0-3) 25-15, 23-25, 25-19, 25-16 as Sydnye Fields had 13 kills. Clemson is 5-10, 0-3 …
Pittsburgh (10-4, 3-0) won its seventh in a row, a 25-14, 25-23, 25-17 sweep of visiting Virginia. Nika Markovic led with 17 kills and hit .500. UVa is 4-11, 0-3 …
Wake Forest is 10-5, 2-1 after beating visiting Boston College (3-10, 0-3) in four.
Big 12: Iowa State holds on
The only match in the league on Friday saw the No. 18 Cyclones come back at Texas Tech 25-27, 23-25, 25-19, 25-21, 15-12 to improved to 11-2 overall, 2-1 in the Big 12. Samara West led with 20 kills and seven blocks and Jess Schaben had 17 kills and 15 digs. The Red Raiders (12-4, 1-2) got 16 kills from Katy Keenan, who hit .433.
Pac-12: No upsets, but Oregon wins a thriller
The 12th-ranked Ducks got out of Salt Lake City with a 25-16, 25-13, 16-25, 17-25, 21-19 victory over Utah. Oregon (9-2, 2-1) was led by Lindsey Vander Weide, who had 19 kills and 10 digs and three blocks. Willow Johnson had 17 kills and hit .412 and Taylor Agost had 10 kills, hit .500 and had four blocks, one solo. Oregon had six previous match points in the final set.
No. 15 Utah (11-3, 2-1) was led by Adora Anae, who had 18 kills and 13 digs. Berkeley Oblad and Carly Trueman had 12 kills each …
No. 6 Washington won at No. 13 UCLA 18-25, 25-20, 25-22, 25-15 as setter Bailey Tanner had six kills and hit .667 on her birthday. It left the Huskies 13-1, 3-0, while UCLA is 8-4, 1-2.
Courtney Schwan led with 13 kills and 13 digs and Carly DeHoog had 12 kills. UCLA’s Reily Buechler had 14 kills and 12 digs and Jenny Mosser had 12 kills and 11 digs …
No. 2 Stanford made short work of visiting Arizona 25-21, 25-21, 25-7 to improve to 11-2, 4-0. Kathryn Plummer had 12 kills and hit .423. Arizona (7-5, 1-2) hit .042 …
Colorado beat visiting Oregon State 25-21, 25-27, 25-23, 7-25, 15-12. The Buffs (11-3, 1-2) got 21 kills and 16 digs from Alexa Smith. Oregon State is 10-5, 0-3 …
Cal (10-4, 1-2) swept visiting Arizona State (10-6, 0-4) as Antzela Dempi led with nine kills and Carmen Annevelink had eight. It’s the earliest Cal has its first league win in four seasons. ASU’s Oluoma Okara had 16 kills and 12 digs.
SEC: Top-ranked Gators sweep, LSU wins
Florida, ranked No. 1 earlier this week for the first time this season, swept visiting Tennessee 25-17, 25-18, 25-19 to improve to 10-0, 2-0 in the SEC. The Vols are 8-4, 1-2.
Rachel Kramer led with 10 kills as she hit .529 and had four blocks. Rhamat Alhassan had nine kills and six blocks. Tennessee, which hit .098, got 10 kills from Erica Treiber …
LSU is 11-3, 2-1 after winning at South Carolina 15-25, 25-17, 25-15, 25-20 behind 13 kills by Taylor Bannister. Jacqui Armer had 11 kills and hit .667. USC (8-6, 1-1) got 10 kills each from Mikayla Shields and Alicia Starr …
Texas A&M won at Georgia 25-22, 25-14, 25-18 to improve to 4-6, 1-2, while dropping the Bulldogs to 11-5, 1-2. Kiara McGee, back in the lineup, led the Aggies with 13 kills and hit .333. T’ara Ceasar led Georgia with eight kills …
Missouri won in five at Auburn 22-25, 25-23, 20-25, 27-25, 15-11. Missouri (9-7, 2-1) got 15 kills from Alyssa Munlyn, who hit .519. Auburn is 9-3, 2-1. Gwyn Jones led with 21 kills as she hit .410.
Around the nation: No. 14 Creighton won at Seton Hall 26-24, 25-12, 25-21 and is 10-4, 3-0 in the Big East. Marysa Wilkinson had 13 kills and hit .600 to lead a balanced attack as the Bluejays hit .340. Jaali Winters added nine kills. Seton Hall is 7-9, 1-2 …
No. 22 Northern Iowa routed visiting Bradley 25-14, 25-11, 25-12 to get to 13-4 overall, 3-0 in the Missouri Valley. Freshman Jaydlin Seehase led with 11 kills as she hit .625 and had five blocks, two solo. Karlie Taylor and Piper Thomas added 10 kills each. Bradley is 7-11, 0-4. Also in the Valley, Missouri State is 12,-5, 4-0 after sweeping Indiana State…
No. 25 Wichita State improved to 11-3 overall, 3-0 in the American Athletic Conference by sweeping visiting South Florida 25-15, 25-17, 25-10. Abbie Lehman and Tabitha Brown had 11 kills each. USF is 5-8, 0-3 …
The bubble burst for Towson, which dropped to 16-1 overall, 2-1 in the Colonial as Hofstra came away with a 25-23, 25-17, 25-23 sweep. Hofstra (10-7, 2-1) got 15 kills from Laura Masciullo and 12 from Ivania Ortiz. Towson’s Carola Biver had 10 kills.
The other Colonial unbeaten, James Madison, improved to 12-0, 3-0 with a 25-19, 25-23, 23-25, 25-16 win over visiting North Carolina-Wilmington. M’Kaela White led JMU with 14 kills, she hit .485 and had nine blocks, one solo. UNCW is 6-10, 0-4. Also in the CAA, Northeastern is 10-6, 3-0 after sweeping Delaware …
SMU is 3-0 in the AAC after winning in five at East Carolina … Radford is 13-1, 3-0 in the Big South after winning at Campbell in four. Stephanie Neast had 14 kills and 13 digs, while Maddie Palmer had 20 kills and 14 digs …
In the Big West, Hawai’i swept Cal State Fullerton, UCI won in five against UC Davis and Cal Poly won its ninth in a row by beating Long Beach State 26-24, 25-10, 25-16, 25-18 to improve to 14-2 overall, 4-0 in the league. Adlee Van Winden had 17 kills and nine digs …
Western Kentucky is 16-2 overall, 3-0 in Conference USA. The Hilltoppers swept Louisiana Tech as Rachel Anderson had 14 kills and hit .684 …
In the Ivy League, Princeton is 9-3, 2-0 with a sweep of Brown and Yale (8-3, 2-0) kept pace by beating Penn in four. Harvard (7-4, 2-0) beat Cornell in four …
Western Michigan is 10-4, 3-0 in the Mid-American after a 3-1 win over Central Michigan …
Austin Peay won its ninth in a row. The Governors (15-2, 3-0 Ohio Valley) beat Southeast Missouri 25-23, 25-22, 25-16 as Ashley Slay had 14 kills. UT Martin is also 3-0 in the OVC after beating Murray State in four …
Navy is 13-3, 3-0 in the Patriot League after winning at Colgate for the first time since 2004. Maddi Sgattoni led with 10 kills … And Madison Daigle had 13 kills, hit .579 and had three blocks as Texas State swept Appalachian State in the Sun Belt.
