Wide open.
And not just in the Pac-12, where No. 8 Washington won in four Sunday at No. 1 Stanford, which hadn’t lost a home conference match in three years.
If the Pac-12 is any indication, the race for the NCAA crown is, in fact, wide open after a four-week pre-conference season and now a start to conference play that makes it evident that league titles and ultimately the national championship are up for grabs.
Also Sunday, No. 24 Oregon — which had lost three of its previous four matches — won in five against visiting No. 18 Utah leaving both teams 1-1 in the Pac-12.
Of the 12 teams in the Pac-12, just two teams are unbeaten in the league, UCLA and Oregon State at 2-0 and eight teams are 1-1. Not a lot of observers would have bet on that.
There were no other upsets Sunday, but some tough victories for higher-ranked teams and a big one in the SEC, where No. 16 Kentucky went to Missouri and swept the No. 19 Tigers.
The recaps follow, but first a look at Monday’s light NCAA Division I volleyball schedule, that includes four Missouri Valley matches. Northern Iowa goes to Valparaiso, Illinois State is at Evansville, Drake goes to Loyola, and Bradley plays at Indiana State.
There are two WAC matches as Cal Baptist goes to Chicago State and Grand Canyon is at Kansas City.
Also, there’s a Colonial League match when Charleston plays at Delaware, and Stony Brook of the America East goes to the Ivy League’s Columbia.
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.
UW, UCLA, Oregon win in Pac-12: Washington (10-2) bounced back from losing at Washington State in four Wednesday to deal Stanford — which had won 26 Pac-12 matches in a row — its first conference loss since it lost at Washington on November 8, 2017. Both teams are 1-1 in the league.
Stanford (7-7) hit .111 and was no match for red-shot Kara Bajema.
Bajema, the Pac-12 player of the week the past two weeks, had 17 kills and hit .302 and had an ace, 10 digs and four blocks. Claire Hoffman had 11 kills, eight digs and two blocks, and Lauren Sanders, who had nine blocks, one solo, and Samantha Drechsel had nine kills each. Drechsel had five digs and five blocks. Avie Niece had seven kills in 11 errorless attacks to hit .636 and had two assists and six blocks. Ella May Powell had 44 assists, two kills in eight errorless attempts, and three blocks and 12 digs. Her team hit .288.
“What a response by our group against a really good Stanford team,” Washington coach Keegan Cook said. “Throughout the entire match, whether we were winning or losing … same focus and same communication. I was really impressed with how connected we were to the game plan and to what was going on.”
Kathryn Plummer led Stanford with 14 kills, but hit .067. She had two assists, two aces, eight digs and two blocks. Audrianna Fitzmorris had 10 kills and hit .125 to go with six blocks …
UCLA (7-4, 2-0) lost its first conference set 25-12 to USC and then won in five and then picked up right where it left off Sunday by routing visiting Arizona State (9-4, 1-1) 25-13, 25-14, 25-20.
Mac May and Savvy Simo were basically unstoppable.
May had 15 kills and hit .452 after having one error in 31 swings and had four aces, eight digs and a solo block. Simo had 12 kills and no errors in 28 attacks and hit .429 and had an ace ad eight digs. Arizona State hit .082 …
And Oregon (5-6, 1-1) beat Utah (9-3, 1-1) 25-20, 25-17, 23-25, 20-25, 15-13 as three players combined for 49 kills. Willow Johnson led with 17 and had two assists, five aces, 13 digs and three blocks. Brooke Nuneviller had 16 kills, an assist, an ace, 12 digs and a block, and Ronika Stone had 16 kills, hit .300 and had two aces, a dig and two blocks. Kylie Robinson had four kills in seven errorless attempts to hit .571 and had 56 assists, an ace, nine digs and a block.
Dani Drews led Utah with 22 kills. She had two aces, eight digs and three blocks. Berkeley Oblad had 12 kills and four blocks, and Kenzie Koerber had 11 kills, three assists, an ace, 11 digs and three blocks.
Big Ten: Wisconsin beat Indiana in four and Michigan swept visiting Ohio State.
Wisconsin (6-4, 2-0) won 25-20, 20-25, 25-17, 25-15 behind 20 kills by Molly Haggerty, who hit .327 and had an assist, two blocks and eight digs. Dana Rettke had 16 kills, three aces, two blocks and three digs, and Grace Loberg had 14 kills, hit .324, and had two digs. Sydney Hilley had a kill, 48 assists, two blocks and 12 digs. Indiana (11-3, 0-2) got 11 kills from Kendall Beerman …
Michigan (9-3, 2-0) beat Ohio State (8-6, 1-1) 25-14, 25-17, 25-19 as Paige Jones had 14 kills with no errors in 29 attacks and hit .483. She had an assist, two aces, a block and five digs. Sydney Wetterstrom had 10 kills and May Pertofsky nine and she added an assist, an ace, three digs and six blocks, one solo. Setter Mackenzi Welsh had four kills in six errorless atttempts, 36 assists and seven digs. Ohio State, which hit .100, got 11 kills from Gabby Gonzales.
UK, Gators win in SEC: Two of the league’s three ranked teams squared off when No. 16 Kentucky (9-4, 2-0) dealt No. 19 Missouri (8-3, 0-1) a 29-27, 25-23, 25-21 loss on its home court. Alli Stumler had 16 kills and hit .368 and added an assist, an ace, five digs and four blocks. Leah Edmond, battling an injury, had nine kills and hit .304 and Leah Meyer had seven kills and four blocks. Madison Lilley had two kills, 35 assists, seven digs and two blocks.
“Today was a great defensive effort and I was really proud of our toughness at the end of all three sets,” UK coach Craig Skinner said. “We had good blocking and it really made a big difference and stepped up against Missouri’s potent offense.
“It’s the second match in a row that Alli has stepped up and made a big impact for us. It was great to see Leah Edmond tough it out and make an impact in the match.”
Kylie Deberg had 22 kills for Mizzou to go with three assists, three digs and a block. Leketor Member-Meneh had nine kills, an ace and six digs.
No. 12 Florida (11-2, 2-0) got all it could handle from visiting Georgia (9-4, 1-1) in a 22-25, 25-21, 25-23, 25-17 victory. Georgia led 19-11 in the third set before the Gators rallied. Thayer Hall led Florida with 15 kills, an assist, three aces, 11 digs and three blocks, one solo. Holly Carlton had 14 kills and hit .414 and had an ace, six digs and four blocks, two solo. Setter Marlie Monserez had two kills, 45 assists, eight digs and two blocks, one solo.
Kacie Evans led Georgia with 16 kills and added an assist, an ace and eight digs. Kianna Young had 12 kills and three blocks and Meghan Donovan had two kills, 47 assists, 10 digs and two blocks …
LSU (8-4, 2-0) won in three at Mississippi State (11-3, 0-2) as Taylor Bannister had 14 kills, an assist, an ace, a dig and three blocks …
Tennessee (7-5, 1-1) held off visiting Texas A&M (9-3, 1-1) 26-24, 15-25, 25-23, 20-25, 19-17. Tessa Grubbs led the Vols with 18 kills, Danielle Mahaffey had 15 and five blocks. Hollan Hans had 24 kills for A&M and teammate Lauren Davis had 13 …
South Carolina (9-5, 1-1) swept visiting Auburn (6-7, 0-2) as Claire Edwards had 10 of the Gamecocks’ 32 kills, hitting .471 with three aces and a block …And Doris Carter had 22 kills, 11 digs and three blocks, one solo, as Alabama (9-4, 1-1) beat visiting Arkansas (6-8, 0-2) in five.
Pittsburgh, FSU win in ACC: Fourth-ranked Pittsburgh (13-1, 2-0) beat visiting Virginia Tech (7-8, 0-2) 25-14, 25-22, 25-28 as Kayla Lund led with 12 kills. She hit .385 and had an ace, two blocks and eight digs. Chinaza Ndee and Layne Van Buskirk had eight kills each. Virginia Tech hit .084 …
No. 23 Florida State (8-3, 2-0) swept Wake Forest (10-3. 0-2) behind 13 kills by Payton Caffrey, who added eight digs and two blocks. Peyton Suess had 16 kills for the Deacons …
Boston College (11-4, 2-0) won in five at Georgia Tech (8-5, 1-1). Clare Naughton had 16 kills and Cat Balido 15 for BC, while Julia Bergman had 22 and Kodie Comby 20 for the Yellow Jackets … Elizaveta Lukianova had 17 kills and hit .4322 and Janet Kalaniuvalu had 16 kills as Miami (5-4, 1-0) beat Duke (7-7, 0-1) in four … Melanie McHenry had 18 kills, two aces, 16 digs and three blocks for Louisville (9-3, 2-0) in its four-set win over visiting North Carolina (3-9, 0-2). Lauren Harrison had 19 kills for UNC to go with five blocks, three solo … Notre Dame (9-3, 2-0) swept NC State (5-9, 0-2) as Sydney Bent had 13 kills … And Syracuse (4-5, 1-1) won at Clemson (6-7, 0-2) in five as Polina Shemanova had 24 ills, 20 digs, an assist, an ace and three solo blocks. Ella Saada had 21 kills and hit .459 and had 17 digs and two blocks. Kaylie Korte had 21 kills for Clemson.
Creighton, Rice win: No. 14 Creighton beat visiting Georgetown in four, leaving the Bluejays 9-3 overall and 2-0 in the Big East, while Georgetown dropped to 11-5, 1-1. Keeley Davis led Creighton with 13 kill, an ace, two digs and two blocks. Iva Vujosevic had 15 kills for Georgetown … Also in the Big East, Villanova (10-3, 1-1) won in four at Providence (5-10, 0-2) as Allie Olsonoski led a balanced attack with 10 kills while hitting .429 to go with an ace, three digs and four blocks …
No. 22 Rice improved to 13-1 overall and 2-0 in Conference USA with a 28-26, 27-25, 25-11 win at North Texas (7-7, 1-1). Nicole Lennon led Rice with 22 kills, three assists,16 digs and two blocks, one solo … Also in Conference USA, Marshall is 11-4, 2-0 after beating FIU behind 16 kills from Ciara Debell … Western Kentucky is 15-1, 1-0 after routing Rice. Lauren Matthews had 15 kills and hit .636 to go with three blocks, one solo … UTSA (9-6) is also 2-0 after beating UTEP behind 17 kills by Kirby Smith … Sydney Rowan had 20 kills for Charlotte (10-7, 1-0) in its win over Middle Tennessee, and Louisiana Tech (10-4, 1-0) beat UAB.
American Athletic: Tulane, Tulsa and Houston are 2-0 atop the West Division, while Cincinnati and UCF are 2-0 in the East after Sunday’s six match slate.
Tulane (12-3) won in five over visiting SMU as Makala Heidelberg had 15 kills, hit .407, and had an ace, two blocks and 16 digs … Tulsa (9-6) beat East Carolina in four as Dilara Gedikoglu had 19 kills, 10 digs and two aces … Houston (8-10) held off Memphis in five
as Megan Duncan went off for 25 kills and added an assist, 11 digs and five blocks … Cincinnati (10-4) swept Wichita State as Jordan Thompson led with 18 kills. She hit .429 and had an assist, an ace, and six digs … and UCF (9-5) swept Temple. McKenna Melville led with 18 kills, 13 digs and a block.
Around the nation: Courtney VanLiew had 22 kills and hit .500 as FGCU beat Lipscomb. She had two assists, an ace, digs and three blocks … Devin Corah had 19 kills and hit .400 in La Salle’s Atlantic 10 sweep of Davidson. She also had four digs and two blocks …
Milwaukee is 15-1 overall and has won 12 in a row, and is 2-0 in the Horizon League after its sweep at Green Bay. Carmen Heilemann led with 12 kills and three blocks …
Lauren Matias led UC Davis to a Big West sweep of UC Riverside with 14 kills as she hit .400 and had two aces, four digs and four blocks, one solo … Leah Daniel led Elon with 21 kills and hit .327 in a five-set Colonial win over Northeastern. She added an ace, five digs and three blocks, one solo … Also in the Colonial, Towson won at James Madison to improve to 12-2 overall and 2-0 in the league. Emily Jarome led with 15 kills and had an ace, six digs and four blocks …
In a five-set Metro Atlantic shootout, Megan Fargus had 21 kills for winning Marist to go with an ace, six digs and six blocks, one solo, while Morgan Romano had 23 kills for Rider to go with seven digs and four blocks, one solo … Also in the MAAC, Niagara won in five at Iona as Jaycie Roberts and Mary Redl had 20 kills each …
Her team lost in five to Delaware State, but Zoe McBride had 25 kills, two aces, 11 digs and three blocks, one solo, for Morgan State in the MEAC match …
Bucknell is off to a 12-2 start and is 1-1 in the Patriot League after winning in four over Lafayette. Sophie Bullard had 15 kills, an assist, a block and 17 digs …
Makenzie Hennen had 21 kills for South Dakota State in a five-set Summit League win over Western Illinois. She added an ace, 15 digs and a solo block … Also in the Summit, Omaha beat North Dakota State in four and Sadie Limback had 21 kills, hit .405, and had two digs and three blocks.
