There were two ranked teams in action Tuesday and both got pushed to the limit.
Ninth-ranked BYU came away with a 25-22, 25-20, 21-25, 22-25, 15-7 West Coast Conference victory over visiting Loyola Marymount, while No. 16 Colorado State got out of Wyoming with a 20-25, 25-16, 27-29, 25-20, 15-10 Mountain West win.
The recaps follow, but first a look at Wednesday’s NCAA Division I volleyball schedule, a light one but one spiced with a few big-time match-ups.
Start with the Big 12, where No. 1 Baylor (11-0, 1-0) plays host to Oklahoma (10-3, 2-0) in a battle of two of the three teams likely to be in the mix at the end for the league title. The other is No. 6 Texas (8-2, 2-0), which plays at TCU. Also, Kansas goes to Iowa State and Texas Tech is at Kansas State. There are three matches in the Big Ten, including No. 5 Penn State at No. 13 Wisconsin. Second-ranked Nebraska goes to Rutgers and No. 7 Minnesota is at Iowa.
In the SEC, No. 22 Missouri goes to LSU and Alabama plays at Auburn.
The ACC has one match when North Carolina goes to NC State.
Tenth-ranked Marquette has a Big East match at Xavier.
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.
BYU gets tough WCC win: BYU (12-2, 3-0 WCC) hit .303, led by Heather Gneiting, who had 12 kills with no errors in 19 attacks to hit .632. She had a dig and four blocks. McKenna Miller had 14 kills and hit .286 and had an ace, two digs and four blocks. Madelyn Robinson had 11 kills, three assists, three digs and three blocks, and Kate Grimmer had 10 kills and hit .423 to go with six blocks. Whitney Bower had five kills with no errors in seven swings to hit .714 and had 44 assists, four aces, 10 digs and a block.
“I thought we were really resilient tonight,” BYU coach Heather Olmstead said. “We showed a lot of fight and our focus in the fifth set was the difference.”
LMU (8-7, 2-1) got 18 kills from Rose Booth, who had three digs and a block. Megan Rice had 16 kills, an assist, an ace, seven digs and six blocks. Savannah Slattery had 13 kills, six digs and two blocks. Jesse Prichard had three kills in five errorless attempts to go with 55 assists, two aces, 11 digs and three blocks, one solo …
San Diego (10-4, 3-0 WCC) won its eighth match in a row as it outlasted visiting Pepperdine (6-8, 2-1) 21-25, 25-19, 26-24, 25-27, 15-13. Thana Fayad led with 18 kills and hit .319 and had two assists, three aces, 17 digs and two blocks. Katie Lukes had 17 kills, two digs and a solo block, and Megan Jacobsen had 12 kills, hit .310, and had an ace, two digs and three blocks, one solo. Setter Anna Newsome had four kills in 11 errorless attempts, 54 assists, 16 digs and two blocks.
Shannon Scully led Pepperdine with 18 kills and had an ace, 23 digs and two solo blocks. Hannah Frohling had nine kills, two aces, 18 digs and three blocks, one solo, and Rachel Ahrens had 12 kills and four blocks …
Santa Clara (11-5, 1-2) broke a two-match skid with a sweep of visiting Saint Mary’s (4-8, 0-2) despite hitting .136 in the 26-24, 25-22, 25-21 victory. Julie Sangiacomo and Michelle Shaffer had nine kills each. Saint Mary’s hit .097 ..
And Pacific (10-4, 2-0) won at San Francisco (4-10, 0-3) 21-25, 25-19, 25-17, 23-25, 15-13. Riley Patterson led with 26 kills and hit .328, while Allison Dennemann had 21 kills and hit .333.
Colorado State wins 12th in a row: The Rams (13-1, 2-0 Mountain West) won what they call the Border War as Breana Runnels came up with a career-high 29 kills. The last time a Ram had 29 kills was in 2005. What’s more, she hit .404 and passed 1,000 kills in her CSU career. Runnels also had an assist, a block and five digs. Kirstie Hillyer had 16 kills and hit .400 to go with two digs and four blocks, one solo. And Paulina Hougaard-Jensen had 10 kills and hit .333 to go with five blocks, two solo. Jessica Jackson had five kills, 59 assists, 14 digs and three blocks, one solo.
KC McMahon had 16 kills for Wyoming (7-7, 2-1) and added four digs and three blocks. Jackie McBride hit .480 as she had 13 kills, three digs and five blocks, two solo. Setter Kyra Slavik — making her first start — had six kills, 45 assists, six digs and three blocks.
Around the nation: Weber State (10-4, 1-2) won a Big Sky match at Idaho State (4-11, 1-2) as Dani Nay had 18 kills in the five-set victory … Army of the Patriot League swept Marist of the Metro Atlantic as Monica Eckford had 11 kills and hit .562 … Fairleigh Dickinson (1-15) got its first win of the season as the team from the Northeast Conference swept the MAAC’s Manhattan (2-13), which hit .017 …
In the MEAC, N.C. A&T (4-12, 2-0) beat NC Central (2-13, 1-1) 27-29,22-25,25-16,25-20,17-15 as Courtney Pitt had 26 kills, three digs and a solo block. Edie Brewer had 17 kills, nine digs, 32 assists, two aces, and seven blocks …
Tennessee State (9-7, 2-1 Ohio Valley) beat Belmont (1-17, 0-3) 25-15, 25-20, 20-25, 13-25, 15-13 despite 24 kills by Halee Van Poppel, who also had an assist and 13 digs. But she was the bright spot for Belmont, which hit .135. TSU, which hit .159, got 14 kills from Julia Pierson, who had two aces, six digs and five blocks, one solo. Aniya Williams added 12 kills, a dig and three blocks …
Nicholls State (7-7, 1-2) won a Southland Conference match over visiting Southeastern Louisiana (8-9, 2-1) as Katie Jones had 18 kills in the five-set victory. She added four blocks, two solo. Katie Hoerdemann had 12 kills and 20 digs …
Oral Roberts (5-12, 1-2 Summit League) beat visiting Omaha (9-8, 2-1) 21-25, 25-20, 16-25, 25-21, 15-12. CeCe Madison got 11 of her 20 kills in the final two sets and her team hit .600 in the fifth. Madison had five assists, two aces, 15 digs and a block. Sadie Limback had 18 kills for Omaha, which hit .019.
Aloha,
I recently discovered your fine on-line magazine and enjoy your complete coverage. I especially appreciate your thorough analysis of all D-1 women’s volleyball around the country (including the Rainbow Wahine here at my ala mater, Hawai’i).
The NCAA first RPI of the season should be out soon and I hope you might write an article explaining it (as much as anyone can explain the NCAA). I don’t mean technical formulas but rather a general guide for lay fans. I tried a search on your site and found the 03/02/16 Scheduling article but would like to know more about RPI.
For example, are points given for just wins vs. loses, or does a 3-0 count more than a 3-1 or a 3-2 victory? And are total points taken into account so that a loss of (25-23, 26-24, 25-23) does not hurt as much as (25-15, 25-12, 25-14)?
Regarding the strength of schedule component, can you provide some simplified guidelines about how that works? For example, Hawai’i beat Washington this preseason. How much does it help Hawai’i that Washington has now beat Stanford? And does Stanford’s own strength of schedule continue to benefit Hawai’i and to what extent? And even though Hawai’i lost a tight (25-19, 25-23, 25-22) match at Baylor, how does Baylor’s continuing success contribute to the Hawai’i RPI over the season?
Finally, is there a time component to the calculation, such that more recent matches are given more weight than earlier ones? Again, I am not looking for precise formulas but rather general guidelines that could help me and your readers interpret what the RPI numbers mean and how the ongoing results around the country influence them.
Mahalo for considering to write such a helpful article.
Thanks, Robert, great post. I agree that somewhere down the line we do need a comprehensive story.