Top-ranked Florida stayed unbeaten Wednesday, but not before grinding through a tough one against Texas A&M an another historic night for veteran coach Mary Wise.
No. 6 Minnesota won at No. 7 Wisconsin in five, breaking a 13-13 tie in the fifth set to win 15-13.
Unranked Iowa beat No. 22 Michigan in four and No. 4 Nebraska kept it going at No. 14 Michigan State.
In other matches involving ranked teams, No. 11 Kansas beat West Virginia, but No. 20 Iowa State lost to Baylor.
Recaps follow, but first a look at Thursday’s schedule.
And here’s a reminder that VolleyballMag.com has all the TV and streaming listings every day for every match that is being shown.
The two ranked teams in the West Coast Conference, No. BYU and No. 19 San Diego, are in action. BYU is at Saint Mary’s,while San Diego goes to Pacific.
No 16 Creighton has a Big East match at Marquette.
North Dakota, riding high at 19-2, has a Big Sky match at Sacramento State. UC Irvine has a key Big West match at Long Beach State
The power-five conferences — ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC — have the night off.
Florida, Auburn get SEC wins: Wise got the 887th victory of her 31-year head-coaching career with Florida’s 26-24, 23-25, 27-25, 25-10 win over visiting A&M.
Wise passed BYU coach Elaine Michaelis (1969-2001) for the most all-time wins by a woman head coach in Division I history. It also moved her past Michaelis for the eighth-most wins in Division I history and 14th-most wins in NCAA history (all three divisions).
“My hope is that this record will be broken a hundred times over, that there will be that many women that will choose this profession and be in a position like we’ve been blessed to be at Florida in a well-supported program,” Wise said Thursday morning.
“And that they stay in it through the child-rearing years. “
Wise, who did just that, saw her Florida team improve to 12-0, 4-0 in the SEC, while A&M is 4-7, 1-3.
Carli Snyder had 16 kills for Florida, two aces, eight digs and three blocks. Shainah Joseph had 15 kills while hitting .481. She had five digs and four blocks. And Rhamat Alhassan had 12 kills, two aces and five blocks in a match in which Florida out-blocked A&M 12-3.
Hollann Hans led the Aggies with 12 kills and eight digs. Kiara McGee had 10 kills.
Auburn won at Tennessee 25-22, 19-25, 25-18, 25-27, 15-11 as Shaina White had 19 kills, five blocks and three aces. Her Tigers are 11-3 and stayed a half-game back of Florida at 4-1.
Tennessee (8-6, 1-4) got 16 kills from Erica Treiber, who also had seven blocks, one solo.
Gophers bounce back, Michigan falls: Minnesota had lost its last two matches, but now stands 14-2 overall, 3-2 in the Big Ten after its 23-25, 25-20, 20-25, 25-15, 15-13 win at Wisconsin (11-3, 3-3).
In the fifth set, Minnesota held a 13-11 lead, but Wisconsin tied at 13-13. Minnesota called a timeout and the Gophers responded with a kill from Stephanie Samedy and a Wisconsin attack error.
Alexis Hart had a huge night, leading all attackers with 24 kills. Jasmyn Martin added 17 kills and Samedy had 15 to go with 16 digs and five blocks. Molly Lohman had seven blocks to go with four kills.
Wisconsin’s Dana Rettke had 19 kills and hit .457 while added five block and three digs. Kelli Bates had 13 kills and 12 digs and Lauryn Gillis had 12 kills and seven digs.
“We’re a few points here from possibly being undefeated in this league, and instead, we’ve lost three game fives,” Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield said. “But the thing is, as we’ve gone through the season, coming off of each loss, I’ve thought we’ve responded the right way, we’ve learned, we’ve grown. They’re probably tired of the learning and the growing right now, but we’ve got no choice. It’s a long season, we’ve got 15 more matches.
Iowa knocked off Michigan 21-25, 25-22, 25-15, 25-21 for its biggest win in a year. It left the Hawkeyes 13-5, 2-3, while visiting Michigan dropped to 12-5, 2-3.
Iowa’s Taylor Louis and Jess Janota had 17 kills each and Reghan Coyle added 14 to go with four digs and four blocks.
“This is a great confidence boost for us,” Iowa coach Bond Shymansky said. “We have a really good rhythm going right now.”
Michigan got 22 kills and six digs from Carly Skjodt.
Nebraska beat visiting Michigan State 25-19, 25-15, 22-25, 25-19 to get to 12-3 and at 5-0 stand alone atop the B1G. Annika Albrecht led with 18 kills while hitting .333. She also had 15 digs and three solo blocks. Lauren Stivrins and Jazz Sweet had 10 kills each. Mikaela Foecke had nine kills and 10 digs and Briana Holman had eight kills.
Michigan State dropped to 11-3, 4-1, as Brooke Krana had 16 kills and Autumn Bailey and Holly Toliver had 11 each. Bailey had 18 digs and Toliver 14.
UCLA sweeps Arizona: Reily Buechler had 15 kills and hit .500 as UCLA came away with a 25-15, 25-17, 25-20 win. It left the Bruins 10-4, 3-2 in the Pac-12, while Arizona is 7-7, 1-4.
Jenny Mosser and Madeleine Gates had eight kills.
Arizona got nine kills from Paige Whipple, who had 10 digs.
Kansas wins, Baylor scores upset: The Jayhawks won at West Virginia 28-26, 25-22, 17-25, 25-17 for their 18th Big 12 victory in a row. KU (15-4, 4-0 Big 12) got 17 kills from Madison Rigdon, who added 11 digs and three blocks. Kelsie Payne had 12 kills and six digs.
WVU dropped to 12-5, 1-3 as Katelyn Evans had 15 kills and Mia Swanegan 14.
Baylor not only knocked off Iowa State, but swept the Cyclones on their home court 25-19, 25-20, 25-14. It left Baylor 14-4, 4-1, while ISU dropped to 11-3, 2-2.
Baylor’s Shelly Fanning led with 14 kills while hitting .500 and Yossiana Pressley had 10 kills on a night when leading attacker Katie Staiger had just five kills and hit negative.
“Tonight, we played for sure like a top-20, top-15 team,” Baylor coach Ryan McGuyre said. “We were dialed-in, we played good, clean volleyball. I think our girls tonight recognized — like I said, we didn’t have Katie dialed-in — but when we put it all together, we can be pretty dynamic.”
Also in the Big 12, Oklahoma (4-13, 1-3) got its first league win by sweeping visiting Texas Tech (12-5, 1-3) and TCU (9-6, 1-3) also got in the win column with a four-set win over visiting Kansas State (8-9, 1-3).
Seminoles sweep Miami: Miami went from unbeaten to losing back-to-back as the Hurricanes fell at Florida State 25-23, 25-18, 25-23. It left FSU 9-4, 3-2, while Miami is 9-2, 3-2.
Milica Kubura had 13 kills and hit .579 for Florida State and Christina Ambrose had 12 kills and hit .417 as their team hit .429.
Olga Strantzali led Miami with 15 kills while hitting .303 and she had nine digs.
