If you played in the Pac-12 on Friday night you’d have best been open for business.
That’s because No. 17 Utah went to Washington and beat the No. 6 Huskies in five. Or because Arizona, which came in at .500 overall and still has a losing record in the league, not only upset but swept visiting No. 15 USC. Or because Washington State thumped No. 25 Colorado.
All the other NCAA Division I women’s college volleyball ranked teams won Friday night. We’ll get to the recaps in a bit, but first a look at Saturday’s schedule that also has its share of tantalizing matchups.
Start in the Big Ten, where No. 4 Nebraska goes to Iowa, which is coming off its upset of Michigan. No. 3 Penn State, which escaped from Ohio State on Friday, goes to Maryland. No. 6 Minnesota plays at No. 22 Michigan, in a matchup of two teams both coming off losses No. 7 Wisconsin plays at No. 14 Michigan State, Indiana goes to Illinois and Rutgers is at Ohio State.
In the Pac-12, USC tries to bounce back at Arizona State.
In the Big 12, there three matches, including No. 11 Kansas at Oklahoma. Texas Tech goes to Kansas State and West Virginia goes to Baylor.
The ACC and SEC are off on football Saturday.
Also, No. 21 Northern Iowa has a Missouri Valley match at Evansville.
And here’s a reminder that VolleyballMag.com has all the TV and streaming listings every day for every match that is being shown.
Upsets abound in Pac-12: Utah won for the first time ever in Seattle with its gripping 27-25, 26-24, 21-25, 23-25, 16-14 victory at Washington. It left both teams 13-3 overall, Utah 4-1 in the league and UW 3-2.
Dani Barton broke a 14-14 tie in the fifth set with back-to-back kills to clinch the match for the Utes. She finished with eight kills. As is normally the case, Adora Anae led Utah, this time with 25 kills and 11 digs. She also had an ace and three blocks. Berkeley Oblad had 15 kills and hit .433 and had 11 blocks and seven digs, while Carly Trueman had 12 kills and five blocks.
Washington, dealing with injuries, got 19 kills from Tia Scambray, who has been playing libero. She also had 11 digs, an ace and four digs. All-American setter Bailey Tanner was out with a broken finger sustained against last week. Another All-American senior, Courtney Schwan, could only play a few rotations after hurting her ankle in practice on Friday.
Lauren Sanders had 17 kills and hit .762 after having only one error in 21 swings. She also had 10 blocks. Carly DeHoog added 15 kills and five blocks. Natalie Robinson and Jade Finau filled in admirably as setters.
“What a welcome to Pac-12 volleyball for Natalie Robinson, really nice job setting half the 6-2,” UW coach Keegan Cook said. “Tia Scambray, I’m not surprised that she had the match that she had. She did a lot of things that we’ve seen her do for years. We needed her, and she stepped up and did an outstanding job leading us in kills tonight.”
Arizona is 8-7 overall, 2-4 in the Pac-12 after beating USC 25-23, 25-17, 26-24. It left USC 12-4, 4-1.
“It’s certainly nice to win. You’re never sure in this conference about what’s going to happen,” Arizona coach Dave Rubio said. “It’s hard to know when you’re going to win, and like I’ve said in the past it’s really about the process for us. It’s nice to be able to reinforce what we’ve been doing every day in practice by winning.”
Kendra Dahlke led the Wildcats with 11 kills, hit .320 and had nine digs. Paige Whipple added 10 kills and six digs. USC, which hit .140, got nine kills from Khalia Lanier, who hit .000.
Washington State beat Colorado 25-23, 25-19, 22-25, 30-28 to improve to 13-4, 2-3, while dropping the Buffs to 12-4, 2-3. WSU, playing without injured McKenna Woodford.
Taylor Mims made up for it with a career-high 24 kills. She also had five digs and two blocks. Casey Schoenlein, moving from the right to the left, had 13 kills.
“It was a great team effort. That’s what happens when you don’t have one of your players, everybody else has to step up and they did just that tonight so I’m very proud of the entire team,” WSU coach Jen Greeny said. “Casey Schoenlein did a fantastic job of moving over to the left side and we pieced it together from there. Everybody else really stepped up. I thought at times our passing and serving were really great. I know Colorado stepped it up in the third and fourth sets but we responded and got it done.”
Colorado’s Alexa Smith also had 24 kills and hit .304 to go with 14 digs and two blocks. Frankie Shebby had 14 kills, eight digs and three blocks.
No. 2 Stanford is alone atop the standings at 5-0 after going to No. 16 Oregon and sweeping the Ducks 25-19, 25-21, 25-23. Stanford (12-2) disappointed a crowd of 5,872 by hitting .387.
Kathryn Plummer led with 13 kills while hitting .545 to go with four blocks and six digs. Audriana Fitzmorris had 10 kills, hit .444 and had three blocks.
Oregon, dealing with injuries, dropped to 9-4, 2-3. Senior Taylor Agost — playing back row for the first time since she was in high school — led with 11 kills and 11 digs as Jolie Rasmussen missed a third match with a concussion.
No. 13 UCLA won at Arizona State 25-14, 20-25, 25-20, 25-19. The Bruins are 11-4, 4-2, while ASU is 10-7, 0-5. Madeleine Gates had 15 kills and hit .462, Jenny Mosser and Mac May added 13 kills each, and Reily Buechler had 12 kills and 16 digs.
Oluoma Okara had 14 kills and 13 digs for ASU, while Ivana Jeremic had 13 kills and three blocks, one solo.
And Oregon State (11-6, 1-4) beat visiting Cal (11-5, 2-3) 25-20, 25-17, 25-13 as Mary-Kate Marshall had 17 kills and hit .385 to go with nine digs.
Penn State, Purdue get Big Ten wins: There are few easy road wins in the B1G and Penn State knows it after escaping from Ohio State 25-13, 23-25, 28-30, 25-9, 15-7. It left Penn State 14-1 overall, 4-1 in the Big Ten, while the Buckeyes are 9-7, 2-3.
Haleigh Washington led Penn State with 20 kills while hitting .500. She had eight blocks, one solo. Simone Lee had 18 kills and hit .325 to go with 10 digs and three blocks, one solo. And Ali Frantti had 13 kills and hit .323 to go with seven digs and three blocks. Their team hit .333 and the Nittany Lions held a 17-4 blocking advantage.
Luisa Schirmer led Ohio State with 18 kills and nine digs. Bria Franklin had 10 kills and nine digs.
No. 18 Purdue rolled past Illinois 25-23, 25-19, 25-19 and stands 14-2, 4-1, while the Illini are 12-4, 3-2. Danielle Cuttino led with 13 kills and five blocks. Azariah Stahl added eight kills, 13 digs and three blocks, one solo.
Jacqueline Quade and Beth Prince had 10 kills each for Illinois, which hit .158.
Maryland swept Rutgers 25-18, 25-22, 25-17 as Gia Milana had 10 kills, seven digs and three solo blocks. The Terps are 13-4, 2-3. Rutgers (5-12, 0-5) got seven kills from Sahbria McLetchie.
And Northwestern held off visiting Indiana 25-21, 22-25, 20-25, 34-32, 15-8. Both teams are 11-5 overall, while Northwestern is 1-4 in the B1G and Indiana is 0-4. Symone Abbott had a career-high 29 kills and seven digs for Northwestern.
Kentucky, LSU notch SEC victories: No. 10 Kentucky beat visiting Alabama 25-15, 23-25, 25-21, 25-20 to keep pace with idle Florida. The Wildcats (12-6 overall, 1-4 SEC) got big numbers from a lot of players. Avery Skinner led with 19 kills. Emily Franklin had 14, hit .444 and had five blocks and six digs. Leah Edmond had 11 kills, four blocks and 17 digs and Kaz Brown had 10 kills, hit .304 and had five blocks, one solo.
Alabama (12-6, 1-4) got 14 kills from Ginger Perinar and 11 kills each from Christine Jarman, who had 10 digs, and Leah Lawrence, who hit .500 and had three blocks.
LSU took care of visiting Mississippi State 25-13, 25-21, 25-22 as Taylor Bannister had 13 kills and hit .320. Olivia Beyer had seven kills and six blocks, one solo, as the Tigers improved to 12-4, 3-2. Gina Tillis added 21 digs.
State (9-11, 0-5) got nine kills each from Jelena Vujcin and Khristian Carr.
Georgia (12-6, 2-3) won at South Carolina (9-7, 2-2) 22-25, 25-14, 25-19, 24-26, 15-10, to double its SEC conference win total for the past two years. T’ara Ceasar led with 18 kills. eight digs and three blocks, one solo, and Rachel Ritchie had 16 kills.
South Carolina, which fired coach Scott Swanson earlier this week, hit .082. Mikayla Shields had 17 kills and six digs. Interim head coach Dottie Hampton is 0-1.
And Pilar Victoria had 24 kills as Arkansas beat visiting Ole Miss 25-18, 13-25, 25-23, 23-25, 15-12. Victoria also had 14 digs and five blocks for the Razorbacks (12-5, 2-3). Hailey Dirrigi added 15 kills and Reagan Robinson and Elizabeth Pamphile had 10 each.
Ole Miss (12-6. 3-2) got 18 kills from Lexi Thompson, who had 10 digs, and 16 kills and 18 digs from Kate Gibson.
Pittsburgh, NC State stay atop ACC: Pittsburgh is 5-0 in the league after winning at Florida State 25-23, 21-25, 25-21, 25-21. The Panthers, 12-4 overall, got 21 kills from Nika Markovic, who had 13 digs. Stephanie Williams and Mariah Bell had 15 kills each and Layne Van Buskirk had 13 kills and hit .423.
“This was my first time winning in that building,” Pittsburgh coach Dan Fisher said. “While it meant a lot to me, I know it also meant a lot to Mariah, who has been at it a long time trying to get that win.”
FSU (9-4, 3-3) got 13 kills from Milica Kubura and 10 from Christine Ambrose.
NC State is also 5-0 as the 10-6 Wolfpack swept visiting Wake Forest (10-7, 2-3) 32-30, 25-18, 25-18.
Julia Brown led with 12 kills and hit .400. Teni Sopitan had 11 kills and four blocks.
“I keep telling this team how proud I am of them, but it’s true,” NC State coach Linda Hampton-Keith said. “They keep giving me different reasons to be proud, so that’s a good thing. What I was most impressed with tonight was that despite our slow start, we started working our way back into it one play at a time.
“I’m proud of the fact that we found a way to gut out set one when we could’ve just caved and made this a long night. For us to come off to a really slow start, which is very uncharacteristic for us, gut out the first set in extra points, then come back and win 25-18, 25-18 just shows the grit and determination of this team, the maturity level and just how well we’re doing right now. I’m really proud of them.”
Wake Forest got 11 kills and three blocks from Carolina Kuhn and 10 kills from Carolina Rassenfoss.
Syracuse (12-6, 4-1) stayed a game back by beating Clemson 25-17, 25-16, 25-21 as Christina Oyawalke had 11 kills and hit .917. Clemson is 5-12, 0-6.
Louisville is also 4-1. The Cardinals (10-5) beat Virginia Tech 20-25, 25-17, 25-19, 25-17. Jasmine Bennett had eight kills and 10 blocks. Virginia Tech is 7-9, 1-4.
Also in the ACC, North Carolina beat Duke in four, Notre Dame won at Virginia in four and Boston College got in the league win column by beating Georgia Tech in four. Miami, which was off, North Carolina and Duke are all 3-2 in ACC play.
Creighton, USD, UNI, Wichita State win: No. 12 Creighton, coming off that upset loss to Marquette, rebounded with a 25-10, 25-9, 25-13 win at DePaul. Creighton (12-5, 5-1) hit .476.
“It was gut-check time,” Creighton coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth said. “We told them that. And we really, for the first time in my career, I said put your scouts away. It’s not about who we’re playing, it’s about us. We talked about who we are and what we do to be great, and I was really proud of the way that they responded because last night was really disappointing and you never know how a team’s going to respond to something like that.”
Marysa Wilkinson responded with 10 kills in 12 swings with no errors to hit .833. Megan Ballenger had nine kills in 12 attacks with no errors and hit .750 to go with three blocks, one solo.
Marquette (13-5, 7-0 Big East) stayed atop the league with a 25-13, 25-23, 25-21 win over Providence. Allie Barber had 15 kills, Anna Haak 14 and Jenna Rosenthal 13.
No. 19 San Diego (11-4, 4-1) had to go five to win at Pacific 25-21, 30-28, 21-25, 21-25, 15-5. Jayden Kennedy had 19 kills and four blocks for the Toreros. Lauren Fuller added 16 kills, two aces, six digs and two blocks. Roxie Wiblin had 10 kills, 11 digs and two blocks. Pacific (7-10, 2-4) got 16 kills from Ashlyn Fleming, who had nine blocks, one solo.
No. 21 Northern Iowa (15-4, 5-0 Missouri Valley) won its fifth in a row as Bri Weber had 20 kills, hit .514 and had nine digs. Piper Thomas had 12 kills and Karlie Taylor 11 to go with 11 digs. Indiana State (5-12, 3-2) got 10 kills from Damadj Johnson.
No. 24 Wichita State rolled over Tulane 25-23, 25-16, 25-16 to get to 13-3 and 5-0 in the American Athletic Conference. Tabitha Brown led with 14 kills, hit .324 and had a solo block, an ace and 10 digs. Emily Hiebert not only had 38 assists, but six kills while hitting .455, three blocks and 10 digs. Alex Koon added 10 kills while hitting .500.
Tulane (12-6, 1-4) got eight kills from Markenzie Benoit.
Also in the AAC, SMU (11-5, 5-0) kept pace with a 22-25, 25-15, 25-19, 25-20 win over visiting USF. Lauren Mills had 15 kills and 12 digs for SMU.
Around the nation: VCU is 18-2, 4-0 in the Atlantic 10 after sweeping visiting Duquesne. Not only was it the 15th win in row for VCU, it was the 500th career victory for coach Jody Rogers, who is 500-234 in 21 seasons, 94-54 in five years with the Rams …
Jacksonville tightened things up in the Atlantic Sun by dealing visiting Kennesaw State a four-set defeat. KSU dropped to 9-4, 3-1, while Jacksonville (10-7, 4-0) is alone atop the standings …
Don’t look now, but Hawai’i is 11-5 overall but 5-0 in the Big West after sweeping visiting UC Santa Barbara 25-20, 26-24, 25-11. The Rainbow Wahine won their ninth in a row as McKenna Granato had 18 kills, hit .316, had two blocks and eight digs. Emily Maglio had nine kills and 10 blocks, two solo …
In Conference USA, Western Kentucky is 18-2, 5-0 after sweeping Southern Miss as Alyssa Cavanaugh had 24 kills and hit .476, while North Texas is right there at 17-2, 4-1 after hitting .434 and sweeping UAB. The win was WKU’s 30th in a row in C-USA play …
Hofstra and Charleston both won sweeps and are a game back in the Colonial at 4-1. Northeastern won Thursday and is 5-0 …
Princeton is 11-3 and tied with Harvard at 4-0 atop the Ivy after beating Dartmouth. Harvard (9-4) beat Penn …
Navy is 15-3, 5-0 in the Patriot League after sweeping Lafayette … Furman is 11-7 and atop the Southern Conference at 5-0 after beating Western Carolina …
CSU Bakersfield swept Grand Canyon 25-22, 25-11, 25-21 and stands 12-8, 5-0 in the Western Athletic Conference. The Roadrunners were led by Haylee Roberts, who had 13 kills, hit .429 and had four blocks.
