The ranked teams escaped unscathed Wednesday night, but Illinois almost knocked off the No. 6 Boilermakers again as Purdue coach Dave Shondell notched his 400th career victory at the school, and Mississippi State took a set from No. 5 Kentucky.
Fourth-ranked Wisconsin, No. 12 Baylor, and No. 20 Western Kentucky all swept.
Thursday in NCAA Division I women’s volleyball, all three ranked West Coast Conference teams are in action as No. 9 BYU is home for Portland, No. 23 Pepperdine is at Pacific, and No. 25 San Diego plays host to Gonzaga. Also in the WCC, Loyola Marymount is at Saint Mary’s.
The lone Pac-12 match has Washington State at Arizona State.
In the Big 12, Iowa State goes to Texas Tech, while the SEC’s Georgia is at Texas A&M.
There is a full schedule in the Big Sky, including Northerrn Colorado at Weber State.
The Mountain West has five matches, including Utah State at New Mexico.
There are also full slates in the Summit, Southland, and WAC, where NM State goes to Chicago State.
Want to watch a match? We have the links. Go to our VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming listings to find any match that is being shown.
WEDNESDAY — Purdue (12-2, 4-1), which lost to the Illini at home last Friday, went to Illinois (11-5, 3-2) and came away with a 28-26, 16-25, 22-25, 25-20, 15-12 Big Ten victory.
Grace Cleveland led with 17 kills, six blocks, and nine digs. Caitlyn Newton had 12 kills, a block, and four digs. Hayley Bush had six kills, 45 assists, two blocks, and eight digs. Illinois got 18 kills from Megan Cooney, who had two assists, two aces, and 11 digs. Kennedy Collins and Raina Terry had 13 kills each. Diana Brown had two kills, 50 assists, two aces, 13 digs, and three blocks, one solo, and Taylor Kuper had 26 digs and four assists …
Also in the Big Ten, Wisconsin (12-1, 4-1) beat visiting Iowa (2-13, 0-5) 25-21, 25-15, 28-26. Julia Orzol led with 13 kills as she hit .321 and had an assist, an ace, three blocks, and 10 digs. Dana Rettke and Grace Loberg had nine kills each. Rettke had three blocks, one solo. Iowa’s Addie VanderWeide had 11 kills, hit .320, and had an assist, two aces, four digs, and two blocks, one solo …
In the SEC, Kentucky (10-3, 3-0) remained the only team unbeaten in conference play as the Wildcats beat visiting Mississippi State (12-5, 3-2) 21-25, 25-21, 25-15, 25-22. Madi Skinner had 15 kills and 12 digs, Alli Stumler 14 kills, two aces, three blocks and 12 digs, and Azhani Tealer had 12 kills, hit .364, and had an assist, two aces, three digs, and nine blocks, one solo. Gabby Waden led State with 16 kills as she hit .324 and had two blocks and a dig …
Also in the SEC, Arkansas (12-4, 3-2) swept at Ole Miss (12-4, 1-4). Taylor Head led with 14 kills as she hit .417 and had four digs and two solo blocks … LSU (6-8, 2-3) hit .419 and swept visiting Missouri (3-14, 0-4). Graduate-transfer Kylie Deberg, playing against her former school, led with 19 kills as she hit .444 and had two blocks and a dig …
Miami (13-2. 4-1) won its ACC match over visiting Florida State (10-4, 3-2) as four players had 12 or more kills, 14 by Aristea Tontea, who had no errors in 26 attacks, a dig, and seven blocks … In the American Athletic, Cincinnati (9-4, 4-1)) kept even in the win column with idle UCF (11-5, 4-0) with a sweep at East Carolina as six players had five or more kills, 10 by Abby Walker, who hit .500 and had a dig and three blocks …
Western Kentucky of Conference USA (16-1) hit .404 and swept at the ASUN’s Eastern Kentucky as Lauren Matthews continued to hit with remarkable proficiency. She had 20 kills with one error in 29 attacks to hit .778 with a dig and a block. In her last three matches, Matthews has 44 kills with four errors in 64 attacks …
Baylor (9-4) of the Big 12 swept at the Conference USA’s North Texas. Avery Skinner led with 18 kills as she hit .333 and had an ace, eight digs, and three blocks. Rhett Robinson led UNT with 17 kills …
Villanova hit .330 in its Big East sweep of Georgetown. Riley Homer led with 13 kills as she hit .355 and had an assist, five digs, and a block …
Morgan Romano had 17 kills and hit .350 for Rider in its Metro Atlantic win sweep of Manhattan. Romano had four aces, 13 digs, and a block … In an Ohio Valley match Morehead State won in four at Tennessee Tech despite hitting .095.
