NCAA Women
NCAA volleyball round of 16 set as Stanford survives, seven others also advance
December 3, 2023
NCAA volleyball: Michigan upsets Minnesota, Nebraska downs Penn St., UCLA sweeps CU, ACC unbeatens roll
NCAA Women
October 9, 2021
Michigan rallied to upset No. 8 Minnesota for its first victory over a top-10 team in three years.
Unlike the previous two Fridays in NCAA Division I women’s volleyball, when chaos ruled, that was the only upset of a ranked team. But there were plenty of tough matches and big performances.
Also in the Top 25, No. 10 Nebraska won in four at No. 13 Penn State, and No. 16 UCLA swept No. 24 Colorado. There’s now a four-way tie for first in the Pac-12.
Six of the seven ACC matches Friday were sweeps.
The recaps and notes follow, but first a look at Saturday’s schedule.
Illinois isn’t ranked, but its Big Ten match at No. 4 Wisconsin highlights the day’s action. Also in the B1G, No. 6 Purdue is at Iowa, No. 8 Minnesota is at Michigan State, No. 13 Penn State is home for Northwestern, and Indiana is at Maryland.
All three ranked SEC teams are in action as No. 5 Kentucky is at Alabama, No. 20 Florida is at LSU, and No. 22 Tennessee is at South Carolina. Also, Auburn goes to Arkansas.
Top-ranked Texas is back in action, at Kansas. The only other Big 12 match has Oklahoma back at TCU.
The ACC and Pac-12 are off, but the three ranked West Coast Conference teams play: No. 9 BYU is home for Gonzaga; No. 23 Pepperdine is at Saint Mary’s; and No. 25 San Diego is home for Portland.
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.
BIG TEN — Start with Michigan (10-4, 3-2), which epitomized hard luck the past two seasons, especially last spring. The Wolverines, after losing to Minnesota (8-4, 3-2) eight times in a row, beat the Gophers 25-13, 13-25, 24-26, 25-14, 15-11.
Jess Mruzik led Michigan with 20 kills, a block, and 15 digs. Paige Jones and May Pertofsky had 11 kills each. Hannah Grant had 23 digs, four assists, and an ace. Scottee Johnson had 44 assists, an ace, and 19 digs, and the team hit .197.
Stephanie Samedy led Minnesota with 19 kills, an assist, three blocks, and 22 digs. Jenna Wenaas had 15 kills, four assists, three blocks, and 11 digs. CC McGraw had 27 digs and six assists. Melanie Shaffmaster had six kills with one error in 14 attempts, 45 assists, 16 digs, and five blocks, one solo …
Nebraska (11-3, 5-0) won at Penn State (11-4, 4-1) to take over sole possession of first place. Madi Kubik led with 19 kills, an assist, 12 digs, and a block in the 25-16, 22-25, 25-23, 25-17 victory. Ally Batenhorst had 15 kills, hit .375, and had three digs and two blocks. Lindsay Krause had 11 kills, and Kayla Caffey had nine, plus seven blocks. Nicklin Hames had 49 assists, an ace, 12 digs, and three blocks. Her team hit .244. Penn State, which hit .176, got 11 kills each from Jonni Parker and Kaitlyn Hord …
No. 7 Ohio State (13-2, 3-2) battled for two sets and then swept at Michigan State (8-6, 1-4). Emily Londot had 15 kills, an assist, four block, and eight digs in the 26-24, 28-26, 25-18 win … Northwestern (7-9, 2-3) closed an up-and-down match on a 5-1 run to win 25-23, 19-25, 25-23, 16-25, 17-15 at Maryland (13-4, 1-4). Temi Thomas-Ailara led with 16 kills, an ace, and 11 digs. Hanna Lesiak had 15 kills, three aces, a solo block, and three digs. Alexa Rousseau had seven kills in 11 errorless attempts, 44 assists, four aces, three blocks, and 18 digs. Her team hit .188. Rainelle Jones had 14 kills with one error for Maryland and eight blocks. Sam Csire had 13 kills, two blocks, and 10 digs … Indiana (8-9, 2-3) won in four at Rutgers (8-8, 0-5) as the Scarlet Knights dropped into a last-place tie with idle Iowa. Breana Edwards led with 19 kills in the 25-18, 23-25, 25-14, 25-23 victory. She also had two digs and four blocks, two solo.
PAC-12 — Four teams are tied at 4-1 atop the league.
UCLA (11-2, 4-1) hit .406 and blasted visiting Colorado (11-3, 2-3) as Mac May led with 22 kills in the 25-19, 25-15, 25-14 victory. She had two errors in 42 swings, hit .455, and had three digs and a block. Charitie Luper had eight kills with one error in 19 attacks and five blocks, two solo. Shelby Martin had three kills in six errorless tries, 42 assists, an ace, six digs, and three blocks. Colorado hit .157 and got seven kills each from Meegan Hart and Jill Schneggenburger …
No. 14 Oregon (13-2, 4-1) swept Cal (7-9, 0-5) with just 35 kills. Morgan Lewis had nine in 14 errorless attacks …
Dani Drews had 17 kills to become Utah’s all-time kills leader as the Utes (11-3, 4-1) swept at USC (6-8, 2-3). Drews added an assist, an ace, 13 digs, and two blocks, one solo …
No. 17 Stanford (9-4, 4-1) swept at Oregon State (2-13, 0-5) as the Cardinal hit .307. Caitie Baird led with 14 kills, hit .333 and had two assists, an ace, three blocks, and five digs …
No.11 Washington (10-3, 3-2) won in four at Arizona (11-5, 3-2) behind 18 kills from Samantha Drechsel, who had two errors in 33 attacks to hit .485. She also had five blocks and seven digs in the 24-26, 25-23, 25-19, 25-23 victory. Arizona’s Sofia Maldonado Diaz had 16 kills, three blocks, and seven digs …
ACC — No. 2 Pittsburgh and No. 3 Louisville swept to remain unbeaten, and Miami won to stay a game back in the loss column.
Pittsburgh (15-0, 5-0) hit .351 in sweeping visiting Clemson (10-6, 2-3). Kayla Lund and Chinaza Ndee had 22 kills each … Louisville (15-0, 5-0) crushed visiting Boston College (12-7, 2-3) as six players had five or more kills in the 25-14, 25-12, 25-10 victory. BC hit .014 … Miami (14-2, 5-1) hit .371 and swept at Duke (11-5, 2-3). Angela Grieve had 13 kills …
Notre Dame swept Syracuse, hitting .420, and Aubrey Hamilton had 13 kills in 22 errorless attacks … North Carolina beat Wake Forest in four despite 20 kills by the Demon Deacons’ Kamryn Malloy … NC State swept Virginia Tech … and No. 18 Georgia Tech swept Virginia behind 18 kills by Juilia Bergmann, who hit .441 and had nine digs and a block.
SEC — On Thursday, Georgia won in five at Texas A&M, but on Friday, A&M won in five. Also, Tennessee won in four at South Carolina.
Texas A&M (11-5, 4-2) beat Georgia (5-11, 1-4) as Christon Morgan had 18 kills in the 20-25, 25-21, 29-27, 21-25, 17-15 victory. Tennessee (13-5, 5-1) won 25-21, 17-25, 25-23, 26-24 as Danielle Mahaffey had 14 kills, hit .600, and had nine blocks, two solo, at South Carolina (11-4, 3-2). Breana Runnels also had 14 kills, and Lily Felts had 13, five assists, two blocks, and 12 digs. Kyla Manning had 20 kills for South Carolina, which lost despite hitting .311. Tennessee hit .295.
BIG 12 — There were two league matches Friday: Oklahoma won in five at TCU, and Texas Tech beat visiting Iowa State in four.
Oklahoma (8-8, 2-3) rallied for a 24-6, 23-25, 25-18, 25-23, 15-13 victory at TCU (6-7, 0-3). Megan Wilson had 17 kills, two assists, three digs, and three blocks, two solo. TCU’s Taylor Raiola had 18 kills, two assists, two blocks, and 22 digs … Kenna Sauer had 20 kills as Texas Tech (12-7, 2-4) beat Iowa State (12-5, 4-2). Sauer had nine digs and five blocks, one solo. Texas Tech won despite hitting .098.
AROUND THE NATION — The only other ranked team in action Friday was No. 19 Creighton (16-2, 4-1), which swept its Big East match at DePaul (9-8, 2-3). Norah Sis led with 13 kills, and Jaela Zimmerman had 12, three assists, an ace, four blocks, and 12 digs … Also in the Big East, Marquette hit .369 in a sweep at Providence. Taylor Wolf and Savannah Rennie combined for 23 kills in 41 attacks and five blocks …
Houston won a big American Athletic Conference battle at UCF as Abbie Jackson had 20 kills, four aces, 11 digs, and two blocks … Also in the AAC, Lexie Douglas had 21 kills for Tulane in a five-set win at South Florida …
Jamie Peterson had 20 kills, an assist, 14 digs, and three blocks for Dayton in its four-set Atlantic 10 win over VCU … Also in the A10, Rhode Island’s Claire Wagner had 24 kills and hit .435 in a four-set win over George Mason …
Dylan Maberry had 23 kills for High Point in its Big South win over Campbell … Riley Wagoner had 20 kills, and Brooke Van Sickle 19 as Hawai’i won a Big West match at UC San Diego …
Robert Morris beat Youngstown State in five in the Horizon League, but Youngstown’s Paula Gurshing had 24 kills, three aces, nine digs, and three blocks … Also in the Horizon, conference leader Milwaukee hit .416 in a sweep at Cleveland State … Penn won its Ivy League match in four at Columbia, but Columbia’s Noelle Foster had 25 kills, hit .423, and had four digs and a block … Eastern Michigan’s Samantha Basham had 25 kills in a five-set Mid-American win at Ohio. … Tennessee Tech held off Austin Peay in five as Madolyn Isringhausen had 23 kills in the Ohio Valley victory …
American won its Patriot League match at Lehigh in five, and Zeynep Uzen had 22 kills, an ace, 12 digs and a block … Also in the Patriot, Army West Point won in four at Lafayette. Lafayette’s Leanna Deegan had 21 kills.
