Pitt and Louisville won in the ACC Saturday, West Virginia beat Kansas in five for the second day in a row in the Big 12, and in a Sun Belt Conference match, UTA’s Briana Brown had 26 kills and Little Rock’s Laura Jansen had 25.
There is one match on Sunday’s NCAA Division I women’s volleyball schedule when Duke goes back to North Carolina in the ACC.
There is also news of a new NCAA men’s team.
ACC — Pittsburgh (2-2) dealt visiting Boston College (0-4) a 25-10, 25-23, 25-19 loss as Chinaza Ndee had 17 kills with no errors in 23 attacks to hit .739. She also had two blocks and four digs. Kayla Lund had 16 kills, hit .321, and had an assist, an ace, two blocks and seven digs. Valeria Vazquez Gomez had six kills, three assists, 10 digs, and three blocks, one solo, and Sabrina Starks had three kills and six blocks, two solo.
The Panthers, who hit .323, won for the 36th time in a row in Fitzgerald Field House.
BC, which hit .111, got eight kills from Clare McNaughton, who had four digs and four blocks, two solo …
Louisville (4-1) downed visiting Syracuse (2-4) for the second straight night, this time 25-18, 25-21, 27-25 as Aiko Jones had 17 kills, an assist, three blocks, and four digs. Anna DeBeer had 12 kills, a block, and three digs, and Amaya Tillman had four kills and five blocks, one solo. Setter Tori Dilfer had two kills, 33 assists, an ace and four blocks, but her team hit .216.
Polina Shemanova had 13 kills but hit .026 for Syracuse, which hit .136 …
Big 12 — Four players had 12 or more kills as West Virginia (3-3) rallied to win at Kansas (1-5) 25-16, 22-25, 22-25, 25-21, 15-12. It was the first time the Mountaineers swept Kansas in both their regular-season meetings.
“That’s what we came here to do,” WVU coach Reed Sunahara said. “Again, we were down 2-1 in the match. I thought we were locked in, and we were resilient. We never stopped playing. We had some moments where we weren’t very good, but overall, we never stopped executing. Kansas is a good team, and it’s always great to leave here with a win.”
Briana Lynch led with 18 kills, tying her career high, and hit .600 after having no errors in 30 attacks. She had three blocks and two digs. Natali Petrova had 16 kills, four of the Mountaineers’ seven aces, 10 digs, and two blocks, one solo. Audrey Adams had 15 kills and hit .355 to go with five blocks and two digs, and Kristin Lux had 12 kills, three blocks, and two digs. Lacey Zerwas had two kills, 57 assists, an ace, 12 digs, and three blocks, one solo.
Karli Schmidt led Kansas with 17 kills, two assists, an ace, two blocks, and three digs. Caroline Crawford had 13 kills, hit .423, and had two digs and six blocks, one solo. Paige Shaw had 11 kills and hit .364 to go with an assist, an ace, a block, and a dig.
Sun Belt — All the Mavericks needed was to play and when they finally did, they went 3-0 at Little Rock. After winning twice Friday, Texas-Arlington (3-0), whose season was continually delayed by positive COVID-19 tests, won Saturday 20-25, 25-21, 27-29, 25-23, 15-11 as Briana Brown had 26 kills, hit .431, and had a block and a dig.
Brooke Townsend had 15 kills, four assists, three of her team’s six aces, and 19 digs. Simara Peyton had 10 kills, hit .308, and had three digs and six blocks, two solo. Brianna Ford had nine kills and a block, and Michaela Wright had eight kills, hit .316, and added three blocks and seven digs. Setters Mollie Blank and Kylee Kapp combined for 62 assists, four kills and 23 digs.
Laura Jansen had 25 kills for Little Rock, which fell to 1-8. She had a block and 17 digs. Janae Thurston had 19 kills, hit .447, and had three digs and three blocks, one solo. Nedima Kamberovic, who had three blocks, and Nejra Hanic had 11 kills each …
Coastal Carolina (3-0) won again at Georgia State (2-9) as Anett Nemeth had 17 kills in a 25-18, 26-24, 25-23. Nemeth hit .313 and had an ace, four blocks, and four digs. Ani Bozdeva added nine kills, hitting .533, and had two aces, a block and 11 digs. Erin Watt led GSU with eight kills …
South Alabama (4-5) completed the weekend sweep at App State (0-3) with a 19-25, 25-21, 25-13, 25-16 victory. Hannah Harris had 12 kills, an assist, an ace, a solo block, and seven digs for USA, which won despite hitting .185. Lexi Kohut had 19 kills for App State, which hit .080. Kohut had an assist, an ace, a solo block, and 10 digs.
New men’s program — Edward Waters College in Jacksonville, Florida, is adding the sport after getting a $100,000 grant from First Point Volleyball and USA Volleyball.
Last year, six historically black colleges announced the addition of men’s volleyball when the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference got a $1 million grant from First Point and USA Volleyball. Edward Waters, moving from the NAIA to NCAA Division II later this school year, plans to compete in the SIAC in its inaugural men’s volleyball season in 2021-2022.
Click here for more about Edward Waters adding men’s volleyball.
