The ranked teams in action Thursday in NCAA Division I women’s college volleyball — No. 7 BYU, No. 18 San Diego and No. 21 Colorado State — all won in sweeps.
It sets up a busy Friday with 108 matches on tap, highlighted by No. 3 Stanford at No. 12 UCLA.
Also in the Pac-12, No. 13 Utah goes to Arizona, No. 14 Washington is home for Oregon State, No. 15 Oregon plays at Washington State, No. 19 USC entertains Cal, and Colorado is at Arizona State.
The Big Ten has four matches, a rare night when just one ranked team is playing. No. 11 Wisconsin is home for Indiana, while Michigan plays at Rutgers, Ohio State goes to Illinois and Maryland is at Northwestern.
In the SEC, top-ranked Florida, the nation’s last unbeaten team, goes to Ole Miss. Mississippi State is at Missouri, South Carolina goes to Arkansas and LSU plays at Auburn. No. 8 Kentucky has the day off as it prepares for the match of the SEC season when the Wildcats play at Florida on Sunday.
The ACC, which has no ranked teams, has a full slate. The two unbeatens in league play are in action as NC State plays host to Virginia and Pittsburgh goes to Syracuse.
Also in the ACC, Florida State goes to Wake Forest, Miami is at Duke, Georgia Tech plays at Notre Dame, Clemson is at Louisville and Virginia Tech plays at North Carolina.
The Big 12 has the day off.
No. 20 Northern Iowa is home for Southern Illinois, a Missouri Valley match against the Salukis with the promotion of Karaoke Friday.
No. 22 Wichita State is in American Athletic Conference action when SMU visits in a battle of the only teams left unbeaten in league play. The Shockers — new to the AAC this year — are 14-3, 6-0, while defending-champion SMU is 12-5, 6-0.
Remember that VolleyballMag.com has all the TV and streaming listings every day for every match that is being shown.
BYU, USD win in WCC: The West Coast Conference’s two ranked teams both swept.
BYU routed visiting Portland 25-15, 25-10, 25-14 to improve to 18-1 overall and 8-0 in the WCC.
San Diego is 13-4 overall, 6-1 in the league after its 25-18, 25-20, 25-21 victory that knocked Gonzaga (11-8, 6-1) out of a tie with BYU for first place.
Veronica Jones-Perry led BYU with 16 kills while hitting .538. She had two aces, three digs and three blocks. McKenna Miller added 12 kills, hit .478, and had three digs and block. And Cosy Burnett had seven kills in eight swings with no errors to hit .875 to go with a dig and seven blocks.
“I’m really impressed with how well we passed the ball tonight,” BYU coach Heather Olmstead said. “It made it easy for (setter) Lyndie (Haddock) to distribute the ball, which she did a great job of. We were really dialed in offensively and defensively. I am really proud of the team’s effort tonight.”
Hannah Troutman had 12 kills and seven digs for Portland (13-6, 4-3).
USD’s Jayden Kennedy had 15 kills and hit .312, to go with three digs and five blocks. Addie Picha added nine kills and three blocks and setter Kristen Gengenbacher not only had 37 assists, but four aces and 13 digs.
Gonzaga’s Alyse Whitaker had 12 kills and hit .435 and teammate Payton Mack had 10 kills with no errors in 20 swings to hit .500. She also had five blocks.
CSU milestones for Hanna, Hilbert: Colorado State blasted San Jose State 25-18, 25-15, 25-22 as senior Jasmine Hanna became the school’s all-time kills leader and coach Tom Hilbert got his 700th win.
“It is fun to be a coach long enough to get to 700 wins, but what makes coaching really fun is to see things like what happened to Jasmine tonight,” said Hilbert, whose Rams are 17-2 overall and 7-0 in the Mountain West.
“These guys are here for just a little slice of time and Jasmine has made the most of it. She is such a durable player that she has only missed two matches in her career. I think she is tremendous and it is a great honor for her to earn tonight. I am really proud of her and I can’t wait to get her to sign a poster for me.”
Hanna finished with 13 kills while hitting .522 — she had just one error in 23 swings — and two blocks. Kirstie Hillyer had eight kills and hit .538.
San Jose State (12-6, 4-3), which hit .119, got 15 kills from Giulia Gavio.
Tide rolls in Alabama: The Crimson Tide of the SEC made a rare visit to a SWAC school and came away with a 21-25, 25-22, 25-13, 25-21 win at Alabama State.
It left Alabama 14-6 and Alabama State 16-8, which is 9-0 in the SWAC.
Alabama got 15 kills from Mahalia Swink and 10 each from Ginger Perinar and Leah Lawrence. ASU’s Bayle’ Bennett had 15 kills and Ni’yesha Brown had 14 kills and 10 digs.
Also Thursday: Sacramento won its seventh in a row and stands 16-7 overall, 7-0 and alone atop the Big Sky South standings. Sacramento hit .371 as Mikaela Nocetti had 20 kills and hit .543.
Idaho beat Weber State and is 11-7, 6-1 in the Big Sky to stay atop the North Division. Portland State (14-5, 5-2) fell off the pace by losing in four to North Arizona …
Wyoming swept Nevada and is 10-9 overall and 5-3 in the Mountain West …
Sam Houston remained atop the Southland with its five-set win at Houston Baptist. SHSU is 10-9, 7-0, while HBU is 14-6, 6-2. Things are tight at the top as Central Arkansas beat Nicholls State in four to get to 17-2, 6-1 and Stephen F. Austin is 17-5, 5-1 after sweeping Incarnate Word …
In the WAC, UT Rio Grande Valley and CSU Bakersfield are tied for first at 5-1. UTRGV (11-8) won in five over Grand Canyon, while CSU Bakersfield (12-9) was swept at NM State (12-7, 4-2). Utah Valley, which swept Chicago State, is right there at (9-12, 4-2).
