Five alive:
UCLA had to rally late, but the No. 13 Bruins came away with a five-set win at Colorado.
The West Coast Conference’s two ranked teams, No. 8 BYU — behind 34 kills from Veronica Jones-Perry — and No. 18 San Diego, both won in five.
No. 20 Colorado State, down 0-2, won in five.
Even No. 25 Northern Iowa had to win in five.
But when the day ended, there were no upsets in NCAA Division I women’s college volleyball.
There was one set worth noting, the third-longest since the 25-point format began in 2008. Even though Kent State lost to Northern Illinois in the Mid-American Conference, you can’t say the Golden Flashes went down without a fight. NIU won 43-41, 25-22, 25-20.
The recaps follow, but first a look at key matches on Sunday’s schedule.
There are two matches in the Pac-12. If No. 13 Utah (17-3, 8-1) beats visiting No. 19 USC (14-6, 6-3), everyone will be looking a long way up at just two teams, first-place Stanford (17-2, 10-0) and the Utes.
The other match has No. 14 Washington (15-5, 5-4) at Cal (12-8, 3-6).
The only Big 12 match has No. 3 Texas at Oklahoma.
Two unranked Big Ten teams face off when Michigan goes to Ohio State.
The SEC has five matches on tap, including No. 6 Kentucky (16-2, 7-0) playing host to Tennessee (10-7, 3-5) and second-place and No. 4 Florida (15-1, 7-1) at Auburn (11-7, 4-5). Third-place LSU (16-4, 7-2) and fourth-place Missouri (12-9, 5-3) are off
Also, Mississippi State is at Arkansas, South Carolina is at Alabama and Ole Miss goes to Texas A&M.
There are seven matches in the ACC. League leader Pittsburgh (16-4, 9-0) plays host to second-place NC State (13-7, 8-1). Third-place Louisville (13-6, 7-2) is at Florida State (11-5, 5-3). Fourth-place North Carolina (10-8, 7-3), coming off a loss to Pitt, has the day off.
Also in the ACC, Syracuse goes to Clemson, Wake Forest is at Virginia, Boston College goes to Georgia Tech, Duke is at Virginia Tech and Notre Dame is at Miami.
No. 16 Creighton has a home Big East match with Seton Hall and No. 21 Wichita State plays host to ECU in an American Athletic Conference match.
Remember that VolleyballMag.com has all the TV and streaming listings every day for every match that is being shown.
Top teams prevail in Big Ten: Start with No. 5 Minnesota, which beat visiting No. 9 Wisconsin 21-25, 25-18, 25-21, 25-22.
The Gophers (19-2, 8-2 B1G) beat Wisconsin (14-5, 5-5) for the sixth time in a row and second this season. Minnesota won a five-setter at Wisconsin on October 4. This time, Alexis Hart was nearly unstoppable as she led with 23 kills while hitting .367. Stephanie Samedy had 11 kills, 20 digs and four blocks and Jasmyn Martin added 10 kills, two digs and three blocks. Molly Lohman had six kills and six blocks.
Wisconsin got 22 kills from Dana Rettke, who had no errors in 34 swings and hit .647 and had four blocks, one solo. Tionna Williams had 11 kills, hit .320 and had six blocks, one solo. Madison Duello had 10 kills and four blocks.
Top-ranked Penn State (19-1, 9-1) rolled over Indiana 25-21, 25-13, 25-15 as Haleigh Washington had 13 kills with one error in 5 attacks to hit .800. Simone Lee had eight kills and Heidi Thelen had seven. Indiana (12-10, 1-9) got seven kills each from Kendall Beerman and Kamryn Malloy.
No. 7 Nebraska grinded to a 25-19, 24-26, 25-20, 25-17 victory over visiting Illinois in a match that marked the return to Lincoln of former assistant and first-year Illinois coach Chris Tamas.
Nebraska (16-4, 9-1) kept pace at the top of the league with Penn State as Mikaela Foecke had 17 kills and eight digs. Annika Albrecht added 10 kills, Jazz Sweet had 11 kills and hit .526, and Briana Holman had 10 kills.
The Illini (16-5, 7-3) fell two games off the lead. Ali Bastianelli led with 13 kills on 17 errorless swings and hit .765. She also had five blocks. Beth Prince added 12 kills and three blocks.
Tenth-ranked Michigan State (15-4, 8-2) made short work of Maryland (14-8, 3-7) 25-13, 25-17, 25-17 to stay a game behind the leaders. Brooke Kranda led with 11 kills and hit .588 and Alyssa Garvelink had 10 kills and hit .562. Gia Milana led the Terps with nine kills.
No. 17 Purdue (16-4, 6-4) destroyed visiting Rutgers (5-17, 0-10) 25-11, 25-21, 25-16. Danielle Cuttino led with 10 kills.
And Iowa (15-8, 4-6) beat Northwestern (12-10, 2-8) as Taylor Louis had 11 kills and hit .625.
UCLA rallies at CU, Stanford, Oregon roll: The fourth and fifth sets alone were worth the price of admission at Colorado as UCLA prevailed 25-17, 15-25, 18-25, 28-26, 16-14. UCLA improved to 13-6, 6-4 as freshman Jenny Mosser recorded a career-best 28 kills, hitting .400 with six digs, senior Sarah Sponcil posted personal highs with 63 assists, 25 digs and six blocks and senior Reily Buechler had a season-best 23 kills to go with 12 digs.
While the Bruins were coming off a tough loss Friday at Utah, Colorado had upset USC on Friday.
The Bruins trailed 24-23 and 25-24 before closing out the fourth set on a kill by Buechler. In the fifth, CU (15-6, 5-5) led 14-13 when Mosser tied it. UCLA took the lead on Mosser’s kill and it ended on a hitting error by Colorado’s Frankie Shebby.
Alexa Smith led Colorado with 27 kills and 17 digs. Shebby had 16 kills and 16 digs to go with seven blocks, two solo, and Naghede Abu had 12 kills, hit .409 and had seven blocks.
Stanford blasted visiting Washington State (13-9, 2-8) 25-22, 25-18, 25-14. Kathryn Plummer led with 10 kills, five digs and two blocks and Merete Lutz had nine kills and three blocks. Taylor Mims had 18 kills for WSU.
No. 15 Oregon kept Arizona State winless 25-20, 25-21, 25-14. Oregon (13-5, 6-4) as Jolie Rasmussen led with 10 kills while hitting .360. She also had eight digs and two blocks. Sumeet Gill had nine kills, hit .642 and had six blocks.
Arizona State (10-12, 0-10) got 14 kills from Oluoma Okaro, who had eight digs and two blocks, one solo.
KU, ISU, WVU all win in Big 12: No. 11 Kansas beat visiting Texas Tech 25-22, 25-18, 25-14 as Madison Rigdon had 14 kills, hit .407, and had two aces, eight digs and four blocks. KU is 18-3, 7-1 in the Big 12, while Texas Tech fell to 13-8, 2-6.
No. 22 Iowa State dispatched visiting TCU 25-14, 25-17, 25-16 to improve to 14-4, 5-3, while the Horned Frogs, who hit minus -.043, are 9-11, 1-7.
Alexis Conaway and Samara West led Iowa State with nine kills each. West hit .692 after no errors in 13 attacks, and had four blocks, one solo. Conaway hit .368 and had five blocks, three solo, and five digs.
West Virginia held off visiting Kansas State 16-25, 25-19, 25-22, 19-25, 15-11 as Payton Caffrey had 25 kills.
WVU is 14-7, 3-5, while K-State fell to 9-12, 2-6. Caffrey also had nine digs and two blocks. Teammate Natania Levak had 10 kills and Mia Swanegan nine and four blocks. Peyton Williams led TCU with 12 kills.
BYU, USD get away with WCC wins: Jones-Perry had a career match for BYU (21-1, 10-0) in a 21-25, 22-25, 25-18, 25-12, 15-11 win at Loyola Marymount. She not only had a career-high 34 kills, but hit .441 to go with three aces and six digs. What’s more, the 34 kills are the most for BYU since the NCAA went to rally scoring in 2001.
McKenna Miller added 12 kills and Cosy Burnett had seven and 10 blocks, one solo.
Sierra Bartley had 14 kills and hit .417 for LMU (12-9, 5-5). Morgan Rice had 11 kills and four blocks, one solo.
San Diego got out of Malibu with a 25-20, 16-25, 25-20, 22-25, 15-7 win at Pepperdine. The Toreros (16-4, 9-1) got 20 kills from Jayden Kennedy, who hit .317 and had four digs. Addie Picha had 14 kills and six blocks, three solo, and Kaity Edwards had 12 kills.
CSU, Cal Poly, UNI get victories: Colorado State improved to 20-2, 10-0 in the Mountain West, with a 21-25, 24-26, 25-17, 25-16, 15-11 road win. Breanna Runnels led with 20 kills as she hit .306 to go with five blocks, one solo, and three digs. Jasmine Hanna had 16 kills and three blocks, Paulina Hougaard-Jensen had 12 kills, hit .600 and had six blocks and Sanja Cizmic had 11 kills, four aces, three blocks and 14 digs.
New Mexico (11-12, 3-7) got 19 kills from Lauren Twitty, who also had 18 digs.
Cal Poly won its 14th in a row with a sweep of Long Beach State. The 25-14, 25-18, 25-17 win left the Mustangs 19-2 overall and 8-0 in the Big West. Torrey Van Winden led with 15 kills as she hit .387. She had five digs, an ace and two blocks. Long Beach is 6-17, 3-7.
Hawai’i kept pace in the Big West, improving to 15-6, 9-1, with a sweep of Cal State Fullerton. McKenna Granato led with 15 kills as she hit .303 to go with three blocks and four digs. Emily Maglio added 13 kills while hitting .619 and had six blocks and four digs.
Cal Poly has a tough week ahead in the Big West. On Tuesday, the Mustangs to UC Irvine (18-2, 6-1) which beat UC Davis on Saturday. Then comes the big match of the season when Hawai’i goes to Cal Poly on Friday that could well decide who win the league title.
UCI won 25-16, 25-12, 16-25, 25-17 as Haley DeDales had 19 kills and nine digs.
Northern Iowa had to scramble against visiting Valparaiso 25-21, 23-25, 22-25, 29-27, 15-9 to improve to 20-5 overall, 10-1 in the Missouri Valley. and stay a half-game back of Missouri State atop the league. UNI’s Piper Thomas led with 22 kills while hitting .327. She had two digs and three blocks. Karlie Taylor had 19 kills and 14 digs to go with six blocks, five of which were solo. Bri Weber added 16 kills and 25 digs.
Valpo is 12-11, 4-6. Taylor Grabowski had 17 kills for the Crusaders.
Also in the Valley, Missouri State beat visiting Illinois State 25-20, 22-25, 25-22, 25-18 as Lily Johnson had 18 kills and 27 digs to go with three aded and three blocks, one solo. The Bears (18-5, 10-0) got 12 kills from Lynsey Wright and 10 from Aubrey Cheffey and 35 digs from libero Emily Butters. Juma Armando had 22 kills for Illinois State (14-10, 3-7).
Around the nation: Back to that Kent State-NIU match. The longest sets ever came when Manhattan defeated Rider, 45-43, on Oct. 23, 2009 and Houston Baptist defeated Northern Colorado, 45-43, on Sept. 3, 2016 …
Sam Houston State is 13-9 overall but 9-0 in the Southland Conference after beating Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in five. The Bearkats won — check out these scores — 33-31, 22-25, 25-21, 20-25, 17-15 for their best start in league history. Jordyn Vaughn and Taylor Cunningham, who hit .474, led with 20 kills apiece. Vaughn had 14 digs, while Cunningham had five blocks, one solo …
Florida Gulf Coast swept Stetson for its eighth win in a row. FGCU (17-6, 7-1 ASUN) has won 22 sets in a row. Amanda Carroll had 17 kills, hit .400, had 11 digs and two blocks, one solo as FGCU pulled into a three-way tie atop the league with idle Kennesaw State and Jacksonville … Marquette fell out of a tie for first with Creighton in the Big East with a five-set loss to visiting Butler …
Sacramento State just keeps on rolling. The Hornets’ 10th consecutive win, 24-26, 25-20, 25-21, 28-30, 15-11 at Eastern Washington, left them 19-7 overall, 10-0 and alone atop the South Division of the Big Sky after Mikaela Nocetti had 23 kills and 17 digs. They hold a two-game lead over Portland State (17-5, 8-2), which swept Idaho. North Dakota (23-4, 8-2) leads the North by a game over Idaho. North Dakota swept Weber State …
In the Big South, High Point improved to 18-6, 11-0 with a four-set win at Winthrop. Haley Barnes had 17 kills and 23 digs as the Panthers won their 13th in a row …
Fairfield is 15-6, 10-0 in the Metro Atlantic after a sweep of Manhattan … Army and Navy both won to get to 8-1 and stay one game behind American in the Patriot League …
And in the Sun Belt, Texas State (17-7, 8-1) swept Georgia State (8-15, 2-8), while Louisiana (15-9, 8-2) lost in five to Coastal Carolina (12-7, 9-1), making for a pretty tight race at the top, where South Alabama (14-5, 9-0) stands after having Saturday off.
Worth noting are the stats from the last two matches for Texas State junior middle Madison Daigle. Friday against Georgia Southern she had 10 kills in 20 errorless swings to hit .500 while getting three aces, two digs and three blocks, one solo. Then Saturday, the product of Volleyball Baton Rouge had 11 more kills, hit .368, four more aces, three digs and a solo block.
