Not all upsets happen to ranked teams, as Saturday’s NCAA Division I women’s college-volleyball results show.
But, yes, another ranked team went down, as No. 22 Iowa State knocked off No. 11 Kansas in the Big 12.
The recaps follow, but first a look at Sunday’s schedule.
There are two matches in the Big Ten as No. 7 Nebraska plays at Michigan and No. 17 Purdue goes to Maryland.
In the Pac-12, No. 2 Stanford plays at Arizona while No. 13 UCLA tries to bounce back at No. 14 Washington and No. 19 USC tries to do the same at Washington State. Cal plays at Arizona State.
The Big 12 is off, but the ACC has a busy slate. League leader Louisville is idle, but there could be a three-way tie at the top if Pittsburgh wins at Notre Dame and NC State wins at Florida State. Also, Duke goes to Clemson, North Carolina is at Miami, Wake Forest is at Georgia Tech, Virginia is at Syracuse and Virginia Tech is at Boston College.
In the SEC, No. 4 Florida is at Mississippi State and first-place No. 6 Kentucky goes to Texas A&M. LSU plays host to Tennessee, while Missouri is at Georgia, Arkansas is at Ole Miss and Auburn goes to South Carolina.
No. 21 Wichita State is at South Florida in the American Athletic.
There’s a big one in the Atlantic 10 when first-place VCU plays host to second-place Dayton. Both are unbeaten in league play.
Iowa State thumps Kansas in Big 12: The other three league matches held form, but Iowa State came up big against Kansas 25-18, 25-19, 19-25, 25-23 as Samara West had 19 kills and hit .471. Jess Schaben added 18 kills and 19 digs and Alexis Conaway had 16 kills, 13 digs and three blocks as the Cyclones improved to 16-4, 7-3 in the Big 12. It was the fourth straight win for ISU, which lost in five at KU earlier this season.
Kansas (19-4, 8-2) got 12 kills from Jada Burse and 11 from Kelsie Payne, who had 15 digs.
Chiaka Ogbogu had 11 kills, hit .364 and had seven blocks as No. 3 Texas beat West Virginia 25-19, 28-26, 25-17. The Longhorns are 17-2, 9-0 in the Big 12.
Micaya White added nine kills, 11 digs and five blocks as her team hit .358.
West Virginia (14-9, 3-7) got 12 kills from Natania Levak and 11 kills and 10 digs from Payton Caffrey.
No. 24 Baylor rolled past Oklahoma 25-19, 25-22, 25-17. Yossiana Pressley led with 20 kills and hit .395 for the Bears (18-5, 8-2). Pressley also had six blocks. Shelly Fanning added seven kills, hit .412 and had five blocks, one solo.
Oklahoma (5-18, 2-8) hit .108.
Also, Texas Tech (10-13, 3-7) beat Kansas State (13-10, 2-8) 25-18, 17-25, 17-25, 25-23, 15-12. Sara Redding led the Red Raiders with 14 kills and three blocks.
Colorado stops Oregon State in Pac-12: The Beavers were on a five-match run, their longest since 1990, but Colorado put an end to it 25-23, 20-25, 25-23, 25-12. CU (17-6, 7-5), which won in five at No. 15 Oregon on Friday, got 19 kills from Alexa Smith, who had 16 digs and three blocks. Naghede Abu had 14 kills, hit .583, two digs and four blocks. Frankie Shebby had 13 kills, eight digs and two solo blocks.
Oregon State (16-8, 6-6) was led by Mary-Kate Marshall, who had 20 kills, 15 digs and two blocks, one solo.
“It was great to get the sweep on the weekend,” CU coach Jesse Mahoney said. “The Oregon schools are really tough and are playing some really good volleyball. We started out a little rough, ball-handling-wise. By the time we were in set three, we were in a pretty good groove and when we got that win, we kind of rolled over them in set four.”
No surprises in the Big Ten: That starts with No. 1 Penn State (21-1, 11-1) sweeping Illinois 30-28, 25-11, 25-15 to take a half-game lead over idle Nebraska at the top of the standings. Simone Lee led with 16 kills and hit .419 and had six digs, an ace and three blocks. Haleigh Washington had 10 kills, hit .769, and seven blocks, one solo, and Heidi Thelen had 10 kills and hit .444 as the Nittany Lions hit .479 as a team.
Illinois (16-7, 7-5) got 16 kills from Jacqueline Quade, hit .406 and had six digs and a block.
No. 5 Minnesota swept Rutgers 25-9, 25-11, 25-14 as the Gophers (21-2, 10-2) hit .398. Morgan Taylor led with 12 kills, hit .524 and had two blocks. Molly Lohman had nine kills in 11 errorless swings to hit .818 and had four blocks, one solo.
Rutgers (5-19, 0-12) hit .036.
No. 9 Wisconsin overwhelmed Northwestern 25-17, 25-9, 25-16 to improved to 15-6, 6-6. The Badgers, who hit .484, got 12 kills from Lauryn Gillis, who hit .400 and had six digs, and 11 kills from Dana Rettke, who hit .471 and had five blocks. Northwestern (13-11, 3-9), which hit .020, did not have a block.
No. 10 Michigan State (16-9, 9-3) beat Iowa 26-24, 25-16, 16-25, 25-21 as Holly Toliver had 16 kills and seven digs. Autumn Bailey had 15 kills and 16 digs. Illinois (15-10, 4-8) got 20 kills from Taylor Louis, who hit .356 and had five blocks, one solo.
And Ohio State beat Indiana 25-17, 30-28, 25-21 to improve to 12-11, 5-7, while Indiana is 12-11, 1-10. Luisa Schirmer led the Buckeyes with 15 kills and 10 digs.
Creighton tops Friars again: The only other ranked team in action Saturday, the No. 16 Bluejays, beat Providence for the second time in as many nights 25-12, 25-19, 25-20. Creighton, at 18-5, 11-1 in the Big East, hit just .221 and had eight kills each from Marysa Wilkinson and Taryn Kloth.
Marquette (17-7,1-2) stayed a half game in the back in the Big East with a five-set win at Seton Hall. Allie Barber had 30 kills, hit .352, had eight digs and five blocks.
Around the nation: One of those aforementioned upsets was in the Big Sky, where visiting Montana State knocked off North Dakota in five to end a 20-match home winning streak. The 14-25, 25-23, 25-27, 28-26, 15-11 victory left Montana State 8-13, 4-8, while the home team dropped to 24-5, 9-3 but maintained a game lead atop the North standings. Kiana Black led Montana State with 20 kills while hitting .447. Tamara Merseli had 17 kills, hit .357 and had 20 digs for UND. Idaho (13-10, 8-4) kept pace by sweeping Eastern Washington.
In the Big Sky South, Sacramento State bounced back from its first loss by winning at Southern Utah 17-25, 25-17, 25-17, 25-20. Sacramento State (20-8, 11-1) got 23 kills and 11 digs from Shannon Boyle. Portland State (18-6, 9-3) won in four at Northern Arizona to stay two games back …
There was another upset in the Southern Conference. Previously unbeaten Furman was swept by East Tennessee State. The Paladins dropped to 16-8, 10-1 in the SoCon, while ETSU is 13-10, 9-3. Rylee Milhorn led the winners with 14 kills. Furman hit just .051 but still holds a two-game lead atop the standings over ETSU …
Things are tight at the top of both divisions of the Sun Belt Conference where Louisiana (17-9, 10-2) took a game lead over Texas State (18-8, 9-2) by beating the visiting Bobcats in five. They both trail Arkansas State (17-9, 10-3), which swept Georgia Southern.
Carlisa May had 21 kills and hit .562 for Arkansas State. Louisiana’s Stacey Reilly had 16 kills and 14 digs, Dree’Ana Abram had 16 kills and hit .484, and Hanna Rovira had 15 kills and hit. 429. Sydney Davis, like Rovira a product of Volleyball Baton Rouge, had 34 kills. Three players had 14 kills each for Texas State, Megan Porter, Amy Pflughaupt and Jaliyah Bolden.
In the East, South Alabama (15-6, 10-1) and Coastal Carolina (13-7, 10-1) had the day off …
Missouri State keeps rolling in the Missouri Valley. The Bears are 20-5, 12-0 after sweeping Indiana State as Lynsey Wright had 15 kills, hit .636 and had three blocks, one solo. Aubrey Cheffey added 14 kills, hit .538 and had two blocks. Missouri State, not ranked, leads Northern Iowa by two games …
Speaking of rolling, Austin Peay rallied from being down 0-2 to win at SIUE 23-25, 22-25, 25-20, 25-20, 15-8 to build its Ohio Valley Conference lead to two games. Austin Peay is 23-4, 11-1, while SIUE, needing to win to force a tie, dropped to 19-5, 9-3. Ashley Slay had 20 kills, hit .421, and added an ace, four digs and three blocks for the Govs.
Eastern Kentucky (11-15, 9-3) is tied with SIUE after beating Tennessee State for its fourth win in a row. Lauren Kolenik had 14 kills, three digs and four blocks …
The Ivy League is up for grabs. Penn (10-9, 5-5) knocked off league-leader Yale (14-5, 8-2) in five, 15-13 in the fifth, as Parker Jones had 18 kills and 15 digs. Kathryn Attar had 19 kills and 14 digs for Yale. Meanwhile, Princeton (14-6, 7-3) was getting back into the race by sweeping Brown. Harvard and Cornell are a game back at 6-4 …
High Point (20-6, 13-0) won again in the Big South, sweeping Presbyterian as Molly Livingston had nine kills, hit .438, had two aces, two digs and four blocks, one solo. Radford (20-3, 10-2) stayed within striking distance by beating Gardner-Webb …
Hawai’i bounced back from losing in five at Cal Poly by winning in four at UC Santa Barbara to get to 16-7, 10-2 in the Big West, but still two games back in the loss column behind the Mustangs. McKenna Granato led with 21 kills while hitting .436 in the 25-20, 25-22, 19-25, 25-17 win …
SMU (16-7, 10-2) tried to keep pace with idle Wichita State in the American Athletic by sweeping East Carolina. Brittany Adams led with 16 kills, hit .324 and had six digs and a block …
Jacksonville stands alone atop the Atlantic Sun after beating FGCU in four. Jacksonville (15-8, 9-1) holds a half-game lead over Kennesaw State and is up two on FGCU. Mallory Mattingly had 21 kills and 16 digs in the win …
There’s a two-team race atop the East Division of the Mid-American Conference. Bowling Green (14-9, 10-2) has the lead after winning in four at Western Michigan as Isabel Kovacic had 16 kills, six digs and four blocks, one solo. Miami (17-8, 9-3) is a game back after sweeping Northern Illinois. In the West, Ball State (15-10, 7-5) and Western Michigan (14-9, 7-5) had a game lead over NIU and Toledo. Ball State beat Eastern Michigan in five as Ellie Dunn had 15 kills, nine digs and three blocks …
Charleston (22-4, 11-1 Colonial Athletic Association) has a two-game lead in the standings after sweeping UNCW. Jane Fedderson, who hit .500 and had three blocks, one solo, and Lauren Freed, who had 11 digs, had eight kills each …
Three teams are tied atop the Horizon League at 9-3 after Oakland (14-10) beat Wright State in four and Cleveland State (16-7) knocked off IUPUI (13-12) — which was tied with Oakland when the day started — in four. Darien Bandel had 14 kills and 17 digs for Oakland, while Emily Degeorge had 16 kills and 19 digs for Cleveland State. Kori Waelbroeck had 15 kills, hit .406, and had 14 digs and four blocks, one solo, for IUPUI …
American is 20-7 and 11-1 in the Patriot League after sweeping Holy Cross. American hit .330 and Aleksandra Kazala led with 11 kills while hitting .588 to go with five digs and two blocks, one solo …
And in the Western Athletic Conference, New Mexico State (17-7, 8-2) swept Chicago State to maintain its one-game lead over UT Rio Grande Valley and Utah Valley. Tatyana Battle had 16 kills as her team won its sixth in a row.
