South Carolina took two SEC matches from Auburn, Kentucky did the same against Missouri, and Tennessee and Georgia split a pair the past two days.
In the Big 12, Baylor beat West Virginia and Kansas surprised Kansas State as both matches went four.
And another one bites the dust: Oklahoma’s two Big 12 matches Saturday and Sunday at Iowa State have been postponed with no explanation other than this:
“Iowa State’s volleyball matches this weekend against Oklahoma, originally scheduled for Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m., have been postponed per the Big 12’s volleyball match interruption guidelines.
“The Big 12 will work with the two schools to reschedule for later in the season.”
Meanwhile, there are plenty of matches Friday among the four conferences playing this fall.
In the ACC, Wake Forest is at Clemson, Virginia Tech goes to NC State, and Virginia plays at Duke.
In the Big 12, West Virginia is back at Baylor, and Kansas State returns to Kansas.
The lone SEC match Friday has Alabama at Florida.
And in the Sun Belt, the six-match slate shows Coastal Carolina at App State, Georgia State at Georgia Southern, Louisiana-Monroe at Louisiana-Lafayette, Texas State at Texas-Arlington, Arkansas State at Little Rock, and South Alabama at Troy.
To watch any match that is being televised or streamed, get the links at the VolleyballMag.com TV listings.
SEC — Alli Stumler had 43 kills in Kentucky’s two victories at Missouri.
She had 21, and so did Avery Skinner, in the Wildcats’ 23-25, 35-33, 25-20, 25-18 win on Wednesday. Stumler hit .390 and added a block and 13 digs, while Skinner hit .396 after having two errors in 48 attacks, and added seven blocks and seven digs. Azhani Tealer had eight kills, an ace, and six blocks, one solo. Madison Lilley had 51 asists, an ace, six digs, and two blocks, one solo as her team hit .358.
Missouri’s Kylie Deberg led with 22 kills, three aces, and 11 digs. Anna Dixon had 18 kills and hit .324 to go with a block and a dig. Kenna Sauer added 12 kills, two blocks, and six digs. Andrea Fuentes had a kill, 48 assists, and seven digs.
Thursday, Kentucky improved to 4-0 and dropped Mizzou to 2-2 with a 19-25, 25-21, 25-13, 25-16 win. Stumler took 54 swings and hit .241 and added two assists, two aces, and eight digs. Tealer had a career-best 14 kills and hit .458 to go with two aces, a dig, and three blocks, one shot. Skinner had 11 more kills, an assist, and 10 digs, while Elise Goetzinger had six kills and hit .385 to go with five blocks, two solo. Lilley had four kills in six attempts, 47 assists, an ace, a block, and 11 digs. The Wildcats hit .304.
“Both nights, I was just really proud of the toughness we showed after set one.”, said Kentucky coach Craig Skinner. “Our composure at the service line and receiving serve was at an extremely high level tonight. Those two things were a huge difference in our ability to score offensively the rest of the match.”
Deberg had 14 kills for Missouri but hit .186 to go with an ace and six digs. Dixon had 12 kills, hit .357, four blocks, and one dig. Fuentes had two kills, 37 assists, a block, and eight digs.
South Carolina (3-1) swept Auburn (0-4) and then beat the visiting Tigers in four.
Wednesday in a 25-15, 25-16, 25-20 victory, five players had five or more kills for the Gamecocks, led by Kyla Manning. She had nine kills, hit .364, and had an assist, a solo block, an ace, and 10 digs. Ellie Ruprich had seven kills, hit .429, and had three blocks, one solo. Mikayla Robinson had seven kills, hit .357, and added two blocks and a dig. Val Green had eight kills for Auburn, which hit .010.
Thursday, South Carolina won 25-22, 21-25, 25-20, 25-23 as Manning led again, this time with 16 kills to go with an ace and 13 digs. Riley Whitesides had 14 kills, an ace, two blocks, and 13 digs. Robinson had 12 kills, hit .370, and had a dig and six blocks, two solo.
“I liked the way we responded, our challenge to the team was that it’s a good thing that Auburn is playing better. This is what we signed up for, this is playing SEC volleyball, playing good teams, well-coached teams,” South Carolina Tom Mendoza said said. “Let’s match their intensity and enjoy playing. That was our message in the huddle and I thought our team responded really well and you could see that on the court.”
South Carolina hit .168 and Auburn a season-high .162. Lauren Dorrell led Auburn with 12 kills and hit .522 after having no errors in 23 attacks. She also had two digs and four blocks, one solo. Tatum Shipes had 11 kills, an assist, an ace, seven blocks, and a dig. Chesney McClelland had nine kills, seven blocks, and 10 digs, and Jaeden Brown had three kills and nine blocks.
Tennessee (1-3) beat visiting Georgia (2-2) in four on Wednesday, but the Bulldogs rallied to win in five on Thursday.
Lily Felts had 15 kills in Tennessee’s 25-16, 25-19, 24-26, 25-15 win on Wednesday and added an assist and seven digs. Danielle Mahaffey and Jasmine Brooks had 12 kills each and Ava Bell had 11. Mahaffey had five aces, three blocks, and 16 digs, while Brooks added three blocks and three digs, and Bell a dig and five blocks, one solo. Natalie Hayward had 41 assists, five blocks, and 11 digs. Georgia, which hit .144, got 11 kills from Amber Stivrins, who added a block and four digs.
Georgia bounced back on Thursday 23-25, 25-23, 25-18, 15-25, 15-13 as Stivrins led again, this time with 20 kills. She hit .154 and her team .159. Stivrins added two assists, an ace, two blocks, and 13 digs. Stivrins took 78 swings after getting 43 the night before.
Rachel Ritchie added 16 kills, a block, and a dig. Kayla Rivera had nine kills and Sage Naves had five kills, three blocks, and five digs, three solo. Phoebe Awoleye had four blocks, two solo, and two kills.
“I’m so proud of the ladies for pulling out a very difficult, hard-fought match,” Georgia coach Tom Black said. “Amber and Rachel carried big offensive loads and Phoebe’s blocking came on in a huge way when we needed it. They pulled together as a team and found a way. It’s awesome to watch them grow through moments like these, especially in response to a match we weren’t happy about the day before.”
Felts had 19 kills for UT to go with an assist, a block, and 20 digs. Brooks had 17 kills, an assist, four digs, and two blocks, one solo. Bell had nine kills, hit .381, and had seven blocks, two solo.
“I just told them in the locker room, I think losing teaches us a lot. I don’t take any moral victories in the fact that we played hard. I think that’s a given that we show up and we’re playing an SEC opponent,” Tennessee coach Eve Rackham-Watt said. “I expect a battle and we’re going to play hard. We’ve been talking a lot about two-point sets. Obviously, we had three of them that came down to two points. It goes back to our ability to close out and play clean when it counts. We fought.
Big 12 — Baylor (10-1) won its 10th in a row as the Bears battled to a 22-25, 25-20, 25-12, 25-16 win over visiting West Virginia (5-4).
The match marked the season debut of setter Hanna Sedwick, who had two kills in four errorless attempts, nine assists, a block, and a dig. Callie Williams had four kills in six errorless tries, 32 assists, an ace, a block, and nine digs. Their team hit .221.
Yossiana Pressley led Baylor with 14 kills, five blocks, and six digs. Marieke van der Mark and Lauren Harrison had 11 kills each. Van der Mark hit .375 and had five blocks. Kara McGhee added seven kills and seven blocks.
West Virginia hit .055. Kristin Lux and Meghan Dombrowski had 10 kills each.
Kansas coach Ray Bechard got his 400th victory at the school when the Jayhawks (2-7) beat visiting Kansas State (5-4) to snap a seven-match losing streak.
Kansas hit .323 and, not coincidentally, the match marked the return of Jenny Mosser. She had 10 kills, an assist, an ace, six digs, and two blocks. Aya Elnady led with 11 kills, hitting .474, and had two aces, two digs, and a solo block. Kansas hit .323. Setter Elise McGhie had three kills in seven errorless attempts, 32 assists, six digs, and two blocks.
“It was good to get close to full speed, and it is key to this team,” KU coach Ray Bechard said. “Jenny Mosser’s leadership and competitive confidence will go a long way to settle the rest of the team down. We ran a 5-1 system tonight with Elise McGhie, and she spread it around. We had good balance offensively and she was key in our hitting percentage. Beating a team that is playing well, and an in-state rival, will lead to better things for this team.”
Aliyah Carter had 22 kills for Kansas State and hit .450 after having four errors in 40 attacks. Jayden Nembhard had 12 kills and also hit .450 and added an assist, a dig, and two blocks, one solo.
“It was a slow start,” K-State Susie Fritz said. “We thought our left sides were tremendous. Jayden came in and gave us a little bit of a boost. She and Aliyah, I thought, both played tremendously well.
“Really, we broke down pretty significantly in the areas of serving and passing and we weren’t able to generate offense anywhere other than our left (sides). I thought Kansas played extremely well. Their transition game was good, and their serving caused us a lot of problems.”
