Of course there was an upset. After all, this is NCAA Division I women’s volleyball in 2019.Â
But of the 13 ranked teams that played Saturday, just No. 21 Illinois fell victim when the Illini lost to Michigan, which is not currently but has been ranked this season.
Among the winners were two teams coming off upsets, No. 4 Wisconsin and No. 9 Creighton. There were two matches among ranked teams, as No. 8 Penn State beat No. 15 Purdue and No. 16 Utah beat No. 23 UCLA.Â
Among the other winners were No. 3 Baylor, No. 5 Stanford — buoyed by the return of Kathryn Plummer — and No. 7 Nebraska.
Khalia Lanier had 33 kills for USC, her third match out of four with 30 or more kills and Lauren Deaton had 32 kills in Samford’s Southern Conference victory over Furman.
No. 13 Colorado State won again, extending its streak to 23.
Northern Colorado clinched a share of the Big Sky title and Fairfield, which has won 18 in a row, did the same in the Metro Atlantic.
And Stephen F. Austin won again, extending its winning streak to 19 with a win over Incarnate Word that clinched the Southland Conference title.
The recaps and notes follow, but first a look at Sunday’s schedule.
The lone Big Ten match of the day puts No. 7 Minnesota at Ohio State, which is coming off that upset of Wisconsin.
There are three Pac-12 matches as three of the tour teams tied for second are in action when No. 14 Washington goes to Oregon State, No. 20 Cal is at Arizona State, and No. 24 Washington State plays at Oregon.
Second-ranked Pittsburgh leads a seven-match slate in the ACC as the Panthers are home for Clemson. Second-place Notre Dame is at Miami, Georgia Tech is at Virginia, North Carolina goes to Wake Forest, Florida State is home for Louisville, Virginia Tech goes to Syracuse, and NC State plays at Duke.
All three ranked SEC teams are in action as No. 12 Florida goes to Mississippi State, No. 18 Kentucky plays at Auburn, and No. 25 Texas A&M is at LSU. Missouri goes to Georgia, South Carolina is at Ole Miss and Tennessee is at Alabama.
The lone Big West match has No. 19 Hawai’i at UC Riverside.
The Big 12 is off.
There are six matches in Conference USA but none bigger than the showdown of the league leaders when No. 22 Western Kentucky (25-1), 11-0) goes to No. 17 Rice. WKU has won 21 in a row and Rice (22-1, 11-0) is on a 13-match winning streak. Rice is No. 17 in the NCAA RPI and WKU is No. 27.
There’s also a key match in the American Athletic Conference when the two teams tied for the top of the East square off as Cincinnati (21-5, 12-1) goes to UCF (19-6, 12-1). UCF is No. 28 in the RPI and Cincinnati No. 31.Â
A few big streaks are on the line Sunday, too.
VCU, which has won 14 in a row, has an Atlantic 10 match at Rhode Island.
Towson, goes for its 18th in a row when the Tigers play a Colonial Athletic Association match at UNCW.Â
Fairfield plays a home Metro Atlantic match against Saint Peter’s.
South Dakota clinched the Summit League title on Friday, but the Coyotes are still trying to extend their 22-match winning streak when they play at North Dakota.
Want to watch a match? We’ve got you covered.Â
Click here for the complete NCAA.com schedule and to watch any match that is being shown, go to the VolleyballMag.com daily TV and streaming listings. One click will take you right to the broadcast.
Big Ten: Michigan (17-7, 10-4), which had lost four of five, has now won four in a row after its 25-23, 25-15, 23-25, 25-18 upset of Illinois (12-11, 7-7). Michigan beat Illinois both times in a B1G regular season for the first time since 2007. Four Wolverines had 12 or more kills, including Sydney Wetterstrom, who had 14 and hit .333. She had an assist, three blocks, and four digs. May Pertofsky had 13 kills, also hit .333, and had an ace, four blocks and a dig. Paige Jones had 12 kills, three aces, a block and six digs, and Cori Crocker had 12 kills with one error in 15 swings to hit .733 and had two digs and three blocks, one solo.
Illinois, which hit .126, got 10 kills from Jacqueline Quade, but she hit .056. Mica Allison had nine kills and Ashlyn Fleming eight, four aces, and four blocks, one solo …
Wisconsin (17-5, 13-1) bounced back easily at Maryland (12-14, 4-10) with a 25-18, 25-13, 25-13 victory that saw Molly Haggerty get 11 kills and hit .409 and Dana Rettke had 10 kills and hit .350. Grace Loberg had 13 kills, an ace, a dig and five blocks. Haggerty had two aces, three digs and a block, while Rettke had an assist, an ace, a dig and six blocks. Madison Duello had six kills, hit .500, and had four blocks. Maryland hit .045 …Â
Nebraska (20-3,12-2) won easily at Iowa (9-16, 3-11) as Lexi Sun had 14 kills in a 25-21, 25-18, 25-14 victory. Sun, who hit .444, had two aces, three blocks and six digs. Jazz Sweet and Madi Kubik had nine kills each and Lauren Stivrins eight while hitting .600 to go with five blocks, one solo. Griere Hughes had 12 kills for Iowa, which hit .103 …
No. 8 Penn State (19-4, 12-2) beat No. 15 Purdue (16-7, 8-6) 25-17, 21-25, 25-18, 25-15 as Jonni Parker led with 17 kills, an assist, two aces, two blocks and seven assists. Tori Gorrell had 14 kills, hit .333, and had five blocks and three digs. Serena Gray had 13 kills and hit .400 and Kaitlyn Hord had nine kills and six blocks, one solo. Blake Mohler led Purdue with 13 kills and hit .360 go to with four blocks and five digs. Caitlyn Newton had 12 kills and Grace Cleveland 10, an ace, three blocks and six digs …Â
Michigan State (14-10, 5-9) rallied in five to beat Northwestern (10-16, 1-12) to break a six-match B1G losing streak. Nine players had kills for the Spartans, including 10 each by Biamba Kabengele and Lauren Swartz, in the 20-25, 25-11, 23-25, 25-14, 15-10 victory. State hit .174, but Northwestern hit .079. Nia Robinson had 12 kills for the Wildcats …Â
And Indiana (13-14, 2-12) swept at Rutgers (8-17, 2-12) 25-18, 25-14, 25-17 as Breana Edwards had 13 kills, an ace, seven digs and three solo blocks.
Pac-12: Stanford (18-4, 12-2) won its fifth in a row with a 25-16, 25-17, 25-16 victory at Arizona (12-14, 2-12) as the Cardinal hit .358, which included a big performance by All-American outside hitter Kathryn Plummer. Plummer, who has been out almost six weeks with an injury, had 15 kills in 22 swings with one error and hit .636. Meghan McClure had 13 kills and hit .324 to go with three assists, an ace, two blocks and nine digs. Jenna Gray had three kills in seven errorless attempts and her 38 assists put her over the 5,000 mark. She also had four digs and two blocks, one solo. Paige Whipple had 16 kills for Arizona …
Utah (18-7, 10-4), which had lost three of four, has now won four in a row after its 22-25, 25-22, 25-22, 25-22 victory at UCLA (13-10, 8-6).
Dani Drews led with 19 kills despite hitting .176. Utah hit .303 as a team. Drews had three blocks and five digs. Kenzie Koerber had 14 kills and hit .400 and had an assist, an ace, three blocks and 15 digs. Zoe Weatherington had 13 kills, hit .318, and added a block and two digs. Berkeley Oblad had 12 kills, hit .524, and had four blocks and a dig, and Phoebe Grace had seven kills. Setter Saige Ka’aha’aina-Torres had a kill, 52 assists, 12 digs and five blocks, one solo.
Utah also won at USC on Friday, so this is the first time in program history that Utah has swept the weekend against USC and UCLA on the road as well as the first time in program history the Utes went 4-0 against them in a season.
Mac May led UCLA with 17 kills and hit .308. She had an assist, three aces, two blocks, and eight digs. Savvy Simo had 15 kills, hit .314, and had an ace and seven digs. Lexi Hadrych had 11 kills and hit .318 and had three blocks …
USC (14-10, 8-6) got 30 or more kills from Khalia Lanier for the third time in four matches as the Trojans beat visiting Colorado (11-13, 3-11)Â 25-15, 23-25, 28-26, 25-19. Lanier had 33 kills with just five errors in 62 attempts to hit .452. She had five digs and a block. Emilia Weske had 10 kills, an ace, six digs and two blocks, and Kalen Owes had eight kills, an assist, three digs and two blocks. Justine Spann led Colorado, which had won three in a row, with 17 kills, two assists, seven digs and three blocks, two solo. Elissa Alcantara had 15 kills.
Big 12: Baylor (20-1, 10-1) won 25-18, 25-20, 25-21 at Texas Tech (14-11, 4-7) as the Bears notched their 16th sweep of the season. Yossiana Pressley led with 17 kills and hit .325 and had a block and four digs. Gia Milana had 11 kills with one error in 18 swings and hit .556 and had two blocks, one solo. Marieke Van der Mark had 10 kills and hit .389 and had four blocks. Hannah Lockin had a kill, 42 assists, an ace, two blocks and 14 digs. Emily Hill had 11 kills for the Red Raiders …
Julia Adams had 23 kills and hit .500 as TCU (8-13, 3-8) beat visiting Kansas (7-14, 3-8) 26-24, 23-25, 25-17, 25-22. Adams also had six blocks, one solo, and a dig. elan McCall and Katie Clark had 14 kills each and Clark had an assist, two aces, four digs and seven blocks. Morgan Christon had 13 kills, three digs and four blocks, two solo, for Kansas. Zoe Hill had 12 kills and hit .455 to go with six blocks, one solo …Â
Iowa State won (16-8, 7-5) at Kansas State (8-15, 3-8) 25-21, 25-20, 25-18. Eleanor Holthaus and Avery Rhodes, who hit .600, had 10 kills each for ISU.Â
Big East: No. 9 Creighton and No. 10 Marquette won in sweeps.
Creighton (20-4, 13-1), which was coming off being swept at Villanova, won 27-25, 25-17, 25-15 at Georgetown (13-15, 3-11) as Davis Keeley had 14 kills, an ace and five digs. Eight different Bluejays had kills, including setter Madelyn Cole, who had five with no errors in nine attempts, 28 assist, seven of the team’s eight aces, and 10 digs. Georgetown his .098 …Â
Marquette (23-2, 13-1) won its eighth in a row, 25-21, 25-22, 25-21 at DePaul (11-15, 3-11). Allie Barber had 12 kills and tied the Marquette all-time kills record. Barber also had an assist, two aces and two digs. Hope Werch and Ellie Koontz had 12 kills each and both hit over .400 …
Villanova (20-6, 11-3) won again, this time a sweep of visiting Providence (6-21, 1-13) as Sanaa Barnes led a balanced attack with 10 kills, hitting .318. Allie Olsonoski had nine kills in 19 errorless attacks and hit .474. Jennifer Leitman had 11 kills for PC … Xavier (10-14, 7-7) won in five at Seton Hall (7-21, 2-12) as Jayda Carlton had 17 kills, Lauren Hanlon 14 and 14 digs, and Ellie Chaffee and Kelly Franxman 13 kills each. Julia Watkins had 19 kills for Seton Hall.
WCC: No. 11 BYU (22-3, 13-1) cruised at San Francisco (6-18,2-11) 25-17, 25-14, 25-23 as Madelyn Robinson led with 13 kills and eight digs. She hit .310 and added a block. Kathya Garcia led USF with 10 kills but the Dons hit .082 …
San Diego (20-5, 13-1) kept pace at the top with a 25-17, 25-21, 27-25 sweep at Santa Clara (16-10, 6-7). Thana Fayad had 12 kills, two aces and eight digs, and Katie Lukes had 11 kills for USD. Julia Sangiacomo led SC with 13 kills, seven digs and two blocks, and Allison Kantor had 11 kills, two blocks and 19 digs …
Pacific beat visiting Portland in four as four players had 10 or more kills, led by Carissa Bradford’s 15 and Allison Dennemann’s 14. Dennemann had 16 digs and two blocks. Setter Gabby Leo had four kills in eight errorless attempts, 48 assists, and 22 digs. Shayla Hoeft had 14 kills for Portland, hit .393, and had three digs and four blocks …
Sarah Penner had 17 kills, two aces, five digs and six blocks, one solo, as Gonzaga won in five at Saint Mary’s. Kennedy Croft had 12 kills and 17 digs. Breyan Ashley had 15 kills for Saint Mary’s and added four aces, two blocks, and 11 digs, while Elena Baka had 17 kills, five blocks, and five digs.
Mountain West: Colorado State (24-1, 14-0) won 25-21, 25-23, 25-23 at San Diego State (12-13, 5-9). Breana Runnels led with 15 kills and had an assist, an ace and seven digs. Jessica Jackson had 10 kills. Olivia Nicholson had nine and hit .533 to go with an ace, three assists, four blocks, and six digs. Kirstie Hillyer had eight kills and four blocks …
Second-place Wyoming, two games back, won in four at Fresno State. Tara Traphagan led a balanced attack with 13 kills and hit .500 to go with four digs and two blocks. Wyoming hit .364. Desiree Sukhov had 15 kills for Fresno State and had two aces, six digs and a block …
UNLV won in four at Utah State behind 22 kills by Mariena Hayden, who hit .306 and had an assist, an ace, 10 digs and four blocks, one solo … Nevada swept Air Force and Boise State did the same to New Mexico as Lauren Ohlinger had 21 kills, hit .341, and had an ace and nine digs.
Big Sky: Northern Colorado (19-7, 13-1), which is running away with the league, had to go five to beat visiting Idaho State (6-20, 3-11) and clinch a share of the title.
Kailey Jo Ince led with 29 kills in the 28-26, 25-27, 25-12, 21-25, 15-11 victory. Jo Ince had three digs and two blocks. Jadyn McCartney had 20 kills and hit .395 and had an assist, an ace, a block and seven digs. Taylor Muff had 12 kills, three aces, three blocks and 14 digs. And Daisy Schultz had a career-high 72 assists to go with two aces, three blocks and seven digs. Haylie Keck had 17 kills for Idaho State and hit .341 and added three assists and 15 digs. Brooke Pehrson had 10 kills, two aces, two digs and three blocks, two solo …Â
All three of the others Big Sky matches were sweeps. Sacramento State beat Southern Utah, Montana beat Idaho, and Northern Arizona beat Portland State.
Big South: Winthrop (21-4, 13-0) won its ninth in a row, a four-set win over UNC Asheville as Morgan Bossler led with 16 kills … High Point (19-11, 11-1) stayed right behind with a sweep at Hampton as Gabrielle Idlebird had 13 kills, hit .500, and had an ace, two digs and five blocks … USC Upstate beat Gardner-Webb in four behind 18 kills by Emily Russell, who hit .448, and Radford swept Campbell.
Ivy League: Princeton leads by a game and Yale is right behind as both swept on Saturday.
Princeton (15-6, 11-1) won its ninth in a row as four players had 10 or more kills against Harvard, while Yale (14-7, 10-2) got 11 kills from Rebekah Nemeth as it beat Columbia. Chichi Ikwuazom had 17 kills for Columbia, hit .314, and had five blocks. There are two more matches left in the Ivy’s regular season and Princeton goes to Yale on Saturday after playing at Brown on Friday … Penn beat Dartmouth in four and Autumn Leak had 15 kills, three digs and three blocks … Cornell beat Brown in four as Jada Stackhouse had 13 kills, hit .524, and had three digs and nine blocks, three solo.
Metro Atlantic: Fairfield (20-14, 15-0) beat Rider in four as Joelle Battles and Mayda Garcia had 11 kills each and Kaylie Butts had 10 and six blocks. Setter Manuela Nicolini had a kills, 42 assists, two aces, 13 digs and seven blocks. Fairfield leads Rider, Marist and Niagara by five games in the standings … Marist beat Niagara in five as Nikki DeSerpa had 20 kills, an assist, an ace, seven dig and a block … Canisius beat Siena in five, Quinnipiac swept St. Peter’s and Iona did the same to Manhattan as Tess Connolly had 14 kills, an ace, 13 digs and two blocks.
Mid-American: Central Michigan’s lead in the West is dwindling after CMU lost again and Ball State won.Â
Central Michigan (20-6, 10-3) got swept at Ohio (15-12, 7-7) as Tia Jimerson led the Bobcats with 13 kills, hitting .500. She had two digs and six blocks, one solo. Ohio hit .320 …Â
Ball State (15-11, 9-5) won its fourth in a row, sweeping at NIU, and after playing at Eastern Michigan goes to Central Michigan on Saturday to end the regular season. Natalie Risi had 17 kills and hit .310 for Ball State …Â
Miami (16-9, 11-3), the East leader, also lost, falling in five at Buffalo, which got 24 kills from Rachel Sanks. Sanks hit .400 and had three digs and three blocks … Bowling Green (15-11, 9-5) pulled to two games back with a sweep at Akron as Katelyn Meyer had 13 kills … Kent State beat Eastern Michigan in five as Danie Tyson had 17 kills, hit .469, and had two aces and two digs … Toledo won in five at Western Michigan.
Missouri Valley: League-leader Northern Iowa (20-9, 14-1) won but had to go five at Bradley (13-12 9-5) as Inga Rotto led with 19 kills, hit .385, and had seven blocks, three solo. Karlie Taylor had 14 kills, 15 digs and two blocks, one solo. Rachel Pranger had 17 kills and 15 digs for Bradley … Loyola (19-8, 12-2) kept pace but had to go five as well against visiting Southern Illinois. Five Ramblers had 10 or more kills, led by Addie Barnes, who had 14, an ace and 14 digs, and Elle Van Grinsven, who had 14 kills, an assist, two digs and three blocks, one solo …Â
Missouri State beat Valparaiso in five as Laynie Dake had 14 kills, an assist, four digs and five blocks … Illinois State swept Drake as Sydney Holt and Kaylee Martin had 16 kills each.
Ohio Valley: Now three teams — Morehead State, Southeast Missouri and Jacksonville State — are tied for the lead at 11-3, while Murray State is a game back at 10-4 after losing to UT Martin.
Jacksonville State won in a sweep at Morehead as five players had five or more kills, led by Kaylie Milton’s 10. Olivia Lohmeier had 13 for Morehead … UT Martin beat Murray State in five as Logan Wallick had 19 kills. Rachel Giustino had 25 for Murray State to go with an assist, an ace, 12 digs and three blocks, two solo …Southeast Missouri had the day off …
Abby Noll had 19 kills for Eastern Kentucky but it got swept by Tennessee Tech … SIUE beat Belmont in four as Hope Everett had 17 kills and hit .667 to go with two digs and two blocks … Tennessee State beat Eastern Illinois in four.
Patriot League: The leaders both won as American swept Navy and Colgate did the same to Lehigh.Â
American (20-7, 13-1) got 10 kills each from Zeynap Uzen and Helena Elbaek. Colgate (20-6, 13-1) as five players had seven or more kills … Holy Cross swept Lafayette and Army did the same to Bucknell.
SoCon: Samford had to go five and ETSU won in four as both stayed tied for the league lead.
Samford (19-5, 13-1) won its seventh in a row, a 27-25, 23-25, 25-22, 21-25, 17-15 victory at Furman. Lauren Deaton got her 32 kills in 85 attacks and added an assist, two blocks and 13 digs. Kelsi Hobbs had 17 kills, two aces, two blocks and 15 digs, and Grace Tiesman had 16 kills, four aces, four blocks and two digs. Nicole Mack and Neci Harris had 16 kills each for Furman and Courtney Hoffman had 15. Harris had seven blocks, one solo, and Hoffman had five blocks …
ETSU (22-4, 13-1) won 25-15, 25-20, 20-25, 26-24 at Wofford. Olivia Cunningham had 17 kills, five aces, two assists, a dig and a block. Catie Cronister had 15 kills for Wofford …Â
Western Carolina beat The Citadel in four as Merry Gebel had 17 kills … UNCG beat Chattanooga in four behind 15 kills by Maia Rackel.
Southland: SFA is now 26-1, 14-0 after its 29-27, 25-18, 25-14 win at Incarnate Word that left it four games ahead of Northwestern State. Corin Evans led with 13 kills, hit .303, and had an ace, two blocks and two digs. Three others had six kills …Â
McNeese won in four against Nicholls State as Keegan Nelms had 18 kills and hit .405 … Central Arkansas won in five at Sam Houston as Abbie Harry had 20 kills … Houston Baptist go 17 kills from Kelly Colwell in its four-set win over Northwestern State, which got 19 kills from Hannah Brister … Lamar beat Southeastern Louisiana in five despite 20 kills by SLU’s Caroline Golden … Texas A&M-Corpus Christi swept Abilene Christian as Madison Green had 16 kills, hit .412, and had 20 assists and six digs.
Sun Belt: Coastal Carolina (21-5, 11-3) won in four at Georgia Southern to pull into a first-place tie with idle South Alabama stop the East Division. Kyla Manning led with 13 kills, hit .370, and had an ace, six digs and two blocks …Â
Texas State (21-8, 13-2), which is running away with the West, beat visiting Arkansas State in four as Cheyenne Huskey had 15 kills, hit .308, and had two assists, two aces, 14 digs and four blocks, one solo … Appalachian State beat Georgia State in four as Emma Longley had 16 kills and 10 digs.
Around the nation: Dayton (19-7, 12-0) stayed a half game ahead of idle VCU (which plays Sunday) in the Atlantic 10 standings with a sweep at Duquesne as Jamie Peterson had 16 kills, hit .306, and had an assist, an ace, six digs and three blocks, one solo … Fordham beat Davidson in five in the Atlantic 10 but Hattie Rodriguez had 26 kills in a losing effort …Â
Robert Morris (24-3, 14-0) won its 14th in a row, a Northeast Conference sweep of St. Francis Brooklyn as Emma Granger and Lauren Kolenik had 12 kills each …Â
In the Western Athletic Conference, NM State won its 15th in a row as the Aggies improved to 23-3, 14-0, with a sweep of second-place Grand Canyon (21-5, 11-3). Megan Hart led with 15 kills, hitting .440 …
Hofstra won a CAA match in five at UNCW as Laura Masciullo had 24 kills, hit .321, and had an ace, 10 digs and a block …
In the only ASUN match of Saturday, North Alabama beat NJIT in five despite 18 kills by Madi Busler.
