Top-ranked Texas and No. 3 Baylor both won Wednesday night in the Big 12.
So did No. 6 Nebraska and No. 23 Michigan in the Big Ten. All of Wednesday’s recaps and notes follow — including Rachel Giustino getting 33 kills for Murray State — but first it’s time for the big Big Ten showdown:
Fifth-ranked Minnesota (19-3 overall, 13-1 B1G) plays host Thursday to No. 7 Wisconsin (17-5, ), the two teams tied for the B1G lead. In their first meeting, Wisconsin swept on October 13 as Dana Rettke had 16 kills and hit .500, while the Gophers hit just .160. At stake is not only the conference title, but a possible top-four seed in the NCAA Tournament. Wisconsin is ranked No. 4 in the most recent NCAA RPI, while Minnesota is No. 7.
No. 12 Colorado State tops a five-match Mountain West slate when the Rams entertain Utah State. Second-place Wyoming, two games back, is home for Wyoming.
The top two teams in the Mid-American Conference East Division square off when first-place Miami (16-9, 11-3) plays at second-place Bowling Green (15-11, 9-5).
In the American Athletic, UCF, ranked No. 27 in the RPI but in second to idle Cincinnati in the East Division, plays Temple, while USF is at Connecticut.
There’s a full slate in Conference USA, including No. 19 Western Kentucky, coming off that big win over No. 21 Rice, home for Louisiana Tech. Rice tries to bounce back at UTSA.
Green Bay, tied with idle Wright State atop the Horizon League, plays at fourth-place UIC in the only conference match of the day.
There are four matches in the Big Sky, but league leader Northern Colorado, which has already clinched the regular-season title, is off.
Likewise, there are four matches in the West Coast Conference, but No. 19 BYU and No. 24 San Diego are off. They play each other at USD on Friday.
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Wednesday’s results: No. 1 Texas won its 13th match in a row to improve to 18-2 overall and 12-0 in the Big 12 with a 25-18, 25-16, 25-17 sweep of visiting Kansas State (8-16, 3-9).
Micaya White led with 14 kills and hit .333 and had four aces, a block and 10 digs. Molly Phillips had 10 kills, hit .500, and had two digs and five blocks, one solo. Skylar Fields and Logan Eggleston both had eight kills with one error in 19 tries and hit .368. Fields had three blocks and Eggleston had five to go with three aces and 11 digs. K-State, which hit .118, got nine kills from Brynn Carlson …
Baylor is 21-1, 11-1 after sweeping visiting Kansas (7-15, 3-9) 25-19, 26-24, 25-18. Baylor, which hit .336, got 17 kills from Yossiana Pressley, who had an assist, a block and nine digs, and 13 kills from Gia Milana, who hit .323 and had two digs and two blocks, one solo. Shelly Stafford had 11 kills with no errors in 17 attacks to hit .647 and had four assists, a block and four digs. Ashley Smith led Kansas with 10 kills, two blocks and a dig. Texas plays at Baylor on Wednesday …
Also in the Big 12, third-place Oklahoma (16-7, 8-4) held off visiting Texas Tech (14-12, 4-8) in five. The Sooners are now 7-2 in five-set matches after winning 25-27, 25-18, 22-25, 25-16, 15-11.
Ashlyn Dunbar had 22 kills for OU to go with an assist, a block and 15 digs. Sanaá Dotson had 14 kills and three blocks, and Paige Anderson had 10 kills, hit .368, and had five blocks. Sarah Sanders had seven kills and 10 blocks, one solo and Kylee McLaughlin had 46 assists, three kills, three blocks and 11 digs.
Emily Hill led Texas Tech with 17 kills, but hit .098. She had two assists, an ace, a block and eight digs. Caitling Dugan also had 17 kills and had three digs and three blocks, one solo. Brooke Kanas had 10 kills, a block and four digs. Setter Alex Kirby had five kills, 51 assists, a solo block and seven digs …
Nebraska (21-3, 13-2) won at Michigan State (14-11, 5-10) 25-20, 25-18, 25-23 to stay a half game off the lead in the Big Ten standings. The third set was tied 23-23 before Nebraska took the lead on a service error and won on an attack error.
Madi Kubik led the Huskers with 16 kills and hit .306 and had two digs. Lexi Sun had nine kills, four blocks and nine digs, and Lauren Stivrins had seven kills, hit .667, and had a block. Callie Schwarzenbach had five kills and six blocks, one solo, and setter Nicklin Hames had four kills, 34 assists, an ace and 13 digs.
Lauren Swartz had 19 kills for Michigan State and added two assists, a block and a dig …
Michigan (18-7, 11-4), alone in fifth place in the league, beat visiting Iowa (9-17, 3-12) 25-16, 25-20, 25-18 as Paige Jones had 12 kills and May Pertofsky 11. Jones had an assist, five digs and a block, while Pertofsky had no errors in 24 attacks and hit .458 and had a dig and four blocks. Setter Mackenzi Welsh had five kills in six errorless attempts to hit .833 and had 36 assists, nine digs and two blocks. Iowa had four players with six or more kills, including Griere Hughes with eight …
In the SEC, Texas A&M (18-6, 10-4) swept Auburn 25-17, 25-20, 25-22. Hollann Hans led with 14 kills, hit .323, and had an assist, four aces and 11 digs. Makena Patterson had nine kills and hit .471. Auburn (6-18, 0-13) had one player with eight kills and three with six …
Also in the SEC, Tennessee (12-12, 6-8) won 25-16, 21-25, 23-25, 25-23, 15-8 at Arkansas (8-17, 2-11). Addisyn Rowe led four Vols with 11 or more kills with 16 and hit .462 and had an assist, four digs and six blocks. Jillian Gillen had 22 kills for Arkansas and had two aces, an assist, 10 digs and four blocks …
In the Ohio Valley Conference, Morehead State moved into first place by a half game. Morehead State (21-7, 11-3) swept Eastern Kentucky as Olivia Lohmeier had 19 kills, hit .325, and had three aces, four digs and a solo block. Lauren Rickey had 16 kills, hitting .344. Bridget Bessier had 43 assists and 14 digs. Abby Noll had 14 kills for EKU … Also in the OVC, Rachel Giustino had her 33 kills as Murray State (17-10, 11-4) beat Austin Peay in five to stay one game back in the loss column behind Morehead State, idle Southeast Missouri and idle Jacksonville State. Giustino tied for 10th in the NCAA this season for the most kills in a five-set match. She took 62 swings and hit .371 and added an assist, 11 digs and five blocks, one solo. It was the most kills by a Murray State player in the 25-point rally-scoring era.
Rachel Holthaus added 21 kills, hit .462, and had an assist, two aces, 10 digs and a block. Chloe Stitt led Austin Peay with 15 kills and hit .419. She had an assist, eight digs and a block …
In the Southern Conference, ETSU (23-4, 14-1) broke a tie for the league lead with idle Samford with a four-set win over visiting Western Carolina. Olivia Cunningham led with 19 kills and hit .302. She had four aces, a career-high 17 digs and two blocks. Lauren Hatch had 12 kills, two assists, an ace, six digs and two blocks. Merry Gebel had 16 kills for WCU and Abigail Veit had 15 to go with 17 digs and three blocks, two solo …
Also in the SoCon, Wofford beat visiting The Citadel in four as Riley Coonan had a career-high 18 kills. She had one error in 25 attacks and hit .680 and had a dig and six blocks, one solo. Teammate Catie Cronister had 17 kills and hit .324 and had eight digs. The Citadel’s Sharlissa Jesus had 14 kills, hit .300, and had three assists, four aces, a solo block and six digs …
In Metro Atlantic matches, Manhattan beat Rider in five as Julia Menocal had 15 kills and Vivian Donovan had 14. Morgan Romano had 18 for Rider … Quinnipiac swept Siena and Olga Zampati had 17 kills, hit .417, and five digs, an ace and two blocks …
There were two Northeast Conference matches. Liisel Nelis had 18 kills for Sacred Heart in a four-set win over Central Connecticut, hitting .348 with four assists, 14 digs and a block … Dartmouth hit .430 in a sweep of Merrimack as 10 players had kills, led by Jojo Brown’s nine. She had no errors in 13 attacks and hit .692 to go with two digs and two blocks …
Penn cancels season: The University of Pennsylvania announced Wednesday that the volleyball team was told it would not play its final two matches, at Yale on Friday and Brown on Sunday.
In a statement on the school’s athletic website it said “The decision to cancel the remainder of the season was made following the discovery of vulgar, offensive, and disrespectful posters in the women’s volleyball locker room earlier this week. These actions were in violation of team and Divisional policy and this matter has been referred to University administration for further review in accordance with University policy.”
Penn is currently 11-10 overall and tied with Columbia for fifth place in the Ivy League at 4-8. Yale is in second second place at 10-2, a game behind Princeton, and Brown is in fourth a game ahead of Penn.
Click here to read the Penn news story.
Central Arkansas coach resigns: Jeni Jones Chatman, the indoors and beach coach, recently gave birth to a son and has been on maternity leave. She will not be return. Chatman, who played at Florida, took over the indoor program in 2015 and started the beach program. Click here to read the UCA news story.
