Some races tightened, some regular-season titles were clinched, some seasons ended, and, incredibly, there were no upsets Saturday in NCAA Division I women’s volleyball.
Among the winners were No. 1 Texas and No. 2 Pittsburgh, and No. 5 Minnesota, the only AVCA-ranked team that beat another, in this case No. 23 Michigan. Also in the Big Ten, Iowa put a five-set scare into No. 6 Nebraska, but the Huskers ran away with the fifth set.
Yale beat Princeton and the two finished in a tie, so there will be a one-match playoff Friday between them to see who gets the Ivy League’s automatic NCAA Tournament bid.
Fairfield had long clinched the Metro Atlantic regular-season title, but the Stags lost in five at Canisius and with it their 19-match winning streak.
Robert Morris, which had won the Northeast Conference and was going for its 16th win in a row, lost at LIU.
Samford won the battle for the top, beating ETSU to win the Southern Conference.
And Stephen F. Austin is now 28-1 and finished the Southland Conference regular season 16-0 with its 21st win in a row.
The recaps and notes follow, first a look at Sunday’s schedule that includes six matches in the Pac-12. League-leader and fourth-ranked Stanford, up by two games, is home for UCLA. The big Pac-12 battle of the day is in Seattle when the two teams tied for second place, No. 13 Washington and No. 15 Utah, go at it. No. 21 Cal tries to bounce back when USC visits, No. 22 Washington State is home for Colorado, Arizona goes to Oregon State and Arizona State is at Oregon.
The lone Big Ten match has No. 8 Penn State at Northwestern.
The SEC title is on the line when No. 11 Florida — up by a game in the loss column — plays host to second-place and No. 17 Kentucky. Also in the SEC, Alabama goes to Arkansas, Georgia is at Mississippi State, South Carolina is at Missouri, and LSU is at Auburn.
The ACC schedule has five matches and the logjam of four teams in second place has to break up a bit as two of them play each other as North Carolina goes to Florida State. Notre Dame plays host to Syracuse and Georgia Tech is home for NC State. And Virginia goes to Clemson and Boston College goes to Wake Forest.
There are three Big East matches, including No. 14 Creighton at Butler, while Providence is at Xavier and St. John’s is at Seton Hall.
They saved the best for last in the Atlantic 10, where the regular season ends with Dayton (20-7, 13-0) at VCU (22-5, 13-0), which is not only going for its 17th win in a row but the league’s regular-season title.
Streaking Towson (25-2, 15-0) goes for its 20th in a row when it plays host to William & Mary in the Colonial Athletic Association.
The battle for the top of the Sun Belt Conference East comes to a head when Coastal Carolina, which holds a one game lead, plays host to second-place South Alabama.
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Big Ten: Nebraska (22-3, 14-2) ultimately beat visiting Iowa (9-18, 3-13), but was actually trailing 2-1 before winning 25-20, 23-25, 25-27, 25-18, 15-6.
Madi Kubik led with 19 kills and had an assist, an ace, a block and 16 digs. Jazz Sweet had 18 kills and hit .417 and had two blocks and three digs. Lauren Stivrins had 15 kills, hit .542, and had an ace, three blocks and a dig. Callie Schwarzenbach added nine kills and five blocks, and setter Nicklin Hames had five kills, 55 assists, 12 digs and three blocks, one solo. Courtney Buzzerio had 18 kills, 20 assists, two aces, two blocks and 10 digs for Iowa. Amiya Jones, Edina Schmidt and Griere Hughes had 10 kills apiece …
Minnesota (20-4, 14-2) beat visiting Michigan (18-8, 11-5) 25-21, 25-23, 25-20 as four players had six or more kills. Taylor Morgan led with nine kills and hit .500 and had three blocks and a dig. Regan Pittman had two kills and nine blocks, three solo. Paige Jones led Michigan with 13 kills and 10 digs, and Sydney Wetterstrom had 12 kills and eight digs …
No. 7 Wisconsin (18-5, 14-1) maintained its one-game lead with a 25-23, 25-19, 25-22 sweep of visiting Michigan State (14-12, 5-11). Molly Haggerty led with 14 kills, hit .367, and had an assist, two aces, four digs and a block. Dana Rettke had 10 kills, a dig and four blocks. Emma Monks led Michigan State with eight kills and hit .727 as she had no errors in 11 attacks …
No. 16 Purdue (18-7, 10-6) swept visiting Maryland (13-15, 5-11) 25-17, 25-15, 25-19 as Caitlyn Newton led with 15 kills, an assist, two aces, three digs and two blocks, one solo … No. 25 Illinois (13-12, 8-8) swept Rutgers (8-19, 2-14) as Jacqueline Quade had 14 kills and hit .400 in the 25-11, 25-15, 25-20 victory. She added seven digs and a solo block … And Ohio State (11-14,4-9) beat Indiana (13-16, 2-14) 25-21, 29-27, 21-25, 25-21 behind 16 kills by Gabby Gonzales and 13 each by Madison Smeathers and Jenaisya Moore. Kendall Beerman had 16 kills for IU.
Big 12: Top-ranked Texas (19-2, 13-0) won its 14th in a row, a 25-19, 25-16, 25- 23 sweep of visiting TCU (9-14, 4-9) as Micaya White had 14 kills, hit .414, and had an assist, two aces, two digs and three blocks, one solo. Skylar Fields had nine kills, hit .350, and had three blocks. TCU hit .090 …
Kansas (8-15, 4-9) beat visiting Kansas State (8-17, 3-10) 25-18, 23-25, 25-23, 26-24 as four players had 10 or more kills, led by Rachel Langs with 13. She hit .556 and had seven blocks … Texas Tech (15-12, 5-8) won in five at West Virginia (11-15, 2-11) as Emily Hill had 22 kills and hit .317 to go with two assists, three aces and seven digs. Briana Lynch and Katelyn Evans had 18 kills each for WVU.
Big East: The two ranked teams won as No. 9 Marquette beat visiting Villanova in four and No. 14 Creighton swept at Xavier.
Marquette (25-3, 15-1) won its 10th in a row, a 23-25, 26-24, 25-18, 25-19 victory over visiting and third-place Villanova (20-8, 11-5). Allie Barber led with 20 kills as the Eagles won their 10th in a row. Hope Werch added 16 kills and hit .387 and had two aces, 14 digs and two blocks, and Hannah Vanden Berg had 12 kills, hit .321, and had nine digs and three blocks, one solo. Four Villanova players had 10 or more kills, led by Mallory Potts, who had 12 …
Creighton (21-4, 14-1) won 25-21 25-18, 25-14 as Keeley Davis had 14 kills, an ace, five digs and two blocks, two solo. The Bluejays got 10 kills from Jaela Zimmerman, who had two assists, two aces, 10 digs and a solo block. Xavier (10-15, 7-8) hit .018 …
DePaul (13-15, 5-11) beat visiting Georgetown (13-17, 3-13) in four as Brittany Maxwell had 20 kills and hit .441 to go with seven aces, five digs and a block.
Conference USA: Both of the league’s ranked teams won as No. 19 Western Kentucky swept visiting UAB to clinch the regular-season title and second-place No. 21 Rice swept at UTEP.
WKU (28-1, 14-0) won 25-19, 25-17, 25-18 for its 24th victory in a row. Lauren Matthews led with 11 kills and hit .429 and had two blocks and two digs. Katie Isenbarger had four kills, an ace, two digs and seven blocks, one solo. UAB (12-15, 4-10) hit .000 …
Rice (24-2, 13-1) won 25-16, 25-13, 25-12 at UTEP (13-14, 6-8) as Nicole Lennon led with nine kills, hitting .348, to go with an ace, seven digs and three blocks, one solo. UTEP hit minus .071 …
Also in C-USA, Middle Tennessee beat FIU in five behind 17 kills by Dora Peonia, who hit .333 and had six digs and four blocks … North Texas beat UTSA in five as Valerie Valerian had 18 kills, hit .410, and had two assists, three aces, 10 digs and two blocks … FAU won in five at Charlotte and Massiel Matos had 22 kills for and 24 digs for FAU and Sydney Rowan had 23 kills for Charlotte … And Southern Miss beat Louisiana Tech in four as Kess Krutinger had 10 kills, a dig and four blocks, one solo.
Horizon League: The race, tight all season, finally was won by Wright State (24-4, 13-3) as the Raiders won at Oakland (15-13, 4-4) 23-25, 25-23, 25-13, 25-14. It’s Wright State’s first championship. Celia Powers led with 13 kills and added two assists, an ace and 13 digs. Nyssa Baker, one of three players with 11 kills, had no errors in 22 attacks and hit .500 and had two blocks. Teddie Sauer had 11 kills, hit .300, and had seven of her team’s 15 aces, two digs and three blocks, one solo. And Taylor Gibson had 11 kills. Setter Lainey Stephenson had four kills, 46 assists, two of those aces, two blocks and 16 digs. Taylor Dellinger had 14 kills and hit .364 for Oakland …
Green Bay (20-8, 12-4) was tied with Wright State, but it lost to Milwaukee (25-5, 12-4), so those two tied for second. Shari Volpis had 18 kills and hit .395 for Milwaukee in the 22-25, 25-22, 25-18, 22-25, 15-13 victory. Kleja Cerniauskaite had 16 kills, hit .353, and had a block and three digs, and Carmen Heilemann had 10 kills, three blocks and four digs. Ari Miller added nine kills and six blocks, one solo. Taylor Wolf led Green Bay with 25 kills and hit .321 to go with three assists, an ace, a block and 15 digs. Ashley Sledge had 14 kills, five blocks and two digs, and Shannon Coughlin had 12 kills, six blocks and four digs …
Also in the Horizon, Cleveland State beat IUPUI in five as Emily DeGeorge had 23 kills while hitting .373 and she had two assists, an ace, 22 digs and two blocks … And Northern Kentucky won in five at Youngstown State behind 13 kills, three aces, 15 digs and two blocks from Anna Brinkmann.
Ivy League: What a week in the Ivy.
Penn’s program was shut down and didn’t play its last two matches at Yale and Brown.
And then the top two teams played Saturday in New Haven and Yale (15-7, 10-2) came away with a 16-25, 25-22, 18-25, 25-21, 17-15 victory over visiting Princeton (16-7, 10-2). Now they’ll play a one-match, winner-take-all playoff on Friday at Princeton to see who gets the Ivy’s automatic NCAA bid.
Earlier this season, Princeton swept Yale, so it has the advantage in sets and with it won the right to host the playoff.
Saturday, Ellis DeJardin led Yale with 14 kills and had an assist, an ace, nine digs and five blocks, four solo. Rebekah Nemeth had 11 kills and two blocks, and Izzy Simqu had 10 kills, hit .333, and had two digs and nine blocks, two solo. Setter Frances Arnautou had five kills in six attempts and hit .667 to go with 45 assists, an ace, five blocks and nine digs.
Maggie O’Connell had 22 kills and hit .405 for Princeton and had a dig and two blocks, one solo. Clare Lenihan had 16 kills, hit .433, and had three blocks and a dig. Devon Peterkin and Natasha Skov had 13 kills each and Jessie Hart had 66 assistts, 11 digs, a kill and two blocks, one solo …
Also in the Ivy, Dartmouth beat Cornell in four as Nicole Liddle had 20 kills, hitting .436, and she had 13 digs and two blocks … And Columbia won in five at Harvard behind 20 kills from Chichi Ikwuazom, who hit .366 and had two assists, four digs and five blocks.
Mid-American: The MAC has been up for grabs all year and on the last day of regular-season play, Miami won the East and the overall title and Ball State forged into a tie with Central Michigan in the West.
Miami (17-10, 12-4) finished a game ahead of Bowling Green (17-11, 11-5). Miami swept Western Michigan as it hit .347 and six players had six or more kills, led by Avarie Powell’s nine. She hit .533 and had four digs.
In the West, Ball State (17-11, 11-5) beat visiting CMU (21-7, 11-5) 26-24, 27-25, 18-25, 25-19 as Kia Holder had 19 kills, four digs and five blocks, three solo. Ball State has won six in a row …
Also in the MAC, Buffalo won in five at Kent State as Rachel Sanks had 23 kills … Bowling Green beat visiting NIU in five as Katelyn Meyer had 25 kills and Katie Kidwell 20. Kennedy Wallace had 21 for NIU.
Ohio Valley: What a race. And when the regular season ended, Jacksonville State (of Alabama) won the regular-season title, finishing 19-9 overall, 13-3 in the league. Southeast Missouri (20-10, 12-4), Murray State (18-10, 12-4) and Morehead State (21-8. 12-4) tied for second.
Jacksonville State beat Tennessee State in four as Shayla Schmidt and Kaylee Frear had 14 kills apiece. Murray State helped out with its sweep of visiting Morehead State as Rachel Giustino had 15 kills, an ace, four digs and four blocks, one solo. And Southeast Missouri swept Eastern Illinois as Laney Malloy had 13 kills, hit .343, and had two assists, 12 digs and three blocks, one solo.
Around the nation: In the only ACC match of the day, No. 2 Pittsburgh (26-1, 15-0) swept Duke (12-16, 5-10) to clinch the league title as it won for the 15th time in a row. Chinaza Ndee had 12 kills and hit .526 in the 25-16, 25-14, 25-17 victory and had three blocks. Kayla Lund had 11 kills, two blocks and seven digs. Payton Schwantz and Ade Owokoniran had seven kills each for Duke. Pitt tied for the 2017 title and won it outright last year, too …
In the Mountain West, No. 12 Colorado State swept Boise State (16-11, 8-8) to improve to 26-1 and finish the league schedule 16-0 with its 15th win in a row. With a crowd of 3,768 on hand in Fort Collins, Colorado State won 25-21, 25-19, 25-15 for its 21st Mountain West crown. Breana Runnels led with 14 kills and hit .520 to go with a block and five digs. Jessica Jackson had nine kills and Kirstie Hillyer eight while hitting .429 to go with nine blocks, one solo. Setter Katie Oleksak had a kill, 33 assists, four blocks and two digs. Boise State hit minus .073 … Also in the MW, New Mexico swept Nevada, Fresno State did the same to Air Force, and UNLV swept San Jose State …
In the American Athletic Conference, UCF won in four at Connecticut as McKenna Melville had 19 kills and 14 digs and Temple held off visiting South Florida in five as Dana Westfield and Miray Bolukbasi had 21 kills each. Bolukbasi had two assists, 15 digs and four blocks …
League-leader No. 18 Hawai’i was off, but among the Big West results was Julia Crawford getting 24 kills for Cal State Fullerton in its sweep of UC Riverside. She hit .400 and had nine digs and three blocks … Long Beach State won again, this time in four over Cal Poly as Tia Chavira had 16 kills, hit .367, and had six digs and two blocks … Lauren Matias had 17 kills, 15 digs and four blocks for UC Davis in its four-set win at UC Irvine …
Five players had 11 or more kills for Lipscomb in its four set ASUN win at Jacksonville, 13 apiece by Logan Gish, Maddie Phillips and Samantha Rubal … George Mason lost its A10 match in five to visiting Fordham, but Bailey Williams had 24 kills, 22 digs and a solo block … Heaven Harris had 20 kills, hit .357 and had four digs and four blocks for Northern Arizona in its five-set Big Sky win at Montana State … Trinity Williams had 13 kills and hit .522 as Presbyterian stunned and swept High Point in the Big South … Also in the Big South, Brooke Monssen had 28 kills for Charleston Southern in its five-set win at Radford. She added an assist, an ace, 10 digs and two blocks …
In the Metro Atlantic, Fairfield had big numbers in its loss to Canisius, including 22 kills by Laura Seeger and 14 each by Joelle Battles and Jlia Kallen, who had 22 digs. Ella Loussia had 19 kills and hit .319 for Canisius and Hannah Nelson and Leah Simmons had 12 each … Also in the MAAC, Niagara won in five against Quinnipiac and Caroline Leitch had 26 kills as she hit .349 and had seven digs and six blocks …
Kaylee Martin had 25 kills for Illinois State in its four-set Missouri Valley win at Loyola. She had four aces, eight digs and two blocks … Also in the Valley, Melanie Feliciano took 85 swings and led Evansville with 21 kills and 21 digs, but the Purple Aces lost to visiting Southern Illiinois. SIU had 119 digs in that match and Evansville 126, 33 by Gabriela Macedo …
Robert Morris lost in four to LIU in the Northeast Conference, which snapped its 15-match winning streak, but Emma Granger had 25 kills, hit .561, and had three aces, a dig and five blocks …
Patriot League leaders American and Colgate both won and finished 15-1 atop the league, but the top seed in the tournament goes to American. The Eagles (22-7) swept Lafayette, while Colgate (22-6, 15-1) won at Bucknell in four behind 21 kills by Allie Lowe … Also in the Patriot, Ann Ernst had 20 kills for Loyola Maryland in its four-set win over Army West Point. Ernst had 13 digs and three blocks …
In the SoCon, Samford (21-5, 13-1) won at ETSU (23-5, 14-2) for its ninth victory in a row and with it, the regular-season title. Kelsi Hobbs had 17 kills, hit .382, and had three aces and three blocks, one solo, in the 25-20, 25-14, 23-25, 25-23 win. Grace Tiesman had 15 kills, hit .375, and had seven digs and two blocks, one solo, and an ace. ETSU’s Sara Esposito had 17 kills, hit .371 and had seven digs and four blocks … Also in the SoCon, Brittany Major had 19 kills, hit .304, and had 21 digs and eight blocks, one solo, for Mercer in its five-set win over Furman …
SFA hasn’t lost a Southland match since 2017. The Ladyjacks did it again, this time with a 25-17, 25-14, 25-23 sweep of McNeese. Five players had five or more kills and SFA hit .302 … Also in the Southland, Hannah Brister had 19 kills for Northwestern in a win over UIW … Ehize Omoghibo had 17 kills, 12 digs and two blocks for New Orleans as it beat Houston Baptist … Abbie Harry had 21 kills for Central Arkansas in its win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi … Sam Houston beat Southeastern Louisiana in five as Ashley Lewis had 19 kills and 10 digs …
Louisiana-Lafayette got 26 kills from Hali Wisnoskie in its sweep of Little Rock. She hit .532 after having one error in 47 swings and had an assist, 17 digs and three blocks …
And in the Western Athletic Conference, NM State, which had already clinched the league title, finished 16-0 and on a 17-match winning streak after beating visiting Kansas City in four. Megan Hart and Savannah Davison had 13 kills each in the 25-21, 25-23, 23-25, 25-23 victory that left the Aggies 25-3 overall … Also in the WAC, Utah Valley lost to California Baptist, but Kazna Tarawhiti had 21 kills, hit .425, and had seven digs and two blocks.
