There were 28 matches Thursday on the NCAA Division I women’s college schedule and the three ranked teams in action, No. 9 BYU, No. 17 San Diego and No. 23 Colorado State all won.
Now we turn to a busy Friday, when most of the ranked teams hit the court and the initial focus turns to the Big Ten. That’s because No. 1 Minnesota plays host to No. 20 Michigan, No. 2 Penn State entertains No. 14 Nebraska and No. 5 Wisconsin is home for Michigan State.
Both matches in the Pac-12 pit ranked teams as No. 8 Oregon is at No. 11 UCLA and No. 25 Colorado plays at No. 16 Utah.
And in the ACC, the league’s only ranked team, No. 19 Florida State, plays host to Virginia.
The SEC’s two ranked teams, No. 3 Florida and No. 12 Kentucky, are off until Sunday. The Big 12 is idle Friday with a full slate on Saturday, including No 6 Texas at West Virginia and No. 12 Kansas playing host to No. 18 Iowa State.
VolleyballMag.com’s TV/streaming listings let you know where to watch all the NCAA matches that are being shown every day.
BYU routs Santa Clara, USD wins: The Cougars, the top-ranked team in the VolleyballMag.com Mid-Major Poll, beat the Broncos 25-22, 25-17, 25-14 in the West Coast Conference opener for both teams. Veronica Jones-Perry had 10 of her 19 kills in the first set. She hit .302 and also had five digs and two blocks. BYU (12-1) got seven kills from Cosy Burnett, who also had four blocks.
“I loved the focus our team came out with right from the beginning of the match,” BYU coach Heather Olmstead said. “We served tough and made it hard for Santa Clara to get in system. Roni and Cosy (Burnett) both took some great swings. I’m proud of the way the team played.”
Santa Clara (7-6) got nine kills from Jensen Cunningham.
“We just have to reset on our passing and I saw some really good things like Taylor Odom, she’s playing probably the best I’ve seen her in the past year or so,” SC coach Jon Wallace said. “Jensen Cunningham is playing great, attacking the ball, and being a great leader out there in the court. Kirsten Mead is being tough, she has to chase those passes down the court but she’s playing well too. So we have some good things going we just, like I said our passes weren’t there and we will figure that out tomorrow to get ready for Saturday.”
Also in the WCC on Thursday, San Diego (8-3) won at San Francisco 25-10, 25-12, 25-17. Jayden Kennedy and Roxie Wiblin had 14 kills each. USF (3-11) got nine kills each from Nora Buvarp-Lavik, Erica Ronda and Carly Lowry.
Pacific got to 6-6 with a five-set win over Portland (9-4) and Gonzaga (6-7) got past Saint Mary’s (4-7) in five.
Rams roll: Colorado State beat visiting New Mexico 25-20, 25-18, 25-20 as senior Jasmine Hanna had 15 kills and ended the night with 1,007 for her career. Hanna hit .379 and had two blocks.
Breana Runnels had 11 kills and hit .450 in the Mountain West opener.
“This was a good match. I didn’t like the fact that we got blocked nine times and I think that is uncharacteristic of us in some of those situations, but we did kill a lot of balls tonight,” Colorado State coach Tom Hilbert said. “We are over 50 percent every time we swung at a ball and that is outstanding.
“I think it is a testament to our outside hitters since they took the most swings tonight. I also thought that (setter) Katie Oleksak did a nice job with tempo and doing the things she needed to do. It was also one of the best service receive matches we’ve had too. It was very consistent.”
New Mexico (8-5) got 14 kills from Lauren Twitty.
Also in the Mountain West, Boise State swept Fresno State but leading attacker Sierra Nobley did not play, Nevada swept Air Force, Wyoming beat UNLV in five and Utah State improved to 9-4 by beating visiting San Diego State in four.
Arizona beat Arizona State: The Wildcats won at Tempe 26-24, 25-18, 25-22 to improve to 7-3 as Jade Turner had 11 kills, hit .381 and had six blocks, one solo. Kendra Dahlke had 12 kills and nine digs.
“This was a good one to win,” Arizona coach Dave Rubio said.
ASU (10-3) got 14 kills from sophomore Ivana Jeremic. Freshman Megan Beedle had nine kills and hit. 750 to go with three blocks, two solo.
UND wins in Big Sky play: The Big Sky had a full slate and North Dakota improved to 16-2 with its 16-25, 25-13, 25-18, 25-18 win at Southern Utah. Faith Dooley led with 18 kills and Jordan Vail added 15.
“This team just discovered what it means to be a defending conference champion,” UND coach Mark Pryor said. “They were absolutely not ready to play in set one. If that continues we will struggle — a lot. Teams are going to come at us. An off night is a loss, it’s just that simple. That’s also the best Southern Utah team I’ve seen. They are absolutely on the right track.
“We fought back and took care of business. That’s a step in the right direction.”
Also in the league, Portland State improved to 10-3 by sweeping Idaho State, Northern Colorado beat Northern Arizona in five, Sacramento State beat Weber State in four, Eastern Washington beat Montana in four and Idaho swept Montana State.
MAC-tion: Central Michigan beat Toledo in five, Miami beat Bowling Green in four and Western Michigan did the same to Northern Illinois. WMU senior middle Sydney LeMay had 18 kills and six solo blocks.
Worth noting: Five players had eight or more kills as Stephen F. Austin improved to 13-4 after sweeping its Southland Conference opener over Central Arkansas, which dropped to 11-2 … Jacksonville State is 14-5. The Gamecocks swept Tennessee Tech in their Ohio Valley season opener as Allyson Zuhlke had 18 kills.
