No. 1 Minnesota almost went down.
Nos. 8, 9, 23, 24 and 25 did.
In what has been a relatively quiet preseason, in the last weekend before NCAA volleyball heads into conference play, things got unpredictable.
Most notably was the visiting, top-ranked and unbeaten Gophers escaping Boise State in five on Friday, 25-22, 25-19, 21-25, 23-25, 15-12.
The other ranked teams that lost: No. 8 Creighton to Wichita State, No. 9 Kansas to Santa Clara, No. 23 Michigan State to Notre Dame, No. 24 North Carolina to Loyola Marymount and No. 25 Ohio State to Western Kentucky. It’s worth noting that Wichita State and WKU have been ranked in the AVCA poll previously this season and that Notre Dame got votes last week.
Before recapping Friday, a look at Saturday’s schedule, one that includes 217 matches.
Minnesota is back in action again, playing both Idaho State. No. 2 Penn State plays Wake Forest, No. 3 Florida plays host to Lipscomb a day after the coach Mary Wise got victory No. 800 at Florida with a sweep of Florida A&M, No. 4 Stanford plays Saint Mary’s and No. 5 Wisconsin plays host to Southern Mississippi.
Sixth-ranked Texas is off, No. 7 Washington is off after sweeping Maryland, and No. 10 Nebraska plays both Northern Iowa and the tournament host, Nebraska-Omaha.
Click here for the entire NCAA scoreboard.
Gophers hold off Boise State: Minnesota led just 12-11 in the fifth before closing out the victory that capped a long day. The Gophers, 10-0, earlier Friday beat Oregon State 19-25, 25-18, 25-21, 25-7 before getting past the home team.
Against Oregon State, freshman Stephanie Samedy had 16 kills and 10 digs. Alexis Hart had 11 kills, Molly Lohman 10 and Regan Pittman had seven kills and seven blocks.
Against Boise, Samedy was huge, with a career-best 26 kills on 76 swings to go with 12 digs and four blocks. Hart had 19 kills and hit .432 and Pittman and Sydney Kleinman had 10 kills each.
Boise State’s Bronco Gym was packed as Sierra Nobley had 23 kills in 73 swings to go with 13 digs and three blocks. Sabryn Roberts added 22 kills and 14 digs and Janell Walley had 17 kills and 11 digs. Boise State is 6-4. Those other losses have come to Arizona State, BYU and UC Davis.
Oregon State, 9-2, came back Friday to sweep Idaho State. Boise State and Oregon State play Saturday.
Creighton, Kansas knocked off: Wichita State beat visiting Creighton 25-20, 16-25, 25-19, 25-22 before 2,857 fans, the Shockers’ second win over a top-10 team ever. Wichita State beat then No. 10 Cal Poly in 2008. WSU (8-2) got 17 kills from Tabitha Brown, 11 from Mikaela Raudsepp and 10 from Abbie Lehman. The Shockers have lost only to Oregon and Cal Poly this season.
Creighton dropped to 7-3 despite a career-high 16 kills from Megan Ballenger, who hit .500. Marysa Wilkinson added 11 kills and Jaali Winters 10. Creighton plays No. 19 Iowa State on Saturday.
Kansas, which lost to Creighton last week, is 10-2 after losing to host Santa Clara 22-25, 27-25, 25-23, 23-25, 15-12. The Jayhawks got 17 kills from Kelsie Payne, who hit .433 and had four blocks, and 15 from Madison Rigdon, who had seven digs and four blocks. Earlier in the day Kansas beat San Jose State in four.
Santa Clara, which also swept Idaho on Friday, is 7-4. Michelle Gajdke led with 21 kills. Hailey Lindberg had 17 and three blocks, Jensen Cunningham had 16 kills and six blocks and Loreen Chloe had 11 kills and 18 digs.
Michigan State, UNC, Ohio State all fall: Notre Dame is 8-1 after sweeping Michigan State 25-23, 28-26, 25-22. The Irish were ccming off a victory over Ohio State, so it was the first time since 1995 that the program had beaten ranked opponents in back-to-back matches.
Jemma Yeadon led Notre Dame with 19 kills, 11 digs and five blocks. Sam Fry had eight kills and hit .375. The Irish hit just .064.
Michigan State, 5-2, had been off two weeks, losing matches at Florida because of Hurricane Irma. The Spartans, who hit a season-low .101, got 13 kills from Holly Toliver and 10 from Brooke Kandra, who had seven blocks.
North Carolina lost at home to LMU 25-17, 25-27, 19-25, 25-14, 15-11 to drop to 2-5, while the Lions are 6-4. LMU’s Megan Rice led with 19 kills and hit .516. Savannah Slattery had 16 kills and Sara Kovac added 15. UNC got 13 kills from Taylor Leath and 12 from Beth Nordhorn, who had seven blocks. Carolina plays Coastal Carolina on Saturday, while LMU travels eight miles to play at Duke.
Ohio State (6-4) continues to ride the roller coaster. The Buckeyes, coming off that loss to Notre Dame five days earlier, got drilled by visiting WKU 25-17, 25-20, 25-16 and then grinded past 1-13 Northern Illinois 25-19, 25-21, 22-25, 25-18.
WKU (12-2) followed up with a win over Dayton 25-12, 25-18, 21-25, 25-18. WKU hit .388 in the two matches combined as Rachel Anderson had 30 kills and Alyssa Cavanaugh 29.
Also in the top 25: Penn State swept visiting Yale 25-9, 25-21, 25-11 to get to 8-0. Simone Lee had 10 kills and her team hit .431 and outblocked the Bulldogs 13-3. Haleigh Washington, who had eight kills, had seven blocks, one solo. Also at Penn State, Wake Forest improved to 8-2 by beating Ohio in four … Florida is 6-0 after it got back into post-Irma action and crushed FAMU 25-14, 25-21, 25-9 for Wise’s 800th victory in her 27th year as coach of the Gators. She also had 81 victories as the head coach at Iowa State. The Gators then swept Northern Kentucky 25-22, 25-15, 25-15. Carli Snyder had 21 kills in the two matches …
No. 4 Stanford is 6-2 — its only losses to Penn State — after sweeping Pacific 25-11, 25-13, 25-19 as the Cardinal had nine aces and Merete Lutz had 12 kills and hit .556 …
No. 7 Washington made short work of previously unbeaten Maryland 25-11, 25-19, 25-18 a day after the Terps upset USC. Washington hit .319 and didn’t commit its first error until its 58th swing. And its first three errors were all stuff blocks by Maryland.
“I think Washington played about as perfect a match as you can play on the road,” Maryland coach Steve Aird understated.
Washington, 10-1, was led by Courtney Schwan’s 11 kills. She hit .417 and had nine digs and two blocks. Carly DeHoog added eight kills and five blocks.
Maryland is 11-1. The Terps hit .096. Gia Milana led with eight kills …
Tenth-ranked Nebraska beat Kansas State 25-22, 25-11, 25-16 to get to 6-2 as Laura Stivrins had 10 kills and six blocks. K-State is 6-6 … No. 12 Kentucky rolled past visiting Louisville 25-20, 26-24, 25-11 to get to 8-2, while the Cardinals are 5-4. UK, which plays Kennesaw State on Saturday, got 15 kills from freshman Avery Skinner. Emily Franklin had nine kills and seven blocks. Louisville hit .092 …
No. 13 UCLA beat Long Beach State 25-20, 18-25, 25-16, 25-15 and is 7-2. Struggling Beach is 1-10. Kyra Rogers led UCLA with 14 kills and hit .440 … No. 14 BYU beat Weber State 25-20, 25-15, 25-22 as McKenna Miller had 15 kills and Veronica Perry-Jones had 13 … No. 15 Purdue swept Miami, Ohio, 25-21, 25-16, 25-19 and is 9-1. Sherridan Atkinson led a balanced attack with 12 kills … No. 16 Utah bounced back from its loss to BYU with a 3-1 win over Utah Valley as Tawnee Luafalemana had 18 kills and hit .857 …
No. 18 USC went four to beat Oklahoma at Maryland a day after losing to the Terps.
No. 20 Florida State plays host to Auburn … No. 21 Michigan swept NC State 25-23, 26-24, 25-22 as Carly Skjodt had 13 kills and hit .500 and Cori Crocker had nine kills and hit .727. The Wolverines play Milwaukee and Cincinnati on Saturday …
And No. 22 Colorado State is 9-1 after sweeping Albany. The Rams play host to Xavier and Colorado on Saturday, Colorado beat Xavier on Friday.
Around the nation: Indiana is 10-0 after beating UNLV and plays Samford and Florida Gulf Coast on Saturday, The Hoosiers got 13 kills from Kendall Beerman …
North Texas improved to 11-1 by winning twice, beating Southeastern Louisiana and Mississippi State. Alexis Wright had 13 kills against Mississippi State as the Mean Green won its 10th match in a row …
Cal beat Saint Mary’s in four as it celebrated Rich Feller Night, honoring its longtime coach who retired after last season. The Bears are 9-1, their best start since 2011 and tied the total number of wins they had in 2016. Mima Mirkovic led with 16 kills … Also in the Pac-12, Washington State is 9-1 after beating Tennessee State …
Radford is 10-1 after sweeping Virginia Tech … North Dakota keeps on winning. The Fighting Hawks are 14-2 after sweeping Green Bay as Tamara Merseli had 16 kills …
UC Irvine is 11-1 and off to the best start in program history after sweeping San Francisco. The Anteaters got 10 kills each from Idara Akpakpa and Harlee Kekauoha … Tulane is 9-2 after getting past visiting Northwestern State in five …
Arizona State is 8-2 after sweeping Lamar …. Iowa is 9-2 after beating Howard …
Texas Tech won in four at Clemson and is 9-2 … Duke swept Coastal Carolina to get to 8-2 … West Virginia beat Akron and Army and is 10-2 … Northwestern’s strong start continued as the Wildcats beat Seton Hall and stand 9-1 … Washington State is also 9-1 after beating Tennessee State … VCU swept Bowling Green and is 11-2.
