UC Santa Barbara is alone atop the Big West, San Jose State won again in the Mountain West, and Paula Gursching keeps racking up big kill numbers for Youngstown State.
We’ve also got the AVCA top 25, the national player of the week, and all the rest of Monday’s and Tuesday’s matches.
The NCAA Division I volleyball Wednesday schedule is relatively light, but it has quite a few matches with RPI and NCAA Tournament at-large bids and seeding considerations.
Texas, No. 1 in the AVCA Poll and No. 1 in the RPI, plays one of four Big 12 matches at Iowa State (48 RPI). In a key match for both, No. 14 Baylor is home for Texas Tech (42 RPI), Kansas (19 RPI) goes to West Virginia (167 RPI) and Kansas State (19 RPI) is at Oklahoma (117 RPI).
The three-match Big Ten slate is highlighted by No. 3 Nebraska (4 RPI) at No. 12 Purdue (25 RPI). Sixth-ranked Ohio State (3 RPI) is home for Illinois (69 RPI) and No. 9 Minnesota (also 9 RPI), playing for the first time since Hugh McCutcheon announced this will be his last year as coach, goes to Iowa (97 RPI).
There are four SEC matches, including No. 11 Florida (also 11 RPI) home for Georgia (46 RPI). Arkansas (26 RPI) is home for Texas A&M (55 RPI), LSU (36 RPI) is at Alabama (137 RPI) and Mississippi State (23 RPI) is at South Carolina (76 RPI).
The only ACC match has NC State (64 RPI) at Duke (82 RPI).
The lone American Athletic Conference match has UCF (17 RPI) home for South Florida.
FGCU (67 RPI) is at Stetson in then ASUN.
The two Mid-American West leaders, Ball State (83 RPI), and Toledo (91 RPI), play each other.
Worth noting is that Manhattan (1-19, 1-9, 343 RPI) is at Saint Peter’s (0-23, 0-10, 342 RPI) in the MAAC. East leader Bowling Green (29 RPI) s home for Miami (298 RPI).
AVCA POLL: Teams 1-8 stayed the same, Texas, Louisville, Nebraska, San Diego, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Stanford and Pittsburgh. Minnesota moved up to a spot to No. 9 and Georgia Tech did the same to No. 10. UCF dropped out after losing to American Athletic rival Houston, which came in at No. 24.
AVCA POW: The national player of the week is Florida freshman setter Alexis Stucky. Not surprisingly, she was the SEC setter of the week, too. Stucky averaged 13.33 assists in two sweeps at Mississippi State as the Gators hit .329.
MONDAY-TUESDAY: There were four Horizon League matches. Conference-leading Wright State was off, but Green Bay stayed two games back in second place with a sweep of Purdue Fort Wayne, Cleveland State swept visiting Robert Morris and Milwaukee beat visiting IUPUI in four. But the star of the night was Paula Gursching of Youngstown State. The Penguins rallied after losing the first two sets to win in five at Oakland 23-25, 21-25, 31-29, 25-19, 15-12 as the German outside had 29 kills, hit .333 after having six errors in 69 attacks, and had two assists, an ace, 15 digs and two blocks. Gurshing is second only to South Dakota’s Elizabeth Juhnke in over kills in the NCAA this season …Â
UC Santa Barbara (12-7, 8-1) took over sole possession in the Big West by winning in four at CSUN. The Gauchos are a game up on Hawai’i and Cal Poly. UCSB hit .319 and Michelle Ohwobete had 16 kills, hit .375 and added an ace and 13 digs …
San Jose State built its lead in the Mountain West by beating visiting Nevada in four. SJSU has won nine in a row, all in the MWC. Amethyst Harper and Blaire Fleming had 15 kills each and Letizia Cammillucci had 14 …Â
in the only MAC match, Ohio won in five at Kent State as Caroine Clippard and Olivia Margolies had 16 kills each …Â Little Rock pulled off a reverse sweep and beat visiting Southeast Missouri in five in the only Ohio Valley match as four players had 11 or more kills …Â Sacred Heart won in five at UAlbany, Bryant won in five at Central Connecticut and NJIT swept at Hartford. Sacred Heart setter Sarah Cziek had nine kills in 19 errorless attempts, 50 assists, an ace, seven digs and six blocks in a 25-16, 25-23, 21-25, 22-25, 17-15 victory …
There were four matches Monday. Southern Illinois, off to its best start in years, swept visiting Missouri State in the Missouri Valley Conference. The Salukis (14-7, 7-2) won their fifth in a row. Nataly Garcia led with 14 kills, two aces and five digs … In the SWAC, Prairie View beat Alcorn in four as Taylor Roberts had 18 kills, hit .343 and had five aces, 10 digs and a block, and Texas Southern beat Southern in four … Louisiana-Monroe of the Sun Belt swept the SWAC’s Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
NCAA VOLLEYBALL FANS! There is no paywall at VolleyballMag.com. Keep free volleyball journalism free by becoming a VolleyballMag.com Sustaining Member:  https://volleyballmag.com/sustaining-membership/  Or make a contribution through Venmo @VolleyballMag
