The stunner of the day: Pacific beat visiting No. 12 BYU in five.
Youngstown State lost again, this time in five at Northern Kentucky, but Paula Gursching had 35 kills in the Horizon League match. Gursching, second in the NCAA in kills, also had 12 digs and a block.Â
Sunday’s key matches: There are four in the Big Ten, again. No. 3 Nebraska is home for Northwestern, No. 5 Wisconsin is at No. 24 Michigan, No. 9 Purdue is home for Maryland, and Michigan State is at Indiana.
In the ACC, No. 2 Louisville is home for Wake Forest, and No. 8 Pittsburgh is home for Florida State. Also, Miami is at Virginia, Clemson is at Duke, Syracuse is at North Carolina, Virginia Tech is at Notre Dame, and Boston College is at NC State. No. 11 Georgia Tech is off until Friday
There are six Pac-12 matches, none with ranked teams facing one another. Seventh-ranked Stanford is at Arizona State, No. 15 Washington tries to bounce back at Colorado, and No. 17 Oregon is at UCLA. Washington State goes to Utah, Oregon State is at USC, and Cal is at Arizona.
Both ranked Big East teams are in action as No. 16 Marquette goes to Xavier, and No. 21 Creighton is home for DePaul.Â
Both ranked Conference USA teams also play as No. 22 Rice is home for Charlotte, and No. 23 Western Kentucky is at UTEP.
There is a full slate in the American Athletic Conference, where league-leader Houston plays at Memphis and No. 24 UCF is home for East Carolina.
The lone SEC match has Auburn at Missouri.
Towson gets another crack at Elon in the Colonial Athletic Association.
Baylor’s Elise McGhee is all over this tip by Saige Ka’aha’aina-Torres of Texas/Matt Smith photo
BIG 12: Texas is 14-0 overall, 6-0 in the Big 12, and increased its lead to two games over Baylor (15-4, 4-2) with a 25-19, 22-25, 25-17, 25-19 win in Waco. Texas got 20 kills from Logan Eggleston, who added two assists, a block and five digs. Asjia O’Neal had 12 kills with no errors in 16 attacks, an assist, four digs and eight blocks, one solo.
Baylor’s Allie Sczech get ready to unload against Texas/Matt Smith photo
Madisen Skinner had 12 kills, three blocks and four digs. Saige Ka’aha’aina-Torrest had four kills in five errorless tries, 43 assists, an ace, three blocks and 13 digs, and Texas hit .302.
Elise McGhee had 17 kills, and Lauren Harrison had 15 for Baylor, which hit .191 …
Iowa State (12-7, 4-2) moved into a tie with Baylor by winning in four at Oklahoma (11-7, 1-5), and Kansas (14-5, 4-3) beat visiting Texas Tech (14-5, 3-3) in five … TCU (9-9, 4-3) stayed in a tie with Kansas as the Horned Frogs won in five at Kansas State (11-8, 2-4). Audrey Nalls had 20 kills and Julia Adams 20 for TCU … West Virigina (7-12) swept visiting independent Chicago State.
BIG TEN: There were two sweeps — No. 10 Minnesota (10-6, 5-3) dispatched visiting Illinois 25-19, 25-23, 25-23, and No. 6 Ohio State (11-5, 7-1) did the same to Rutgers (7-13, 1-7) 25-13, 25-15, 25-14. But No. 14 Penn State (15-4, 4-4) got all it could handle in a 25-27, 25-22, 25-15, 20-25, 15-13 victory at Iowa (7-12, 1-7), which is driving teams nuts but can’t quite come with a victory.Â
SEC: No. 13 Florida (15-3, 7-1) swept again at Mississippi State (11-7, 4-4) after hitting .347. Sofia Victoria had 14 kills, and Merrit Beason 13 … Auburn (17-1, 6-1) won in five at Missouri to stay a game back of first-place Florida and in a tie with idle Kentucky. Auburn’s Akasha Anderson had 20 kills, hit .320 and had three assists, an ace, seven digs and a block … Arkansas (13-5, 4-4) swept visiting Tennessee (10-10, 4-4). Look for a feature here later this week on the diminuitive Arkansas hitting duo of Jillian Gillen and Taylor Head, who combined for 24 kills with five errors in 49 swings against Tennessee.Â
WCC: Pacific (11-9, 3-5) had lost 16 in a row to BYU (14-4, 7-1) and had never beaten the Cougars since both teams joined the conference in 2013. This time, the Tigers won 25-21, 17-25, 25-22, 10-25, 15-10. Pacific, which hit .205, got 18 kills from Alexa Edwards, who had an ace, a block and 12 digs, and 17 kills from Biamba Kabengele, who also had an ace, a block and 12 digs. Erin Livingston led BYU with 18 kills, hit .486 and added an assist, an ace, four blocks and eight digs …Â
San Diego (17-1, 8-0) is alone in first after hitting .440 and sweeping at Saint Mary’s. The Toreros had 45 kills with 12 errors in 75 attacks. Katie Lukes had 19 kills, hit .586 and added an ace and two digs …Â Santa Clara swept Gonzaga, and San Francisco beat visiting Portland in five as Claire Crijins had 17 kills, hit .312 and had an assist, three aces, 18 digs and two blocks.
AROUND THE NATION: Hofstra (12-8, 9-0) is alone in first in the Colonial Athletic Association after Elon knocked off Towson (18-1, 8-1). Hofstra beat UNCW in four and is off to its best conference start since 2001. Elon beat Towson in five behind 16 kills from Leah Daniel. Towson had two players with 12 kills and three with 11 and had 10 more kills (62) than Elon … Kennesaw State is a game up in the ASUN standings after sweeping Eastern Kentucky. Also in the ASUN, Jacksonville beat Queens as Jacksonville’s Haley Hart had 25 kills, hit .487 and had 11 blocks, four solo. Alleigh Johnson of Queens had 25 kills and 20 digs …Â
Northern Iowa is two games up in the Missouri Valley after winning its ninth in a row, beating Valparaiso in four. Sydney Peterson had 18 digs, 10 assists and two aces. Also in the Valley, Drake swept UIC as Haley Bush hit .434 and racked up 27 kills … Â
Portland State hit .353 and won its fifth in a row, a sweep at Weber State. The loss knocked Weber State into a tie for second with Sacramento State, a game back in the loss column. Sacramento State won in four at Idaho State. Portland State’s Makayla Lewis had 16 kills and hit .517 after having one error in 29 attacks …Â
Yale stayed unbeaten and a game ahead of Princeton in the Ivy League with its sweep of Penn …Â
Jenna Forster had 22 kills and Brianna Cantrell 20 for first-place ETSU in its five-set, Southern Conference win over The Citadel, which got 19 kills from Makayla Middleton …Â
VCU won its A10 match in four over visiting Dayton behind 24 kills from Qairo Bentley, who hit .377 … First-place Campbell hit .400 and swept its Big South match at UNCAsheville … Â
Hawai’i, UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly are all tied first at 7-1 in the Big West after Cal Poly beat visiting Hawai’i in four. Cal Poly’s Maia Dvoracek had 21 kills with two errors in 37 attacks, an assist, four aces, four blocks and 14 digs. UCSB hit .413 as it swept UC Davis. Tasia Farmer had 13 kills in 18 errorless attacks …Â
Five teams are within two games of each other in the MAAC, first-place Fairfield (8-1), Iona (8-2), surprising Canisius (7-2), Marist (7-3) and Siena (6-3). Canisius beat Marist in five but Marist’s Sasha Van der Merwe had 26 kills …Â
Ball State won its sixth in a row, beating NIU, and is tied with Toledo atop the MAC West. NIU is a game back. Bowling Green has a two-game lead in the East after sweeping Central Michigan …Â
San Jose State improved to 14-4, 8-0 in the Mountain West, with its sweep of Air Force. Also in the MWC, New Mexico lost in five at Nevada, but the Lobos’ Kaitlynn Biassou had 26 kills and 16 digs …Â
Five teams are within two games of each other in the Summit League after Denver hit .323 and beat North Dakota in five. Denver’s Lorrin Poulter had five kills in nine errorless tries, 59 assists, two aces, nine digs and six blocks, one solo. South Dakota swept Kansas City to remain in first as the Coyotes hit .359. NCAA kills leader Elizabeth Juhnke had 16 kills and hit .351 to go with two aces, 13 digs and a block …Â
Janell Fitzgerald had 25 kills for Texas State in its Sun Belt win over Southern Miss.
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Molly Phillips, left, and Bella Bergmark of Texas block Baylor’s Lauren Harrison/Matt Smith photo
