The big news from Sunday came from off the court, when Minnesota’s Hugh McCutcheon announced this will be his last season as head coach of the Gophers.
The next biggest news was that unranked Maryland not only won at No. 9 Purdue, it swept the Boilermakers.
Washington and Oregon, which had to rally to win in five at UCLA, both bounced back from Pac-12 upsets. In the Big East, Creighton had to go the distance as the No. 21 Bluejays beat visiting DePaul in five.
And later Monday on our NCAA Zoom with Emily Ehman, we’ll be joined by Pauline Thiros, chair of the NCAA Division I volleyball committee.
MONDAY-TUESDAY: There are four matches Monday, two in the SWAC with Prairie View facing Alcorn and Texas Southern playing Southern. In the Missouri Valley, Missouri State is at Southern Illinois. Louisiana-Monroe of the Sun Belt plays the SWAC’s Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
Tuesday’s 12-match slate includes UC Santa Barbara, in a three-way tie for the Big West lead with Hawai’i and Cal Poly, at CSUN. Mountain West leader San Jose State, holding a one-game lead over UNLV and Colorado State, is home for Nevada.
Want to watch a match? We have the viewing links on the VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings page.
MCCUTCHEON STUNNER: Hugh McCutcheon, who took the USA men to 2008 Olympic gold, the 2012 USA women to Olympic silver, and then the Minnesota women to three NCAA national semifinals since he took over in 2012, announced Sunday that this is his last season as head coach of the Gophers.
Don’t look for any answers to the many questions this creates.
McCutcheon had no comment in the Minnesota news release, which included this from athletic director Mark Coyle: “Out of respect for our program and our student-athletes, he will defer any questions about this decision until the end of the season.”
McCutcheon is 265-71 in his 11 years in Minneapolis. This season, Minnesota is 10-6 overall, 5-3 in the Big Ten, and plays at Iowa on Wednesday. Minnesota said that associate head coach Matt Houk will serve as interim when the season ends and the school looks for McCutcheon’s replacement.
ACC: Second-ranked Louisville (17-1, 8-0) hit .331 and won its 12th in a row, 25-16, 25-15, 26-28, 25-20 over visiting Wake Forest (12-7, 4-4). Aiko Jones had 20 kills, hit .385 and added two aces, a block and four digs. Claire Chaussee had 15 kills, an ace, two blocks and 11 digs, and Amaya Tillman had 14 kills, hit .462, and had three aces and thee blocks. Raquel Lazaro had three kills in four errorless tries, 52 assists, three aces, eight digs and four blocks, one solo. Elena Scott had 20 digs, eight assists and an ace. Wake Forest, which hit .284, got 16 kills from Paige Crawford. She hit .324 and had two blocks and seven digs. Peyton Suess annd Olivia Franke had 10 kills each. Franke had no errors in 15 attacks and five blocks, two solo. Emma Farrell had 29 digs and four assists …
No. 8 Pittsburgh (18-2, 8-0) kept pace with a 25-19, 25-18, 25-22 sweep of visiting Florida State (12-7, 4-4). Courtney Buzzerio led with 16 kills as she hit .444 and had three aces, five blocks and two digs. FSU hit .120 …
Syracuse (9-9, 5-3) won in five at North Carolina (11-8, 3-5). Polina Shemanova led the Orange with 21 kills, three assist, an ace, 19 digs and two blocks. UNC’s Mabrey Shaffmaster had 17 kills, an assist, 11 digs and a block …
Boston College (14-8, 2-6) won in five at NC State (11-8, 5-3), which knocked the Wolfpack out of a tie with idle Georgia State for third. Jenna Pollock had 15 kills for BC and added an ace, six digs and a block. Martyna Leoniak had 17 kills, 21 digs and four blocks … Miami (11-8, 4-4) hit .336 and won in four at Virginia (9-10, 1-7) as Angela Grieve had 20 kills. She hit .381 and had three assists, five aces, four digs and a block. Savannah Vick had a kill in her only try, 47 assists, nine digs and three blocks … Duke (11-8, 2-6) beat visiting Clemson (11-9, 2-6) in five as both Grace Johnson and Kerry Keefe had 21 kills and Rylie Kadel had four kills and 10 blocks, one solo … Notre Dame (9-9, 4-4) beat visiting Virginia Tech (9-10, 2-6) in four. Paris Thompson led with 16 kills and added two aces, eight digs and a block. The Irish have won four in a row.
BIG TEN: Maryland (12-8, 3-5) won its third B1G road match in a row, this time a stunning 25-22, 25-19, 25-23 at Purdue (15-3, 6-2) that knocked the Boilermakers into fourth place, two games behind Nebraska and a game behind Wisconsin and Ohio State. It was the first top-10 road victory for the Terps since joining the Big Ten in 2014 and the first time the program ever swept three consecutive Big Ten matches (previously at Rutgers and Northwestern).
Maryland, which hit .212, got 12 kills from Sam Csire, who had an ace and five digs. Laila Ivey had 10 kills, an assist, fibe blocks and a dig. Rainelle Jones had seven kills with one error in nine attaccks and five blocks.
Purdue, which hit .115, got 11 kills from Eva Hudson, who hit .070. She had two assists and five digs. It was the fewest kills for Hudson, who is averaging 4.68 kills/set, since she had 10 against Bradley in the fourth match of the season. Hannah Clayton had eight kills, hit .353, and added two blocks and a dig. Purdue’s 6-2 start to the Big Ten season is still its best since 2015 …
No. 5 Wisconsin (13-3, 7-1) won its sixth in a row as the Badgers battled to a 27-25, 25-17, 24-26, 25-22 victory over visiting Michigan (13-5, 4-4). Julia Orzol led with 18 kills, an ace, tw blocks and 11 digs. Sarah Franklin had 16 kills, a block and 11 digs. Michigan’s Jess Mruzik had 12 kills, an assist, a block and four digs. Hannah Grant had 20 digs and four assists …
No. 3 Nebraska (16-1) won its ninth in a row as the Huskers swept visiting Northwestern (13-7, 2-6). Bekka Allick, Madi Kubik and Whitney Lauenstein had nine kills each and Ally Batenhorst eight … Indiana (10-10, 3-5) held off Michigan State (10-9, 1-7) in five. Mady Saris had 21 kills, hit .308 and had five digs and two blocks, one solo.
PAC-12: No. 15 Washington (14-4, 6-2) and No. 17 Oregon (11-5, 5-3) were both coming off upset losses. Washington won in four at Colorado (13-5, 5-3) and Oregon had to rally to win in five at UCLA (9-8, 5-3). USC (15-4) and Stanford (12-4, 7-1) both won to stay in a tie for the lead.
Washington won 25-19, 25-17, 22-25, 25-23 as Claire Hoffman had 22 kills, hit .320 and had two assists, an ace, two blocks and 10 digs. Ella May Powell had two kills, 54 assists, an ace, a block and 17 digs. Colorado’s Maya Tabron had 19 kills, hit .333 and had three blocks and eight digs. Meegan Hart had nine kills with one error in 24 attacks and seven blocks …
Oregon won 22-25, 27-25, 23-25, 25-21, 15-9 as the Ducks hit .309. Mimi Colyer had 23 kills, five blocks and seven digs and Brooke Nuneviller had 22 kills, hit .314, and had an assist, two blocks and 10 digs. Kiari Robey had 10 kills in 19 errorless attacks and eight blocks, two solo. Elise Ferreira had 66 assists, an ace, two blocks and 17 digs. UCLA had four players with 13 or more kills, 18 from Charitie Luper. She had five digs and two blocks, one solo …
Stanford won in four at Arizona State as Caitie Baird had 13 kills, seven digs and four blocks … USC won its sixth in a row as it beat visiting Oregon State in four behind 23 kills from Skylar Fields, who hit .432 and had seven digs … Arizona swept visiting Cal … Washington State swept at Utah, which just two days earlier swept Washington. Laura Jansen had 20 kills for Washington State, hit .394, and an ace, 13 digs and two blocks, one solo. Katy Ryan had 13 kills, hit .407 and had eight blocks,
AMERICAN ATHLETIC: Houston (17-2, 8-0) and No. 24 UCF (15-1, 7-1) both swept. Houston won a tough one at Memphis 26-24, 27-25, 25-23 behind 14 kills by Isabel Theut and 12 from Abbie Jackson, who had 14 digs and two blocks. Kate Georgiades had 27 digs and two assists. UCF crushed East Carolina, hit .390, and got 19 kills from McKenna Melville, who hit .471 and added an assist, 11 digs and four blocks … Cincinnati beat Tulsa in four, SMU swept visiting Tulane to stay a game behind USF, and Temple won in five at South Florida.
CONFERENCE USA: No. 22 Rice beat visiting Charlotte in five. Ellie Bichelmeyer had 21 kills for the Owls and hit .472 to go with three digs and three blocks. Anota Adekunle had 20 kills, hit .447 and had two digs and two blocks. Nia Cardell had 22 digs, eight assists and four aces. Emaní Foster had 25 kills for Charlotte to go with 12 digs and three blocks, one solo … No. 23 Western Kentucky won in four at UTEP despite hitting an uncharacteristically low .216. Lauren Matthews led with 15 ills as she hit .333. Rice and WKU are tied for the lead at 7-0, while UTEP dropped two games back to 5-2 … FIU beat Middle Tennessee in five as three players had 17 or more kills, 19 by Athina Dimitriadis, who had one error in 37 attacks, five digs and three blocks … North Texas won in five at UTSA as Aryn Johnson had 25 kills, hit .465 and had an ace, eight digs and two blocks, one solo … UAB beat visiting Louisiana Tech in four. Maia Rackel had 19 kills with two errors in 33 attacks to hit .515 and had an assist, three aces, 10 digs and a block.
AROUND THE NATION: In the Big East, Creighton had a 22-9 blocking advantage over DePaul after building a 2-0 lead and winning in five. The 22 blocks are the most in program history, breaking the mark last reached in 2012. Norah Sis had 22 kills for Creighton to go with eight digs and nine blocks. Kiana Schmitt had 16 kills, hit .364, and had a career-high 13 blocks, one solo. Kendra Wait had two kills, 52 assists, 19 digs and six blocks. DePaul’s Jill Pressly had 18 kills, an ace, 12 digs and a block … No. 16 Marquette swept at Xavier. Marquette hit .331 and got 13 kills from Jenna Reitsma and 12 from Aubrey Hamilton. Also in the Big East, St. John’s swept at Butler as Eleonara Tosi had 10 kills and hit .439 …
In the ASUN, Erin Shomaker had 18 kills and 12 digs as FGCU swept at North Alabama, Central Arkansas beat visiting Stetson in five and Liberty did the same to North Florida. Stetson’s Anabelle Standish had 12 kills, hit .386 and had 21 digs and Liberty’s Kamryn Bacus had 18 kills with one error in 38 attacks to hit .447 and had two aces, five digs and a block …
In the only SEC match, Missouri got its first conference win by beat visiting Auburn in four, which dropped Auburn a game back in the loss column behind Florida and Kentucky. Missouri hit .405 as Kaylee Cox had 17 kills, hit .429 and had four assists, 10 digs and three blocks, one solo. Anna Dixon had 16 kills, hit .414 and had two digs and a block. Akasha Anderson had 22 kills for Auburn to go with four aces, five digs and a block …
Binghamton beat New Hampshire in five and in the other America East match, UMBC swept UAlbany. Tsvetelina Illieva had 20 kills for Binghamton to go with four assists, two aces, 11 digs and four blocks. Madison Konopka had 23 digs, three assists and two aces …
In the CAA, a day after losing for the first time this season, Towson won at Elon in four … Hofstra maintained its league lead by sweeping at UNCW … Stony Brook won in five at Delaware. The Seawolves’ Kali Moore had 23 kills, two assists, an ace and 22 digs. Delaware’s Lani Mason had 23 kills, too, to go with two assists, an ace, 16 digs and three blocks …
Howard hit .408 in its MEAC sweep over South Carolina State as 12 players had kills.
