S. Dakota rallies, big win for UNLV, Fighting Camels roll on, SD faces BYU

South Dakota hit .117, but no worries for the Coyotes, because they have Elizabeth Juhnke. She had 24 kills, 12 digs and seven blocks as South Dakota pulled off a reverse sweep and ended the night still a game up in the loss column in The Summit League over Omaha and North Dakota State.

UNLV won the big Mountain West showdown — and yes, these are the scores, 30-32, 25-19, 25-21, 39-37 — handing San Jose State its first conference loss to force a tie in the loss column atop the standings.

In the Big South, the Campbell Fighting Camels are 9-0 after beating Charleston Southern in four.

James Madison took a one-game lead as it beat Coastal Carolina in match pitting the top two teams in the Sun Belt East.

And Ole Miss has an interim head coach.

The recaps and top performances follow, but first a look at the Friday NCAA Division I volleyball schedule.

There is only one match Friday in the West Coast Conference, but it’s the one we’ve been waiting for: No. 4 San Diego (17-1, 8-0) is home for No. 17 BYU (14-4, 7-1) in the first of two matches that annually decide the WCC title. San Diego has won 14 in a row, while BYU is coming off a stunning five-set upset by Pacific last Saturday. 

There are seven ACC matches, including No. 2 Louisville at Virginia, No. 8 Pittsburgh home for Notre Dame and No. 10 Georgia Tech is home for Boston College. Virginia Tech is at Florida State, Syracuse is at Clemson, Wake Forest is at Miami and North Carolina is at NC State.

No ranked teams play each other in the Big Ten, as No. 5 Wisconsin is home for Michigan State, No. 6 Ohio State is home for Iowa, No. 13 Penn State goes to Maryland in the Terps’ first match since sweeping at Purdue, No. 25 Michigan is home for Indiana and Northwestern goes to Rutgers.

Six Pac-12 matches include No. 7 Stanford home for UCLA, No. 15 Washington home for Arizona State, No. 20 Oregon home for Utah, USC at Cal, Arizona at Washington State and Colorado at Oregon State.

The five-match Big East slate includes No. 18 Creighton at Villanova and No. 19 Marquette home for Seton Hall.

In Conference USA, the two teams tied for the lead at 7-0 are in action when No. 21 Rice is home for FIU and No. 23 Western Kentucky is at Charlotte.

First-place and No. 24 Houston plays an American Athletic match at home against Wichita State, while UCF tries to keep pace at Cincinnati.

The two matches in the Big 12 have Oklahoma at TCU and Iowa State, coming off its upset of Texas, at Texas Tech.

The SEC has Tennessee at Auburn and Missouri at Ole Miss.

In the ASUN, Kennesaw State holds a one game lead over four teams — none of them plays each other —  and is at Jacksonville. 

Loyola, off to a 9-0 start in its new league, the A10, is at Rhode Island, while Davidson, a game back, is at George Mason.

Big South leader Campbell is home for Gardner-Webb, while High Point, a game back, is home for Presbyterian.

There’s a Big West battle for first when UC Santa Barbara (8-1) plays at Hawai’i (7-1), while Cal Poly (7-1) is at UC San Diego.

Wright State, 9-0 and holding a two-game lead in the Horizon League loss column, is home for Oakland.

Yale, off to a 14-1 start and at 7-0 a game ahead of Princeton in the Ivy League, is home for Brown. Princeton goes to Penn.

Bowling Green, up by two in the MAC East, is at Eastern Michigan, while Ball State, with a one-game West lead, is home for Western Michigan.

Coppin State, tied with idle Howard, can take over sole possession of first in the MEAC with a win at South Carolina State.

Northern Iowa, 9-0 and up two in the loss column in the Missouri Valley, goes to Indiana State.

UT Martin holds a one-game lead in the Ohio Valley and plays host to Lindenwood, while second-place Eastern Illinois is at Morehead State.

Colgate is a game up on Army West Point and Navy in the Patriot League. Colgate is at American, while Army plays Navy.

ETSU holds a one-game lead in the SoCon over Western Carolina and Samford. ETSU is at Furman, WCU is at Mercer and Samford is home for UNC Greensboro.

In the Sun Belt, JMU is back at Coastal Carolina in the East. In the West, Texas State is at South Alabama. Both teams are 7-1 atop the division, a game up on Troy, which is home for Louisiana-Monroe.

Want to watch a match? We have the viewing links on the VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings page.

OLE MISS BENCHES BANWARTH: Multiple Mississippi media outlets reported that Ole Miss has placed third-year head coach Kayla Banwarth on leave. 

While Ole Miss has no related information on its volleyball website and former Nebraska great and 2016 Olympic libero Banwarth is still listed as the coach, the school released a statement that read: “Ole Miss head volleyball coach Kayla Banwarth is not with the team as we conduct a review of the program. During her leave, assistant coach Bre Henry will serve as acting head coach.”

Ole Miss is 7-10 this season, 3-4 in the SEC. The Rebels, who made the NCAA Tournament last year for the first time in 11 seasons, play host to Missouri on Friday. 

AROUND THE NATION: The Summit League had quite a night and here’s how the top half of the standings look:

South Dakota (19-2, 8-1), Omaha (13-7, 8-2), North Dakota State (14-7, 7-2), North Dakota (9-11, 6-3) Denver (9-11, 6-3). 

South Dakota won 15-25, 16-25, 25-21, 25-23, 15-12 at Denver. Juhnke had 24 of her team’s 46 kills. Aimee Adams had eight and three blocks, and Madison Harms had six and 13 blocks, two solo. Lolo Weideman had 19 igs, four assists and two aces. Denver’s Hailey Green had 19 kills, two digs and three blocks, two solo. Jordan Lockwood had 16 kills, an assit, an ace, three blocks and 13 digs. Brianna Green had six kills and five aces. Lorrin Poulter had two kills, 44 assists, three aces, three blocks and 10 digs … Crystal Burk had 20 kills for Omaha in its four-set win over visiting South Dakota. Burk hit .306 and had three assists, an ace, three blocks and 13 digs … North Dakota beat St. Thomas in four and North Dakota State swept Western Illinois … 

There were four West Coast Conference matches, including No. 22 Pepperdine sweeping at Portland. Meg Brown had six kills and six blocks. Loyola Marymount hit .330 and swept at Gonzaga, Pacific got 20 kills from Alexa Edwards and won in four at Santa Clara, and San Francisco beat visiting Saint Mary’s in four … 

In the Big Sky, Weber State stayed a game back of idle Portland State and tied with Sacramento State with a sweep at Montana. Northern Colorado hit .376 and swept visiting Idaho as Cece Huhn had 14 kills in 19 errorless attacks, Montana State swept visiting Idaho State and Northern Arizona beat visiting Eastern Washington in five. EWU’s Alyssa Radke had 24 kills … 

Eastern Illinois fell out of a tie for first when it got swept at Morehead State in the only OVC match 25-20, 32-20, 29-27. EIU’s Kaitlyn Flynn had an incredible 24 kills with six errors in 39 attempts in the three sets …

Campbell beat Charleston Southern in four to maintain its Big South lead. Lailah Green had 18 kills. High Point kept pace by sweeping visiting USC Upstate behind 19 kills from Sydney Palazzolo, who had an assist, three aces, 12 digs and a solo block  … 

James Madison broke the tie atop the Sun Belt East with a four-set win over visiting Coastal Carolina. Sophie Davis had 19 kills with one error in 31 attacks, two aces, six digs and three blocks, one solo. Also in the Sun Belt, Louisiana beat Old Dominion in four …

In the Big West, both matches went five. Long Beach State won at UC Riverside as Morgan Chacon continued to sparkle since transferring from Florida State. Chacon had 26 kills, two assist, an ace and eight digs. Setter Zayna Meyer had seven kills with no errors in 13 attacks, 47 assists, an ace and 14 digs, and had Dylan Dela Cruz had 32 digs and five assists. Cal State Fullerton won at UC Davis as Danielle Jeffries, Julia Crawford and Lolo Fonua had 12 kills each …

The Mountain West race has five teams within a game of each other after UNLV (17-3, 8-1) beat San Jose State (15-5, 9-1) and Boise State (14-6, 6-3) surprised Colorado State (14-6, 7-2) in four. Utah State (14-6, 6-3) stayed in the mix with a four-set win at Wyoming (8-13, 4-5). Isabel Martin had 20 kills for UNLV and Blair Fleming had 20 for SJSU. Also in the MWC, Air Force beat Fresno State in four and New Mexico did the same to San Diego State … 

In the only MAC match Buffalo swept Kent State … Howard won its MEAC match in five at Delaware State … Alabama State beat Alabama A&M in four in the day’s only SWAC match …

HCU is alone with a one-game Southland Conference lead but had to go five at Nicholls to do it. Five HCU players had 12 or more kills, 17 by Audrey Pearce, who hit .538 and had an ace, four digs and five blocks. Grace McLaughlin had 62 assists. McNeese swept at Northwestern State but Texas A&M-Corpus Christi lost in four at Southeastern Louisiana to fall into a tie with McNeese. SLU is a game back in fourth, tied with New Orleans, which beat UIW in five. UNO’s Shelia Purcell had 36 digs, five assists and an ace …

UTRGV maintained its one-game lead in the WAC with a four-set win at Grand Canyon as Sarah Cruz had 24 kills, an ace and 15 digs. Utah Valley stayed a game back with a sweep of Utah Tech. Also in the WAC, UT Arlington got 33 digs from Alli Wells as it beat Abilene Christian in five, Stephen F. Austin beat Sam Houston in four to stay two games off the lead, Southern Utah swept Seattle U and New Mexico State won in four at California Baptist.

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Lee Feinswog

Lee Feinswog is the publisher and editor of VolleyballMag.com
Contact him at Lee@VolleyballMag.com