Fourth-ranked San Diego left no doubt about who rules the West Coast Conference as the Toreros swept visiting No. 17 BYU on Saturday for their 15th win in a row.
A couple of ranked teams lost — Arizona State won in five at No. 15 Washington in the Pac-12, and Indiana beat No. 25 Michigan in the Big TenÂ
Recaps and top performances follow, but first a look at Saturday’s NCAA Division I schedule.
In the Big Ten, No. 12 Purdue, coming off back-to-back defeats — both sweeps — goes to No. 9 Minnesota. Third-ranked Nebraska, sure to move up to at least a spot if it wins Saturday, is at Illinois, and Northwestern is at Maryland.
Top-ranked Texas — coming off its first defeat of the season, a Big 12 loss at Iowa State — is home for last-place West Virginia and No. 14 Baylor goes to Kansas State.Â
In the Big East, No. 18 Marquette is home for St. John’s and No. 19 Creighton is at Georgetown.Â
There are three SEC matches — No. 16 Kentucky is at Texas A&M, Alabama goes to Georgia and Missouri is at Ole Miss.
In the WCC, the four-match slate includes No. 22 Pepperdine at Gonzaga.
The top two teams in the Big West square off when UC Santa Barbara is at Hawai’i.
SAN DIEGO SWEEPS BYU: San Diego (18-1, 9-0) not only swept visiting BYU (14-5, 7-2) but also built its lead in the West Coast Conference to two games with a 25-20, 25-21, 25-18 victory.
In the only WCC match of the day, Katie Lukes led USD with 15 kills, an assist, an ace and nine digs. Breana Edwards had 13 kills with one error in 28 attacks to hit .429 and had a block and a dig. Grace Frohling had eight kills, two aces, two digs and three blocks. Gabby Blossom had two kills in six errorless tries, 36 assists, a block and seven digs. Her team hit .288.
BYU, which hit .182 and had 36 kills total, got 11 kills from Erin Livingston, who had an assist, two blocks and six digs. Heather Gneiting had 10 kills, three assists, an ace and seven blocks, two solo.Â
ACC: Seven matches, all sweeps. Second-ranked Louisville, likely to move up to No. 1 this week, swept at Virginia. No. 8 Pittsburgh swept visiting Notre Dame and No. 10 Georgia Tech swept visiting Boston College. It sets up Sunday’s match when Louisville (18-1, 9-0) goes to Pittsburgh (19-2, 9-0). Also, Florida State swept Virginia Tech, Syracuse swept at Clemson, Miami swept Wake Forest, and North Carolina swept at NC State.
BIG TEN: The only surprise of the day was Indiana (11-10, 4-5) winning in four at No. 25 Michigan (13-6, 4-5). Mady Saris had a match-high 16 kills for the Hoosiers, who won despite hitting .158 … No. 5 Wisconsin (14-3, 8-1) hit .337 and swept visiting Michigan State (10-10, 1-8), No. 6 Ohio State (13-5, 9-1) beat visiting Iowa (7-14, 1-9) in four, No. 13 Penn State (16-4, 5-4) won in four at Maryland (12-9, 3-6) and Northwestern (14-7, 3-6) got 19 kills from Temi Thomas-Ailar, who hit .357, and won in four at Rutgers (7-14, 1-4).Â
PAC: 12: No. 7 Stanford (13-4, 8-1) and USC (16-4, 8-1) now have a two-game lead atop the standings after Arizona State (10-11, 4-5) won in five at No. 15 Washington (14-5, 6-3). And Washington is tied with Oregon (12-5, 6-3) and Washington State (14-6, 6-3).Â
Stanford hit .360 and swept at UCLA (9-9, 3-6) as Caitie Baird had 18 kills with two errors in 33 attacks to hit .485 to go with 10 digs and three blocks … USC hit .459 with 74 kills and 12 errors in 135 attacks as the Trojans won in four at Cal (7-12, 0-9). Emilia Weske had 20 kills with three errors in 29 swings and Skylar Fields had 19 kills with one error in 37 attacks … Arizona State won 25-21, 24-26, 26-24, 15-25, 15-12. Iman Isanovic led with 17 kills and hit .326. Annika Larson-Nummer had 27 digs and three assists … No. 20 Oregon won in four at Utah (11-8, 4-5) despite 28 kills from Madelyn Robinson, Oregon State (7-12, 2-7) won in four at Colorado (13-8, 5-4), and Washington State beat visiting Arizona (12-8, 2-7) in five. WSU’s Laura Jansen had 27 kills, hit .370 and had two aces and six digs.
Hawaii’s Kate Lang sets Amber Igiede against CSUN/UH Athletics
AROUND THE NATION: In the American Athletic, No. 24 Houston (18-2, 9-0) had to go five to beat visiting Wichita State (10-9, 5-3). Isabel Theut and Abbie Jackson had 19 kills each in the Cougars’ 10th win in a row and Kortlyn Henderson had 17 kills. Kate Georgiades had 28 digs and seven assists. UCF (17-1, 9-1) stayed a game back with a sweep at Cincinnati (5-14, 3-6). In another AAC match, East Carolina’s Angeles Alderete had 24 kills in a five-set loss to Memphis …Â
There were two Big 12 matches. Iowa State, coming off its big upset of No. 1 Texas, went to Texas Tech and swept the Red Raiders, who hit .050, and TCU beat visiting Oklahoma in four …
Both ranked Big East teams won as No. 19 Creighton swept at Villanova, and No. 18 Marquette hit .367 and swept visiting Seton Hall … Both ranked Conference USA teams won, too, as No. 21 Rice hit .365 and swept FIU, and No. 23 Western Kentucky hit .373 and swept at Charlotte …Â
Big South-leading Campbell had to go five to beat visiting Gardner-Webb. Claranne Fecheter had 27 digs, three assists and three aces …
Yale improved to 16-1 overall, 8-0 in the Ivy League, as it won its 14th in a row — longest winning streak in the nation — a four-set victory over Brown. Also in the Ivy, Princeton won in four at Penn to stay a game back of Yale as Melina Mahood had 24 kills, two digs and four blocks …Â
In the SEC, Auburn beat visiting Tennessee in four, and Ole Miss swept visiting Missouri. Ole Miss played not only for the first time in nine days but also without head coach Kayla Banwarth, who was put on leave by the school. There was no mention of it in the Ole Miss recap and she’s still listed as the head coach … Â
Hawai’i hit .381 and swept visiting CSUN as Amber Igiede had 11 kills with one error in 18 attacks, an ace, six digs and three blocks, two solo. The Rainbow Wahine pulled even with idle UCSB atop the Big West standings and they play Saturday. Also in the Big West, UC Irvine beat CSU Bakersfield in five and Joy Umen had 24 kills …Â
In the battle for first in the Sun Belt West, Texas State won in four at South Alabama as Janell Fitzgerald had 26 kills, hit .364, and had 15 digs and six blocks, one solo. Jaqueline Lee had 23 digs, three assists and two aces …Â
VCU beat Saint Louis in five in the Atlantic 10 and Qairo Bentley had 26 kills, two assists, 12 digs and five blocks. A10-leading Loyola hit .432 and swept Rhode Island … Wright State rolled on in the Horizon League, improving to 10-0 in conference play with a four-set win over Oakland …Â
Eastern Michigan, last in the MAC West, surprised East-leading Bowling Green as Samantha Basham had 20 kills in the five-set victory … UNI won its 10th in a row, a Missouri Valley sweep at Indiana State. Kaylissa Arndorfer had 10 kills with one error in 20 attacks … Â
North Florida knocked off Jacksonville State in the ASUN and Mahalia White had 25 kills, 15 digs and two blocks … Binghamton lost its America East match in five at UAlbany, but Tsvetelina Illieva had 23 kills, hit .467 and had two assists, six digs and three blocks … Tennessee State beat SIUE in five as Johanna Alcantara had 26 kills and hit .513 in the Ohio Valley win. She also had four blocks, one solo … Chattanooga won its OVC match in five at Wofford and Natalie Tyson had 23 kills, hit .380 and had two assists, four aces, 11 digs and a block.
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