NCAA volleyball: Pitt beats Louisville, Stanford hits .605, UK bounces back

Pittsburgh is alone atop the ACC after the No. 8 Panthers beat visiting No. 2 Louisville in five, ending the Cardinals’ 37-match ACC winning streak. Both teams went to the NCAA national semifinals last December. The rematch is November 18.

Stanford hit .605 and is alone atop the Pac-12 after the seventh-ranked Cardinal crushed USC. It left the Trojans a game back in second place and a game ahead of Washington, Oregon and Washington, which all had sweep victories Sunday. 

Hofstra won again to extend its Colonial Athletic Association win streak to 12 and No. 16 Kentucky bounced back with an SEC victory at Texas A&M.

There are five matches Monday in NCAA Division I, all in the SWAC. There are eight more Tuesday, including four in the Atlantic 10. Want to watch a match? We have the viewing links updated through Thursday for every match that is being shown on the VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings page.

ACC: Pittsburgh (20-2, 10-0) won for the 13th time in a row with its 25-15, 25-13, 25-27, 20-25, 15-12 victory over visiting Louisville. It was the highest-ranked team Pitt has ever beaten. The Panthers have beaten four teams ranked at the time in the AVCA top 10 for the first time in program history with previous victories this season over then-No. 7 BYU, then-No. 5 Ohio State and then-No. 10 Georgia Tech.

Louisville (18-2, 9-1) had won 37 ACC matches in a row since losing to Pitt on October 23, 2020. Both teams went to last year’s NCAA national semifinals.

Courtney Buzzerio led Pittsburgh with 22 kills as she hit .302 and had five blocks and eight digs. Serena Gray had 15 kills with three errors in 25 attacks to hit .400 and had five blocks and a dig. Valeria Vazquez Gomez had 10 kills, an assist, four blocks and seven digs. Rachel Fairbanks had eight kills, 37 assists, an ace, two blocks and 10 digs. Her team hit .225. 

Louisville, which hit .131, got 17 kills from Claire Chaussee, who had two blocks and 10 digs. Nena Mbonu had 14 kills, a block and three digs. Aiko Jones had 11 kills, four ces, seven blocks and eight digs. Amaya Tillman added five kills, two aces, a dig and 10 blocks, one solo …

Four of the matches ended in sweeps as No. 10 Georgia Tech hit .355 and beat Syracuse, Florida State hit .359 and beat Wake Forest, Virginia beat Notre Dame and Miami hit .425 as it beat Virginia Tech in four. North Carolina won in four at Duke as Mabrey Shaffmaster had 18 kills, an assist, three aces, 11 digs and a block, and Clemson beat Boston College in four despite 20 kills by BC’s Izzy Clavenna, who hit .341 and had a dig and three blocks.

PAC-12: Stanford (14-4, 9-1) swept visiting USC (16-5, 8-2) 25-15, 25-15, 25-16 as the Cardinal hit .605, the program’s highest hitting percentage since 2013. The Cardinal had 49 kills and three errors in 76 attacks. Kendall Kipp had 14 kills in 19 errorless attacks, an assist, an ace, four blocks and three digs. Elia Rubin had 12 kills with two errors in 20 attacks and had two blocks and four digs. Caitie Baird had seven kills with one error in 13 swings, four assists, an ace, a block and three digs. Kami Miner had four kills in five errorless tries, 39 assists, a n ace and three digs. USC, which hit .221, got 12 kills from Skylar Fields, who had six digs. Stanford had a 7-1 blocks advantage … 

No. 15 Washington (15-5, 7-3) hit .405 and beat visiting Arizona (12-9, 2-8). Emoni Bush had 15 kills and hit .462 to go with four aces. The Huskies had 40 kills and six errors in 84 attacks … No. 20 Oregon (13-5, 7-3) beat visiting Colorado (13-7, 5-5) as outside hitters Mimi Colyer had 13 kills and Brooke Nuneviller 12 … Washington State (15-6, 7-3) hit .379 beat visiting Arizona State (10-12, 4-6) as Laura Jansen had 14 kills and Pia Timmer 13. Timmer had no errors in 28 attacks …

Utah (12-9, 5-5) swept at Oregon State (7-13, 2-8) as the Utes hit .348 and Madelyn Robinson had 18 kills. She hit .429 and had an ace and five digs … UCLA (10-9, 4-6) swept at Cal (7-13, 0-10) as the Bruins hit .356. Iman Ndiaye had 13 kills.

BIG TEN: Fifth-ranked Wisconsin (15-3, 9-1)won 22-25, 25-18, 25-22, 25-19 at Michigan (13-7, 4-6) as the Badgers hit .360. Devyn Robinson had 17 kills with no errors in 25 attacks and added an assist, two digs and six blocks. Six other Badgers had six or more kills. Wisconsin stayed tied with Ohio State, a game behind league-leading Nebraska. Michigan’s May Pertofsky had 16 kills with two errors in 31 attacks … 

Penn State (17-4, 6-4) swept visiting Rutgers (7-15, 1-9). The Nittany Lions, who hit .329, had four players with eight kills and one with seven … Indiana (12-10, 5-5) won in five at Michigan State (10-11, 1-9) which is tied with Iowa and Rutgers for last place. Mady Saris led with 15 kills, an assist, an ace, seven digs and a solo block. 

SEC: Kentucky (12-6, 7-2), swept at Texas A&M (11-10, 3-7) the day before, lost the first set to the Aggies on Sunday and then won 19-25, 25-16, 25-22, 26-24. Kentucky, playing without injured Reagan Rutherford, got 15 kills from Adanna Rollins, who had an assist, two blocks and 17 digs. Azhani Tealer had 13 kills, four blocks and three digs. Emma Grome had four kills, 44 assists, an ace, 15 digs and two blocks, one solo. Caroline Meuth led A&M with 13 kills, two assists, an ace, two blocks and 13 digs, and Logan Lednicky had 12 kills, an assist, 13 digs and five blocks, one solo … 

LSU (12-8, 6-4) took it to visiting South Carolina 25-18, 25-13, 25-21 behind 15 kills from Sanaa Dotson, who had two errors in 28 attacks and an ace and six digs. LSU hit .320. Lauren McCutcheon had 14 kills and hit .480 for South Carolina (9-1, 4-5) …

Georgia (15-5, 6-3) swept visiting Alabama (7-15, 1-9). Georgia’s Kacie Evans had 13 kills, Sophie Fischer 12 and Mackenzie Norris 11 and four blocks, one solo.

AROUND THE NATION: No. 23 Western Kentucky swept its Conference USA match with Middle Tennessee as WKU hit .440 with 44 kills and 11 errors in 75 attacks. Lauren Matthews had 23 kills and hit .444 to go with two blocks, one solo …

24th-ranked and American Athletic-leading Houston swept visiting Tulsa for its 11th win in a row, second-place UCF was off, and third-place SMU stayed two games off the lead with a sweep at East Carolina. Houston’s Warren Kennedy had 14 kills with one error in 32 attacks, two assists, five digs and a block and SMU’s Marieke van der Mark had 15 kills with two errors in 28 attacks and added four blocks … 

CAA-leading Hofstra extended its winning streak to 12 with a four-set win at Delaware. Izadora Stedile led Hofstra with 13 kills, an assist, two aces, a block and two digs. Chiara Cucco had 21 digs, three assists and an ace. (Look for Hofstra coach Emily Mansur on our Monday NCAA Zoom with Emily Ehman, when we’ll also be joined by Iowa State coach Christy Johnson-Lynch). Delaware, which won the first set, got 15 kills from Savannah Seemans, who had an assist, three aces, a block and nine digs …

Coppin State improved to 17-8 overall, 8-1 atop the MEAC, with its five-set win at N.C. Central.  It’s the most wins in a season in school history. Yaniris Miller-Green led with 19 kills, four blocks and three digs. Coppin stayed a game ahead of Howard in the loss column. Howard beat UMES in four …

Canisius was so close to knocking off MAAC-leading Fairfield, but the Stags prevailed in five and still lead the league by two games over Siena. Siena won its eighth in a row, its longest winning streak since 2014, a sweep at Iona as Claire Isaksen had five kills in 10 errorless tries, 28 assists, two aces and 10 digs … 

UMBC’s lead in America East is two games after winning at New Hampshire in four … In the only MAC match, Mallory Hernandez had 17 kills in 21 errorless attacks as Central Michigan hit .463 and beat Miami in four …

In the only ASUN match, Bellarmine beat Eastern Kentucky in four as Bailey Venard had 20 kills.

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Lee Feinswog

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