Tenth-ranked Baylor won the fourth set 32-30 and knocked off previously unbeaten and No. 1 Texas on Saturday. That leaves Louisville, which plays at North Carolina on Sunday, as the only undefeated team left in NCAA Division I women’s volleyball.
There were no other upsets of ranked teams, but No. 7 Ohio State swept visiting No. 9 Nebraska, and No. 15 Penn State had to go five to beat visiting Michigan State.
There’s now a three-way tie atop the Big Sky, Hawai’i is alone in first place in the Big West, and Brown is first in: The Bears clinched the Ivy League title and the NCAA Tournament bid that goes with it.
The recaps and highlights follow, but first a look at key matches on Sunday’s schedule.
Also in the ACC, No. 3 Pittsburgh is home for Boston College, and No. 14 Georgia Tech is home for Florida State.
The PAC-12 is open for business. League-leading No. 13 UCLA is at Colorado, No. 12 Washington entertains Arizona, No. 16 Utah plays host to USC, No. 18 Oregon is at Cal, No. 1 Stanford is home for Oregon State, and No. 21 Washington State is home for Arizona State.Â
There are three matches in the Big Ten, but the only ranked team in action is No. 6 Purdue, at Rutgers.
There are also three SEC matches, but the only one involving a ranked team has Ole Miss at No. 22 Tennessee.Â
In Conference USA, No. 17 Western Kentucky plays at Charlotte, and in the Big East, No, 24 Creighton is home for Butler.Â
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BIG 12 — Texas dropped to 18-1 overall, 9-1 in the conference, after Baylor (14-5, 8-2) came away with a 25-23, 18-25, 26-24, 32-30 victory a day after getting swept by the Longhorns.Â
Baylor’s Yossiana Pressley had 24 kills, hit .302, and had four digs. Logan Eggleston had 23 kills for Texas, hit .309, and had two assists, a block and six digs.Â
Texas outhit Baylor .353 to .281, had 11 blocks compared to two for Baylor, and three more kills with 60. Baylor held a 52-42 digs advantage. In the fourth set, Texas hit .413, and Baylor hit .474.Â
To read more about the match, including the fourth set when Baylor ran out of subs and defensive specialists Emily Van Slate and Lauren Briseno had to stay in and play the front row, click here for the Baylor recap, and here for the Texas recap …Â
Also in the Big 12, Iowa State won in four at Oklahoma as Annie Hatch had 22 kills and hit .354, and Texas Tech swept visiting TCU.Â
BIG TEN — Ohio State (19-5, 9-5) beat Nebraska 27-25, 25-21, 25-23. Rylee Rader led with 13 kills and hit .500 to go with two digs and three blocks, one solo. OSU hit .230. Madi Kubi had 18 kills, but her Nebraska teammates combined for 22. The Huskers (17-6, 11-3) hit .203 …Â
That opened the door for Wisconsin (20-2, 12-2) to move into sole possession of first place with a 25-16, 25-23, 25-20 win at Iowa (4-20, 2-12). Dana Rettke led with 14 kills, hit .600 and had an assist, a dig, and five blocks, one solo …Â
Penn State (17-7, 10-4) won 25-23, 25-21, 21-25, 20-25, 15-13 as Kaitlyn Hord had a career-high 24 kills against Michigan State (10-13, 3-11). Hord hit .535, with just one error in 43 attacks and added six blocks. Sarah Franklin had 17 kills for the Spartans, hit .453 and had an assist, an ace, three blocks, and 10 digs. MSU outhit Penn State .316 to .292 …Â
No. 11 Minnesota (16-6, 11-3) pulled into a tie for second with Nebraska as it swept at No. 25 Illinois (16-9, 8-6). Stephanie Samedy had 15 kills, hit .400, and had an assist, two aces, two blocks, and eight digs.
AROUND THE NATION — Brown took the first NCAA bid. The Bears (18-4, 11-1) won the Ivy League title for the first time since 2001 when they beat visiting Penn (6-15, 3-9) 25-19, 25-15, 25-15.
“I am so proud of this team, they have gone through so much,” Brown coach Ahen Kim said. “Our seniors missing that year because of COVID, their patience, their determination to continue to stay hungry, get better and steward a young team, it is pretty remarkable. I am getting a lot of congrats, but it’s really on them and the ownership they took.”
Brown, which hit .380, got 14 kills from Beau Vanderlaan, who hit .458 and had a dig and six blocks, two solo …Â
In the SEC, Mississippi State hit .323 and won in five at Missouri to pull even with first-place Kentucky in the win column, and Arkansas won in four at Alabama …Â
BYU (23-1, 13-0) can’t be stopped in the West Coast Conference. The sixth-ranked Cougars won their 16th in a row, a sweep at Portland. Kenzie Koerber had 12 kills with one error in 20 attacks, 10 digs, and two blocks … No. 20 San Diego (18-4, 12-1) stayed a game back in the WCC with a four-set win at Gonzaga as Katie Lukes had 27 kills, and Grace Frohling 19. Lukes hit .361 and had an assist, two blocks, and eight digs. Frohling had three aces, two blocks, and five digs … Pepperdine, which lost to Pacific in five earlier in the season, swept the Tigers as Rachel Ahrens had 15 kills, an ace, three blocks, and four digs …Â
Marquette beat St. John’s in five to take over first place in the Big East, by a half-game over idle Creighton, and the match featured some impressive stats lines. Hope Werch led Marquette with 17 kills, five aces, a block, and nine digs. Taylor Wolf had 13 kills, hit .333, had 33 assists, three aces, four blocks, and seven digs. Hannah Vanden Berg had 13 kills, hit .407, and had two assists, two digs, and four blocks, one solo. Savannah Rennie had 10 kills with one error in 18 attacks, two aces, four digs, and seven blocks. Rachelle Rastelli had 19 kills for St. John’s to go with four assists, an ace four blocks, and 14 digs …Â
Northern Colorado beat Weber State in five, and Portland State won in four at Southern Utah, so now Northern Colorado, Weber, and Portland State are tied for first in the Big Sky at 10-3 …
High Point swept N.C. A&T, and Campbell did the same to UNC Asheville, so they stayed 1-2 in the Big South … Â
Hawai’i won in four at Long Beach State, and Cal Poly knocked off UC Santa Barbara, so Hawai’i now holds a one-game lead atop the Big West. Amber Igiede had 11 kills with no errors in 14 attacks for the Rainbow Wahine, an assist, six digs, and six blocks, one solo …Â
Bowling Green (18-7, 14-1) swept its MAC match with Kent State to win the Mid-American East Division. Petra Indrova had 23 kills with two errors in 52 attacks, an assist, two digs, and a block …Â
South Alabama (20-6, 13-1) swept Troy for its eight consecutive win and clinched the Sun Belt East … Also in the Sun Belt, Briana Brown had 28 kills as UT Arlington won in five over visiting Little Rock. Brown added six digs and a solo block …Â
Illinois State lost its Missouri Valley match in five to visiting Indiana State, but Tamara Otene had 26 kills, an ace, and eight digs … Kansas City lost its Summit League match in four at Oral Roberts, but Melanie Brecka had 25 kills, hit .352, and had three aces, 11 digs, and two blocks … NEC-leading Bryant had to go five to beat LIU as Caroline Kennedy had 22 kills with four errors in 36 swings to hit .500; she added six digs and four blocks … In a WAC match that Sam Houston won in five at Tarleton State, Sam Houston’s Ashley Lewis had 23 kills, and Tarleton’s Lauren Kersey had 24. Lewis also had an assist, two aces, 14 digs, and a block, and Kersey hit .488 and had three digs and three blocks, one solo … Eastern Kentucky beat Central Arkansas in five in the ASUN, and Sarah Mitchell had 24 kills, two assists, an ace, 13 digs, and two blocks … Also in the ASUN Lipscomb hit .358 and swept Bellarmine … In VCU‘s sweep of Fordham, Jovana Vukcevic had 21 kills, hit .500, and had two assists, three digs and a block.
Texas had 20 service errors. That’s 5 per set if you do the math, and that alone would have kept them in the match. If you aren’t scoring when you have the serve, the best you can do is a tie. Logan Eggleston played well, but that serving stat stands out for the team. Baylor also +8 on digs. It sounds a small thing, but with the set scores so close that makes all the difference between two really good teams.