Ohio St. thumps Nebraska; Oregon, UW win; Towson claims CAA title

Sixth-ranked Ohio State beat visiting No. 4 Nebraska on Sunday for its 14th Big Ten win in a row and moved into a first-place tie with Wisconsin.

No. 14 Oregon and No. 20 Washington both claimed Pac-12 victories.

Towson won at Hofstra again and claimed the CAA regular-season title and Liberty won the top seed in the ASUN.

The recaps and top performances follow.

There are three matches Monday, two in the SWAC when Alcorn plays Prairie View and Southern plays Texas Southern. UNC Greensboro and Furman play in the SoCon.

Tuesday, there are also three matches. Indiana State goes to Evansville in the Missouri Valley, CSU Bakersfield goes to Cal Poly in the Big West, and Colorado State plays a Mountain West match at Wyoming. Wyoming’s Chad Callihan announced last week that he is stepping away as head coach at the end of the season after 10 years at the helm. Callihan is the winningest coach in program history.

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

BIG TEN: Ohio State (19-5, 15-1) came away with a hard-fought 31-29, 25-21, 26-28, 25-16 victory over visiting Nebraska (22-3, 14-2) in an NCAA Tournament-like atmosphere before a sold-out crowd.

Emily Londot led with a season-high 23 kills — 12 in the first set — and hit .353 to go with four blocks and a season-high 21 digs. She had 26 digs in her previous four matches combined. Gabby Gonzales had 18 kills, an assist, a block and 20 digs and Jenaisya Moore had 12 kills, three blocks and seven digs. 

Mac Podraza had three kills in nine errorless attempts, 55 assists, a block and 11 digs. Her team hit .254. Kylie Murr had 24 of Ohio State’s 101 digs, six assists and two aces.

Nebraska, which hit .168, got 15 kills from Ally Batenhorst, who had four digs and a block. Batenhorst had six kills in the first set. Madi Kubik had 14 kills, two blocks and 10 digs, and Whitney Lauenstein had 12 kills, an assist, an ace, two blocks and four digs. Nicklin Hames had 32 assists, two aces and 21 digs, and Lexi Rodriguez had 24 digs, eight assists and an ace … 

No. 9 Minnesota (17-7, 12-4) swept visiting Indiana (13-15, 6-10) as the Gophers had just 33 kills in the 25-22, 25-9, 25-15 victory. Carter Booth had nine kills with one error and four blocks, one solo. The Hoosiers hit .031 … 

Iowa (8-19, 2-14) swept visiting Rutgers (8-20, 2-14) to create a three-way tie for last with idle Michigan State (11-16, 2-14).

ACC: Louisville (24-2, 15-1) had no hangover after its epic match at Georgia Tech on Friday as the fifth-ranked Cardinals rolled at North Carolina (15-11, 7-8). Louisville hit .323 and got 10 kills from Claire Chaussee, who added an ace, four digs and four blocks … Boston College (18-12, 6-10), hit .360 and swept visiting Syracuse (11-15, 7-9). Silvia Ianeselli had 12 kills, hit .409 and added four aces, seven digs and a block … Wake Forest beat visiting Virginia Tech in four … Clemson beat visiting NC State in four.

BIG EAST: No. 12 Creighton (24-3, 16-0) won its 16th in a row by sweeping visiting Seton Hall (14-14, 5-11) as the Bluejays hit .362. Jazz Schmidt had 10 kills with no errors in 16 attacks … No. 17 Marquette (24-2, 15-1) swept at fourth-place UConn (15-12, 9-7) as the Golden Eagles hit .324 and Aubrey Hamilton had 13 kills and Carsen Murray had 12. Marquette has won nine in a row … Third-place Xavier swept St. John’s, Butler swept at Georgetown and Providence knocked off visiting DePaul in four. 

PAC-12: Oregon (19-5, 13-3) won 25-16, 22-25, 25-22, 25-18 at Utah (15-12, 8-8) as the 17th-ranked Ducks stayed two games behind idle Stanford and alone in second place, two games up on idle USC. Oregon got 25 kills from Mimi Colyer, who hit .408 and had two aces, nine digs and two blocks, one solo. Brooke Nuneviller had 14 kills, five assists, a block and 11 digs. Hannah Pukis had three kills in nine errorless tries, 48 assists and 10 digs. Her team hit .319. Utah’s Madelyn Robinson had 17 kills, an ace, a block and 11 digs … 

Arizona State (11-7, 5-11) gave visiting Washington (18-8, 10-6) all it could handle before the Huskies came away with a much-needed 18-25, 25-19, 25-16, 25-27, 15-8 victory. Washington, 27th in last week’s RPI, had lost three of four, including at Arizona on Friday. Claire Hoffman had 26 kills, hit .357 and had three assists, a block and 14 digs. Marin Grote had 16 kills, hit .444 and had a block. Audra Wilmes had 12 kills, hit .321 and added an ace and three digs. Ella May Powell had five kills in nine errorless tries, 60 assists, an ace, a block and 14 digs. Her team hit .290. Iman Isanovic had 21 kills for ASU while hitting .304 to go with an assist, an ace, a block and five digs. Shannon Shields had a kill, 30 assists, a block and 16 digs … 

No. 25 Washington State (19-8, 11-5) hit .311 and won 22-25, 25-17, 25-17, 25-20 at Arizona (14-13, 4-12). Pia Timmer led with 19 kills, two assists, four aces and 11 digs. Laura Jansen had 15 kills, two aces, seven digs and four blocks, one solo. Katy Ryan also had 15 kills, hit .357 and had two blocks and a dig. Argentina Ung had three kills, 48 assists, two aces, two blocks and seven digs. Arizona’s Sofia Maldonado Diaz had 14 kills, an ace, three blocks and nine digs.

AMERICAN ATHLETIC: The top three teams all swept. No. 23 Houston (25-2, 16-0) won at fourth-place Wichita State (14-12, 9-6) and maintained its one-game lead. The Cougars, who won their 17th in a row, hit .326 and got 15 kills from Abbie Jackson, who hit .364 and had an ace and three digs … No. 24 UCF (23-1, 15-1) kept pace by beating visiting Cincinnati (8-18, 6-10) with its 11th victory in a row. UCF, which has only lost to Houston, was led by McKenna Melville. She had 19 kills and six digs … SMU (20-8, 13-3) kept its slim NCAA Tournament hopes alive with a win over Temple (10-17, 4-12) as nine players had kills, seven each by Jamison Wheeler and London Austin-Roark, who had no errors in 17 attacks, an ace and four blocks, one solo. Also in the AAC, Tulsa beat visiting Tulane in five as Kayley Cassaday had 20 kills, 11 digs and two digs … East Carolina won in five at Memphis behind 23 kills by Angeles Alderete, who had 18 digs and a block.

AROUND THE NATION: Towson (26-1, 15-1) went to Hofstra (17-11, 4-2) and beat the Pride twice this weekend, 25-12, 25-21, 15-25, 21-25, 15-11 on Sunday, and clinched the CAA regular-season title. Nina Cajic had 21 kills and hit .500 for Towson to go with five blocks and three digs and Izadora Stedile had 21 kills for Hofstra, hit .333 and had two assists, an ace, three blocks and eight digs …

Liberty clinched the ASUN tournament’s top seed by sweeping at Bellarmine as the Flame hit .364 and six players had kills, 10 by Kate Phillips, who had an assist, six digs and three solo blocks …  There were plenty of big-kill performances in the ASUN. Manu Johnsen had 27 kills, hit .389 and had 14 digs, an ace and a block for Kennesaw State in its win over Central Arkansas … Elena Djokovic had 24 kills, 22 digs and two blocks for Stetson in its five-set win over Jacksonville … Lena Kindermann had 24 kills and hit .500 for Jacksonville State in its four-set win at Austin Peay … Lipscomb hit .405 as four players had 10 or more kills in a sweep at North Alabama … 

Prairie View beat Southern in five as Leila Smalls had 23 kills and Kylee Owens 22 in their SWAC match … Also in the SWAC, Florida A&M hit .632 in a sweep of Mississippi Valley. The Rattlers had 38 kills with two errors in 57 swings. Karina Pressoir had 11 kills with one error in 14 attacks, four digs and two blocks … 

First-place Fairfield hit .376 in its MAAC sweep of Saint Peter’s, which dropped to 1-30, 1-17 in the conference … UIC scored its fourth sweep in a row as it beat Murray State in a Missouri Valley Conference match played at Indiana State. The original match was scheduled for November 4 but there was a power outage at Murray State …

DIVISION II: The NCAA Division II Women’s Volleyball Championship has eight regions of eight teams for a tournament that begins Thursday. The No. 1 seeds and hosts are four-time national champion and defending-champion Tampa, Gannon, Wayne State, American International, Quincy, Wingate, Metropolitan State and Alaska Anchorage, but AA will be the host for the West Region at second-seeded Western Washington. 

See the bracket here and watch the selection show here.

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