Another week, another bit of shuffling in the PACked-at-the-top PAC-12.
After No. 17 Oregon swept No. 12 UCLA on Sunday, UCLA and No. 13 Washington are tied for the lead. Oregon, No. 16 Utah, and No. 21 Washington State are two games back, tied for third.
There’s a Big Ten logjam, too, especially after Purdue won at Minnesota to cap off a stunning road trip in which the Boilermakers also won at Wisconsin.
Mississippi State won its 10th in a row and went back-to-back against No. 24 Tennessee in the SEC.
Line of the day/weekend: Rider’s Morgan Romano had 26 kills and 26 digs in a Metro Atlantic win over Niagara. She hit .302 and had an assist, four aces, and a block. Romano, a junior right side from Ovieda, Florida, has had 21 or more kills in five or her last six matches, including a career-high 26 the day before against Cansius … Dominique Washington had 28 kills for Florida A&M in its five-set SWAC victory over Alabama State. She hit .317 and had an assist, three aces, and 13 digs.
No doubt there will be a shakeup in the AVCA Poll that comes out later Monday. The NCAA RPI was updated and we have the info below.
There are four matches on the NCAA Division I women’s volleyball schedule Monday, including No. 1 and unbeaten Louisville going to Notre Dame in the ACC.
The Southern Conference tournament gets under way when ninth-seeded Furman plays No. 8 Chattanooga for the right to play top-seeded Mercer in Birmingham, Alabama, on Friday. Click here for complete SoCon tourney info.
LATEST RPI — The NCAA list on which the selection committee relies heavily was updated Monday morning and, in order, the top five are Louisville, Pittsburgh, Baylor, Texas, and Wisconsin.
The next five are Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Purdue, Ohio State, and UCLA. Nos. 11-15 show Florida State, Creighton, Nebraska, Marquette, and Miami (Florida). The No. 16 team is Minnesota, significant because the top 16 teams get to be first- and second-round NCAA Tournament hosts. Rounding out the top 20 are Tennessee, Florida, Washington, and BYU.
Click here for the complete NCAA RPI rankings.
WSU’s GREENY JOINS THE PANEL — Later today on VolleyballMag.com we will have our weekly roundtable on all things NCAA with Salima Rockwell, Jenny Hazelwood, and Emily Ehman. Washington State coach Jen Greeny joins the conversation.
PAC-12 — Oregon (20-6, 11-5) was hitting on all cylinders in its 25-23, 25-17, 25-21 sweep of visiting UCLA (20-4, 13-3) as the Ducks hit .304 and held UCLA to .204. Brooke Nuneviller led Oregon with 16 kills as she hit .317 and had an assist and 11 digs. Karson Bacon had nine kills with one error in 13 attacks, two blocks, and two digs. Kiari Robey, who had five kills with one error in six attacks, had four blocks, three solo. Oregon has won five in a row and six of seven. UCLA’s Mac May had eight kills, two assists, an ace, a block, and seven digs. It was May’s lowest kill total since she had six against Portland State on September 3. She’d had 12 or more kills in every match since …
Washington (20-4, 13-3) swept at Cal (7-20, 0-16), which has just four more chances this season to get a conference win. The Huskies hit .337 in their 25-16, 25-16, 25-20 victory as Shannon Crenshaw had 13 kills, hit .370, and had an assist, an ace, eight digs, and two blocks, one solo. Emoni Bush had 12 kills and hit .400 to go with two blocks …
Utah (18-7, 11-5) won 26-24, 15-25, 25-20, 25-18 at Arizona State (14-13, 7-9) as Dani Drews had 23 kills, two blocks, and 11 digs. Zoe Weatherington had 13 kills, hit .429, and had three digs and three blocks, one solo. ASU’s Iman Isanovic had 20 kills, two assists, an ace, two solo blocks, and nine digs. Jayme Cox had 21 digs, three assists, and an ace …
Arizona (15-12, 7-9) beat visiting Colorado (14-11, 5-11) 25-17, 19-25, 25-18, 32-30. Sofia Maldonado Diaz, who led Arizona with 15 kills, had seven of them in the last set. She had two assists, four aces, three blocks, and four digs. Puk Stubbe had 13 kills, two assists, three blocks, and 13 digs. Zyonna Fellows had seven kills in 16 errorless attacks and seven blocks, one solo. Emery Herman had six kills, 41 assists, two aces, three blocks, and 15 digs. CU’s Maya Tabron had 16 kills, two blocks, and four dig, and Jahara Campbell had 13 kills, two blocks, and four digs … USC (11-14, 7-9) hit .376 and swept at Oregon State (4-22, 2-14). Brooke Botkin led with 14 kills, hit .379, and had an ace and eight digs.
BIG TEN — Wisconsin (21-3, 13-3) and Nebraska (19-6, 13-3) are tied for the lead, while Purdue (20-5, 12-4), Penn State (19-7, 12-4), and Minnesota (17-7, 12-4) are a game back, and Ohio State (21-5, 11-5) is a game behind them.
No. 9 Purdue, which has won six in a row, not only won at Wisconsin on Friday, came back and knocked off No. 8 Minnesota on its home court 25-12, 14-25, 25-16, 25-22. Purdue last won at Minnesota in 1998. Caitlyn Newton had 19 kills, five aces, a block and six digs. Grace Cleveland, Jael Johnson, and Raven Colvin had seven kills each. Colvin had one error in 13 attacks and six blocks. Minnesota’s Stephanie Samedy had 23 kills, hit .316, and had an ace, a block, and 13 digs. CC McGraw had 19 digs, four assists, and two aces …
No. 4 Wisconsin won in four at Northwestern (11-16, 6-10) as Devyn Robinson had 19 kills and hit .654 in the 25-27, 25-14, 25-22, 25-20 victory. She had four blocks and a dig. Julia Orzol had 16 kills, hit .324, and had 11 digs, and Dana Rettke had 11 kills, hit .364, and had five blocks. Northwestern’s Temi Thomas-Ailara had 14 kills, an assist, two aces, and three digs …
No. 10 Ohio State won 27-25, 25-18, 25-23 at No. 25 Illinois (17-10, 9-7). Emily Londot led with 14 kills and hit .591 after having one error in 22 attacks. She had an assist, four blocks, and five digs … No. 11 Nebraska won 23-25, 25-18, 25-22, 25-16 at Indiana (9-19, 3-13) as five players had nine or more kills, 11 each by Lexi Sun, Lindsay Krause, and Ally Batenhorst.
SEC — No. 7 Kentucky (20-4, 13-1) has swept four matches in a row since losing in five at South Carolina two weeks ago, including back-to-back Saturday and Sunday over visiting Texas A&M (12-12, 5-9). Sunday the Wildcats cruised 25-12, 25-11, 25-14 as A&M hit minus .042. Alli Stumler led UK with 12 kills as she hit .300 and had two aces, four blocks, and seven digs. Azhani Tealer, featured here last week, had seven kills in 15 errorless attacks, an ace, three blocks, and a dig. Bella Bell had three kills and nine blocks, one solo …
Mississippi State (22-5, 13-2) held off visiting Tennessee (17-8, 9-6) 25-18, 25-23, 26-28, 15-25, 17-15 is now just one win shy of tying the program record for overall wins in a season, 23 in 1976.
State, which hit .165, got 16 kills from Shania Cromartie, who had an assist, three aces, 16 digs, and three blocks, one solo. Gabby Waden had 15 kills, two digs, and six blocks, one solo. Morgahn Fingall led Tennessee with 22 kills as she hit .346 to go with two blocks and six digs. Natalie Hayward had four kills, 50 assists, three blocks, and 21 digs …
Georgia (10-15, 6-8), beat visiting Missouri (4-24, 1-14) in four. Kacie Evans had 18 kills, two assists, two blocks, and five digs.
AROUND THE NATION — There were two ACC matches as Florida State (19-6, 11-4) won in four at Syracuse (16-12, 5-11) and North Carolina (20-7, 9-7) swept at Virginia (8-18, 1-15). FSU’s Emma Clothier had 15 kills, hit .379, and had two assists, an ace, three digs, and three blocks, one solo. Lily Tessier had five kills in seven errorless tries, 44 assists, two aces, two blocks, and 18 digs. Syracuse’s Marina Markova had 19 kills, hit .349, and had two aces, five blocks, and 10 digs … Mabrey Shaffmaster led UNC with 14 kills, an assist, two aces, a block, and five digs …
Marquette swept at Butler that pulled the Eagles into a first-place Big East tie with idle Creighton. Hope Werch had 14 kills, hit .308, and had three aces, nine digs, and two blocks, one solo … Also in the Big East, DePaul won in four at Xavier and Hanna Karl had 18 kills, hit .410, and had two aces, 10 digs, and a block …
In the lone Big West match, Hawai’i swept visiting UC San Diego to build its lead to two games over idle UC Santa Barbara. The Rainbow Wahine hit .337 as Amber Igiede had 13 kills with one error in 22 attacks, six digs, and 10 blocks, one solo …
Towson took over sole possession of first place in the CAA and won the tournament top seed by sweeping visiting Northeastern. Fay Bakodimou had nine kills, an assist, two aces, three blocks, and six digs, and Lydia Weir had nine kills with no errors in 20 attacks, five blocks, and a dig … The CAA tie at the top was broken when Hofstra knocked off James Madison …
Omaha, which has won nine a row, built its Summit League to two games as the Mavericks won in four at South Dakota. The loss dropped USD, which had won six in a row, into a second-place tie with idle Denver. Shayla McCormick had 16 kills for Omaha and hit .325. She had an ace, a block, and 14 digs. South Dakota’s Elizabeth Juhnke had 17 kills, an assist, an ace, 12 digs, and two blocks, one solo …
Houston swept visiting Cincinnati and has sole possession of second place in the American Athletic, two games back of idle UCF. The Cougars hit .312 as Abbie Jackson had 14 kills, two assists, four digs and a block … Also in the AAC, USF beat visiting Memphis in four as Marta Cvitkovic had 23 kills, an ace, 10 digs, and two blocks, one solo …
Lipscomb went down 0-2 but rallied for an ASUN reverse-sweep upset over visiting Jacksonville State. Kamryn Bacus had 17 kills, hit .316, and had a dig and two blocks, one solo. JSU’s Lena Kindermann had 16 kills, hit .324, and had a block and a dig … Hartford hit .414 in its America East sweep of New Hampshire … Green Bay won in five at Robert Morris as Alexandra Zakutney had 22 kills in the Horizon League victory. She had an ace, 12 digs, and three blocks … Howard swept Norfolk State in the only MEAC match of the day to climb back into a first-place tie with Delaware State and claim the top seed in the conference tournament … Coastal Carolina beat App State in four as Ani Bozdeva had 14 kills and hit .433 in the Sun Belt victory … UTA, which swept Louisiana-Monroe, has won five Sun Belt matches in a row and eight of 10. Brianna Ford had 14 kills, hit .357, and had two blocks and two digs …
As the MAAC ended its regular season, Fairfield had 13 aces as it maintained its two-game lead at the top with a four-set win at Manhattan. KJ Johnson led with 17 kills, two assists, an ace, seven digs, and a block. Rider’s Morgan Romano had 26 kills in a five-set MAAC victory over visiting Niagara. She hit .302 and had an assist, four aces, 26 digs, and a block … Also in the MAAC, Quinnipiac lost in five at Iona, but Aryanah Diaz had 23 kills, hit .380, and had an assist, 15 digs, and two blocks.
