UCF (Central Florida), ranked No. 22 in the AVCA top 25 and No. 5 in the VolleyballMag.com Mid-Major poll, won its 21st match in a row, a victory Sunday over ECU (East Carolina) that clinched at least a share of the American Athletic Conference championship.
No. 13 USC beat visiting No. 19 Washington State in four, while No. 20 Arizona had to come back from 0-2 to win at Colorado as Pac-12 teams jockey for postseason positioning.
No. 9 Creighton — which clinched a share of the title — and No. 18 Marquette swept their respective Big East matches.
The only NCAA Division I match of the day is in the Big 12, when Baylor goes to Texas Tech and on Tuesday the only matches on schedule show Utah State at Boise State in the Mountain West and Sacramento State at Portland State in the Big Sky.
UCF dominating AAC: The Knights (24-3, 15-0) beat ECU 25-17, 25-16, 25-23 and hit .340. Kristina Fisher led with 10 kills, hit .308, and had an assist and five digs. McKenna Melville added nine kills, 11 digs and two blocks, one solo. Also in the AAC on Sunday, second-place Cincinnati (22-7, 12-3) swept USF (South Florida) as Jordan Thompson had 24 more kills. She hit .512 and had four aces, seven digs and a block … Caylee Parker had 18 kills, an assist, two aces, two blocks and 14 digs in UConn’s five-set loss to third-place Tulane, which improved to 23-7, 11-4, with its 11th victory in a row. It’s the most wins for the Green Wave since going 28-4 in 2013 … SMU swept Wichita State as Alex Koon had 16 kills, hit .424 and had four digs and a block.
Pac-12: USC (19-8, 11-5), still without three injured starters, beat visiting Washington State (19-7, 10-6) 25-18, 25-18, 22-25, 25-22. Emily Baptista led with 17 kills, an assist, an ace and 15 digs. Jasmine Gross added 10 kills, hit .538, and had three assists, an ace, seven digs and three blocks. Setter Raquel Lazaro had four kills, 37 assists, two aces, six digs and six blocks, two solo. WSU, which hit .098, got 15 kills from McKenna Woodford, who had two digs and a block. Taylor Mims had 10 kills, five digs and five blocks, two solo …
Arizona (19-9, 8-8) rallied at Colorado (15-12, 7-9) for a 21-25, 8-25, 25-16, 26-20, 15-12 victory. Candice Denny led with 16 kills, hitting .524. Kendra Dahlke had 13 kills, two aces and eight digs, and Paige Whipple had 15 kills, five digs, an ace and a block. Colorado, which out-hit the Wildcats .288 to .174, got 14 kills apiece from Alexa Smith, Justine Spann and Naghede Abu. Smith had five digs and four blocks …
Utah (15-12, 7-9) swept visiting Arizona State (13-15, 4-12) 25-21, 25-22, 25-6 as Megan Yett led with 15 kills. She hit .387 and had an assist and six digs. Dani Drews added 13 kills, hit .393, and had an ace, two blocks and 12 digs. ASU, which hit .105, got 11 kills from Alyse Ford, who had an assist, two blocks and six digs.
Wins for Creighton, Marquette: Creighton (24-4, 16-0) clinched a share of the Big East title with its 29-27, 25-11, 25-21 victory over Villanova (15-13, 8-8). Taryn Kloth led with 14 kills and Jaali Winters had 12, 10 digs and a block. Sanaä Barnes led Villanova with 11 kills, hitting .348 …
Marquette (24-5, 14-2) won at Xavier (10-17, 8-8) 25-15, 25-17, 25-13 as Allie Barber had 16 kills, hit .429, had had a dig and four blocks. Anna Haak had 14 kills, hit .571, and had seven digs, and Jenna Rosenthal had 10 kills with no errors in 13 swings to hit .769. She had two digs and three blocks … Also in the Big East, Georgetown’s Alyssa Sinnette had 20 kills in a five-set win over Providence, who got 20 kills from Allison Impellizeri, who hit .500 and had six blocks, one solo.
SEC’s four ranked teams win: That included No. 11 Kentucky (20-4, 14-0), which swept visiting Alabama (18-10, 5-9() 25-16, 25-19, 25-23. Leah Edmond led with 21 kills, 11 digs and two assists. Alli Stumler had 15 kills, hit .308 and had an assist, a block and eight digs. Doris Carter led Bama with 12 kills and hit .344 to go with 15 digs and two blocks …
All four set scores were the same as No. 14 Florida (21-5, 12-2) won at Auburn (10-15, 3-12) 25-21, 25-21, 21-25, 25-21. Paige Hammons led with 17 kills and hit .353. She added an assist, nine digs and three blocks, one solo. Rachael Kramer had 10 kills, hit .304, and had four blocks. Auburn’s Brenna McIlroy had 13 kills, an assist, three aces, seven digs and block, and Tatum Shipes had 12 kills …
Tessa Grubbs had 22 kills and hit .571 as No. 23 Tennessee (21-5, 12-2) swept Mississippi State (5-22, 1-13) 25-22, 26-24, 25-15) . Addisyn Rowe added 12 kills and hit .421 with an assist, two blocks and four digs. Paige Shaw led State with nine kills, seven digs and a block …
No. 24 Missouri (22-5, 12-3) beat visiting Georgia (13-12, 4-10) 26-24, 22-25, 27-25, 25-21. Kyle Deberg led with 16 kills, seven of Mizzou’s 16 aces, five digs and three blocks, one solo. Dariana Hollingsworth had 14 kills, hit .458, and had three assists, nine digs and four blocks. Georgia’s Rachel Ritchie had 15 kills, 14 digs, two blocks, an assist and an ace …
Also in the SEC, LSU (11-14, 6-8) won in four at Arkansas (11-13, 5-9) behind 12 kills, three digs and two blocks by Taylor Bannister and a line from setter Lindsay Flory that saw her have three kills in eight errorless attacks, 34 assists, an ace, six digs and three blocks … And Texas A&M (14-13, 7-8) beat visiting Ole Miss (13-16, 3-12) in four as Hollann Hans led with 21 kills. She hit .356, had three assists, four aces, eight digs and a solo block. Emily Stroup had another big match in a loss for the Rebels, this time with 22 kills, an assist, an ace, seven digs and two blocks, one solo.
ACC: Pittsburgh (26-1, 14-1) sustained its only loss to Duke. Sunday, the tables turned as the Panthers beat visiting Duke (14-10, 8-7) 25-20, 25-17, 25-17 in front of a Pitt-record crowd of 3,179. Kayla Lund led with 13 kills and hit .440 and had three digs and two blocks. Stephanie Williams and Nika Markovic had 11 kills each. Duke hit .065. Leah Meyer had eight kills, hit .462, had an ace and five blocks, one solo …
Florida State (17-8, 13-2) kept pace with a 20-25, 20-25, 25-23, 25-12, 15-9 comeback victory over visiting Notre Dame (15-11, 9-7). Payton Caffrey led with 20 kills, hit .356, and had an assist, three aces and 11 digs. Christina Ambrose had 16 kills, three digs and three blocks. Charley Niego had 21 kills for Notre Dame and added 10 digs and four blocks …
Louisville (20-7, 13-3) swept Wake Forest (9-19, 4-12) 25-16, 25-18, 25-20 as Amanda Green and Jasmine Bennett got 11 kills each and Claire Chaussee had 10. Bennett hit .526 … Syracuse (16-7, 12-3) swept Georgia Tech (16-12, 5-10) 29-27, 25-21, 25-18 as Polina Shemanova had 16 kills, hit .500 and had 15 digs. Amber Witherspoon had 12 kills, hit .556, and had five blocks, one solo … And North Carolina (7-17, 3-12) won back-to-back matches for the first time this ACC season with a four-set win over visiting Miami (13-10, 9-7) as Destiny Cox led a balanced attack with 13 kills. Skylar Win had 12 kills, 11 digs, three aces and four blocks, one solo.
Around the nation: Florida Atlantic won its 15th match in a row to improve to 21-6, 11-3 in Conference USA with a four-set win over Middle Tennessee. Massiel Matos led with 20 kills, hit .487 after making only one error in 39 swings, and had five aces, 13 digs and two blocks, one solo …
Hofstra (23-7, 13-3) and James Madison (21-6, 13-3) both won in sweeps, tied for the top of the Colonial Athletic Association. Nanishka Perez and Michela Rucli had 11 kills each for Hofstra against Northeastern, while Bryn Recker had 12 kills for JMU in its win over Delaware …
Denver (26-1, 15-1) put a punctuation mark on its Summit League season with a sweep of Purdue Fort Wayne (17-13, 8-8). Katarina Marinkovic had 16 kills, hit .367, and had seven digs, an assist and two blocks for the Pioneers …
Iona, which previously clinched the Metro Atlantic, beat Siena in four as Claire Archibald had 13 kills, 15 digs three aces and a block … Stony Brook, which had already won the America East, swept Binghamton as Maria Poole had 16 kills to end the regular season.
