There were no upsets Friday in NCAA Division I volleyball, but a few teams had to sweat out tough victories, including No. 5 Purdue at Illinois and No. 22 Rice at North Texas.
No. 16 Oregon remained the only team unbeaten in Pac-12 play.
In battles of ranked teams, No. 9 Stanford beat No. 17 Washington,
and No. 8 Wisconsin swept No. 12 Penn State.
The line of the night went to Youngstown State’s Paula Gursching. Her Penguins lost in five to IUPUI in the Horizon League, but she had a career-high 31 kills while hitting .364 and added an assist, an ace, 11 digs and two blocks, one solo.
McKenna Melville and No. 24 UCF were forced to leave home because of Hurricane Ian, but location doesn’t seem to matter to the graduate-student All-America outside. Melville had 23 kills with no errors in 44 attacks in a sweep of Tulsa at Wichita State.
The recaps and top performances follow, but first a look at Saturday’s key matches.
No. 6 Ohio State plays in one of two Big Ten matches, at Indiana. Also, Michigan is at Northwestern.
All three ranked West Coast Conference teams are in action — No. 4 San Diego goes to Portland, No. 15 BYU is at Gonzaga, and No. 20 Pepperdine is at Santa Clara.
In the Big 12, No. 13 Baylor, coming off its loss to Iowa State, is at Kansas, and West Virginia is at Oklahoma.
There are five SEC matches, including No. 18 Kentucky home for Alabama and No. 23 Arkansas at Mississippi State.
The Big East’s No. 19 Marquette is home for Providence.
The ACC and Pac-12 are idle.
Want to watch a match? We have the viewing links on the VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings page.
BIG TEN: Eighth-ranked Wisconsin (8-3, 2-1) swept visiting No. 12 Penn State 25-20, 25-16, 31-29 after staving off three match points in the third set. Devyn Robinson had 12 kills with one error in 21 attacks to hit .524 and added six blocks. Sarah Franklin had 12 kills and 12 digs and hit .321. Kashauna Williams led Penn State (12-2, 1-2) with 17 kills as she hit .419 and had three blocks, one solo …
No. 5 Purdue (12-1, 3-0) escaped with a 25-17, 25-17, 23-25, 17-25, 16-14 win at Illinois (7-6, 2-1). Eva Hudson continued her spectacular freshman season with 24 kills, hit hit .380 and added 17 digs and two blocks, one solo. Raina Terry had 24 kills for Illinois and hit .345 to go with an ace, a block and five digs …
No. 3 Nebraska (11-1, 3-0) hit .405 and swept at Rutgers (7-8, 1-2).Whitney Lauenstein had 11 kills and hit .391 to go with an assist, an ace and two digs …
Michigan State (10-4, 1-2) won in five at Maryland (9-6, 0-3) behind 18 kills by Aliyah Moore, who also had two blocks and five digs.
ACC: Five of the seven matches were sweeps, including second-ranked Louisville (12-1, 3-0) beating visiting Clemson (9-6, 0-3). Claire Chausee continued her tremendous season with 19 kills, hit .348 with just two errors in 31 attacks and added six digs. The Cardinals hit .343 … No. 10 Pittsburgh (13-2, 4-0) hit .322 and won at Duke (9-5, 0-3). Courtney Buzzerio had 10 kills with one error in 16 attacks to hit .562 and added five assists, two aces, five digs and two blocks … No. 13 Georgia Tech (10-2, 3-0) won at Notre Dame (5-8, 0-3) behind 19 kills from Julia Bergmann, who had an assist, 12 digs and two blocks, one solo …
Miami (9-5, 2-1) won in four at North Carolina (9-5, 1-2) behind 22 kills by Angela Grieve, who had nine digs and four blocks … Surprising Syracuse (7-6, 3-0) won in five at Wake Forest (9-5, 1-2) behind big numbers from Polina Shemanova (28 kills, a .344 hitting percentage, two aces, 16 digs) and Naomi Franco (23 kills, .543, a dig, two blocks) …
The other sweeps came when NC State (8-6, 2-1) beat visiting Florida State (9-5, 1-2) as Ava Brizard and Martyna Leoniak had 11 kills each and Vanja Bukilic had six kills and eight blocks, one solo … Virginia Tech (9-5, 2-1) hit .353 and beat visiting Boston College (13-4, 1-2) as Sydney Peterson had 11 kills with one error in 19 attacks to hit .526 to go with a dig and three blocks.
PAC-12: No. 9 Stanford (7-4, 2-1) bounced back from getting swept at Oregon to bear visiting No. 17 Washington 24-26, 25-17, 25-20, 25-21. Stanford, which hit .338, got 55 of its 65 kills from three players. Kendall Kipp led the way with 19 kills, hit .313 and had an assist, two aces, four blocks and seven digs. Elia Rubin had 17 kills, hit .368 and had three assists, an ace three blocks, and five digs. Caitie Baird had 17 kills, three assists, four blocks and 18 digs. McKenna Vicini had six kills in 12 errorless attacks and six blocks, and Kami Miner had four kills in seven errorless tries, 49 assists, 13 digs and three blocks, one solo. The Huskies (10-3, 2-1) got 20 kills from Claire Hoffman, who hit .304 and had an assist, an ace, a block and 13 digs. Ella May Powell had three kills in six errorless tries, 43 assists, a block and 11 digs …
No. 16 Oregon (9-2, 3-0) stayed unbeaten in league play by sweeping visiting Arizona State (7-8, 1-2) and holds a one-game lead over seven teams tied for second. The Ducks hit .416 with 50 kills and eight errors in 101 attacks. Gloria Mutiri had 14 kills in 20 errorless attacks to hit .700 and added two digs and three blocks. Mimi Colyer had 12 kills; Brooke Nuneviller had 10 with one error in 28 attacks, three assists, an ace and 12 digs …
Arizona (11-3, 1-2) swept at Oregon State (6-7, 1-2). Jaelyn Hodge had 12 kills, four digs and a block … Utah (9-5, 2-1) won in four at UCLA (6-6, 0-3) despite hitting. 140. Madelyn Robinson had 13 kills, an ace and nine digs … Washington State (10-4, 2-1) hit .368 and swept at Cal (7-6, 0-3) as Magda Jehlarova and Pia Timmer had 13 kills each. Jehlarova had one error in 22 attacks to hit .545 and also had two aces, three digs and 11 blocks, one solo … USC beat visiting Colorado in four behind 24 kills by Skylar Fields, who hit .309 and had two assists, an ace and seven digs.
AROUND THE NATION: Both ranked Big East teams swept as No. 19 Marquette beat visiting Connecticut, and No. 21 Creighton beat visiting Butler. Marquette’s Aubrey Hamilton had 10 kills, seven digs and three blocks, one solo, and Jenna Reitsma had seven kills, 10 digs and six aces. Creighton got 14 kills from Ava Martin, who hit .500 and had an ace and six digs … Also in the Big East, Seton Hall lost in five at Georgetown despite 24 kills by Jenna Walsh, who had three assists, an ace, eight digs and two blocks …
Both ranked Conference USA teams won, but No. 22 Rice had to go five to survive at North Texas. Adekunla Anota had 13 kills, hit .310 and had five blocks, three solo. Satasha Kostelecky had 13 kills with one error in 25 swings to hit .480 and added four blocks. UNT’s Aryn Johnson had 18 kills … No. 25 Western Kentucky swept visiting FIU as the Toppers hit .333. Paige Briggs had 10 kills with one error in 21 attacks to go with two assists, an ace, six digs and three blocks, one solo … Also in C-USA, UAB beat Middle Tennessee in five as Alexis Kells had 23 kills, hit .308 and had three assists and six blocks, four solo …
Unbeaten No. 24 UCF and McKenna Melville, playing their home American Athletic Conference match at Wichita State because of the hurricane, hit .408 and swept Tulsa. Melville had 23 kills and no errors in 44 attacks to hit .523 and added an assist, an ace and 12 digs …
In the only SEC match of the day, LSU (9-5, 3-1) beat visiting Ole Miss (4-9, 0-3) in five. Sanaa Dotson had 16 kills as she hit .316 and had seven digs and a block. Samarah Hill had 12 kills with one error in 21 attacks, an ace and eight digs. Sasha Ratliff had 21 kills for Ole Miss, hit .455 and added two aces, three digs and three blocks …
Jackson State hit .446 in its SWAC sweep of Mississippi Valley. Alexis Williams had 11 kills with one error in 18 attacks, two assists, an ace, seven digs and a block … Also in the SWAC, Alabama State hit .373 and Bethune-Cookman. Jada Rhodes had 15 kills and hit .440 to go with eight digs and a block …
In the Sun Belt, newcomer James Madison won in five at perennial favorite Texas State as Miëtte Veldman had 25 kills with three errors in 50 attacks to hit .440. She also had an assist, two aces, nine digs and three blocks, two solo … Also in the SBC, Coastal Carolina won in five at App State as Ella Saada had 29 kills, hit .303 and had two assists, three aces, five digs and two blocks … Troy lost in five at Southern Miss, but Tori Hester had 27 kills, 11 digs and three blocks …
Central Arkansas had five players with 10 or more kills in its five-set ASUN win over Eastern Kentucky. Alexis Stumbough had 17, hit .351 and had an ace and 18 digs … Davidson swept Dayton to end the Flyers’ 26-match Atlantic 10 winning streak … Amber Igiede had 14 kills with two errors in 23 attacks to hit .522 to go with an assist, an ace, a dig and four blocks, one solo, as Hawai’i swept its Big West match at Cal State Fullerton …
Brown hit .406 in its Ivy League sweep of Cornell … Also in the Ivy, Avery Luoma had 19 kills with one error in 31 attacks in Princeton’s sweep of Dartmouth … Eastern Illinois swept Little Rock in the Ohio Valley as Kaitlyn Flynn had 18 kills, hit .485 and added seven digs and two blocks … American beat Lehigh in the Patriot League behind Zeynep Uzen, who had 25 kills, hit .321 and added two aces, 11 digs and a solo block … Also in the Patriot, Navy beat Lafayette behind Averi Miller, who had six kills with one error in nine attempts, 48 assists, seven digs and a block. Navy hit .331.
