Thursday’s NCAA Division I women’s volleyball saw San Diego win its big West Coast Conference showdown with Pepperdine, Colorado and USC win in the Pac-12, and two players had 28 kills and another had 28 digs for their respective teams.
Friday’s schedule has more big-time conference-opening matches.
The Big Ten gets underway with seven matches. Third-ranked Nebraska is home for Michigan State, No. 6 Wisconsin is home for Northwestern, No. 7 Ohio State is at Iowa, No. 8 Minnesota is at No. 11 Purdue, and No. 9 Penn State, the only unbeaten B1G team at 11-0, plays host to Indiana. Also, Michigan is at Rutgers and Maryland is at Illinois.
Thera are seven ACC matches, including No. 2 Louisville at Miami, No. 10 Pittsburgh home for North Carolina and No. 13 Georgia Tech home for Wake Forest.
In the Big East, No. 22 Creighton is home for Georgetown, No. 24 Western Kentucky of Conference USA is at UAB and No. 25 UCF opens American Athletic play at Memphis.
The lone Pac-12 match has Cal at Oregon State. The Big 12 and SEC are idle.
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PAC-12: Colorado (9-2) swept at Utah (7-5). The Buffs, who hit 188, got 10 kills from Maya Tabron. Utah hit minus .018 with 28 kills and 30 errors in 110 attacks …
USC (9-3) beat UCLA (6-4) in the battle of Los Angeles in four behind 24 kills by Skylar Fields. Fields hit .322 and had five digs and five blocks, one solo. Gala Trubint had 20 digs and six assists. Anna Dodson had 13 kills and hit .385 for UCLA to go with two digs and a block. Mackenzie Cole had 24 digs.
WCC: Fourth-ranked San Diego (10-1) opened league play with a 22-25, 25-19, 25-21, 25-20 victory over visiting No. 17 Pepperdine. Katie Lukes led with 16 kills, four blocks and five digs. Breana Edwards had 15 kills, a block and five digs. Annie Benbow had 17 digs and two assists. Rachel Ahrens and Emily Hellmuth had 14 kills apiece for Pepperdine. Ahrens had two assists, 13 digs and a solo block. Riley Patterson had 28 digs and three assists …
No. 16 BYU (8-3) swept visiting Loyola Marymount (5-5). Erin Livingston had 12 kills, an assist, an ace, three digs and a solo block … Pacific won in four at Gonzaga as Barbara Kabengele had 21 kills, hit .515, and had 12 digs and three blocks.
BIG SKY: Idaho State came away with a five-set victory over visiting Northern Colorado despite hitting .116. Emrie Saluala had 14 kills with two errors in 23 attacks to hit .522 to go with seven blocks, two solo … Montana State swept Eastern Washington as Emma Pence had 12 kills in 19 errorless attacks to go with an assist, two aces, a dig and six blocks, two solo … Sacramento State won at Idaho in four behind 19 kills from Caitlin Volkmann, who had one error in 31 swings to go with five digs and two blocks …. Montana won in five at Northern Arizona. Paige Clark had 19 kills. NAU’s Taylor Jacobsen had 28 kills, an assist, an ace, 11 digs and a solo block … Portland State swept Weber State as Makayla Lewis had 17 kills.
MOUNTAIN WEST: Boise State beat visiting New Mexico in five as Paige Bartsch had 21 kills, an assist, two aces, 15 digs and three blocks. Kayly Pau, featured here Thursday, had 13 kills, four digs and four blocks, one solo …
Nevada won in five at Fresno State as four players had 11 or more kills, 18 by Kayla Afoa … Air Force won in five at Utah State despite 21 kills from USU’s Tatum Stall, who had an ace, six digs and three blocks, one solo … Colorado State swept visiting UNLV and San Jose State won in four at San Diego State.
AROUND THE NATION: In the Summit League, in an early battle of conference heavyweights, South Dakota improved to 21-1 with a five-set win over visiting Omaha (5-6). Elizabeth Juhnke led with 28 kills, two assists, 11 digs and three blocks, one solo. Marriah Buss had 21 kills for Omaha … North Dakota won in four at Western Illinois, Denver won in four at South Dakota State and North Dakota State swept at St. Thomas …
In the Big South, USC Upstate won in four at Presbyterian, Winthrop hit .345 and swept at UNC Asheville and Charleston Southern swept at Gardner-Webb …
In the Mid-American, Toledo swept at Eastern Michigan … In the Southland, Nicholls swept at UIW, Northwestern State won in four at Lamar, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi got its first win after 14 season-opening defeats by sweeping visiting New Orleans, Houston Christian (formerly Houston Baptist) swept Southeastern Louisiana, and McNeese beat visiting Texas A&M-Commerce in five as Kendall Glueck had 20 kills, hitting .341 …In the Sun Belt, Old Dominion beat Marshall in four, Texas State swept at Louisiana-Monroe and Troy beat visiting Louisiana-Lafayette in five as Tori Hester had 24 kills, an ace, nine digs and two solo blocks … In the WAC, Cal Baptist swept Southern Utah, UTRGV did the same at NM State, Grand Canyon won in four at Seattle U, Utah Valley swept Utah Tech, Stephen F.. Austin beat visiting Tarleton in four behind 19 kills by Ielan Bradley who hit .483, and Abilene Christian beat visiting Sam Houston in five as five players had 11 or more kills and the team hit .351.
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