NCAA volleyball had another go-figure Friday.
Take Washington, for example. The No. 13 Huskies lost in four to No. 24 Pepperdine and then had to go five to beat Cal Poly.
Northwestern then beat Pepperdine.
We are at Minnesota where No. 20 Penn State knocked off No. 11 Stanford (see the recap here) and then the third-ranked Gophers won a fierce battle with No. 17 Oregon in a sold-out Maturi Pavillion.
In the Big 12, TCU beat Indiana but then lost to NC State, and West Virginia beat Northern Colorado but then lost to South Dakota.
Other outcomes of note: No. 3 Louisville swept visiting and previously unbeaten No, 9 Purdue, No. 6 Wisconsin swept at No. 14 Kentucky, No. 7 Pittsburgh swept American and Bowling Green to improve to 7-1, No. 8 Ohio State swept No. 10 BYU and No. 17 Creighton beat Florida State in five.
Colorado is not ranked, but the Buffs are now 7-0 and have won 14 sets in a row.
There were plenty of outstanding individual performances, too, and we will try to highlight them all, but with a Friday schedule that seemed to go on forever, it’s a tough task. Some of those big numbers included UMBC’s Kamani Conteh with a school-record 32 kills and Marist’s Sasha Van der Merwe and Mia Wesley of Southern Miss getting 31. The Citadel’s Ali Ruffin had career highs of 24 kills and 32 digs.
Saturday promises more of the same.
Back here in Minneapolis, Penn State plays Oregon and Minnesota faces Stanford.
Also in the Big Ten, No. 2 Nebraska takes on visiting Long Beach State and No. 6 Wisconsin plays the Fighting Camels of Campbell. No. 25 Illinois plays both Villanova and host Dayton.
In the ACC, the match of the day pits Miami against UCF in a battle of Florida teams. Third-ranked Louisville plays Lipscomb and No. 7 Pittsburgh plays Towson, which is 8-0.
The SEC’s Kentucky is back at it as the No. 14 Wildcats play Indiana State and LSU plays at No. 23 Marquette.
The Pac-12 slate includes Utah playing host to No. 12 San Diego and USC back at Hawai’i. You can find the viewing links on the VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings page.
BIG TEN: Taylor Landfair put on a show with a career-high 28 kills while hitting .328 as Minnesota came away with a 25-20, 25-22, 18-25, 27-25 victory over Oregon that left both teams 4-1. Landfair added an ace, five blocks and nine digs. Jenna Wenass had 12 kills, an ace, two blocks and nine digs, and Ellie Husemann had seven kills in nine errorless attacks and six blocks. Melani Shaffmaster had a kill, 51 assists, an ace, four blocks and 21 digs, and CC McGraw had 15 digs and two assists.
Oregon’s Brooke Nuneviller had 21 kills, an assist, three blocks and 12 digs. Mimi Colyer had eight kills, an assist, a block and 13 digs. Kiari Robey had seven kills in nine errorless attacks, a dig and seven blocks. Georgia Murphy had 15 digs and seven assists …
Devyn Robinson led Wisconsin over Kentucky with 13 kills, hit .323, and had six blocks, one solo in the 25-23, 28-26, 25-18 victory. Kentucky’s Reagan Rutherford had 13 kills with one error in 24 attacks, an ace, a block and 10 digs …
Louisville swept Purdue 25-18, 25-20, 27-25 behind 10 kills each from Amaya Tillman and Anna DeBeer and nine from Aiko Jones. The Cardinals (6-1) hit 317. Purdue (6-1), which hit .189, got 17 kills from Eva Hudson …
Ohio State (2-3) dealt BYU (5-3) a 25-19, 25-16, 27-25 sweep as the Buckeyes hit .314 and got 13 kills from Emily Londot and 12 each from Gabby Gonzales and Jenaisya Moore …
Northwestern is 8-1 and beat a ranked opponent for the first time since 2019 with its sweep of Pepperdine. Temi Ailara-Thomas led with 15 kills, hit .387, and had a solo block and five digs. Megan Miller had 27 digs and six assists …
In Indiana’s five-set loss to TCU, TCU’s Audrey Nalls had 25 kills, hit .300, and had two aces, 13 digs and two blocks
Michigan State lost to North Carolina and Michigan lost to Duke. Duke’s Gracie Johnson had 28 kills and hit .389 to go with two assists, two aces, seven digs and a block … Rutgers lost to Kansas State but beat St. Thomas .. Iowa beat Wright State in five but lost to Iowa State in four … Illinois beat Missouri State and Maryland did the same to San Diego State.
PAC-12: Washington got knocked off by Pepperdine 25-18, 22-25, 25-20, 25-20 but bounced back to escape Cal Poly 25-21, 19-25, 21-25, 25-22, 15-7, scoring the last seven points in the fifth. Pepperdine’s Grace Chillingworth had 15 kills, hit .406, and had two assists, an ace, three blocks and 10 digs. Washington’s Claire Hoffman had 17 kills, an ace and 10 digs. In the nightcap, Emoni Bush had 17 kills for UW to go with an ace, two blocks and six digs, while Hoffman had 15 more kills, two assists, three aces and nine digs. Cal Poly’s Maia Dvoracek had 20 kills, hit .462, and had an assist, an ace, two blocks and 10 digs …
No. 22 UCLA beat San Jose State in four as elan McCal had 11 kills with no errors in 25 swings to go with two aces, 11 digs and three blocks, two solo …
Washington State is 7-1 after sweeping Howard and Fairfield, Colorado did the same to FIU and Little Rock, Oregon State beat North Texas in four but got swept by Utah State, Arizona State swept Evansville but lost in five to Colorado State, Cal beat Utah Tech in four and swept Texas Southern, Arizona improved to 6-1 as it got past Sacramento State in five and swept San Diego State, Utah beat SMU in four, and USC won in four at Hawai’i. USC’s Skylar Fields had 14 kills, an ace, five blocks and five digs. Colorado State’s Karina Leber had 22 kills and hit .571 against Arizona State to go with an assist, an ace, three digs and three blocks.
Around the nation: Top-ranked Texas improved to 6-0 with a sweep of visiting Denver. Eight Longhorns had kills and for a change Logan Eggleston wasn’t the leader, although Eggleston, who played just two sets, had six kills, hit .313 and had four aces and two digs. Madisen Skinner had nine kills, an ace, a block and two digs. Kayla Caffey had eight kills with one error in 12 swings, a dig and three blocks … The other ranked Big 12 team, No. 15 Baylor, is back in action Saturday when it plays Arizona State and Evansville …
San Diego swept SMU. Grace Frohling had 10 kills in 18 errorless attacks, an ace, three blocks and two digs … Creighton’s Norah Sis had 28 kills, an assist, an ace, two blocks and 19 digs in the Bluejays’ five-set win over Florida State. FSU’s Audrey Koenig had 17 kills and 15 digs and Audrey Rothman had 13 kills, two aces, six blocks and 26 digs …
No. 21 Western Kentucky improved to 8-1 as it swept Toledo and hit .383. Paige Briggs had 10 kills, hit .364 and had an assist, three aces, two blocks an six digs. Katie Howard had 10 kills, hit .421 and had a block and three digs …
UNLV improved to 7-1 with a four-set win over No. 19 Kansas in which four Rebels had 12 or more kills … St. John’s beat Southeastern Louisiana in five as Giorgia Walther had 27 kills and SLU’s Kailin Newsome had 26 … Iowa State beat Iowa before 5,015, the third-largest Iowa State crowd ever …
Houston of the American Athletic Conference won two five-set matches, first over South Alabama and then the host team, Mississippi State. Abbie Jackson and Isabel Theut had 19 kills each against USA and against State, Theut had 20 more and Jackson 18 …
Notre Dame beat East Carolina in five, but ECU’s Angeles Alderete had 26 kills and hit .351. ECU later beat Navy in four and Adlerete had 18 more kills …
Boston College beat LIU in five and Katrina Jensen had 30 kills with four errors in 56 attacks to hit .464 … Virginia beat Charlotte in five and Grace Turner had 23 kills and hit .422. Charlotte’s Emani Foster had 24 kills …
Bellarmine lost in five to Gardner-Webb, but Jayme Scott had 28 kills, hit .389, and had an assist, two aces and 14 digs … Liberty lost to Pacific but Trinity Watts had 24 kills, hit .571, and had two aces, 10 digs and a block … Jacksonville State of the ASUN hit .360 and swept South Dakota State to improve to 8-0 …
UMBC beat James Madison in five and Kamani Conteh had 32 kills and Mia Bilusic had 22 … Georgetown got its first win by beating Binghamton as Mary Grace Goyena had 29 kills … In a shootout at Rhode Island, the home team beat Marist in five as URI’s Claire Wagner had 26 kills. Marist’s Sasha Van der Merwe had 31 kills, hit .379, and had 14 digs and five blocks …
From the It Never Fails Department, on the day we featured the previously unbeaten Dons, San Francisco lost in five to CSUN … Siena won in five at Merrimack to get its first win after seven losses … Ball State hit .478 in a sweep of Arkansas State and then beat Alabama to improve to 7-1. Against ASU, Marie Plitt had 15 kills with no errors in 18 attacks and Natalie Mitchem had 15 kills with one error in 21 swings … Towson is 8-0 after sweeping Bowling Green … Central Michigan beat North Dakota State in five and Mallory Hernandez had 26 kills … Ali Ruffin had 32 digs and 24 kills — both career highs — and hit .389 as The Citadel beat Norfolk State in five … Chicago State lost in five to North Dakota State, but Yanlis Feliz had 25 kills, an assist, an ace, 16 digs and three blocks … Southern Miss lost in five to Stephen F. Austin but Mia Wesley had 31 kills, four aces, 18 digs and three blocks, one solo.
