Upsets — Long Beach stuns Texas — and surprises on NCAA first day like no other

Unranked Long Beach State knocked off top-ranked and NCAA defending-champion Texas on Friday to punctuate a wild and unpredictable first day of the Division I college season. It capped a 226-match day in which in an inordinate number of results between top programs going five, there were other major upsets and plenty of surprising results. […]

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Unranked Long Beach State knocked off top-ranked and NCAA defending-champion Texas on Friday to punctuate a wild and unpredictable first day of the Division I college season.

It capped a 226-match day in which in an inordinate number of results between top programs going five, there were other major upsets and plenty of surprising results.

And it all starts again Saturday with almost as many pre-conference-season matches.

It’s impossible to capture them all, but here is our best effort at keeping up with the notable results and top performances.

A reminder that it was the first day of a long season, one that is always a marathon and not a sprint. The top teams, especially, should be commended for playing each other and giving themselves and NCAA volleyball fans a high quality schedule to start the season.

In addition to the top-ranked Longhorns, No. 5 Pittsburgh and No. 10 Kentucky lost. 

An equally stunning number of players did not play, usually with no reason given, not the least of which were Stanford’s Kendall Kipp and Caitie Baird, Asjia O’Neal of Texas and TCU’s Audrey Nalls.

Long Beach State, which did not make the NCAA Tournament last year, beat visiting Texas 25-22, 18-25, 25-16, 25-22 before the largest women’s crowd in the Pyramid in 20 years, 3,579. The Beach had five players with eight or more kills, 10 each by Hanna Lesiak, who had 11 digs, and Abby Karich and Maura Hayes. Madison Skinner had 16 for Texas. Texas plays Loyola Marymount on Saturday and Long Beach plays LMU on Sunday.

The Big 12 went 12-3 on opening day, and the big victory was by No. 17 BYU, which beat No. 5 Pitt 23-25, 25-20, 25-19, 25-19 at Montana. Erin Livingston had 19 kills, 11 digs, two aces and a block for BYU. Pitt hit .034. 

Second-ranked Wisconsin beat Baylor 25-20, 25-14, 20-25, 25-17 and plays No. 7 Minnesota on Saturday. Worth noting was that Julia Orzol played libero and had 11 digs and two assists. Minnesota got all it could handle from TCU, playing without its top attacker in Nalls, winning 20-25, 25-16, 25-15, 25-23. McKenna Wucherer had 16 kills.

Elsewhere of note in the Big Ten, which went 8-4 on Friday, No. 8 Penn State lost in four to No. 11 Florida in Tampa, site of the NCAA Championship. Kennedy Martin had 18 kills, five blocks and 11 digs for Florida. Jess Mruzik had 15 kills, three aces and 14 digs for the Nittany Lions.

Colorado was an interesting place for openers.

Stanford, which plays at Colorado State on Saturday, swept at Northern Colorado without its top two attackers, Kipp, the Pac-12 preseason player of the year, and Baird. Freshman Julia Blyashov had nine kills and hit .353 and Sami Francis had 10 kills, hit .333 and had two aces and four blocks, two solo.

Colorado State and first-year coach Emily Kohan had a four-set win over visiting No. 10 Kentucky. Annie Sullivan had a career-high 18 kills. Kentucky goes to Northern Colorado on Saturday.

At Colorado, UNLV and first-year coach Malia Shoji came away with a four-set win in which reigning Mountain West player of the year Isabel Martin had 28 kills, hitting .658.

Colorado’s loss was part of a tough day for the Pac-12. Early Saturday in Hammond, Louisiana, at Southeastern Louisiana, Washington — playing without Emoni Bush — was knocked off by UTEP in five. And things snowballed after that, as UC Davis won at Arizona in four, Montana State beat Oregon State in five and Oregon State later lost in four to Kennesaw State. Utah lost in four to Utah Valley and No. 22 USC lost in four at No. 19 Houston. Before the day ended, Arizona lost again, this time to North Carolina in five despite 24 kills and 13 digs by Sofia Maldonado, and UCLA lost in five at LSU.

UCLA lost the first two sets, rallied, and was tied 7-7 in the fifth before LSU pulled away 15-10. LSU freshman outside Jurnee Robinson announced her presence with authority, finishing with 23 kills while hitting .362 to go with an ace, six digs and three blocks, one solo. Anita Anwusi, who had 13 kills with one error in 18 attacks, had six blocks, two solo. UCLA’s Iman Ndiaye had 20 kills, hit .444 and had an ace and five blocks.

All was not lost for the Pac-12. No. 9 Oregon swept No. 13 San Diego in Hawai’i as Mimi Colyer picked right up where she left off with 15 kills, an ace, nine digs and three blocks. Beleagured Cal opened with a sweep at Army West Point. Washington beat Southland Conference-champion Southeastern Louisiana in the nightcap. And Arizona State’s new coach, JJ Van Niel got a sweep against FGCU as his team hit .493.

In Houston’s Big 12 win over USC, Texas Tech transfer Kenna Sauer made a big impact right away with 18 kills, 14 digs and three blocks, two solo. Oklahoma went 2-0 in coach Aaron Mansfield’s debut.

The SEC went 11-3 on opening day, but took a tough loss when four-time CAA-champion Towson had 12 blocks and swept at South Carolina. 

Things were unpredictable in Dayton, where No. 21 Western Kentucky beat No. 12 Marquette in four but then got upset by the home team. WKU beat Marquette 25-19, 24-26, 25-23, 25-21 as Paige Briggs had 16 kills, nine digs and two blocks. But then Dayton beat the Toppers 25-20, 25-22, 25-16, outblocking WKU 12-3. WKU hit .000. In its second match, Marquette avoided another upset, getting past Drake 18-25, 25-21, 19-25, 25-19, 15-11.

In Notre Dame’s five-set win over Wichita State, Sydney Palazzolo had 24 kills, an assist, two aces, 12 digs and three blocks. 

NC Central lost to to Alabama A&M but Kamren Harper had 25 kills, four aces, 12 digs and a solo block. 

Eastern Illinois beat Valparaiso in five and Ball State graduate-transfer Natalie Mitchem had 25 kills with two errors in 47 swings to hit .489 and had five blocks. 

Christina Martinez Mundo had 29 digs and five assists. New Mexico beat UC Irvine but UCI’s Marianna Bertolone had 24 kills.

San Jose State beat CSUN and Nayeli Ti’a had 24 kills, 11 digs and six blocks, one solo.

Navy of the Patriot League scored a big victory by sweeping Syracuse of the ACC in four, but then lost in four to UCF.

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