NCAA volleyball: Georgia upsets Arkansas; Wisconsin tops Purdue; Baylor gets past OU
There were just 11 NCAA Division I women’s volleyball matches Wednesday, but they provided plenty of excitement, especially for Georgia. The Bulldogs not only upset Arkansas, but swept the visiting Razorbacks, the No. 8 team in the VolleyballMag.com Super 16 Media Poll.
Second-ranked Wisconsin lost a conference set at home for the first time before beating AVCA No. 19 Purdue in four, and AVCA No. 21 Baylor had to go five to beat visiting Oklahoma.
The recaps and top performances follow, but first a look at Thursday’s schedule that includes some important mid-major match-ups.
Fifth-ranked Texas plays the only Big 12 match when the first-place Longhorns (16-3, 11-0), who have won 11 in a row, go to West Virginia (9-15, 2-9).
The Citadel plays its first match with a loss on its record. The 23-1 Bulldogs, 11-1 in the SoCon after getting knocked off by Western Carolina, lead Mercer by three games with four matches remaining before the league tournament. They play at Wofford.
As the Big Sky regular season heads into the home stretch, first-place Sacramento puts its two-game lead with five regular-season matches remaining up against visiting Eastern Washington. Second-place Weber State, two games back, is off.
Utah State (18-5, 11-1) has a three-game Mountain West lead over New Mexico (16-7, 8-4) with six games left before the league tournament. Utah State is home for Air Force, while the Lobos go to Boise State.
The Southland showdown finally happens in Hammond, Louisiana, when the two teams tied for first go at it. Southeastern Louisiana (22-4, 13-1), which has won 16 in a row, entertains Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (18-8, 13-1), which has won 12 in a row. There are four regular-season matches before the conference tournament, which is at TAMUCC.
The logjam at the top of The Summit League could get even more jumbled when Denver (10-10, 9-3) plays at last-place Oral Roberts and Omaha (10-12, 9-3) goes to Kansas City (17-6, 8-3). And the other team in the mix, North Dakota State (16-7, 8-4) is home for South Dakota (13-9, 7-4).
The WAC leaders are in action. SFA, which holds a one-game lead over Grand Canyon, puts its 12-match winning streak against visiting Seattle U, while GCU is at Tarleton State.
In the West Coast Conference, where Pepperdine holds a three-game lead over Loyola Marymount and San Diego, the Waves put their 13-match winning streak up against visiting Gonzaga. LMU, a spot behind Pepperdine at No. 35 in the RPI, is home for Portland, while San Diego (RPI 72) is probably going to be a team that played in the national semifinals one year and didn’t make the NCAA Tournament the next.
Want to watch? We have the conference-by-conference schedule with viewing links for any match that is being shown in our VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings.
Wisconsin (21-1, 12-1) won the first set, visiting Purdue (14-8, 8-5) dominated the second, and then the Badgers cruised to a 25-14, 16-25, 25-18, 25-14 victory. Sarah Franklin led Wisconsin with 22 kills and hit .513 after having two errors in 39 attacks. She added four blocks and 10 digs. Carter Booth had nine kills, hit .389, and had two digs and seven blocks, two solo. Wisconsin hit .302, which included hitting negative .029 in the second set. For the other three sets, the Badgers had 45 kills with six errors in 91 swings. Eva Hudson, third in the B1G in kills, led Purdue with 18 go with a solo block and 18 digs. Chloe Chicoine had 14 kills, an assist, three blocks and nine digs. Purdue hit .163.
Also in the Big Ten, Illinois (13-10, 8-5) swept visiting Northwestern (11-12, 5-8) as Raina Terry had 22 kills in the 25-23, 25-22, 25-23 victory. Terry, the Big Ten kills leader with 420, 40 more than Ohio State’s Emily Londot, added an ace and seven digs …
Georgia (15-8 overall, 6-5 in the SEC and No. 54 in the RPI) got a much-needed win over visiting Arkansas (20-4, 10-2), which had not been swept in an SEC match in a year and not since losing to Wisconsin in August.
Georgia, which beat ranked opponent for the second time this season, something it hadn’t done since 1993, won 25-22, 25-19, 25-22 as Sophie Fisher had a career-high 22 kills, hitting .441 after having seven errors in 34 attacks. She also had an ace, seven blocks and four digs. Kacie Evans had 12 kills, two assists, two aces and 10 digs and Erica Staunton had 10 kills and six digs. Georgia hit .276, while Arkansas hit .222. Jillian Gillen led the Razorbacks with 16 kills, an assist, a solo block and 10 digs …
Also in the SEC, Ole Miss (10-14, 4-9) held off visiting LSU (9-12, 4-7) as Julia Dyess had 22 kills in the 25-20, 25-14, 24-26, 20-25, 15-12 victory. Dyess, who hit .310, had an assist, three blocks and seven digs …
Baylor (13-9, 7-5) held on for a 25-14, 25-19, 20-25, 23-25, 15-12 win over visiting Oklahoma (9-13, 2-10) as Elise McGhee had 21 kills and Riley Simpson 15. Baylor had 54 kills, while Oklahoma had 64. Baylor led in blocks (11-7) and aces (10-4). McGhee had four errors in 35 attacks to hit .486 and had two of those aces, three digs and two blocks, one solo. Simpson had an assist, two digs and five blocks, one solo. Averi Carlson had a kill, 42 assists, four aces, a block and seven digs. Oklahoma’s Alexis Shelton had 20 kills and setter Payton Chamberlain had two kills, 55 assists, 10 digs and four blocks, one solo …
Marquette (16-8, 12-1) built its Big East lead to 1.5 games over idle Creighton (19-4, 10-2) and St. John’s (18-6, 10-2) with a 21-25, 25-20, 25-21, 25-19 win at DePaul (13-11, 6-7). Aubrey Hamilton had 17 kills, Jenna Reitsma 15 and Carsen Murray 12. Murray had one error in 16 attacks and had eight blocks, one solo. Ella Foti had three kills in 11 errorless tries, 47 assists and 18 digs …
Lipscomb (16-7, 11-2) stayed two games back of idle FGCU (20-5, 12-0) in the ASUN with a sweep of visiting Austin Peay. Delaney Smith had six aces to become the all-time ASUN leader with 169, 57 this season, and added nine digs and two assists. Smith moved into second on this season’s NCAA aces list, one behind Indiana’s Camryn Haworth. Jada DiVita had 12 kills, hit .409, and added a dig and two blocks, one solo. Austin Peay hit minus .037. Also in the ASUN, North Florida swept at Jacksonville. UNF’s Mahalia White had 14 kills, hit .385 and had two digs and two solo blocks …
In the only ACC match, Boston College (15-12, 4-9) swept visiting Syracuse (2-21, 0-13). Katrina Jensen had 10 kills with one error in 14 attacks, a dig and three blocks …
Fairfield (16-6, 12-2) pulled into a first-place tie with idle Quinnipiac (16-7, 12-2) with a sweep of visiting Manhattan. Fairfield, which hit .323, got 10 kills from Mamie Krubally. She hit .368 and had four blocks, one solo. The Jaspers, who had won five in a row, hit .099 …
UMBC (12-7) of the America East swept at the MEAC’s Howard (12-13) as Julija Grubisic Cabo had 11 kills, hit .310 and added a block and nine digs.
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