Volleyball Today: UW tops Oregon; 31 more kills for Florida’s Martin; Badgers meet VP

No matter the change of leagues, Oregon vs. Washington is still worth the price of admission and Wednesday was no exception. 

Washington, which lost to the No. 12 Ducks in five in Eugene earlier this month, returned the Big Ten favor back in Seattle with a five-set victory of its own.

Of course, there were reverse sweeps: There were 21 matches on the schedule and just three of them went five sets and those other two saw FIU pull off a reverse sweep on visiting Liberty and North Alabama do it to visiting Central Arkansas.

There were some huge individual numbers, including Jasmine Brooks getting 35 kills for North Alabama and Kennedy Martin getting 31 for Florida — her second straight match with 31 kills.

The recaps and top performances follow.

We have the first coaching casualty of the season: Austin Peay fired Taylor Mott, who has been purged completely from the program’s website. She was there for 13 seasons. The Govs are 1-21, 0-10 in the ASUN, and have lost 20 in a row.  Assistant Connor Crawford will serve as the interim head coach. Austin Peay, of course, “will immediately begin a national search for its 10th head volleyball coach.” Austin Peay has been to the NCAA Tournament twice, in 2010 and 2017.

And, oh, yeah, the Wisconsin volleyball team got a surprise locker-room visit from Kamala Harris.

This is an all-NCAA edition of Volleyball Today:

NCAA volleyball Thursday

Arizona State (20-2, 8-1), ranked No. 13 in the VolleyballMag Super 16 Media Poll, has a huge Big 12 match at AVCA No. 20 BYU ((13-6, 6-3). Arizona State, which has won eight in a row, is 1.5 games behind idle No. 8 Kansas (19-1, 10-0) and two games up in the loss column on third-place TCU (15-5, 7-3). No. 22 Utah (14-6, 6-3) is home for Arizona (13-6, 2-6) and West Virginia (8-12, 2-7) goes to Kansas State (7-11, 5-4). The WVU-Kansas State match is on ESPNU at 7:30 p.m. Eastern.

The two Big Ten matches show No. 21 USC (14-6, 6-4) at UCLA (10-9, 4-6) and Iowa (9-13, 3-7) at Ohio State (8-12, 1-9).

South Dakota State (20-0, 9-0 Summit League and coach Dan Georgalas (as seen with us on the weekly NCAA Zoom this past Monday) goes to Omaha (11-10, 9-1) in a battle for first place. Omaha has won six in a row. North Dakota State is at Oral Roberts, Denver is at St. Thomas and North Dakota is at South Dakota. 

There are four teams in the West Coast Conference within a game of each other. Loyola Marymount (16-4, 8-1) is home for Washington State (12-6, 7-2), San Diego is home for Santa Clara, San Francisco (12-8, 5-3) is at Saint Mary’s (5-13, 1-8) and Gonzaga (1-18, 0-9) is at Oregon State (6-13, 4-5). Pepperdine (11-8, 8-1), tied with LMU, is off.

First-place Northern Colorado is off, but Idaho State, a game back in the Big Sky, is at Montana. Weber State is at Montana State, Eastern Washington is at Portland State and Idaho is at Sacramento State.

Colorado State (12-8, 8-2), which leads the Mountain West by a game, is home for UNLV. Second-place San Jose State (11-3, 8-2), which has won four of its matches because teams forfeited to the Spartans, is home for Air Force. Fresno State (11-10, 7-3), one of the teams that did not forfeit, is tied with SJSU and is home for New Mexico. San Diego State is at Wyoming and Boise State is at Utah State.

Lindenwood (16-7, 9-1), which has won seven in a row and holds a game lead in the win column over idle Southeast Missouri State in the Ohio Valley Conference, is at Morehead State. Morehead State has played three five-set matches in a row, losing two of them, and six five-setters this season.

SoCon leader Wofford is off, but second-place Wofford, a game back in the loss column, is home for The Citadel and Samford is at Western Carolina.

There are four matches in the Southland Conference, including first-place Southeastern Louisiana (18-4, 10-0) at Nicholls. SLU, which has won 18 in a row, is a game ahead of Stephen F. Austin (17-6, 9-1), which is at New Orleans. Lamar goes to UIW, Houston Christian is at Northwestern State and UTRGV is at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

First-place UT Arlington is off in the WAC, but Utah Tech, three games back, is home for Seattle U. Grand Canyon goes to Abilene Christian, California Baptist is at Tarleton State and Utah Valley is at Southern Utah.

The lone Conference USA match has Middle Tennessee at UTEP and the only Sun Belt match has Louisiana-Monroe at Troy.

Wisconsin team meets Kamala Harris

This is from The Associated Press:

MADISON — While Donald Trump was campaigning with Packers legend Brett Favre in Green Bay, Kamala Harris was a few hours south, rallying in Madison with the Wisconsin Badgers volleyball team.

As Harris entered the Alliant Energy Center, she was greeted by the Badgers and Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers.

As Harris hugged each player, they gasped. Harris told them it was good to meet them and that they have an extraodinary team.

One of the players could be heard telling her, “You’re so pretty.”

A video of the happening is at the end of this story.

NCAA volleyball Wednesday

Washington improved to 17-4, 7-4 in the Big Ten, as Kierstyn Barton had 20 kills and hit .333 in the Huskies’ 25-21, 24-26, 20-25, 25-16, 15-10 victory. She had three of her team’s 10 aces, three blocks and nine digs. Kiune Fletcher had 12 kills, hit .455, had a block and five digs, and Julia Hunt had 12 kills with one error in 22 attacks to hit .500 and had added a dig and three blocks, one solo. Madi Endsley had 11 kills and three digs and Lauren Bays had 25 digs, eight assists and an ace. The Huskies hit .323. Oregon (13-2, 5-1). which hit .260, got 17 kills from Mimi Colyer, who hit .318 and had five of her team’s nine aces, two blocks and 11 digs. Mackenzie Morris had 24 digs and two assists … In the other B1G match, No. 3 Penn State (21-1, 11-0) swept visiting Michigan (16-6, 6-5). The Nittany Lions, who have won 13 in a row, got 11 kills from Jess Mruzik and 10 from Camryn Hannah … 

Fourth-ranked Louisville (18-3, 10-1) swept visiting Notre Dame (9-11, 2-9) in the only ACC match. Anna DeBeer had 10 kills, 10 digs and three blocks, one solo, and Payton Peterson had nine kills, an ace, five digs and two blocks, one solo. Peterson, a freshman who is the daughter of Northern Iowa coach Bobbi Peterson, was not only making her first start in place of Charitie Luper, but had eight kills total in her previous appearances … 

Three of the four Big 12 matches were victories for ranked teams. No. 8 Kansas (19-1, 10-0) won in four at Texas Tech (11-11, 3-7) as four players had 10 or more kills, including Ayah Elnady, who had three aces, 24 digs and two blocks … No. 17 Baylor (14-6, 6-3) beat visiting Iowa State (9-11, 3-6) in four. Elise McGhee had 13 kills, three aces, three digs and three blocks. Iowa State’s Faith DeRonde had 16 kills, eight digs and a block … No. 18 TCU (15-5, 7-3) swept visiting Colorado (10-12, 3-7) as Melanie Parra had 16 kills with one error in 26 attacks to hit .577 and added three assists, an ace and 12 digs … Cincinnati (12-8, 3-6) swept at UCF (8-10, 1-8) behind 16 kills from Carly Glendinning, who had an ace, seven digs and a block … 

There were two SEC matches. No. 24 Florida (15-5, 6-3) won 11-25, 25-19, 25-21, 25-23 at Arkansas (14-7, 4-5) as Kennedy Martin continued to be an offensive force. She got her 31 kills in 61 swings with eight errors to hit .377 and had two aces, 10 digs and a block. Martin had 31 kills on Friday in the Gators’ win at Tennessee … Ole Miss (14-7, 4-5) won in four at slumping Auburn (14-7, 4-6), which has lost six in a row and seven of eight. Nia Washington and Payton Brgoch had 17 kills each for Ole Miss. Brgoch hit .452 and had two digs and a block …

There were two ASUN matches, including North Alabama’s 17-25, 23-25, 26-24, 25-15, 15-8 victory over Central Arkansas. UNA’s Jasmine Brooks had 35 kills, hit .457 after having just three errors in 70 attacks, and she had an assist, a dig and two blocks … Jacksonville beat visiting North Florida in four as Breanna McDonough had 15 kills, five digs and six blocks … 

In the only American Athletic match, South Florida beat visiting Florida Atlantic in four to go ahead of idle Rice by a game in the win column atop the standings. USF’s Naiya Sawtelle had 19 kills, two assists and 10 digs. Lia Schneider had 27 digs, eight assist and an ace … In the only Atlantic 10 match, the Revolutionaries beat the Patriots as George Washington swept visiting George Mason. Eight GWU players had kills as their team hit .344 … The lone Big East match went to UConn, which won in four at Providence. Taylor Pannell had 17 kills, hit .343, and had three aces, a dig and six blocks, one solo … 

FIU rallied for a Conference USA reverse sweep of visiting Liberty 16-25, 17-25, 25-10, 25-10, 15-10. Cameryn Jones had 12 kills, hit .364, and had an assist, two digs and five blocks … 

Fairfield (14-10, 12-0) maintained its two-game lead atop the MAAC with a four-set win at Sacred Heart as Mamie Krubally had 16 kills, hit .583, and had two digs and five blocks … Quinnipiac stayed two games back with a sweep at Merrimack as Elena Giacomini had 14 kills, hit. 522, and had 13 digs and four blocks, two solo … Also in the MAAC, Marist beat visiting Siena in four as Sara Dasic had 22 kills and 11 digs, Rider swept Saint Peter’s, Iona beat Manhattan in four, and Canisius beat Niagara in four as Lauren Hubert had 15 kills, an ace and 20 digs.

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