Volleyball Today: Big ESPN Sunday; 38 kills for Alexander of Hawai’i; AVP League
This is a big Sunday for NCAA volleyball with back-to-back matches on ESPN featuring No. 9 Creighton at No. 4 Louisville and then No. 6 Texas at No. 2 Stanford.
It comes on the heels of a Saturday in which there were no major upsets but No. 7 Purdue beat No. 10 Kentucky and unranked Wright State beat No. 20 Miami and previously ranked Marquette defeated No. 24 Dayton.
Both No. 1 Pittsburgh and No. 3 Penn State stayed unbeaten ahead of their Wednesday night matchup at Pitt on the ACC Network.
Line of the day: In a five-set win by Hawai’i over Texas State, Caylen Alexander had 38 kills while hitting .338 in the 25-22, 19-25, 25-21, 21-25, 15-12 victory. She had 13 errors in 74 attacks for the Rainbow Wahine (6-1) to go with two aces, 13 digs and a block. Alexander, a 6-foot junior from Alpharetta, Georgia, had nine kills in the fifth set. It’s the most kills for a UH player since Jamie Houston had 35 in 2006.
Three players had 29 kills on Saturday, Emily Londot for Ohio State and two in defeats, Maike Bertens of Morgan State and Ella Rudd of Fresno State.
The AVP League began Saturday and the results follow in this edition of Volleyball Today.
NCAA volleyball Sunday
There’s a fairly busy slate with a handful of ranked teams in action, including one of the more anticipated early season matches when No. 6 Texas (3-2) of the SEC goes to No. 2 Stanford (6-0) of the ACC. Texas is the two-time defending NCAA champion but has had its early season struggles. Stanford will be playing its home opener. The match is on ESPN at 3 p.m. Eastern.
The coverage on ESPN begins at 1 p.m. Eastern when fourth-ranked Louisville (6-1) of the ACC has a 1 p.m. first serve against visiting No. 9 Creighton (7-1) of the Big East. Two other ranked ACC teams play Sunday, as No. 21 Florida State (6-1) is home for the Big 12’s UCF (5-0) and No. 20 Miami, sure to fall out of the top 25, plays Buffalo at Ohio State. Wake Forest (5-3) plays South Carolina (7-1) of the SEC, North Carolina (5-1) plays the Big 12’s Kansas State (2-4) and Cal (6-3) plays UC Irvine of the Big West (5-3).
Among the other Big 12 teams playing Sunday, No. 11 Kansas (6-0) entertains the ASUN’s Lipscomb (3-5). No. 18 Baylor (6-2) plays Samford (5-1) of the SoCon and Utah (6-1) faces Northeastern (2-5) of the CAA.
There are five Big Ten teams playing, none ranked, including unbeaten Michigan (8-0) playing Oakland (3-5) of the Horizon and Washington (6-) plays the Big West’s UC Davis (4-3). Iowa plays Milwaukee, Ohio State faces Wright State and Maryland plays UMBC.
The SEC’s Tennessee (4-2) and ranked No. 16, plays the Sun Belt’s Coastal Carolina (3-3) and unbeaten Texas A&M (6-0) plays the Sun Belt’s Louisiana (2-5).
Two other unbeatens play when the Big East’s UConn (8-0) faces the Ivy League’s Dartmouth (4-1) and 5-0 San Jose State of the Mountain West meets Santa Clara (5-3) of the WCC.
And something’s gotta give when Hampton of the MEAC plays Iona of the MAAC. Both teams are 0-8.
Big day for the Big Ten
The B1G went 10-1 Saturday. The lone loser was 0-6 Northwestern, swept by 6-1 Notre Dame of the ACC.
Penn State (8-0) won twice at home, sweeping Princeton of the Ivy League and then the Big East’s St. John’s. The Nittany Lions hit .327 against Princeton as five players had six or more kills; against St. John’s, Jess Mruzik had 16 kills and Carolina Jurevicious had 10 kills with no errors in 11 attacks and five blocks. Earlier, St. John’s beat Duke in four as Giorgia Walther had 25 kills, hitting .386 …
Fifth-ranked Nebraska (8-1) swept visiting Wichita State (3-6) of the American Athletic as the Huskers hit .477. Harper Murray had 14 kills with one error in 24 attacks, an ace, 11 digs and two blocks, one solo …
Purdue (8-0) beat Kentucky (6-3) of the SEC in four as Eva Hudson had 20 kills, hit .304, and had an assist, an ace, three digs and a block. Ali Hornung had 10 digs and seven assists and Taylor Anderson had two kills in six errorless tries, 28 assists, two aces, eight digs and four blocks …
No. 12 Oregon (6-1) swept at San Diego (2-5) of the WCC as Mimi Colyer had 12 kills with no errors in 33 attacks to go with nine digs and a block …
Iowa (5-3) beat Illinois State (3-7) of the Missouri Valley in four as Malu Garcia had 12 kills and hit .417 to go with six digs and six blocks and Dominque Philips had 12 kills, a dig and two blocks … Rutgers (4-5) swept VCU (1-5) of the Atlantic 10 as Lexi Visintine had 11 kills, hit .375, and had two assists, two aces and nine digs … Illinois (7-1) beat Western Kentucky (4-6) of Conference USA in four behind 19 kills from Raina Terry, who had 14 digs and three blocks, and 17 kills from Averie Hernandez … Indiana (6-2) beat visiting Ball State (5-4) of the MAC as Avry Tatum had 25 kills, hit .436, and had three aces, a dig and two blocks, one solo. Ball State’s Carson Tyler had 21 kills and hit .385. Ball State earlier swept Southern Indiana … Emily Londot went off for 29 kills as Ohio State (5-2) also went five in beating visiting Buffalo (3-6) of the MAC. Londot hit .367 and had 11 digs and seven blocks. Rylee Rader, had seven kills, two aces and a dig, and had eight blocks, one solo … In Notre Dame’s sweep of Northwestern (0-6), the Irish (6-1) got 13 kills from Sydney Palazzolo, who hit .357 and had four assists, seven digs and a block, and 12 kills from Phyona Schrader, who had no errors in 20 attacks.
Upsets by Wright State, Marquette
Wright State (6-2) of the Horizon League, hit .341 and dealt the ACC’s Miami (5-2) its second straight defeat, 25-22, 25-20, 17-25, 25-22, at Ohio State. Mya Ayro had 20 kills and hit .500 for Wright State and had a block and a dig. Sam Ott had 14 kills, four assists, an ace and five digs, and Reilly Zegunis had 12 kills with one error in 26 attacks, an assist, two digs and four blocks, two solo. Setter Lauren Yacobucci had four kills in nine errorless tries, 49 assists, two aces, four digs and four blocks, one solo. Miami, which lost despite hitting .357, had four players with 12 or more kills, 14 by Grace Lopez. Wright State, which beat Buffalo in four on Friday, plays Ohio State on Sunday …
Marquette (3-3) put an end to Dayton’s unbeaten season as the Flyers of the Atlantic 10 dropped to 7-1. Jenna Reitsma had 17 kills in the 26-28, 25-21, 25-20, 25-19 victory to go with an assist, three of her team’s 10 aces, a block and 11 digs. Aubrey Hamilton had 14 kills, nine digs and five blocks. Lexie Almodovar and Liana Sarkissian had 14 kills each for Dayton.
Around the nation
No. 1 Pittsburgh (6-0) swept at the Big West’s UC Santa Barbara (2-7) as Oliva Babcock had 15 kills, hitting .419, and had an assist, two aces, a block and six digs …
No. 4 Louisville (6-1) swept visiting Northern Iowa (4-4) of the Missouri Valley behind 16 kills from Charitie Luper, who had one error in 28 swings to hit .536 to go with six digs and two blocks. Elena Scott had 23 digs, six assists and an ace …
No. 9 Creighton crushed Rice (4-2) of American Athletic as the Bluejays got 14 kills each from Norah Sis and Ava Martin in the 25-16, 25-21, 25-12 sweep. Martin had one error in 29 attacks, a block and seven digs …
No. 14 Arizona State (8-1) of the Big 12 swept the Big West’s Long Beach State (4-3) as Geli Cyr had 12 kills with one error in 22 attacks, two assists, an ace, a block and six digs …
No. 16 Tennessee had 15 aces, the most for the program in the rally scoring era, in a four-set win over Coastal Carolina (3-5) of the Sun Belt. Paityn Chapman had 12 kills, hit .357, and had three of those aces. Nina Cajic had 11 kills and three aces and setter Caroline Kerr had six kills with one error in 11 attacks, 33 assists, eight digs, two blocks and four aces.
Other key results and top performances:
UT Arlington is 9-0 after beating Weber State in five as Brianna Ford had 25 kills, an assist, three aces, 14 digs and three blocks … Syracuse is also 9-0 after sweeping Idaho. Ava Palm had 16 kills, hit .324 and had an assist, three aces, six digs and two blocks … Morgan State beat Manhattan in five but the Jaspers’ Maike Bertens had 29 kills, four assists, four aces, 14 digs and four blocks … Santa Clara beat Fresno State in five but another player from the losing team also had 29 kills. Ella Rudd had 29 kills for the Bulldogs, hit .333, and had two assists, three aces, nine digs and three blocks …
UConn is 8-0 after a five-set win over UAlbany … American was 10-1 after beating N.C. Central in four but then lost in five to Western Carolina despite 23 kills by Adelina Berisha, who had 17 digs and two blocks, one solo … FGCU is 7-1 after sweeping Little Rock … Southern Miss lost in five to Elon but Sadie McAda had 24 kills … High Point’s Kennedy Louisell had 23 kills and Dylan Maberry 22 in a four-set win over Western Michigan. High Point later lost in five to James Madison and Maberry and Louisell had 19 kills each … SIUE beat Bellarmine in five but Bellarmine’s Natalie Bland had 28 kills, eight digs and a block … Utah Valley is 7-1 after hitting .392 and sweeping Boston College. Sami Blackett and Avery Shewell had 14 kills each … Torrance Lovesee had 20 kills as UTEP improved to 7-1 with a four-set win over Montana State … Wake Forest hit .395 in a sweep of Stetson … Towson is 9-1 after its four-set win over Seton Hall … Grace Reisman had 26 kills for Holy Cross in a five-set loss to Central Connecticut State, which got its first win after six losses. Lauren Milani and Weronika Paczynek, who also had 18 digs, had 14 kills each for the winners … SMU hit .338 in a four-set win over Houston …
Texas A&M is 6-0 after a 25-19, 25-16, 23-25, 22-25, 16-14 victory over visiting New Hampshire in which some serious home cooking seemed to come into effect on a late challenge by UNH (yeah, we went there) … Both teams are 6-3 after Colorado swept Cal. Colorado hit .394, which included Ana Burilovic having 18 kills, hitting .438, with three aces and eight digs … Birdie Hendrickson had 25 kills for Pepperdine in a five-set win over Omaha … Tatum Parrott of GCU had 24 kills in a five-set win over Butler, which got 224 kills from Elise Ward.
AVP League first matches
The AVP League got underway at UCLA with two teams from New York playing first in the new concept.
The New York Nitro went 2-0 as Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander defeated the Brooklyn Blaze’s Cody Caldwell and Seain Cook 15-10, 15-11 and Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes swept Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft 15-13, 16-14.
Chase Budinger and Miles Evan of the San Diego Smash defeated the Los Angeles Launch’s Tim Bomgren and Troy Field 13-15, 15-11, 16-14. The Launch’s Betsi Flint and Julia Scoles defeated San Diego’s Toni Rodriguez and Geena Urango 9-15, 19-17, 15-12.
Sunday at the UCLA Tennis Center the Nitro plays the Launch and the Blaze plays the Smash.
For more info: https://avp.com/event/2024leagueweek1/
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