Whenever the Interstate 15 rivals get together you can expect a good one and Saturday was no exception as No. 24 BYU rallied to beat visiting No. 20 Utah 25-21, 25-27, 23-25, 25-23, 15-12.
Just five other ranked teams played and they all won, including No. 10 Purdue, which set a home Big Ten attendance record as 14,876 saw the Boilermakers sweep visiting Indiana.
There’s a busy slate Sunday, including No. 5 Stanford at No. 1 Pittsburgh in the ACC, and Athletes Unlimited has a couple more matches.
There were, of course, reverse sweeps in this season of the reverse sweep: Villanova did it at Providence, IU Indianapolis did it at Youngstown State, Little Rock did at Tennessee State and Utah Valley did it to California Baptist.
Lines of the day: Pacific’s Alexa Edwards had 35 kills, three aces, 18 digs and five blocks, two solo, in a five-set WCC win at San Francisco.
Speaking of Utah Valley, Sami Blackett had 33 kills, hit .338, and had two assists, three aces, seven digs and seven blocks in that five-set WAC win over CBU.
Evansville’s Giulia Cardona continues to put up big numbers. When the Purple Aces beat Missouri State in four in the Missouri Valley, she had 30 kills, hit .310, and had an assist, three aces, 11 digs and two blocks.
Camryn Luginbuhl had 30 kills for Sacred Heart in its four-set MAAC win over visiting Rider, hitting .396, and added three assists and 14 digs.
Belmont lost its Valley match in five to Valparaiso, but Brenna Kauffeld had 28 kills, a dig and a block.
Utah State’s Andrea Simovski had 28 kills in the Aggies’ five-set Mountain West win at Boise State, hitting .510, to go with four assists, 13 digs and a block. No word if Boise State considered forfeiting because Simovski, a 6-foot-1 freshman outside hitter from Bulgaria, hit too hard.
Bre Reid had 28 kills for James Madison in its four-set win over Coastal Carolina to go with three aces, 12 digs and a block.
South Dakota State won in four at St. Thomas to improve to 18-0, 7-0 in The Summit League, and remain the only unbeaten team in NCAA Division I.
This is a mostly-NCAA edition of Volleyball Today, but we’ve also got some shots from Saturday’s International Volleyball Hall of Fame induction celebration here in Holyoke, Massachusetts, that included our late partner, the legendary photographer Ed Chan.
NCAA volleyball Sunday
As mentioned, the ACC takes center spotlight when No. 5 Stanford goes to No. 1 Pittsburgh. The 3 p.m. first serve is on ESPN. There are eight other ACC matches, none pitting ranked teams.
The biggest of the seven matches in the Big Ten has two teams in the VolleyballMag Super 16 Media Poll squaring off when No. 3 Penn State is home for No. 14 Minnesota. It is Penn State’s annual Dig Pink match, which takes on added significance after coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley announced last week that she has breast cancer. None of the other ranked B1G teams play each other.
In the SEC, at 1 p.m., No. 23 Florida at LSU is on ESPN2. None of the other six matches is between ranked SEC teams.
The Big 12 is off.
Both top Big East teams play when No. 6 Creighton is home for DePaul and Marquette plays host to Xavier.
Athletes Unlimited’s two matches, at 4 p.m. Eastern and 6:30, can be seen on Bally Sports regional networks and Volleyball World TV.
NCAA volleyball Saturday
BYU (12-6, 5-3) and Utah (15-3, 5-2) met for the first time as members of the Big 12. BYU, down 10-7 in the fifth set, closed with a 4-0 run. Claire Little led the Cougars with 16 kills, an ace, 12 digs and two blocks. Elli Mortenson had 15 kills, two assists, an ace, nine digs and three blocks, and Brielle Kemavor had nine kills and 10 blocks, two solo. Utah had six players with 10 or more kills, 16 by Kamryn Gibadlo, who had an assist, six digs and two blocks, one solo. Claranne Fletcher had 23 digs, seven assists and three aces …
Kansas (16-1, 7-0) hit .346 and stayed atop the Big 12 with its sweep at UCF (8-8, 1-6). Caroline Bien had 12 kills, hit .385, and had an assist, four aces and eight digs … TCU (14-4, 6-2) hit .362 and won in four at Cincinnati (11-7, 2-5) behind 22 kills from Melanie Parra, who hit. 362 and had four aces, seven digs and a solo block. Jalyn Gibson had 21 kills, hit .459 and had two assists, an ace, 13 digs and a block …
Purdue (15-4, 6-2 Big Ten) swept visiting Indiana (9-9, 2-6) as Eva Hudson had 17 kills, hit .417 and and had an assist and six digs, and Chloe Chicoine had 12 kills with no errors in 30 attacks to hit .400 to go with an assist, 10 digs and a block …
In the other Big Ten match, Nebraska (18-1, 8-0) swept at Ohio State (8-10, 1-7). The Huskers, who. hit .369, got 15 kills from Harper Murray, who hit .394 and had two assists and four digs, and 13 kills from Merritt Beason, who hit .345 and had an ace, six digs and five blocks, one solo …
The only other ranked team in action was No. 21 Dayton (19-1, 9-0 Atlantic 10), which swept visiting George Washington. The Flyers, who have won 12 in a row and hold a two-game lead in the A10, got 15 kills from Lexie Almodovar, who hit .375 and had an assist, an ace, 11 digs and two blocks …
Southeastern Louisiana (17-4, 9-0 Southland) had to go five to win at Stephen F. Austin (15-6, 7-1) but is now alone atop the league. Cicily Hidalgo led with 18 kills, two assists, three aces, 17 digs and five blocks … Also in the SLC, in UTRGV’s four-set win at Texas A&M-Commerce, Celianiz Cabranes had 32 digs, four assists and three aces …
Villanova lost the first two sets in overtime and then won its Big East match at Providence 27-29, 25-27, 25-18, 25-14, 17-15 as the Wildcats hit .339. Abby Harrell led with 21 kills, an assist, two aces, 10 digs and two blocks … Dylan Maberry had 18 kills in High Point’s sweep at Winthrop as the Panthers improved to 14-5, 6-0 in the Big South … UC Davis won its seventh in a row and maintained its one-game lead in the Big West with a five-set victory at CSUN. Ally Chandler, who had six blocks, one solo, and Jade Light, who had three aces, had 17 kills each … Yale maintained its two-game Ivy League lead in the loss column with a four-set win at Dartmouth as Betsy Goodenow and Isabella Mendoza had 14 kills each … Also in the Ivy, Princeton won in four at Cornell as Kamryn Chaney had 23 kills, hit .400, and had an assist, an ace, 11 digs and a solo block … In Ball State’s MAC sweep at Kent State, Katie Egenolf had 15 kills, hit .462, and had nine digs and two blocks …
Western Kentucky hit .485 in its Conference USA sweep of Louisiana Tech. Alivia Skidmore had 19 kills with one error in 28 attacks to hit .643 and had four digs and a block … UTEP is also 10-0 in C-USA after sweeping Jacksonville State … Kate Gammer had 26 kills in Liberty’s four-set win over Middle Tennessee. She hit .333 and had two assists, two aces, 19 digs and three blocks, one solo … Sam Houston lost to Kennesaw State in four but Lylah Washington had 23 kills and hit .409 … When IU Indianapolis pulled off its Horizon League reverse sweep at Youngstown State, Elle Patterson and Briana Brown had 16 kills each. Patterson had two aces, 19 digs and three blocks and Brown had three assists, two aces, 10 digs and a block. Jordyn Pax had 24 digs, six assists and two aces. Youngstown State’s Abbie Householder had 23 kills, 13 digs and a block … Also in the HL, Emma Best and Katie Schulz had 19 kills each in Green Bay’s four-set win over Oakland … Wright State won in five at Milwaukee and Reilly Zegunis had 19 kills, hit .436, and had three digs and four blocks, one solo. Milwaukee’s Madi Malone had 20 kills, an assist, an ace, 18 digs and a block …
Murray State won its Valley match with UIC in four and Ella Vogel had 23 kills, an assist, an ace, nine digs and two blocks … Fresno State won its Mountain West match in four at New Mexico and Addison Haluska had 24 kills, 10 digs and six blocks … Malaya Jones had 21 kills in Colorado State’s MWC sweep at UNLV, hitting .486 with 10 digs and a block … Navy’s Farrah Elke had 27 kills in the Midshipmen’s five-set Patriot win over Lafayette, hitting .396 … Louisiana-Monroe lost in five to Marshall in the Sun Belt but Ryley Boyne had 24 kills, four digs and five blocks … UT Arlington won again in the WAC, this time sweeping visiting Utah Tech to improve to 18-2, 8-0. Brianna Ford had 16 kills in 26 errorless attacks to hit .615 and had two assists, 17 digs and six blocks. It was UTA’s ninth win in a row and 13th sweep of the season … Also in the WAC, in Grand Canyon’s sweep of Tarleton, Ashley Lifgren had 16 kills, hit .351, and had 12 digs and two blocks … Oregon State won in five at Gonzaga and Annika Hester had 25 kills, hitting .340 … Also in the WCC, Birdie Hendrickson had 16 kills and hit .484 in Pepperdine’s sweep of Portland …
And Hampton dropped to 0-21 when it was swept by Towson in the CAA. Towson hit .553.
International Volleyball Hall induction celebration
This year there were nine inductees, two indoor players in Italian Andrea Zorzi and Cuba’s Regla Bell; two beach players in American Tim Hovland and Brazilian Ana Paula Henkel; Brazilian coach Jose “Ze” Roberto and ParaVolley coach Hadi Rezaei of Iran; two officials in Argentinian Juan Angel Pereyra and American Sue Lemaire; and Italian Giuseppe Panini, who went in as a leader.
There were also three special honoree categories recognized this year: John Kessel received the Mintonette Medallion of Merit Award; Bill Kauffman and Ed Chan were honored posthumously with the inaugural Award for Media Excellence; and Michael Kane, Mike Knapik, Aaron Vega and Don Humason received the Mayoral Award of Excellence.
