Top-ranked Pittsburgh clobbered visiting No. 5 Stanford on Sunday, while No. 4 Louisville swept NC State, setting up Friday’s battle for ACC supremacy.
Third-ranked Penn State crushed No. 14 Minnesota in the Big Ten, where No. 10 Wisconsin lost the first set but then blocked Michigan out of the gym.
Tennessee beat No. 25 Auburn in four in the SEC, where No. 7 Texas lost the first set to Georgia and then ran away from the visiting Bulldogs.
There were no reverse sweeps, worth noting in this season of reverse sweeps.
Lines of the day: Jackson State’s Jayden James had 28 kills in a four-set SWAC win over Grambling, hitting .389, to go with 24 digs and two blocks. Stony Brook’s Kali Moore had 24 kills, hit .377, and had an assist, five aces and 14 digs in a five-set CAA win over Elon. Marist’s Sara Dasic had 24 kills in a five-set MAAC win over Merrimack to go with an assist, an ace, 11 digs and a solo block.
The NCAA also announced its current top 16 teams as we approach the mid-point of the season. That list follows.
Volleyball Monday
There are five matches on the Monday NCAA Division I schedule, including a rare non-conference affair in the Phoenix area when Grand Canyon of the WAC (13-6) travels 17 miles to No. 13 Arizona State University (18-2) of the Big 12.
Also in the WAC, Southern Utah goes to Utah Tech. Evansville goes to Indiana State in the Missouri Valley Conference, and there are two SWAC matches when Grambling plays Mississippi Valley and Arkansas-Pine Bluff faces Jackson State.
The third weekend of Athletes Unlimited finished with two matches, at 7 p.m. Eastern and 9:30 p.m., and both can be seen on ESPNU. More on AU’s Sunday action follows.
NCAA volleyball Sunday
ACC: Pittsburgh (17-1, 7-1) rolled to a 25-17, 25-16, 25-20 victory over visiting Stanford (14-3, 6-2), which dropped the Cardinal into a three-way tie with Florida State and SMU for third place. Louisville (16-2, 8-0) is alone in first and Pitt is tied with North Carolina (15-2, 7-1) after the Tar Heels won in five at Virginia.
Pitt’s Olivia Babcock had 17 kills, hit .361, and added an ace, six digs and six blocks, one solo. Torrey Stafford had 12 kills, five digs and three blocks, one solo. Bre Kelley had four kills in nine errorless attempts and seven blocks. Rachel Fairbanks had two kills in as many tries, 35 assists, an ace, two blocks and nine digs.
Stanford hit .090, the ninth time this season a Pitt opponent has hit less than .100 …
Louisville blasted NC State (10-6, 5-3) as Anna DeBeer had 10 kills with one error in 11 attacks in the 25-15, 25-17, 25-19 victory. DeBeer added an ace, 11 digs and a block. NC State hit .087 … North Carolina won 25-16, 16-25, 25-22, 22-25, 15-11 at Virginia (15-4, 5-3) as Safi Hampton had 15 kill, hit .324, and had two aces, six digs and two blocks … No. 9 SMU (14-5, 6-2) defeated visiting Cal (10-10, 2-6) in four as Maya Tabron had 18 kills, Jamison Wheeler 14 and Naya Shime 13 … No. 19 Florida State swept at Syracuse (12-8, 0-8) as Khori Louis had 14 kills with one error in 23 swings to hit .565 go to with two digs and four blocks … Miami (13-6, 4-4) swept at Boston College (8-12, 1-7) with the most unusual scores of 26-24, 25-7, 27-25 … Wake Forest swept at Notre Dame, which hit .018 … Duke (8-11, 4-4) swept at Virginia Tech (7-11, 1-7).
BIG TEN: Penn State (18-1, 8-0) celebrated its Dig Pink match with a 25-16, 25-20, 25-14 sweep of visiting Minnesota (12-6, 5-3). Jess Mruzik led with 18 kills, hitting .325, and had 16 digs and a solo block. The bright spot for Minnesota, which hit .112, was Julia Hanson, who had 11 kills with one error in 29 attacks to hit .345. She added an assist, four digs and a block …
Wisconsin (13-4, 7-1) kept pace with Penn State and idle Nebraska (18-1, 8-0) by winning 21-25, 25-10, 25-20, 25-18 at Michigan (15-4, 5-3). Wisconsin, which held a 21-7 blocking advantage, hit .336 and held Michigan to a .089 hitting percentage. Sarah Franklin had 19 kills, hit .474 after having one error in 38 attacks, and had 13 digs and three blocks. Anna Smrek had 17 kills, hit .556, and had five digs and eight blocks. Carter Booth had six kills, two digs and 12 blocks. Michigan’s Allison Jacobs had 15 kills, five digs and three blocks …
No 12 Oregon (14-3, 6-2) won in four at Iowa (9-11, 3-5) as Mimi Colyer had 16 kills, an assist, two aces, seven digs and two blocks, and Michelle Ohwobete had 13 kills, an assist, two aces, five digs and three blocks … AVCA No. 16 USC (14-4, 6-2) hit .365 and swept at Rutgers (5-14, 0-8) … Washington (14-4, 4-4) had an 18-9 blocking advantage and won in four at Michigan State (7-12, 0-8) as Kierstyn Barton had 17 kills, hit .424 and had an assist, 13 digs and five blocks. MSU’s Akasha Anderson had 18 kills … UCLA (9-8, 3-5) swept at Northwestern (4-12, 2-6) … Illinois (13-5, 5-3) swept visiting Maryland (10-9, 1-7) as Raina Terry had 15 kills, hit .464, and had five digs and four blocks.
SEC: Texas (12-3, 7-0) beat visiting Georgia (8-9, 2-5) 23-25, 25-19, 25-20, 25-18. Jenna Wenaas had 11 kills, hit .346, and had an assist, an ace and 10 digs … No.16 Kentucky (11-7, 5-2) swept at Alabama (10-8, 2-5) as Brooklyn DeLeye had 21 kills, four digs and a solo block … Tennessee (10-7, 3-4) beat visiting Auburn (14-4, 4-3) in four. Nina Cajic had 13 kills, three assists, three aces, six digs and three blocks … No. 23 Florida (13-5, 4-3) hit .367 and swept at LSU (11-7, 3-4). Kennedy Martin had 12 kills with two errors in 24 attacks, three digs and a block … South Carolina (11-6 .2-4) beat visiting Oklahoma (8-7, 2-5) in four behind 19 kills from Riley Whitesides, who had two aces, nine digs and a block … Missouri (13-5, 4-2) beat visiting Mississippi State (7-8, 1-5) in four as Jordan Iliff had 23 kills, hit .315, and had four aces, 12 digs and a block.
AROUND THE NATION: Big East-leading Creighton (17-2, 8-0), ranked No. 6 in the VolleyballMag Super 16 Media Poll, hit .446 and swept visiting DePaul (13-7, 5-3). Ava Martin had 10 kills, hit .400, and added three aces, four digs and two blocks … Marquette (11-6, 7-1) kept pace in the Big East with a sweep of Xavier (6-12, 4-4) as Aubrey Hamilton and Natalie Ring had 13 kills each …
South Florida (11-8, 7-1 American Athletic) is still in first place by a game, but the Bulls lost in four at Florida Atlantic (12-8. 4-4). FAU’s Valeria Rosado had 15 kills, hit .333, and had two aces, nine digs and two blocks, one solo … Also in the AAC, in UAB’s five-set win over Tulane, Jorda Crook had 20 kills, an ace, nine digs and five blocks … FGCU (16-4, 8-1) built half-game lead in the ASUN with four-set win over Central Arkansas (10-9, 7-1) as Shelby Kent and Skylar English had 14 kills each … Also in the ASUN, North Alabama won in four at Stetson and Jasmine Brooks had 23 kills …
Hofstra (13-6, 9-1) won its ninth in a row, winning in four at UNC Wilmington … Also in the CAA, Hampton dropped to 0-22 when it got swept at Towson … Fairfield won in four over visiting Rider to maintain its two-game MAAC lead over Quinnipiac, which swept at Siena … Also in the MAAC, Iona beat Niagara in four as Jen Soto and Mackenzie Wiggins had 19 kills each … Florida A&M swept at Texas Southern to maintain its two-game SWAC lead over Bethune-Cookman, which swept at Prairie View.
NCAA’s in-season top 16
The NCAA, which released the list during the Stanford-at-Pittsburgh match on ESPN, said matches through Saturday were considered. The NCAA said in its news release that “The reveal is based on the criteria used to select and seed the 64 teams for the volleyball championship. It includes strength of schedule, Rating Percentage Index, head-to-head competition, results versus common opponents, significant wins and losses and locations of contests. Input is also provided by the regional advisory committees for consideration by the Division I women’s volleyball committee.”
- Nebraska
- Pitt
- Penn State
- Louisville
- Stanford
- Creighton
- SMU
- Texas
- Wisconsin
- Oregon
- Kansas
- Purdue
- Utah
- TCU
- USC
- Minnesota
Teams De La Cruz-Mejía, Abercrombie win AU matches
The third weekend finishes with Team (Dani) Drews playing Team (Leketor) Member-Meneh at 7 p.m. Eastern in Mesa, Arizona, followed by Team (Bethania) De La Cruz-Mejia vs. Team (Brittany) Abercrombie.
Abercrombie (2,649 points) and De La Cruz-Mejia (2,493) are runaway points leaders in the five-week competition that ultimately is won by an individual.
In the first match Sunday, Team De La Cruz-Mejía beat Team Drews 66-64 after winning the first two sets 25-18, 25-21, before Drews won the third 25-16. Khat Bell had 15 kills, hit .351, and had eight digs and two solo blocks to lead Team De La Cruz-Mejia.
Click here for the first-match recap.
In the nightcap, Abercrombie won 73-71 after losing the first set 25-23 but coming back to win the last two by the same scores. Abercrombie led her team with 10 kills, an ace, seven digs and a block. Madi Kingdon Rishel had 17 kills for Member-Meneh, hitting .424 to go with nine digs.
Click here for the second-match recap.
