There were no upsets Sunday in NCAA Division I volleyball. The ACC leaders all won and Minnesota had to dig deep in the Big Ten.
Lines of the day: Kansas State’s Aliyah Carter — who is from Iowa — had 32 kills in her team’s 25-21, 24-26, 25-23, 23-25, 22-20 Big 12 victory at Iowa State. She added an assist, three aces, nine digs and two blocks.Â
Caylen Alexander of Hawai’i had 28 kills in a five-set Big West win over CSUN to go with an ace, 15 digs and three blocks, two solo.
Miami’s Flormarie Heredia Colon also had 28 kills in the Hurricanes’ five-set ACC loss at North Carolina. She hit .431 and had an ace, 12 digs and four blocks, two solo.
Reverse sweeps? Of course, including No. 15 Minnesota pulling it off at Ohio State, North Alabama did it to visiting Queens and Eastern Kentucky did to visiting North Florida in the ASUN,Â
There are six matches Monday in NCAA Division I, five in the SWAC, including first-place Florida A&M (18-6, 10-0) home for Grambling. Second-place Bethune-Cookman (12-11, 9-2) is off, but Alabama State plays Prairie View, Alabama A&M plays Texas Southern, Jackson State plays Southern and Mississippi Valley plays Alcorn.
In the WAC, Tarleton State goes to Abilene Christian.
Athletes Unlimited — completely dominated by Brittany Abercrombie and Bethania De La Cruz-Mejia this season — had two matches Sunday and finishes its fourth of five weeks with two more Monday.
NCAA volleyball Sunday
ACC: Louisville (17-3, 9-1) came out of Dallas with a 25-14, 21-25, 25-20, 25-21 victory at SMU (15-6, 7-3) as Anna DeBeer had 16 kills, 15 digs and three blocks. Cara Cresse had five kills and 11 blocks and Elena Scott had 23 digs, two assists and an ace. SMU’s Naya Shime had 14 kills, two assists, an ace and seven blocks, and Natalie Foster had eight kills, an ace and 11 blocks, one solo …Â
Top-ranked Pittsburgh (19-1, 9-1) defeated visiting Notre Dame (9-10, 2-8) 25-14, 25-20, 22-25, 25-19 as Torrey Stafford had 19 kills and Olivia Babcock 15. Stafford hit .438 and had two aces and 14 digs …Â
No. 17 Georgia Tech (15-4, 7-3) beat visiting Wake Forest (12-9, 4-6) in four behind 19 kills from Bianca Bertolino, who hit .333 and had an assist, three aces and 15 digs. Tamara Otene had 16 kills, but 12 errors, and added seven digs and two blocks …Â
No. 19 Florida State (15-5, 7-3) swept at Duke (8-13, 4-6) as the Seminoles hit .353. Audrey Koenig had 12 kills and hit .370 to go with an assist, an ace, four digs and two blocks …Â
No. 25 North Carolina (17-2, 9-1) dealt a 26-24, 23-25, 25-23, 22-25, 15-8 defeat to visiting Miami (14-7, 5-50 despite the efforts of the aforementioned Heredia Colon. UNC’s Mabrey Shaffmaster led her team with 25 kills, hitting .333, and had four aces and nine digs …Â
Virginia (17-4, 7-3) hung on for a 25-20, 25-14, 21-25, 21-25, 15-12 victory at Boston College (9-13, 2-8), which dropped to 1-3 in five-set ACC matches. Virginia’s Milan Gomillion had 24 digs, four assists and an ace and Elayna Duprey had 18 kills, four aces and four digs. BC’s Audrey Ross had 18 kills, a dig and two blocks … NC State (11-7, 6-4) swept 26-24, 26-24, 25-20 at Clemson (8-13, 0-10) … Syracuse (13-9, 1-9) broke its nine-match skid when the Orange rallied for a 21-25, 25-16, 21-25, 26-24, 15-13 victory over visiting Virginia Tech (7-13, 1-9). Ava Palm had 19 kills for Syracuse to go with two aces, 10 digs and two blocks. VT’s Hailey Pearce had 21 kills, an assist, three aces and 13 digs.
SEC: Missouri (15-5, 6-2) and AVCA No. 14 Kentucky (12-7, 6-2) closed the gap to one game behind idle Texas (12-4, 7-1).Â
Missouri won its sixth in a row, 19-25, 25-18, 25-13, 24-26, 19-17 at Oklahoma (9-8, 3-6) as Jordan Ilief had 23 kills, an ace, six digs and three blocks, one solo, and Mychael Vernon had 17 kills, three aces, 11 digs and two blocks. Marina Crownover had two kills, 60 assists, an ace and 12 digs. OU’s Alexis Shelton had 23 kills, two aces, 11 digs and four blocks, one solo …Â
Kentucky swept 25-18, 26-24, 25-13 at Ole Miss (13-7, 3-5) as Brooklyn DeLeye had 17 kills, an assist, an ace, four digs and a solo block. Ole Miss hit .038 …Â
South Carolina (12-6, 3-4) beat visiting Auburn (14-6, 4-5) in four as Riley Whitesides had 16 kills and Alayna Johnson 15 … Mississippi State (9-8, 3-5) swept visiting Arkansas (14-6, 4-4) … and Georgia (9-9, 3-5) beat visiting LSU (12-8, 4-5) in four despite 24 kills by Jurnee Robinson, who hit .354 and had three assists, two aces, 16 digs and four blocks, one solo. Georgia’s Erykah Lovett had 18 kills, two assists, three aces, 14 digs and two blocks.
BIG TEN: Minnesota (14-6, 7-3) won 16-25, 18-25, 25-22, 25-16, 15-10 at Ohio State (8-12, 1-9). Julia Hanson led with 21 kills and had an assist, an ace, seven digs and two blocks. McKenna Wucherer had 11 kills, two assists, eight digs and four blocks. Melani Shaffmaster had four kills with one error in eight attempts, 49 assists, eight digs and five blocks, one solo. Ohio State’s Emily Londot had 21 kills, two assists, an ace, 13 digs and four blocks … No. 12 Oregon (16-3, 8-2) swept visiting Rutgers (5-16, 0-10) as Mimi Colyer and Onye Ofoegbu had 12 kills each … Illinois (14-6, 6-4) won in four at Iowa (9-13, 3-7) as Raina Terry had 18 kills — but 13 errors — to go with two aces, 12 digs and five blocks … and Indiana (10-10, 3-7) swept visiting Northwestern (4-14, 2-8) behind 15 kills from Candela Alonso-Corcelles, who hit .323 and had five digs and three blocks.
AROUND THE NATION: In the only Big 12 match, Kansas State (7-11, 5-4) won in five at Iowa State (9-10, 3-5), going overtime and then some in the fifth, as noted above. K-State fought off five match points in the fifth. In addition to Aliyah Carter’s career-high 32 kills, Shaylee Meyers had 13 and Meg Brown 12. Setter Izzi Szulczewski had five kills with one error in 10 tries, 56 assists, an ace, 14 digs and three blocks. Iowa State’s Lilly Wacholz had 17 kills, hit .484, and had three digs and two blocks, one solo …
Towson (18-4, 9-3), idle Charleston (17-7, 9-3), Delaware (13-6, 9-3) and Hofstra (13-8, 9-3) are tied for first in the CAA and N.C. A&T (13-7, 8-4) is a game back. Towson swept at Elon and Delaware won in five at Hofstra despite 27 kills from Izadora Stedile, who hit .339 and had an assist, four aces, 17 digs and five blocks. In the other CAA match, UNC Wilmington won in five at William & Mary …Â
In Florida Atlantic’s four-set American Athletic win at Charlotte, Valeria Rosado had 22 kills, hit .413 and had 11 digs. Isabelle Northam had 20 digs, six assists and three aces … Also in the AAC, Wichita State beat UAB in four and Morgan Stout had 22 kills, hit .450, and had an ace, a dig and 10 blocks … Rice (13-6, 8-2) and South Florida (12-9, 8-2) are tied for the AAC lead again after Rice swept at Temple and USF lost in five at UTSA …Â
There were two reverse sweeps in the three ASUN matches. Eastern Kentucky did it to North Florida, despite 26 kills by Amy Burkhardt. EKU’s Jose Schmitendorf had 33 digs and 11 assists. In North Alabama’s comeback against Queens, Audrey Small had 30 digs and four assists … Fairfield (13-10, 11-0) maintained its two-game lead in the MAAC with a sweep of visiting Marist as the Stags hit .333 and Allie Elliott and Mikayla Haut had 10 kills, an ace and nine digs each … Quinnipiac kept its hold on second as Elena Giacomini and Leilani-kai Giusta had 14 kills each in a sweep at Niagara … Howard (16-5, 9-0) kept its two-game MEAC lead with a sweep of N.C. Central as Rya McKinnon had 17 kills, hit .419 and had five digs … In the Patriot League, Lehigh swept Lafayette and Kyleigh Brown had 27 digs, five assists and an ace … Jackson State hit .386 in a SWAC sweep of Alcorn as Jayden James had 10 kills with one error in 16 attacks, an assist, six aces and seven digs.
Athletes Unlimited: It’s all Abercrombie and De La Cruz-Mejia
AU is a five-week season in which the teams change but the ultimate goal is to garner individual points. And it’s a two-person race.
Abercrombie leads with 3,465 points. De La Cruz-Mejias is second at 3,266 and in third place, almost a thousand points back, is Claire Hoffman (2,384), who jumped six spots Sunday. She is closely followed by Leketor Member-Meneh (2,342). Manami Kojima (2,335), the Japanese libero, is one good set away from getting into third place. But first and second are all but wrapped up.
In the first match Sunday, Team De La Cruz-MejÃa dominated Team Member-Meneh 75-52, winning the three sets 25-14, 25-21, 25-17.
Willow Johnson, who is in 10th place with 2,060 points, led De La Cruz with 14 kills, hit .429, and five digs and a block. Member-Meneh led her own team with 12 kills, an ace and eight digs.
Read the first-match recap here.
In the nightcap, Team Abercrombie routed Team (Morgan) Hentz 77-53, winning the sets 25-12, 27-25, 25-16. Abercrombie led her team with 18 kills, hitting .432, and had eight digs. Hoffman had 15 kills, hit .419, and had three assists, 11 digs and a solo block. Hentz had 18 digs and two assists and stands in sixth place with 2,286 points.
Read the second-match recap here.
