Volleyball Today: NCAA streaks and big numbers; big men’s move; AVP, AU updates

Let’s go Peay!

There were no upsets Saturday in NCAA Division I volleyball, but streaks continued and a long one wsa broken, and there were some impressive numbers put up around the country.

The Jackrabbits are 22-0: South Dakota State, the only team left unbeaten in NCAA Division I volleyball, swept at Kansas City in The Summit League.

The Govs are 2-22: Austin Peay broke its 21-match losing streak with a 25-19, 19-25, 26-28, 27-25, 15-12 ASUN victory over visiting Bellarmine to give interim head coach Connor Crawford a victory in his second match at the helm after the school fired Taylor Mott last week. It was also senior night and the Govs’ final home match.

Lexie Almodovar and No. 15 Dayton keeps rolling in the Atlantic 10: She had 27 kills, 13 digs and a solo block in the Flyers’ four-set win at George Mason as the Flyers won their 16th match in a row. 

There was, of course, a reverse sweep, as UIC won a wild one at Missouri State in the Missouri Valley, 25-27, 24-26, 25-13, 25-15, 15-8.

Lines of the day: 

In Utah Tech’s five-set WAC win over visiting Utah Valley, Kennedi Knudsen had a program-record 34 kills, hit .355, and had two assists, four aces, seven digs and two blocks.

Evansville won its Missouri Valley Conference match in five against visiting Bradley and NCAA kills leader Giulia Cardona went off again, this time for 31 kills, an assist, 10 digs and two blocks. 

James Madison lost to visiting South Alabama in four in the Sun Belt, but Bre Reid had 30 kills, hit .328, and had two assists, two aces, 17 digs and a solo block.

In an OVC sweep at Little Rock, Keyana Cruise of Western Illinois had 23 kills, hit .377, and had an assist, four aces and 25 digs.

Jayln Stout, the incomparable setter for Coastal Carolina, had 16 kills in a four-set Sun Belt win over visiting Georgia Southern, hitting .400, and had 17 assists and 19 digs. It’s her 15th triple-double of the season, breaking the record of 14 she set last year as a freshman.

Loyola Chicago lost its men’s volleyball coach to UCLA when John Hawks went back to Los Angeles. Speaking of going back, Loyola re-hired Shane Davis, who went to coach the Northwestern women after winning back-to-back NCAA men’s titles at Loyola.

That and AVP and Athletes Unlimited updates follow in this edition of Volleyball Today:

NCAA, AVP, AU Volleyball Sunday

NCAA: Two of the ACC’s eight matches pit two ranked teams when VolleyballMag Super 16 Media Poll No. 6 Stanford goes to Florida State and AVCA No. 16 Georgia Tech goes to No. 25 North Carolina. Top-ranked Pittsburgh is at Virginia Tech, No. 11 SMU is at Virginia, Miami is home for Cal, Clemson is at Duke, Boston College is at NC State and Syracuse is at Wake Forest.

The five Big Ten matches show No. 2 Nebraska at Northwestern, No. 7 Wisconsin at Illinois, No. 14 Minnesota at Michigan, No. 21 USC home for Washington and Ohio State at Michigan State.

There are seven SEC matches, including No. 9 Texas home for Oklahoma, No. 16 Kentucky at Georgia, No. 24 Florida home for Ole Miss, Tennessee at South Carolina, Alabama at LSU, Mississippi State at Texas A&M and Auburn at Arkansas.

Fifth-ranked Creighton, which has won 13 in a row, plays host to Villanova in the Big East, while Marquette, a game behind the Bluehays, is home for St. John’s.

No. 15 Dayton is back at George Mason in the Atlantic 10.

AVP LEAGUE: The inaugural venture finishes its eight-week regular season Sunday. Larry Hamel’s recap of Saturday’s action and a look ahead follows.

ATHLETES UNLIMITED: AU is back at it Sunday night with the next-to-last matches of the season.

Team (Dani) Drews plays Team (Bethania) De La Cruz-Mejia at 7 p.m. Eastern, followed by Team (Madi) Kingdon Rishel vs. Team (Brittany) Abercrombie. Both can be seen on ESPNU.

In a five-week competition that rewards the individual winner, it all comes down to Abercrombie  (3,984 points) and De La Cruz (3,602), with Kingdon Rishel (3,065) holding a slim chance to catch them. 

The best of NCAA volleyball Saturday

No. 13 Arizona State (22-2, 10-1 Big 12) won the only match between ranked teams, a 25-19, 25-19, 25-18 sweep at No. 22 Utah (17-5, 7-4). Six Sun Devils had five or more kills. Eighth-ranked Kansas 20-1, 11-0) swept visiting West Virginia (8-14, 2-9) for its 11th win a row. The Jayhawks hit .350 as Ayah Elnady led with 14 kills, hitting .323, to go with an ace and 13 digs. Rhian Swanson had eight kills with no errors in 19 swings, two digs and four blocks. No. 20 BYU (14-7, 7-4 swept visiting Arizona (13-8, 2-8) as Claire Little had 20 kills, hit .359, and had nine digs. And Texas Tech (12-11, 4-7) swept visiting UCF (8-11, 1-8) as Mia Wesley had 14 kills, two assists and 12 digs … 

All three Big Ten matches were sweeps. No. 10 Purdue (18-5, 9-3) hit .424 and won at Rutgers (5-18, 0-12) as both Chloe Cicoine (23 attacks) and Eva Hudson (32) had 14 kills and one error. No. 12 Oregon (17-4, 9-3) hit .380 and beat visiting UCLA (10-11, 4-8) as Michelle Ohwobete had 15 kills with one error in 32 attacks and added three aces, three digs and two blocks, and Onye Ofoegbu had 11 kills with one error in 13 attacks and three blocks, one solo. And Indiana (12-10, 5-7) swept at Maryland (10-13, 1-11) as Avry Tatum had 13 kills, an assist, three aces, two digs and a block … 

Louisville (29-3, 11-1 ACC) won 25-12, 25-16, 25-12 at Notre Dame (9-12, 2-10). The Cardinals got 12 kills from Charitie Luper, who hit .417 and had an ace, a block and seven digs. Notre Dame hit .000 …

South Dakota State swept 25-21, 25-15, 25-20 at Kansas City and has the program’s most victories since winning 25 in 2007. Sylvie Zgonc had 16 kills, hit .314, and had an ace, a solo block and eight digs. Also in the Summit, South Dakota swept Oral Roberts and Kylen Sealock had 19 kills, a dig and a block … 

Hawai’i (15-7, 9-3) moved into a first-place Big West tie with UC Davis (14-7, 9-3) and they lead three teams — Cal Poly, UC Irvine and UC San Diego — by one game. Hawai’i beat visiting Cal Poly in four as Caylen Alexander had 20 kills, as assist, an ace, eight digs and two blocks. UC Davis lost in five at Long Beach State, which is a game back of the pack. Madi Maxwell led the Beach with 17 kills, an assist, an ace, 12 digs and seven blocks. Jade Light of UC Davis had 20 kills, hit .400, and had three aces, 12 digs and a solo block. In UC Irvine’s four-set win at CSUN, Kendra McDonald had 20 kills with one error in 33 attacks to hit .576 to go with seven digs. UC San Diego swept visiting UC Riverside as Kylie Pries had 13 kills with one error in 43 attacks, three aces, six digs and a block. And CSU Bakersfield beat Cal State Fullerton in four and Sydney Dunning had 18 kills with one error in 28 swings to hit .515 and added four aces and seven digs … Bucknell (19-2, 11-1) maintained it one-game lead in the Patriot League over idle Colgate with a sweep of visiting third-place American (20-5, 10-3) … Mercer (20-4, 10-1) won in four at ETSU to built its lead to a game in the loss column over idle Wofford in the SoCon. Skyler Bumpers had eight kills, hit .375, and had three aces and four blocks. Also in the SoCon, Sophie Childs had 21 kills in The Citadel’s sweep of UNC Greensboro as she hit .374 and had an ace and three blocks …

Conference USA-leading Western Kentucky (21-6, 14-0) swept visiting NM State for its 17th win in a row. WKU won 25-23, 25-23, 26-24, coming back from being down 19-10 in the third. Also in C-USA, Jacksonville State beat visiting FIU in four as Kayla Williams had 23 kills, hitting .408 with five aces, seven digs and two blocks … 

Southeastern Louisiana (20-4, 12-0) won its 20th match in a row, but had to battle to 25-19, 20-25, 25-19, 18-25, 15-6 Southland Conference victory over second-place Stephen F. Austin (18-7, 10-2). Kyra McKelvey had 21 kills with two errors in 29 attacks to hit .655 to go with a block … 

UT Arlington is another team on a big winning streak. The Mavs beat visiting California Baptist in four to improve to 21-2, 11-0 in the WAC with their 12th victory in a row. Dutch freshman Sjakkie Donkers (all-name team) had 21 kills, hit .474 and had five assists, 10 digs and three blocks …

Loyola Marymount (18-4, 10-1) won in five at San Diego (13-8, 8-3) to maintain its one-game lead in the West Coast Conference as six Lions had eight or more kills. Pepperdine (12-8, 9-1) stayed a half game back with a sweep of visiting Washington State (12-8, 7-4) as Grace Chillingworth had 16 kills with one error in 29 attacks to hit .517 to go with nine digs and an assist. Pacific lost to visiting San Francisco in five, but Alexa Edwards had 24 kills, an ace, 20 digs and three blocks, one solo … 

Horizon-leading Wright State swept visiting Robert Morris as Mya Ayro had 13 kills, hit .500, and had four digs and three blocks. Also in the HL, Green Bay beat Northern Kentucky in five as Cora Behnke had 23 kills, two digs and a block … Southeast Missouri’s lead over idle Lindenwood in the Ohio Valley was cut to a game in the loss column when the Redhawks lost in four to visiting Tennessee Tech despite Lucy Arndt getting 17 kills with one error in 38 attacks to hit .421 with two assists, an ace and 13 digs. Also in the OVC, Tennessee State lost in five to UT Martin but Jayla Holcombe had 24 kills, hit .370 and had six digs and four blocks. Also in the SLC, Texas A&M-Commerce won in four at Nicholls and Jade Smith had 30 digs, five assists and an ace, and in UIW’s five-set win over visiting Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Audrey Patton had 30 digs and 111 assists … 

Yale rebuilt its Ivy League lead to 1.5 games with a four-set win over visiting Penn as Betsy Goodenow had 15 kills with one error in 33 swings to hit .424 and added an assist, 10 digs and three blocks … Fairfield improved to 15-10, 13-0 in the MAAC, with a sweep at Merrimack. Svenja Rodenbusch had 14 kills, hit .400, and had an assist, seven digs and two blocks … Bowling Green maintained its one-game lead in the MAC with a sweep at Miami as Lauryn Hovey had 12 kills, hit .450, and had three aces, eight digs and three blocks … Northern Iowa kept its one-game lead over Drake in the Missouri Valley as the Panthers won in four at Belmont and Drake won in four at Murray State. Drake’s Megan White had 23 kills and Macy Daufeldt had 22 … 

Central Arkansas beat Jacksonville in four and Laci Bohannan had 23 kills in the ASUN victory, hitting .372 with an assist, 10 digs and a block … Dylan Maberry had 13 kills with no errors in 28 attacks to hit .464 in High Point’s Big South sweep of Gardner-Webb to go with an ace and five digs … Also in the Big South, Ali Jansen had 23 kills for USC Upstate in a four-set win over Charleston Southern. She hit .358 and had an assist, three digs and three blocks … Colorado State kept its half-game lead in the Mountain West over San Jose State as the Rams swept visiting San Diego State and SJSU beat visiting New Mexico in four. San Jose State’s Nayell Ti’a had 16 kills, an assist, an ace, 10 digs and three blocks, one solo … 

In the Sun Belt, App State has quietly taken the lead in the East Division at 1407, 8-2, while South Alabama (14-8, 8-2) is tied with Arkansas State  (20-4, 8-2) atop the West. App State won in five at Georgia State as Maya Winterhoff had 20 kills, hit .390 and had two assists, an ace, a dig and five blocks, one solo. Also in the SBC, Texas State swept Southern Miss and setter Ryann Torres had seven kills with one error in eight tries, 38 assists, two aces, seven digs and a block … 

In LIU’s four-set NEC win at Mercyhurst, Camelia Melendez had 18 kills, hit .348, and had five aces and six digs … 

Charleston and Hofstra are up by a half game in the CAA after Hofstra swept William & Mary and Charleston did the same to visiting Hampton, which fell to 0-26 after the Pirates hit minus .021.

Shane Davis returns to Loyola Chicago

Loyola University Chicago is proud to announce the return of former Rambler student-athlete and coach Shane Davis as the new leader of the men’s volleyball program. Davis, who played for the Maroon and Gold from 2000-2003 and served as head men’s volleyball coach from 2004-2015, returns to the bench where he led the Ramblers to back-to-back national titles in 2014 and 2015.

Davis returns to Rogers Park for his 21st all-time season as a head coach and his 13th at Loyola, where he remains the winningest coach in program history with a 265-88 (.751) record.

The four-time Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) Coach of the Year and the 2014 AVCA Coach of the Year piloted the Ramblers to three straight NCAA Final Four appearances between 2013 and 2015, clinching two consecutive national championships in ’14 and ’15.

During his previous tenure at Loyola from 2003 to 2015, Davis produced 43 All-MIVA picks, four of whom were MIVA Players of the Year, and 12 All-Americans, including two Olympic bronze medalists. Thomas Jaeschke (’15) and Jeff Jendryk (’18) earned bronze in the Paris 2024 Olympics; Jaeschke previously won bronze in the 2016 Olympics. Jaeschke was named the 2015 AVCA National Player of the Year while Jendryk earned the 2015 AVCA Newcomer of the Year.

https://loyolaramblers.com/news/2024/11/2/mens-volleyball-two-time-national-champion-shane-davis-appointed-mens-volleyball-head-coach.aspx

AVP League heads into final regular-season day

Miles Partain and Andy Benesh (7-0) of the Dallas Dream topped fellow USA Olympians Chase Budinger and Miles Evans (3-4) of the San Diego Smash 15-12, 16-14 on Saturday night at the Comerica Center in Frisco, Texas. Their sweep clinched a spot in the AVP League semifinals next weekend for the Dream, giving the team a 9-5 record, while dropping the Smash to 6-8.

The Smash remained alive in the hunt for the last playoff spot, buoyed by a 12-15, 15-11, 16-14 victory by Geena Urango and Toni Rodriguez (3-4) over the Dream’s Hailey Harward and Kylie Deberg (2-5).

The Austin Aces (7-7) and LA Launch (5-9) split their matches during the opening session of the League’s final regular-season weekend. USA Olympians Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss (4-3) of the Aces held off Betsi Flint and Julia Scoles (3-4) 12-15, 15-12, 15-12, and the Launch’s Tim Bomgren and Troy Field (2-5) rallied to defeat Paul Lotman and Billy Allen (3-4) 7-15, 15-13, 15-9.

On Sunday afternoon, the Launch will play the Smash (streamed live on the Bally Live app at 2 p.m. Eastern) and the Dream will meet the Aces (televised exclusively on tape delay by the CBS Sports Network cable channel from 7 p.m. to 9 a.m.). The Aces are best positioned to move on to the semifinals, but scenarios might play out that could see the Smash or Launch advance.