Most of the ranked teams that played Friday in NCAA volleyball swept.
But No. 20 Miami got swept by unranked Ohio State and No. 12 Oregon defeated No. 17 BYU in five, 17-15 in the fifth.
Fifth-ranked Nebraska swept visiting No. 14 and previously unbeaten Arizona State in the only other match between ranked teams.
No. 19 Minnesota beat previously unbeaten Auburn and No. 24 Dayton, now 7-0, beat previously unbeaten Illinois.
Line of the day: TCU’s Melanie Parra had 33 kills and hit .373 in the Horned Frogs’ four-set win over visiting UCLA.
And in this all-NCAA volleyball Volleyball Today, South Carolina State’s 130-match losing streak to Division I teams is over! The Bulldogs swept Mississippi Valley State. They did, however, lose their next match.
Saturday in NCAA volleyball
Pre-conference play continues.
In the ACC, No. 1 Pittsburgh continues its California trip at UC Santa Barbara, fourth-ranked Louisville plays Northern Iowa, Miami tries to bounce back against Wright State, 8-0 Syracuse plays Idaho and 5-1 Notre Dame plays winless Northwestern.
In the Big 12, now 7-1 Arizona State stays in Nebraska to play NM State, 8-0 Arizona plays NM State, and 5-1 Utah is back at Loyola Chicago after beating the Ramblers there Friday.
The Big Ten shows 6-0 No. 3 Penn State playing St. John’s, No. 5 Nebraska home for Wichita State, No. 7 Purdue putting its 7-0 record against the SEC’s No. 10 Kentucky and Illinois plays Western Kentucky.
The lone unbeaten SEC team, 5-0 Texas A&M, plays New Hampshire.
The Big East’s Creighton, ranked No. 9, plays Rice, and Marquette plays Dayton. UConn (7-0) plays UAlbany.
Among the other unbeatens in action, 8-0 UT Arlington plays Weber State, 8-0 Tennessee Tech plays Radford, 7-0 South Dakota State plays Bradley, 5-0 San Jose State plays Southern Utah, 4-0 UCF plays Florida Atlantic.
South Carolina State snaps skid
South Carolina State of the MEAC, which hadn’t beaten a Division I team since 2018, defeated Mississippi Valley State 26-24, 25-21, 25-19. Hailey Harris had 12 kills, hit .450, and had a dig and three blocks, one solo. Xaria Pickett had 11 kills, two assists, two of her team’s 10 aces and three digs.
SC State, which lost its last 10 matches in 2023, defeated Division II Allen in five last October 3. SC State finished 1-28 in 2023 and lost its first three matches this season.
The Bulldogs swept Savannah State on September 28, 2018, and then lost the last 12 matches of that season to finish 1-26. Savannah State is now playing Division II.
In 2019 S.C. State finished 0-29, in the shortened COVID season went 0-8, and then 0-24 in 2021, before an 0-26 2022 season.
In all, against Division I teams, the streak was 130 matches.
After beating Valley, S.C. State, now 1-4, got 19 kills from Pickett but lost in four to the SWAC’s Bethune-Cookman. Valley lost to Tennessee State.
Top 10 teams all sweep
Pittsburgh beat Pepperdine, Penn State beat Duke, Nebraska beat Arizona State, Purdue beat Houston, Creighton beat Northern Iowa and Kentucky beat SMU.
Of note from those matches:
Pitt is 5-0 as Oliva Babcock had 14 kills, hit .407 and had two aces, three blocks and nine digs; Penn State is 6-0 after hitting .513 (47 kills, six errors in 85 attacks); Nebraska’s Merritt Beason had 15 kills, hit .429 and had an ace, a dig and three blocks; Purdue’s Lourdes Myers had just one kills but eight blocks, one solo; Kentucky’s Megan Wilson had 10 kills with one error in 22 swings and four blocks.
Notes from the rest of the top 25:
Ohio State (4-2) swept visiting and previously unbeaten Miami (5-1) as Emily Londot had 16 kills in the 25-21, 25-21, 25-16 victory. Londot had five of her team’s nine aces, three blocks and 13 digs;
In Oregon’s 25-14, 23-25, 25-13, 22-25, 17-15 victory over BYU, four Ducks had 10 or more kills, 13 by Onye Ofoegbu, who had one error in 22 attacks and eight blocks, and 12 kills by Michelle Ohwobete, who had one error in 29 swings, an assist, two aces, 16 digs and nine blocks; Georgia Tech hit .430 against Alabama State which included Bianca Bertolini going 13 for 21 with no errors with two aces, four digs and a block; Minnesota swept both LIU and Auburn in its home tournament and against Auburn Lydia Grote had 11 kills with one error in 28 attacks, three aces, a block and 10 digs, and Julia Hanson had 12 kills, five blocks and 16 digs; Khori Louis had 15 kills with one error in 23 attacks as Florida State swept Florida Atlantic to go with eight blocks, two solo;
Arkansas swept Stephen F. Austin as Olivian Ruy had 14 kills with no errors in 26 attacks, Romani Thurman had 14 kills and Aniya Madkin had 13; USC beat Ohio in four as Ally Batenhorst had 17 kills, three assists, two aces, a block and 11 digs; Dayton (7-0) beat Illinois in four and then swept Western Kentucky. In the 18-25, 25-19, 25-20, 25-18 victory over Illinois, Lexie Almodovar had 24 kills with one error in 43 attacks to hit .535 and had an assist, an ace, 12 digs and a block. Against WKU, Liana Sarkissian had 13 kills, hit .476 and had two aces, five digs and seven blocks, two solo; TCU beat visiting UCLA 25-19, 23-25, 28-26, 25-21 behind 33 kills from Melanie Parra, who hit .373 and had two aces, a block and nine digs. WKU lost earlier in the day to Marquette in five. Marquette’s Carsen Murray had 14 kills with one error in 24 attacks and three blocks.
Around the nation
Key results and top performances:
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi of the Southland got a big four-set win over the Big 12’s Texas Tech, beating a current power-conference school for the first time. Kyndal Payne had 18 kills, an assist, four aces, 11 digs and four blocks, one solo. Texas Tech later beat Houston Christian in five … Arkansas hit .431 in a sweep of Stephen F. Austin … Arizona is 8-0 after hitting .402 in a sweep of winless Texas Southern … Michigan got to 8-0 with a four-set win over Akron behind 25 kills by Allison Jacobs, who hit .308 and had two assists, eight digs and four blocks …
Missouri hit .442 in a sweep of Kansas City which included Mychael Vernon having 11 kills with no errors in 21 attacks. Mizzou later swept UT Martin and Joran Iliff had 16 kills, hitting .609, with three aces, 11 digs and a block … Purdue Fort Wayne beat Cornell in five and Panna Ratkai had 23 kills, an ace, nine digs and four blocks … Wake Forest beat FIU in five and Tina Grkovic had 12 blocks, one solo … South Dakota State improved to 7-9 with a sweep of Eastern Illinois as Sylvie Zgonc had 15 kills, hit .333, and had two aces, 13 digs and a solo block …
Washington is 6-0 after beating Washington State in four. Kierstyn Barton led with 22 kills, hitting .500, to go with 12 digs and two blocks, one solo … Hawai’i pulled off a reverse sweep against visiting Oregon State and won 20-25, 18-25, 25-22, 25-23, 15-20 as Caylen Alexander led with 17 kills, 12 digs and four blocks …
In Eastern Michigan’s five-set win over Evansville, EMU’s Kalli Doctor had 23 kills and Evansville’s Guila Cardona had 26, five aces, 20 digs and five blocks, one solo. EMU also beat Morehead State and Doctor had 15 kills … Shelby Kent had 22 kills and 22 digs for FGCU in a five-set win over Drake …
Syracuse improved to 8-0 with a sweep of NJIT … Clemson beat Wofford in five and Mia McGrath had 23 kills, three aces, 13 digs and a block … UT Arlington got to 8-0 with a sweep of Saint Louis as Brianna Ford had 12 kills, hit .381 and had two assists, an ace, eight digs and four blocks … My Salukis got 22 kills from Annabelle Sulish but SIU lost in five at Lindenwood, which had four players with 10 or more kills, 18 each by Autumn Bax and Nyah Wilson … Wright State beaet Buffalo in four and Sam Ott had 22 kills with one error in 44 attacks, two assists, 10 digs and three blocks … Kamryn Chaney had 25 kills for Princeton but the Tigers lost in five to St. John’s, which pulled off a reverse sweep. Chaney had 16 digs and seven blocks, three solo … Arkansas State improved to 7-1 with a five-set win over Jacksonville State as Daedrianna Cail had nine kills, two assists, three digs and eight blocks, two solo … UTEP is 6-1 after sweeping Iowa State. Sara Pustahija had 10 kills with one error in 23 swings … St. Thomas beat both Illinois State and Iowa for its first victory over a major-conference opponent …
Hofstra beat Army West Point in five as Beatriz Braga had 24 kills and Clara Bal had 22 … American is 9-1 after beating Campbell in five. Adelina Berisha had 21 kills, 14 digs and three blocks, one solo … Notre Dame is 5-1 after beating Colorado State in four as Morgan Gaerte had 15 kills with one error in 28 attacks to hit .500. She had three digs and three blocks, one solo … Isabel Decker had 25 kills as Davidson beat Queens in five. She hit .365 and had three assists, an ace, 14 digs and two blocks … Betsy Goodenow had 22 kills for Yale in a five-set win over Villanova … Oklahoma beat Tulsa in five as Alexis Shelton had 22 kills, 14 digs and five blocks … UIW beat McNeese in five but McNeese’s McKenzie Moore had 25 kills … Southern Utah pulled off a reverse sweep at Santa Clara as Andrea Spasojevic had 17 kills, hit .395 and had two aces, 10 digs and three blocks, one solo.
