Volleyball Today: Abercrombie atop AU; NCAA update; AVCA Poll; international report

The five-week Athletes Unlimited volleyball season has one week left and it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that the individual winner will be either Brittany Abercrombie or Bethania De La Cruz-Mejia.

Abercrombie (3,670 points) maintained her lead despite losing to her second-place rival, seeing just 22 points cut from the margin that separates them.

Also in this edition of Volleyball Today, we’ve got the NCAA schedule for Tuesday and results from Monday, the AVCA top 25, how American are doing internationally, and a link to our weekly NCAA Zoom.

Athletes Unlimited heads down the stretch

In the nightcap Monday in Mesa, Arizona, Team De La Cruz-Mejia won 71-65 overall and 21-25, 25-20, 25-20 in sets over Team Abercrombie. 

Willow Johnson moved into 10th place with 18 kills, hitting .429, and had six digs and a solo block. Dani Drews had 14 kills, hit .444, and had an assist, two aces, eight digs and two blocks as she moved into fourth place. De La Cruz had seven kills, an assist, two aces and eight digs.

Abercrombie led her team with 17 kills, hitting .400, and had an assist, two aces and eight digs.

Read the AU recap here.

Earlier, Team (Morgan) Hentz swept Team (Leketor) Member-Meneh 75-66, 25-23, 25-23, 25-20 in sets. 

Madi Kingdon Rishel led Hentz with 20 kills, hitting .364, and had two assists, seven digs and a solo block. It vaulted her into third place, but at 2,654 she’s slightly ahead of Drews but far behind De La Cruz. Temi Thomas-Ailara had 17 kills, hit .500, and had an assist, an ace and 12 digs. Hentz had 12 digs and two assists, but dropped a spot into fifth.

Member-Meneh, now in seventh place, led her team with 18 kills, hitting .471, and had an ace, seven digs and a solo block.

Read the first-match AU recap here.

The season concludes next Friday-Sunday-Monday at the Arizona Athletic Grounds.

NCAA volleyball Tuesday

There are 21 matches on the NCAA Division I schedule, just one involving a ranked team as No. 19 Dayton is home for Duquesne in the Atlantic 10. The Flyers, 21-1, are 11-0 in the A10 and have won 14 in a row. Also in the A10, Rhode Island is at Fordham, Davidson is at VCU and Loyola Chicago is at Saint Louis.

The Horizon League has five matches, including league-leading Wright State at Northern Kentucky. Milwaukee, alone in second a game back, is home for Green Bay. Robert Morris goes to Youngstown State, Cleveland State is at Oakland and Purdue Fort Wayne is at IU Indy.

The lone Big West match as Cal Poly — tied with Hawai’i two games back of league-leading UC Davis — at UC Santa Barbara. 

The only Mountain West match has Nevada at Utah State.

There are two SoCon matches as Furman goes to ETSU and Chattanooga is at Austin Peay.

Liberty goes to FIU in Conference USA.

Big South-leading High Point (16-5, 8-0), which has won six in a row, is home for Radford. The other league match has UNC Asheville at Gardner-Webb.

College of Charleston, one of four teams tied for the CAA lead, goes to the Sun Belt’s Coastal Carolina.

The two Ohio Valley matches have Eastern Illinois at SIUE and Southeast Missouri at Little Rock.

There were six matches Monday, four in the SWAC, where league-leading Florida A&M (19-6, 11-0) swept Grambling (8-15, 4-7). Prairie View (9-15, 9-2) did the same to Alabama State (5-16, 3-6) and Jackson State (13-9, 9-2) beat Southern (7-17, 4-5) in four to stay two games off the lead. Texas Southern (7-16, 6-5) rallied to beat Alabama A&M (5-16, 3-6) in five. 

In the WAC, Tarleton State (7-16, 2-8) won in four at Abilene Christian (8-13, 3-7). Tarleton’s Emma Halcomb had 34 digs, six assists and an ace.

AVCA top 25

The top six teams — Pittsburgh, Nebraska, Penn State, Louisville, Stanford and Creighton — stayed the same in this week’s AVCA Division I Women’s Volleyball Poll.

The Panthers got 51 first-place votes — one more than last week — Nebraska nine, and Penn State still has one coach voted it No. 1.

As in the VolleyballMag Super 16 Media Poll, Wisconsin moved up a spot to No. 7. Kansas, Texas and Oregon round out the top 10.

No one dropped out. Baylor made the biggest jump, six spots to No. 17, while USC took the biggest fall, from No. 16 to No. 21.

Click here for the complete AVCA top 25.

https://www.avca.org/polls-awards/polls/?_season=2024&_divisions=division-i-women

American women playing internationally

Avery Skinner had a tremendous match for Chieri in a five-set win over Perugia. She was named MVP after getting 26 kills, hitting .380, and adding three aces and two blocks … Elsewhere in Italy, Simone Lee had 13 kills and four blocks as Vallefoglia beat Talmassons in four sets. Olga Strantzal, a Greek who played at Miami, led Talmassons with 11 kills, two blocks and two aces … Lindsey Ruddins, Kara Bajema and Scandicci were upset by Busto Arsizio in four. Ruddins had seven kills while Bajema added two kills and two blocks.

TÜRKIYE: Dana Rettke and Eczacibasi (4-1) were swept by defending champions Fenerbahce and took their first loss. Rettke had two kills and a block.

Annie Mitchem had 11 kills and a block, but winless Aras Kargo lost to Zeren Spor. …Kendall Kipp earned her first league start as VakifBank (swept Sariyer. Kipp had 12 kills and four blocks. Marina Markova, a Russian who played at Syracuse and Florida, led VakifBank with 15 kills, hitting .500, and had two aces and a block … SigortaShop was swept by THY but Julia Sangiacomo led SigortaShop with 13 kills. Yaasmeen Bedart-Ghani added eight kills, a block, and an ace. Julia Bergmann, the Brazilian who played at Georgia Tech, had 13 kills, two blocks, and an ace for THY.

JAPAN: Stephanie Samedy and Hisamitsu Springs lost to JT Marvelous twice. Samedy had 12 kills in the first match and came in as a sub in the second … Kash Williams and PFU were beaten in four sets by Denso in both of their matches. Williams had nine kills and a block in the first match and had two kills in a brief appearance in the second.

BRAZIL: Callie Schwarzenbach had seven kills and a block as Osasco swept Maringa. Schwarzenbach then earned MVP in Osasco’s four-set win over Barueri after having four kills and four blocks … Payton Caffrey led Praia Club with 16 kills (.467) a sweep of  ABEL Moda … Claudia Dillion had eight kills, three blocks, and an ace as Pinheiros upset Bauru in five.

GERMANY: Marta Levinska, a Latvian who played at Arizona State, had 27 kills and a block and was named MVP as Dresdner stayed unbeaten with a five-set win over Schwerin. Emma Clothier had six kills, one block, and an ace and Jaelyn Keene was named silver MVP for Schwerin after having eight kills, two aces and a block … Madelyn Robinson had 15 kills, a block and an ace and was named MVP for Stuttgart, which beat Suhl in four … Danielle Harbin was named MVP as Potsdam swept Munster. Harbin had 10 kills, two blocks and two aces. Eleanor Holthaus had 12 kills and two blocks. Sabrina Starks had six kills (.750) and two blocks. Setter Jenna Ewert had two kills and two aces.

FRANCE: Morgahn Fingall had 15 kills and a block and was named MVP as Volero Le Cannet swept the French development team … Annayka Legros was named MVP as Mulhouse beat defending champions Paris SC in four sets. Legros had 15 kills, four aces and three blocks. Katelyn Evans added 18 kills and an ace … Lexi Hadrych’s 26 points were not enough as TFOC lost to Marcq en Baroeul in four sets. Hadrych had 22 kills, two blocks and two aces … Bella Bergmark and Breana Runnels led Nancy’s sweep of Quimper. Runnels had 11 kills and two aces, while Bergmark had nine kills (.750) and an ace.

Ehman, Feinswog talk South Dakota, WKU way more

In case you missed our weekly NCAA Zoom, we were joined by South Dakota State coach Dan Georgalas, whose 20-0 Jackrabbits are the only unbeaten team left in NCAA Division I, there’s an incredible story about the Western Kentucky coaches, and we make our usual deep dive into the week past and the one ahead: