Volleyball Today: Abercrombie, De La Cruz dominate AU; NCAA, pro updates

With two weeks left in the five-week season, Brittany Abercrombie and Bethania De La Cruz-Mejia are running away from the field in Athletes Unlimited Volleyball. And they’ll be captains again in week four along with Morgan Hentz and Leketor Member-Meneh. A recap of Monday’s action follows.

So does a short report on NCAA Division volleyball, which had five matches Monday, including No. 13 Arizona State sweeping a non-conference match with Grand Canyon.

We’ve got a look at Tuesday’s schedule and the AVCA top 25.

And also in this edition of Volleyball Today we have our weekly update on USA women playing professionally in other countries.

Abercrombie, De La Cruz-Mejia maintain AU Volleyball leads

Brittany Abercrombie leads the standings with 2,914 points after Monday’s conclusion of the third week of play. Bethania De La Cruz-Mejia follows with 2,709, and libero Morgan Hentz vaulted four spots into third and has 2,021. Those four and Leketor Member-Meneh will be next week’s captains for matches Friday, Sunday and Monday.

In the opener Monday in Mesa, Arizona, Team Member-Meneh beat Team (Dani) Drews 76-59. Madi Kingdon Rishel led Member-Meneh with 14 kills, an ace, 15 digs and two solo blocks. Kayla Haneline had nine kills with no errors in 14 attacks, an ace, a dig and seven solo blocks. 

Read the first match recap here.

In the nightcap, a battle between the leaders saw Abercrombie come out ahead 75-72 after the teams tied 70-70. Abercrombie won the first two sets, 25-21, 26-24, but De La Cruz-Mejia won the third 25-19, setting up a first-to-five tiebreaker. Abercrombie led her team with 19 kills, four digs and two solo blocks. Temi Thomas-Ailara had 14 kills, hit .385, and had seven digs and a solo block. De La Cruz led her squad with 19 kills, an assist, an ace, seven digs and a block.

Read the second match recap here.

NCAA volleyball Tuesday

There are 14 Division I matches Tuesday including the only unbeaten team left, South Dakota State. The 18-0 Jackrabbits put their 7-0 Summit League record on the line at home against South Dakota (16-11, 5-2). The team SDSU plays next, Denver (8-90, 3-4), is home for Oral Roberts ((4-16, 2-5). North Dakota State (7-9, 3-4) is at North Dakota (8-10, 1-6) and Kansas City (3-15, 1-6) is at Omaha (8-10, 6-1). 

There is MACtion, where three teams are tied at the top of the standings at 7-2, Central Michigan, Bowling Green and Buffalo, and Toledo and Eastern Michigan are a game back. Buffalo is home for Akron, Kent State is at Ohio and NIU is at Western Michigan.

The lone Big West match has Hawai’i at CSU Bakersfield. 

In the Southland, Stephen F. Austin is home for Lamar, while Nicholls heads up the bayou to play at Southern of the SWAC in Baton Rouge.

The lone OVC match has Southern Indiana at UT Martin, in the Mountain West, UNLV is at San Diego State and in Conference USA, Middle Tennessee is at UNC Asheville.

Milwaukee of the Horizon League goes across town to play at Marquette of the Big East, last out of the AVCA top 25.

NCAA volleyball Monday

Arizona State won its seventh match in a row and improved to 19-2 as the Big 12’s Sun Devils swept visiting Grand Canyon (13-7) of the WAC. Shania Cromartie had 13 kills, hit .400, and had two assists and six digs. Geli Cyr had 12 kills, an assist, an ace and 12 digs and Argentina Ung had five kills, 33 assists, seven digs and three blocks, one solo. GCU’s Ashley Lifgren had 11 kills, 10 digs and two blocks in the first meeting between the Phoenix-area schools in 34 years … 

Indiana State (4-17, 1-8) broke through into the conference win column in the only Missouri Valley match of the day, a 25-23, 25-23, 25-21 sweep of visiting Evansville (4-17, 3-6). Curry Kendall had a big night with 19 kills and just one error in 34 attacks to hit .529 and added three assists, 14 digs and two blocks, one solo. NCAA kills leader Giulia Cardona, the Evansville Argentian, added 26 more — her teammates totaled 16 — hitting .314 with 12 digs and three blocks. She has 455 kills, well ahead of Binghamton’s Tsveteline Ilieva, who had 390 … 

Utah Tech (11-7, 5-3) won the only WAC match in four over visiting Southern Utah (8-11, 4-4) as Kennedi Knudsen had 15 kills, 12 digs and four blocks, and Tessa Treanor had 12 kills, hit .346, and had three aces and 12 digs. Mya Laufiso had four aces, four assists and nine digs. SUU’s Finley Charapata had 15 kills, five aces and eight digs … 

There were two SWAC matches asGrambling (7-13, 4-5) swept Mississippi Valley State (3-12, 2-5) and Jackson State (10-9, 6-3) did the same to Arkansas-Pine Bluff (3-20, 1-8).

AVCA top 25

There are some minor differences from our VolleyballMag Super 16 Media Poll, where we have Creighton at No. 5 and Stanford at 6. Those teams are flip-flopped in the AVCA’s ranking, where the top seven teams stayed exactly the same this week.

No. 1 Pittsburgh got 50 first-place votes, No. 2 Nebraska got 10 and No. 3 Penn State got one.

North Carolina moved in for the first time, taking spot 25. Auburn dropped out. Eleven other teams got votes.

Click here to see the complete AVCA Division I Women’s Volleyball Poll.

American women playing internationally

Many USA stars have decided to stay home and will play for LOVB and/or the Pro Volleyball Federation, but plenty of former NCAA standouts continue to go abroad.

In Italy, Simone Lee had 10 kills and hit .533 with a block for Vallefoglia in a sweep of Busto Arzio … Khalia Lanier had seven kills, two aces and a block as Conegliano (4-0) stayed unbeaten with a four-set win over Roma … Avery Skinner had 10 kills and an ace in a five-set win over Firenze … and Lindsey Ruddins and Scandicci won their third match in a row by sweeping Perugia. Ruddins had eight kills and hit .389 …

In Türkiye, Julia Sangiacomo had a season-high 15 kills, hitting .355, but SigortaShop fell to defending champions Fenerbahce. Micaya White had four kills and two aces … Eczacibasi swept Sariyera and Dana Rettke had eight kills, hitting .438, and a block … 

In Japan, Kash Williams and PFU Blue Cats beat Aranmare twice. Williams had 26 kills and two blocks in the two matches combined … In a battle of Minnesota alums, Airi Miyabe’s Himeji took two five-set battles from Stephanie Samedy’s Hisamitsu Springs. Miyabe was named MVP in the first match with 14 kills, four blocks and an ace. Samedy countered with 16 kills. In the rematch Samedy had 24 kills, four aces and one block and Miyabe had 14 kills and two blocks … Mac May had 14 kills a block and Brionne Butler had 11 kills, a block and an ace as Astemo Rivale beat Okayama. Okayama won the rematch at Butler had nine kills and two blocks and May seven kills and a block … 

In Germany, her team is 0-5 but Erfurt’s Kira Thomsen had 12 kills, two blocks and an ace is a loss to Munster … Madelyn Robinson provided a key boost off the bench as Stuttgart (4-0) won a five-set battle over Schwerin in a rematch of last year’s final. Robinson had 10 kills, hitting .381. Breland Morrissette added two kills and three blocks. Jaelyn Keene had six kills and four aces for Schwerin … Danielle Harbin had 21 kills hit .415, and had two aces as Potsdam beat Suhl in five. Sabrina Starks had 10 kills, hitting .769, and added five blocks and an ace, and Eleanor Holthaus had 15 kills and two blocks … 

In France, Lauren Matthews had 17 kills and four blocks in a five-set win by Cannes over Bordeaux … Lexi Hadrych had 18 kills, a block and an ace as TFOC beat Beziers in five. Amelia Moore had seven kills, four blocks and an ace as a sub for Beziers … Nantes beat last season’s champion Paris SC in a rematch of the finals as Haylie Bennett had nine kills and three blocks and Jess Robinson had six kills, three blocks and an ace. Setter Ella May Powell had three kills and three aces … Morgahn Fingall’s 19 kills and a block were not enough as Volero Le Cannet fell to Venelles in four sets … Breana Runnels led Nancy to a sweep of Marcq en Baroeul with nine kills, four aces and three blocks … Katelyn Evans and Annayka Legros helped Mulhouse to a five-set win over Quimper. Evans had 13 kills, three blocks, and an ace and Legros added 10 kills, four blocks and an ace.

In Brazil, Claudia Dillion had a match-high 18 points in her Superliga debut but Pinheiros lost to Fluminense in four …

And in Switzerland, NUC Viteos won the Swiss Super Cup by sweeping Dudingen. Caroline Meuth was top scorer for NUC with 11 kills, hitting .625, and had a block. Tia Scambray added 10 kills and a block. Gloria Mutiri had six kills and two blocks and Raevan Chase added four kills and three aces.