We were due for a Freaky Friday in NCAA volleyball.
October 4 delivered:
— Top-ranked Pittsburgh finally lost a set after winning its first 36 of 2024, but improved to 13-0 with a four-set win at Boston College behind a program-record 12 aces by Olivia Babock;
— There were upsets, including Virginia sweeping AVCA No. 16 Florida State for its first win over a ranked team since 2010;
— There were an incredible 10 reverse sweeps, including No. 20 USC — down 11-5 in the fifth — against visiting Michigan, Hawai’i at UC San Diego, College of Charleston at Stony Brook, Little Rock at Morehead State, Cornell at Dartmouth, Southern Miss (down 23-17 in the third before winning 31-29) against Arkansas State, Northern Iowa at Valparaiso, North Florida against Stetson, Ohio over visiting Toledo, and Bowling Green, which beat Western Michigan for its second straight comeback after losing the first two sets;
— No. 5 Stanford lost the third set to visiting NC State and then closed it out in the fourth 25-8;
— No. 3 Penn State went to Oregon and crushed the Ducks and ended their 11-match winning streak;
— No. 25 Washington remained one of the three unbeatens with a sweep of Iowa;
— Navy broke through with a four-set win Patriot League win over Lehigh after opening with 13 losses.
Lines of the day: Speaking of Ohio, Kam Hunt had 26 kills, two aces and 19 digs. And speaking of Southern Miss, Aysu Dalogullari had 25 kills, an assist, two aces, a block and 12 digs. LIU’s Camelia Melendez had 25 kills, four aces and five digs in a five-set win over Saint Francis. Tennessee Tech is 15-1 as Madolyn Isringhausen had 25 kills, hitting .309, with two assists, an ace and 15 digs in a five-set win over Western Illinois.
We also have the AVCA’s announcement of its 2024 hall of fame class and it’s pretty stout: Barry Goldberg, Kathy Gregory, Hugh McCutcheon, and Joe Sagula.
That story and the NCAA key results and top performances follow in this edition of Volleyball Today.
But first a look at Saturday’s key matches in NCAA Division I volleyball:
NCAA volleyball Saturday
The ACC and SEC are off.
There are four Big 12 matches, none bigger than the Texas showdown of Baylor, No. 15 in the VolleyballMag Super 16 Media Poll, at AVCA No. 22 TCU. UCF goes to Cincinnati, Iowa State is at Kansas State and Texas Tech is at Colorado.
There are three Big 10 matches, including No. 12 Minnesota going across town to USC. Michigan goes the same when it goes to UCLA and Rutgers is at Maryland.
No. 23 Dayton returns to VCU for another A10 match as the 13-1 Flyers seek their seventh win in a row.
The Big West slate includes Hawai’i at Long Beach State.
Winless watch: 0-13 Marist is home for 3-12 Iona in the MAAC.
NCAA volleyball Friday
Pitt had won its first 36 sets before Boston College stunned the visiting Panthers 25-23 in the first set. Pitt won the next three, 25-7, 25-9, 25-20 as Olivia Babcock jump-served the Eagles off the court. She had five aces in the first set, five more in the second, and finished with a program-record 12. Babcock, who hit .114, finished with 14 kills, an assist, five blocks and 10 digs. Torrey Stafford had 14 kills, hit .321 and had three blocks and seven digs. Pitt hit .163 and had 16 aces with only four errors. BC had 26 kills but 27 errors to minus .010 and had one ace with four errors. Julia Haggerty led with eight kills, an assist and 11 blocks …
Also in the ACC, the big result was Virginia improving to 12-2, 2-1 in the ACC with a 25-22, 25-21, 25-22 sweep of visiting Florida State. Virginia defeated a ranked team for only the third time in program history and at No. 16, this is the highest-ranked team UVA has ever beaten. Elayna Duprey led with 14 kills, hitting .357, to go with an ace and six digs; fourth-ranked Louisville hit .163 but still swept visiting Clemson as Anna DeBeer had 12 kills with no errors in 23 attacks, two aces, 11 digs and four blocks; No. 5 Stanford beat visiting NC State in four, 25-8 in in the fourth; No. 16 SMU swept at Syracuse; No. 19 Georgia Tech rallied for a 22-25, 25-21, 20-25, 25-17, 15-13 victory at Notre Dame; North Carolina improved to 12-1, 3-0 with a sweep of visiting Duke; Miami swept Virginia Tech, and Wake Forest did the same at Cal …
The Big Ten was quite an adventure Friday. Penn State won 25-19, 25-19, 25-17 over visiting Oregon, which hit .075; No. 10 Purdue won 23-25, 25-20, 25-16, 29-27 at Northwestern as Kenna Wollard had a career-high 18 kills while hitting .438. She had a total of 75 kills in Purdue’s first 12 matches; Minnesota won 25-21, 25-21, 21-25, 25-27, 15-10 at UCLA; USC had a 10-1 run in the fifth set of its 15-25, 20-25, 25-23, 25-23, 15-12 victory over visiting Michigan, which had more kills (64-57) and out-hit the Trojans .257-.190. Ally Batenhorst had 20 kills for USC to go with two aces, three blocks and six digs, and Valentina Vaulet had 22 kills for the Wolverines to go with an assist, three aces, three blocks and three digs; Washington (13-0, 3-0), Pittsburgh and South Dakota State are the only teams left without a loss after the Huskies swept visiting Iowa; and Indiana beat visiting Michigan State in four …
In the Big 12, VBM No. 14 Arizona State beat visiting No. 20 BYU in four as Claire Jeter had 11 kills with one error in 19 attacks and three blocks; Utah hit .364 and swept at Arizona and Houston beat visiting West Virginia in four as Kate Georgiades had 23 digs, four assists and an ace …
No. 24 Auburn beat visiting Georgia in four in the SEC, where LSU swept at Mississippi State and Ole Miss beat Tennessee in four, the Rebels’ first win over Tennessee since 2019 …
Sixth-ranked Creighton hit .389 and swept Butler in the Big East to improve to 13-2, 4-0 …
No. 23 Dayton swept VCU to improve to 13-1, 3-0 in the Atlantic 10 as Lexie Almodovar had 13 kills, hitting .435, and eight digs …
In Hawai’i’s five-set win at UC San Diego, Caylen Alexander had 24 kills, hit .373, and had an ace, five digs and a block … Cornell was down 14-10 in the fifth before completing the reverse sweep at Dartmouth 22-25, 16-25, 25-20, 25-21, 16-14. Eliza Konvicka had 22 kills, three of her team’s 10 aces, nine digs and five blocks … Evansville was swept by Belmont but Giulia Cardona had 23 of her team’s 35 kills … Bucknell had to win in five at American to improve to 13-1, 5-0 in the Patriot League … Reagan Barth had 20 kills and hit .370 in Georgia Southern’s Sun Belt sweep at Marshall. She had two aces, 12 digs and a solo block as the Eagles improved to 12-1, 2-0 …
In the CAA, Elon swept Hampton, which dropped the Pirates to 0-17; Charleston got 22 kills from Emily Banitt, who hit .373 and had 23 digs in her team’s 21-25, 26-28, 25-17, 25-10, 15-9 comeback at Stony Brook; and in a thoroughly entertaining match at Northeastern in Boston that we caught before heading to Pitt-BC, Northeastern rallied for a 25-27, 25-16, 17-25, 27-25, 15-10 victory over visiting William & Mary in which Brynn Smith, who falls down a lot, had 21 kills, her team’s only two aces, nine digs and a block. It was the second most kills by a Northeastern freshman in program history.
AVCA announces hall of fame class
The AVCA has one of its strongest induction classes ever in the late American University coach Barry Goldberg, not only super successful but one of the most beloved figures in volleyball; legendary player and coach Kathy Gregory; USA Olympic coach — for men and women — and former Minnesota coach Hugh McCutcheon; and Joe Sagula, whose coaching career at Penn and then North Carolina included not only success on the court but decades of contributions to the AVCA.
They will be inducted Thursday, December 19, during the 2024 AVCA Convention in Louisville, Kentucky, which coincides with the NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship.
Click here to read the complete AVCA story with bios on all four inductees.
