Creighton has not only gotten over the hump, the ninth-ranked Bluejays made a statement Saturday with a sweep at No. 10 Kansas a day after knocking off No. 6 Purdue, which, like Kansas, was also unbeaten.
Second-ranked Stanford defeated No. 11 Kentucky in four.
The other eight ranked teams that played won Saturday.
Kansas was not the only undefeated team to go down. Texas A&M lost to Wisconsin.
The line of the day went to Princeton’s Kamryn Chaney, who had 34 kills in a five-set loss to High Point and then had 22 kills in a five-set to UMBC.
The pre-conference season finishes Sunday with 26 matches, highlighted by No. 5 Nebraska at No. 4 Louisville.
And good luck to us trying to sort it all out: The first VolleyballMag Super 16 Media Poll comes out Monday morning.
NCAA volleyball Sunday
Nebraska (9-1) of the Big Ten goes to Louisville (8-1) of the ACC for a 12:30 p.m. first serve in the KFC Yum! Center and it’s on ABC. Both teams are on six-match winning streaks; Nebraska’s lone loss was to SMU, while Louisville lost to Penn State.
Other ACC teams in action include two of the few undefeated teams remaining at No. 1 Pittsburgh plays Marquette and surprising 11-0 Syracuse plays Cornell. North Carolina (7-1) plays Michigan State, Notre Dame (7-1) plays Indiana and No. 22 SMU plays Northern Iowa.
Other Big Ten teams on the court include No. 3 Penn State (9-1) playing Yale and No. 12 Oregon (7-1) vs. Oregon State.
Creighton overpowers Kansas
Creighton (9-2) of the Big East, coming off its upset of Purdue, took it to Kansas (9-1) of the Big 12 on its homecourt, starting with six blocks in the first set of a 25-17, 25-19, 25-17 victory. The Bluejays, who previously lost in five to both Nebraska and Louisville, hit .426 with 53 kills and just seven errors in 108 attacks. That included 16 kills with no errors in 31 swings by Norah Sis, who hit .516 and had two assists, an ace, three blocks and seven digs.
Ava Martin had 12 kills, two blocks and eight digs and Elise Goetzinger and Jaya Johnson had nine kills each. Goetzinger had one error in 21 attacks and six blocks, while Johnson hit .467 and had three blocks and a dig. Kendra Wait had a kill in four errorless tries, 45 assists, an ace, three blocks and 15 digs.
Kansas, which hit .171, got 12 kills from Ayah Elnady, who had a block and a dig. Caroline Bien added nine kills, a block and an ace.
“I’m not sure we’re going to see a team any better than that this season,” Kansas coach Ray Bechard said. “They’re one of the top teams in the country, but we feel like we can be too. They were closer to their true identity today than we were.”
Creighton opens Big East play Friday at home against Providence, while Kansas is home Wednesday for UCF in its Big 12 opener.
No upsets in the AVCA top 25
No. 2 Stanford (8-1) came away with a 25-19, 25-19, 28-30, 25-20 victory over visiting No. 11 Kentucky (6-5). Elia Rubin led the Cardinal with 21 kills, three assists, two aces and eight digs. Jordyn Harvey had nine kills, two assists, an ace, four blocks and a dig, and Sami Francis had seven kills with one error in 18 attacks, an ace, a dig and five blocks, one solo. Setter Kami Miner had five kills in seven errorless tries, 40 assists, a block and 11 digs. Her team hit .263.
Brooklyn DeLeye had 17 kills for Kentucky to go with an assist, an ace, two blocks and three digs. Kentucky hit .181 …
No. 6 Purdue (9-2) swept Tulsa at Kansas, hitting .356. Eva Hudson had 11 kills, hit .375, and had an assist, four digs and a block. Chloe Chicoine had 10 kills, hit .348, and had six digs and two blocks. Raven Colvin had seven kills with one error in 13 attacks, two aces, a dig and nine blocks, two solo …
No. 7 Wisconsin (6-3) swept visiting Texas A&M (8-1), which took its first defeat after losing a tough second set. Julia Orzol had 15 kills and hit .375 in the 25-18, 30-28, 25-19 victory and had an assist, three blocks and four digs. Sarah Franklin had 14 kills, an assist, an ace, a block and 10 digs. Logan Lednicky had 15 kills for A&M, hitting .353, to go with a block and eight digs …
No. 14 Arizona State (11-1) swept Montana State as Savannah Kjolhede had 10 kills with one error in 19 attacks and three solo blocks … No. 17 Minnesota (6-3) swept Chicago State … No. 18 Florida State swept Alabama as Audrey Koenig had 13 kills with one error in 28 attacks, two aces, seven digs and three blocks … No. 19 BYU swept Utah Valley as Ellie Mortensen had 10 kills with two errors in 18 swings and Brielle Kemavor had 10 kills with one error in 15 attacks to go with 10 blocks, one solo …
No. 20 Baylor beat visiting Hawai’i in four behind 16 kills by Elise McGhee, who hit .433 and had two aces, two blocks and two digs … No. 21 USC beat visiting UC San Diego in four. Ally Batenhorst led with 17 kills, an assist, three aces, three blocks and nine digs … No. 22 SMU swept at Northern Iowa as Maya Tabron had 15 kills, hit .480, and had an assist, an ace, three blocks and eight digs … No. 24 Dayton improved to 10-1 with a sweep of South Florida as Lexie Almodovar continued her torrid pace, this time with 15 kills while hitting .387 to go with two aces, two blocks and six digs … No. 25 Arkansas beat Texas Tech in four as four Razorbacks had 11 kills or more, 16 by Aniya Madkin, who had three blocks …
MOTHER-DAUGHTERS: No. 23 TCU beat Rice in four in a match that featured another mom coaching against her daughter as Melanie Parra continued to light it up for the Horned Frogs with 24 kills, an assist, an ace, eight digs and six blocks, one solo. TCU freshman Alice Volpe had an assist and 10 digs as she competed against her mother, Rice coach Genny Volpe. It was the third such recent NCAA meeting. On September 13, Creighton, coached by Kirsten Bernthal Booth, swept Northern Iowa at Louisville as her daughter, UNI freshman Reese Booth, had a kill in her only try, 12 assists and two digs. And then this past Friday, San Diego swept Boston College at LSU and USD coach Jen Petrie’s daughter, Jane, had 20 assists and five digs for BC.
Around the nation
UNBEATENS STILL: Syracuse improved to 11-0 with a five-set win over Iowa State as Ava Palm had 16 kills, an assist, three aces, 10 digs and a block. Syracuse won a five-set match for the first time in nearly two years and continued its best start since 2010 … UConn is 12-0 after sweeping Central Connecticut State. Six Huskies had five or more kills and CCSU hit minus .040 … South Dakota State is 11-0 after sweeping Belmont as Sylvie Zgonc had 17 kills, hit .344, and had an ace, a solo block and 11 digs. Belmont hit .032 … Arizona got to 11-0 with a sweep of Southern Utah. Carlie Csineros had 11 kills, hit .391, and had an ace and 13 digs … San Jose State is 8-0 after sweeping Saint Mary’s as Nayeli Ti’a had 17 kills, an assist, three aces, nine digs and four blocks.
ONE-LOSS TEAMS WIN: Tennessee Tech (11-1) beat Georgetown in four behind 20 kills apiece from Madolyn Isringhausen and Alayna Pierce … Georgia Southern (10-1) swept Winthrop … Utah (10-1) swept Wyoming, hitting .366. Emrie Satuala had 12 kills, hit .526, and had five blocks and Kamryn Gibadlo had 11 kills with one error in 21 attacks and also five blocks … Auburn (10-1) beat South Alabama in four as Madison Scheer had 18 kills, two digs and three blocks … Michigan (10-1) swept at Duke, which hit .085 …
Two one-loss teams won conference matches, including 10-1 Towson, which swept William & Mary in the CAA. Also in the CAA, Charleston beat Elon in four, Delaware swept Campbell, Northeastern beat UNCW in four, N.C. A&T swept Hampton and Hofstra beat Stony Brook in four as Chiara Cucco had 24 digs, three assists and an ace …
Bucknell (10-1) beat Army West Point in four to improve to 2-0 in the Patriot League, which also saw Lafayette sweep Holy Cross, American do the same to Navy and Colgate beat Lehigh in four.
WORTH NOTING: High Point beat Princeton in five but Princeton’s Kamryn Chaney had 34 kills, the first Ivy League player to get that many kills in 10 years. Princeton later lost in five to UMBC, which got its first victory after nine defeats. Chaney led in that one with 22 kills, an assist, three aces, three blocks and 10 digs. UMBC’s Mia Bilusic had 20 kills, hit .348, and had two aces, a block and nine digs …
Marquette hit .411 in a sweep of East Carolina as Jenna Reitsma had 10 kills in 15 errorless attacks with two assists, seven digs and a solo block … West Virginia had to go five to beat Binghamton, which got 27 kills from Tsvetelina Ilieva, who had an ace, nine digs and four blocks, one solo. Cassidy Tanton had 22 kills for WVU to go with three assists, four aces and 14 digs, and Quincey Coyle had 21 kills, two aces, 10 digs and five blocks, one solo … Kaylee Cox had 22 kills, hitting .475, in Western Kentucky’s sweep of Austin Peay to go with three assists, an ace, six digs and three blocks, two solo …
Ole Miss (10-2) extended its winning streak to eight with four-set victories over Tennessee State and Texas A&M-Commerce … UCLA swept Cal as Cheridyn Leverette had 18 kills, hit .371, and had 11 digs and a block … Wichita State won a wild one with Omaha, 19-25, 25-21, 31-29, 17-25, 15-13, as Morgan Stout had 14 kills with one error in 36 attacks, two assists, an ace and four blocks … Maryland beat UCF in five … Illinois had to go five to beat Lipscomb as Raina Terry had 23 kills, hit .396, and had five aces, eight digs and two blocks …
N.C. Central beat Charlotte in five, despite Charlotte’s Kristen Birmingham (shouldn’t she play for UAB?) getting 25 kills, an ace, 19 digs and three blocks … Wofford beat Valparaiso in five but Valpo’s Emma Hickey had 37 digs and 10 assists. Wofford’s Laney Klika had 28 digs, four assists and two aces. Klika’s sister, Emmy, is the Pittsburgh libero …
Arkansas State improved to 10-2 with a sweep of Eastern Illinois as the Red Wolves hit .395 … Cal Poly pulled off a reverse sweep against Northern Colorado as Tommi Stockham had 19 kills, 18 digs and a block … North Alabama beat Little Rock in five. Little Rock’s Andrea Roman had 32 digs and six assists. UNA’s Audrey Small was big with 22 digs, five assists and two aces … Southern Illinois beat Southeast Missouri in five as the Salukis’ Avery Parris had 17 kills, hit .412, and had two digs and six blocks … Utah State pulled off a reverse sweep against Weber State. Adna Mehmedovic had 13 kills, hit .478, and had five blocks, one solo …
Four teams stayed winless as California Baptist (0-12) was swept by UC Irvine, Marist (0-10) got swept by Temple, and, as mentioned, Navy (0-10) lost to American in the Patriot League and Hampton (0-13) lost in the CAA to N.C. A&T.
