Every ranked team in action won Friday in NCAA Division I volleyball except No. 6 Purdue, which lost in four set to No. 9 Creighton.
That included Pittburgh and Kansas, which along with UConn, South Dakota State and Washington remained unbeaten. Michigan took its first defeat when it lost in five at North Carolina.
Hampton, Marist, UMBC and California Baptist all lost and are still looking for their respective first victories of the season.
And the CAA was the first to begin conference play as Stony Brook and N.C. A&T recorded sweeps.
The recaps and top performances follow in this all-NCAA edition of Volleyball today, and that includes the line of the day from Lamar’s Maja Malinowska, who had 33 kills, hit .441, and had an ace, a block and 15 digs in a five-set win over Sam Houston.
Saturday in NCAA volleyball
The pre-conference season continues, including No. 11 Kentucky of the SEC at No. 2 Stanford of the ACC and Creighton playing at No. 10 Kansas.
No. 6 Purdue tries to bounce back against Tulsa, No. 7 Wisconsin plays 8-0 Texas A&M,
No. 17 Minnesota plays Chicago State, No. 18 Florida State plays Alabama, No. 19 BYU plays Utah Valley, No. 20 Baylor plays Hawai’i, No. 21 USC plays UC San Diego, No. 23 TCU plays Rice, No. 24 Dayton (which won twice Friday) plays South Florida and No. 25 Arkansas play Texas Tech.
Among the unbeatens, UConn (11-0) plays Central Connecticut State, Arizona (10-o) plays Southern Utah, Syracuse (10-0) plays Iowa State, South Dakota State (10-0) plays Belmont and San Jose State (7-0) plays Saint Mary’s.
Quite a few teams have one loss, including Utah (9-1), which plays at Wyoming (8-2),
Among those aforementioned winless teams, Hampton (0-12) continues CAA play against N.C. A&T, California Baptist (0-11) plays UC Irvine, Marist (0-9) plays Temple, UMBC (0-9) plays Princeton and Navy (0-9) plays American.
Ranked teams roll
Except Purdue, which lost to host Kansas on Thursday and is now 8-2 after Creighton (8-2) beat a top-10 team after previously losing in five to both Nebraska and Louisville.
Creighton’s Norah Sis and Ava Martin had 15 kills each in the 25-21, 17-25, 25-16, 27-25 victory and Elise Goetzinger (who had six blocks, one solo) and Jaya Johnson had 10 kills each. Kiara Reinhardt had eight kills and six blocks, one solo. Kendra Wait had five kills, 51 assists, 11 digs and six blocks. Purdue’s Eva Hudson had 19 kills and Chloe Chicoine 14 …
Top-ranked Pittsburgh remained perfect, 8-0 overall and 24-0 in sets with a 25-13, 25-23, 25-11 sweep of visiting East Carolina (7-2). Olivia Babcock had 19 kills, hit .552, and had an ace, two digs and five blocks, one solo. Ryla Jones had eight kills with no errors in 10 attacks and five blocks, two solo. The freshman middle has 19 kills with no errors in 26 attacks in her last three maches to go with 11 blocks, two solo …
Third-ranked ranked Penn State swept James Madison as Camryn Hannan and Jess Mruzik had 13 kills each … No. 4 Wisconsin swept Troy as the Badgers hit .416. Anna Smrek had 10 kills, hit .412 and had seven blocks … No. 8 Texas hit .395 and beat visiting Hawai’i in four as four Longhorns had 10 or more kills, 15 by Jenna Wenaas. She hit .448. Caylen Alexander had 20 kills and four blocks, one solo, for Hawai’i … Kansas swept Tulsa as Ayah Elnady had 10 kills with one error in 24 attacks and Tulsa hit .082 …
No. 13 Georgia Tech won in four as Georgia drew a record 4,022 at Stegeman Coliseum. Tamara Otene led the Yellow Jackets with 20 kills, 19 digs and three blocks, one solo, and Bianca Bertolini had 19 kills, three aces, three blocks and seven digs. Georgia’s Sophie Fisher had 15 kills and three blocks … No. 14 Arizona State blasted visiting Memphis to improve to 10-1 with its seventh sweep of the season. Geli Cyr had 13 kills with no errors in 20 attacks and eight digs … No. 15 Tennessee beat visiting Western Michigan in four for the second straight day. Nina Cajic, who had 42 kills on Thursday, led with 16 on Friday … No. 16 Florida swept North Texas, a victory highlighted by the third-set return of setter Alexis Stucky. She injured her knee a year ago. Kennedy Martin had 14 kills and Stucky had a kill in her only try and 14 assists. UNT hit .072 … No. 17 Minnesota hit .433 and swept North Dakota, which hit .034. Julia Hanson had 11 kills with one error in 21 swings … No. 19 BYU swept Weber State as Ellie Mortensen had 15 kills, hit .333 and had two assists, two aces and six digs … No. 21 USC beat visiting UNLV in four as Jadyn Livings had 18 kills and Ally Batenhorst 15 … No. 23 TCU swept Denver as Jalyn Gibson had 11 kills with one error in 21 attacks and Becca Kelley had 11 kills with three errors in 20 attacks and five blocks, two solo … No. 25 Arkansas had to go five to beat FIU at Miami. Aniya Madkin had 18 kills for the Razorbacks, while Jillian Huckabey had 19 for FIU to with 15 digs …
And No. 24 Dayton won twice beating two Florida schools. First, the Flyers beat USF in four as Lexie Almodovar had 28 kills, hit .423, and had two assists, three aces, 13 digs and two blocks, one solo. Then they beat Florida Gulf Coast in four as Almodovar had 15 kills, three blocks and 11 digs. Setter Alyssa Miller had four kills, 47 assists, an ace, three blocks and four digs.
Around the nation
UNDEFEATED: UConn is 11-0 after sweeping Brown as Hanna Tylska had 12 kills and Taylor Pannell had 11 with one error in 20 attacks … South Dakota State is 10-0 for the first time since 2000 after its 25-22, 25-17, 19-25, 29-31, 15-13 victory over visiting Toledo. SDSU, which had a program-record 19 blocks, got 17 kills from Sylvie Zgonc, who had an ace, eight digs and three blocks. Sydni Schetnan had 12 kills, hit .435 and had nine blocks, one solo, and Madison Burr had 10 kills with one error in 22 attacks, ana ce and 10 blocks, two solo … Washington is 10-0 after beating Pepperdine in four. The Huskies won for the fifth time in eight days in three different states. Emoni Bush, who had five blocks, Audra Wilmes and Julia Hunt, who had six blocks, one solo, had 12 kills each. Madi Endlsey had 11 kills
WORTH NOTING: North Carolina (7-1) dealt Michigan (10-1) its first defeat as Safi Hampton had 22 kills and Mabrey Shaffmaster 21 in the 22-25, 25-20, 25- 20, 13-25, 15-10 victory. Hampton hit .436 and had an ace, five digs and three blocks. Shaffmaster had an assist and nine digs. Michigan’s Valentina Vaulet had 22 kills, five blocks and four digs … Missouri beat Illinois in four at Belmont as Jordan Iliff had 24 kills, five asces, 14 digs and three blocks … In Western Kentucky’s sweep of Arkansas State, Kaylee Cox had 17 kills, hit .484 and had two assists, an ace, 13 digs and four blocks. WKU then swept Eastern Illinois and Cox had 10 more kills with one error in 16 attacks to go with an assist, two aces, three digs and a block …
San Diego swept Boston College at LSU and USD coach Jen Petrie’s daughter, Jane, had 20 assists and five digs for BC. Later, San Diego swept LSU as Nemo Beach (all-name team) had 13 kills. Beach had one error in 41 attacks, 11 digs and two blocks …
In the battle of the two schools named Southern Illinois, the team from Edwardsville, SIUE, beat the Salukis from Carbondale in four … Rice got 15 kills each from Katrina Jensen and Cindy Tchouangwa and 14 from Samarah Hill in a four-set win over UT Arlington. UTA’s Brianna Ford had 12 kills and 20 digs … UMBC remained winless after a five-set loss to High Point, but Mia Bilusic had 23 kills, hit .340 and had two aces, five digs and three blocks … The Citadel swept Bethune-Cookman as Aailyah Byers had 11 kills with no errors in 19 attacks and Sophie Childs had 12 with no errors in 21 swings, while Peri Hoschock had seven kills with no errors in 10 attacks …
Miami swept Texas Tech and Grace Lopez had 19 kills with one error in 32 attacks, an assist, six digs and a block … Carson Tyler had 25 kills as Ball State beat Wright State in five. She added an ace, seven digs and two blocks … UCF improved to 7-1 with a four-set win over visiting Nevada as Emily Wilson had 19 ills, two aces, eight digs and a block. Nevada’s Gabby McLaughlin had 19 kills, an assist, 14 digs and a block … Ohio State won in four at Bowling Green as Grace Egan had 17 kills, an assist, an ace, 15 dig and six blocks, and Emily Londot had 16 kills, an assist, 10 digs and six blocks. Rylee Rader had eight kills with no errors in 16 attacks and eight blocks … Michigan State beat Duke in five but the Blue Devils’ Kerry Keefe had a career-high 27 kills, three acces, six digs and two blocks. MSU’s Zuzanna Kulig had nine kills in 18 errorless attacks, an ace, three digs and 11 blocks, one solo … Notre Dame improved to 7-1 with a sweep of visiting Indiana … Addy Brus had 23 kills as Saint Louis beat Iowa in four … Tulane beat Georgia State in five but GSU’s Keionna Mackey had 23 kills … Bryley Steinhilber had 22 kills and hit .348 for Abilene Christian in its five-set win over Stephen F. Austin … Southern Indiana beat Evansville in five as five Screaming Eagles had 10 or more kills and Evansville’s Giulia Cardona had 26 kills, five aces, 13 digs and a block … Louisiana beat Florida A&M in five and Mio Yamamoto had 28 digsd, seven assists and two aces … American is 11-2 after sweeping Loyola Maryland … Kauany Gutz had 23 kills for Dartmouth, hitting .381, to go with 13 digs in a four-set win over Providence …
Lamar beat Sam Houston in five as 6-foot Polish freshman outside Maja Malinowska had 33 kills, hitting .441, to go with an ace, a block and 15 digs. Lamar reported that it’s the most kills by a Southland Conference player in eight years and the highest total for a Lamar player in 22 years … Nia Washington had 18 kills as Ole Miss came away with a five-set win at Houston … Malaya Jones had 22 kills in Colorado State’s four-set win over Colorado … Amaris Smith had 20 kills for the second straight match as CSUN beat Portland in five. Smith, who has had 19 or more kills six times this season, had one error in 49 swings, an assist, 10 digs and two blocks … Loyola Marymount swept UC San Diego as Paige Flickinger had 11 kills with one error in 19 attacks to go with an ace, six digs and a block.
COASTAL ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION: In the first conferences matches of the 2024 season, Stony Brook opened CAA play with a sweep of Hofstra and N.C. A&T did the same to Hampton. Kali Moore had 17 kills for Stony Brook, while N.C. A&T’s Tyne Ross had 15 kills, hit .433, and had an assist, two aces and nine digs.
