Volleyball Today: Florida rallies; Jackrabbits are 12-0; Athletes Unlimited roster, TV news

Florida, ranked No. 15 in the VolleyballMag Super 16 Media Poll, faced deficits of 9-3 and 10-5 in the fifth set at Oklahoma on Thursday night before rallying to win the SEC opener for both teams. 

The only other ranked team in action, AVCA No. 17 BYU, opened Big 12 play with a four-set win over visiting Colorado.

South Dakota State had to pull off a reverse sweep at the Jackrabbits improved to 12-0 with a five-set Summit League victory at Oral Roberts, and California Baptist got its first victory.

We’ve also got Athletes Unlimited Volleyball in this report. The first matches of the fall season are next Thursday and AU announced the rosters, schedule and significant TV news.

NCAA volleyball Friday

Because of realignment, there is no shortage of first-time conference matchups this first week of conference play. 

That includes VBM No. 13 Georgia Tech playing its first ACC match against visiting AVCA No. 23 SMU, VBM No. 3 Stanford going to Notre Dame, and No. 4 Louisville home for Cal. Top-ranked Pitt goes to Clemson and Syracuse puts its 12-0 record on the line at 8-1 North Carolina. Virginia, off to a 10-1 start, goes to Wake Forest. Also in the ACC, Boston College is at Duke and Virginia Tech is at NC State. 

Four of the five Big Ten matches are first-time conference matches when No. 2 Nebraska is home for UCLA, No. 11 Oregon is home for Illinois, No. 20 USC is home for Ohio State and 10-0 Washington is home for Indiana. Michigan State plays at 10-1 Michigan. 

There are four matches in the Big 12 with plenty at stake from the get-go, including No. 14 Arizona State (12-1) at No. 19 Baylor (9-3). No. 9 Kansas (10-1) is home for Houston and UCF goes to Kansas State.

In the SEC, the lone “new” match features No. 8 Texas going to Texas A&M. No. 13 Kentucky is at Auburn, which is 10-1, Mississippi State is at South Carolina and Missouri goes to LSU.

The only other AVCA-ranked teams in action are No. 6 Creighton opening Big East play at home against Providence, and No. 24 Dayton, as the 10-1 Flyers open Atlantic 10 play against visiting Rhode Island. 

In addition to the aforementioned unbeatens, 12-0 UConn opens Big East play at Marquette. Also of note Friday, Old Dominion (11-2) is at Georgia Southern (10-1) and Georgia State (9-3) goes to Arkansas State (10-2) in the Sun Belt and George Washington (10-3) goes to Duquesne (9-3) in the A10.

Winless watch: 0-13 Hampton is at Hofstra in the CAA and 0-11 Navy is at Army West Point in the Patriot League.

Thursday’s recaps, top performances

Most of the matches were west of the Mississippi River, including Florida’s 25-21,19-25, 18-25, 25-18, 15-13 comeback at Oklahoma in the SEC opener for both teams. The Gators (10-2) went on a 6-0 run to take an 11-10 fifth-set lead. Kennedy Martin led with 18 kills, two aces, two blocks and two digs. AC Fitzpatrick had 17 kills, hit .448, and had a block. Alexis Stuckey had three kills, 44 assists, four of her team’s 12 aces, four blocks and four digs. Florida hit .254. Oklahoma (6-3) lost despite hitting .310. Kari Geissberger had 18 kills with one error in 28 attacks and three blocks, and Kamile Gibson had a career-high 15 kills, hit .345, and had two blocks. Payton Chamberlain had a kill, 41 assists, 10 digs and four blocks, one solo … 

BYU beat Colorado 25-17, 21-25, 25-23, 25-22 as Claire Little had 15 kills, two assists, an ace, eight digs and four blocks, one solo. Alex Bower had three kills, 40 assists, an ace, four blocks and 13 digs. Her team hit .306. Colorado had four players with 53 of its 54 kills, 16 by Ana Burilovic, who had four of the team’s nine aces and eight digs … Also in the Big 12, Utah improved to 11-1 with a tough four-set win over visiting Texas Tech. Five players had eight or more kills in the 25-23, 30-28, 32-34, 25-23 victory, 17 by Kamryn Gibadlo, who had two aces, two blocks and nine digs. Claranne Fecher had 20 digs, seven assists and an ace. Mia Wesley had 21 kills for Texas Tech to go with two aces, two blocks and 21 digs … 

Iowa won in five at Rutgers in their Big Ten opener despite 29 kills by Rutgers’ Alissa Kinkela, who hit .456 and had 10 digs and four blocks. Iowa’s Malu Garcia had 17 kills and nine blocks in the 22-25, 25-23, 30-28, 19-25, 15-9 outcome … Also in the B1G, Northwestern won in five at Maryland as Alexa Rousseau had 17 kills, hit .333, and had 25 assists, two aces, three blocks and 15 digs in the 19-25, 25-22, 18-25, 27-25, 15-11 victory. Samantha Schnitta had 17 kills for Maryland to go with six of her team’s 11 aces, two blocks and seven digs … 

Loyola Marymount improved to 9-3 and dropped Pacific to 10-3 in the West Coast Conference opener for both. Paige Flickinger and Sophia Meyers, who had 17 digs, had 14 kills each for LMU in the four-set victory. Also in the WCC, Washington State won in four at Santa Clara, Portland swept visiting Saint Mary’s, Pepperdine won in four at Oregon State as Birdie Hendrickson had 18 kills, hitting .400, to go with three aces, five digs and a block, and San Diego not only swept at Gonzaga, it marked the 500th career victory for coach Jen Petrie. Kennedy Osunsanmi had 15 kills, hit .522, and had an ace, three blocks and two digs.   

(Click here for more from San Diego).

In UC San Diego’s five-set Big West win over UC Riverside, Ava McInnes had 21 kills with one error in 38 attacks, an assist, three aces, 17 digs and two blocks … also in the Big West, Long Beach State beat visiting UC Davis in four as Natalie Glenn had 20 kills, hit .485, and had three assists, three aces, 12 digs and a block … 

Three of the WAC matches were sweeps as Utah Tech beat Abilene Christian, South Utah beat Tarleton State and California Baptist got its first victory after 12 defeats by beating Utah Valley. In the other WAC match, UT Arlington won in four at Grand Canyon behind 20 kills from Brianna Ford, who hit .389 and had two aces, 10 digs and four blocks … 

There were four Big Sky openers and all went four sets as Northern Colorado won at Montana, Idaho State beat visiting Eastern Washington, Portland State won at Idaho, and Sacramento State beat visiting Montana State. Top lines: Gabi Placide had 15 kills for Northern Colorado, hitting .387, with an ace, five digs and a block. Idaho State’s Jaydin Watts had 15 kills, hit .464, and had three digs and three blocks, one solo. Portland State’s Carisa Barron had 21 kills, two aces, five digs and two blocks. And Caitlin Volkmann had 19 kills for Sacramento State, hitting .333, with eight digs and four blocks … 

There were five Mountain West openers, three going five. Colorado State won in five at Utah State as Naeemah Weathers had 19 kills, hit .615, and had 11 blocks, one solo. Nevada beat visiting Wyoming in five behind 22 kills from Gabby McLaughlin, who had 12 digs and two blocks, one solo. Fresno State beat visiting Boise State in five as Addison Haluska had 21 kills, two aces, 10 digs and three blocks, one solo. San Diego State improved to 9-2 as Jasmine Davis had 12 kills with one error in 24 attempts in a four-set over Air Force. She added five digs and three assists. In the other match UNLV won in four at New Mexico … 

In the four Southland matches, Houston Christian won in four at Nicholls, Stephen F. Austin beat visiting Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in four, Texas A&M-Commerce beat visiting UIW in five and Southeastern Louisiana swept visiting Lamar as former Volleyball Baton Rouge libero Lexi Gonzalez had 21 digs for SLU to go with three assists and two aces … 

South Dakota State got to 12-0 as it won its Summit opener at Oral Roberts 23-25, 22-25, 25-20, 25-16, 15-9 for the program’s first reverse-sweep victory since 2016. Sydni Schetnan had 17 kills with no errors in 25 attacks to hit .680 and had three blocks, one solo. Setter Rylee Martin had a kill in two errorless tries, 45 assists, three of her team’s 12 aces, a block and 11 digs. The Jackrabbits are off to the program’s best start since 2000. Also in The Summit, South Dakota swept at Denver, Omaha swept visiting North Dakota as McKenna Ruch had 14 kills with one error in 20 swings, and North Dakota State won in four at St. Thomas …. 

App State swept James Madison in the Sun Belt as Maya Winterhoff had 11 kills, hit .450, and had three blocks, one solo. Also in the SBC, Troy swept South Alabama as Tori Hester had 15 kills, hit .375, and had an assist, two aces, 14 digs and two blocks … Eastern Kentucky swept Austin Peay in the ASUN and Sarah Mitchell had 18 kills, hit .357, and had an assist, 10 digs and two blocks … Sam Houston beat Middle Tennessee in four in Conference USA as Adriana Rhoda had 19 kills, two digs and three blocks, one solo … Central Michigan swept Miami in the MAC as Krystina Kasson had 12 kills with no errors in 19 swings and Natalia Rejment had 12 kills with no errors in 31 attacks … Wofford beat Chattanooga in four as Mary Emily Morgan had 19 kills in the SoCon victory. She added 21 digs, three assists and two aces. 

Athletes Unlimited roster, schedule, TV 

The fourth season of AU begins October 3 in Mesa, Arizona, and the organization announced that all 30 matches will be available live either via ESPN platforms or Bally Sports regional sports networks and the Bally Sports app. In addition, through a new partnership with Volleyball World, all matches will be streamed internationally on Volleyball TV, while the 15 matches airing on Bally Sports in the United States will also stream on Volleyball TV domestically.

The roster includes 2022 champion Bethania De La Cruz, the Dominican Republic Olympic veteran, two-time AU defensive player of the year Morgan Hentz and quite a few Pro Volleyball Federation players, most notably Omaha star Brooke Nuneviller.

The full list of players follows.

In AU, individual athletes earn points based on both team wins and individual performance, with the leaderboard changing constantly. In addition, teams change each week with the top four athletes in the standings serving as captains and drafting their teams. At the end of the five-week season, the player with the most points is crowned as the league’s individual champion.

For more, including the schedule: https://auprosports.com/volleyball/

Athletes Unlimited Volleyball Roster