Volleyball Today: Huskers sweep; six NCAA bids claimed with 16 more on the line Sunday

Nebraska dominated Wisconsin, sweeping the Badgers again, to win its 25th match in a row and get one step closer to an unbeaten Big Ten season.

Arizona State beat Colorado to clinch the Big 12’s automatic NCAA Tournament bid.

Rutgers snapped its 17-match losing streak and won’t go oh-fer in the Big Ten after winning in four at Northwestern.

Six teams — New Hampshire, FGCU, Charleston, Yale, Chicago State and UT Arlington — won their respective conference tournaments and the automatic bids that went with them.

Sunday 16 more teams will win conference titles and some of them may be most unlikely NCAA participants after a rash of mid-major upsets Saturday.

There were reverse sweeps: Florida Atlantic pulled it off in its American Athletic tourney upset of Rice, and Wyoming did it to visiting Nevada in the Mountain West by the wacky scores of 22-25, 15-25, 25-7, 25-13, 15-9.

A conference-by-conference breakdown of Saturday’s results and what’s ahead Sunday follows.

On the sand, Hailey Harward and Kylie Deberg took silver at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Challenge in Chennai, India, after compatriots Molly Shaw and Toni Rodriguez won bronze.

And the Canadian men’s national-team coach has moved on.

It’s all in this edition of Volleyball Today:

NCAA volleyball regular season

Big Ten

The big result was second-ranked Nebraska’s 25-21, 25-22, 25-17 domination of visiting No. 6 Wisconsin. For more on the Huskers side of things, click here, and for the Wisconsin recap, click here.

On the other end of the B1G spectrum, Rutgers won 23-25, 25-17, 25-23, 25-23 at Northwestern to improve to 6-23, 1-17. The Scarlet Knights have two more chances to match last year’s B1G mark of 2-18. 

Tenth-ranked Purdue swept visiting No. 20 USC, No. 14 Oregon swept at Michigan, 

Minnesota swept visiting Iowa, Michigan State did the same to visiting Maryland, and UCLA won in four at Illinois.

The two Sunday matches have No. 5 Penn State — now 1.5 games behind Nebraska — home for Washington and Indiana at Ohio State.

Big 12

Eighth-ranked Arizona State improved to 28-2, 16-1 as it clinched at least a tie for the league title with a four-set win at Colorado. It’s the first conference title for the program in team history and the first Big 12 title across all sports for new member ASU. Read the ASU recap here.

There are two matches Sunday when No. 11 Kansas goes to Kansas State and No. 16 Utah is home for Cincinnati.

No. 17 Baylor had to go five to beat visiting Houston as Lauren Briseno had 25 digs, seven assists and two aces, No. 24 BYU swept visiting West Virginia, Arizona beat visiting Iowa State in four and UCF lost in four at the SEC’s Florida.

ACC

After a day off, there are nine matches, none pitting two of the league’s ranked teams.

Top-ranked Pittsburgh goes to NC State, No. 3 Louisville is at Virginia Tech, No. 7 Stanford is at North Carolina, No. 9 SMU goes to Wake Forest, No. 23 Florida State is home for Clemson, Notre Dame is at Virginia, Syracuse is at Boston College and Cal is at Duke.

SEC

Florida, which got 29 kills from Kennedy Martin, was the only team in action Saturday when the No. 20 Gators beat visiting UCF of the Big 12 in four. Sunday’s slate shows No. 14 Kentucky home for Arkansas, No. 25 Missouri at Mississippi State, South Carolina at Tennessee, LSU at Texas A&M, Ole Miss at Arkansas and Auburn at Oklahoma.

Big East

The regular season wraps up Sunday with the top two teams in action. Fifth-ranked Creighton, which has won 19 in a row and is 17-0 in the conference, goes to Xavier. Marquette is at DePaul. They’ll be the top two seeds in the conference tournament that begins Wednesday.

Big Sky

First-place Northern Colorado ended the regular season with a sweep of Eastern Washington. Sacramento State beat Weber State in five as Bridgette Smith had 27 kills, hit .358, and had two assists, four aces and 17 digs. Northern Arizona swept Idaho and Idaho State swept Portland State.

The tournament begins Wednesday at Sacramento. Click here for the Big Sky Championship page.

Big West

Cal Poly (21-8, 14-4) finished the regular season on a six-match winning streak that left the Mustangs alone atop the standings after they won in five at UC Davis (18-9, 3-5). Hawai’i (19-9, 13-5) finished tied with UC Davis for second after the Rainbow Wahine lost their regular-season finale in four at UC Irvine (16-13, 10-8).

Accordingly, the league tourney that starts Wednesday at UCI pits fourth-seeded Long Beach State vs. No. 5 UC San Diego with the winner getting Cal Poly on Friday, and UC Davis vs. UCI for the right to play Hawai’i.

Click here for the Big West Championship page.

Mountain West

Ah, the possibilities. 

The league tournament field is set and Wednesday Fresno State plays San Diego State for the right to play top-seeded Colorado State, and Utah State plays Boise State for the right to play second-seeded San Jose State. But both Utah State and Boise State forfeited their matches to San Jose State this season … Hmmm.

Saturday, CSU beat Utah State in four, Boise State swept Fresno, San Diego State swept Air Force, UNLV beat New Mexico in five and Wyoming had that reverse sweep against Nevada.

Click here for the MWC Championship page.

West Coast

LMU beat Gonzaga in four to maintain its one-game lead over Pepperdine, which won in four at Pacific. But San Diego dropped a game behind Pepperdine after losing in five at San Francisco. 

NCAA volleyball conference tournaments

First the finals: 

America East 

Second-seeded New Hampshire beat fourth-seeded UAlbany in four. It’s UNH’s eighth America East championship but first since 2016.

ASUN

Top-seeded FGCU won its fourth conference title in a row with a sweep of second-seeded Lipscomb. Shelby Kent had 15 kills, hit .344 and added an assist, two aces and seven digs.

CAA

College of Charleston crushed Delaware in the fifth set when it had six blocks to win its first CAA title since 2013. Emily Banitt had 20 kills, an assist, an ace, a block and 11 digs in the 25-21, 22-25, 25-19, 17-25, 15-3 victory. 

Ivy League

Yale won the Ivy for the third year in a row with a 27-25, 25-23, 25-20 sweep of Princeton. Betsy Goodenow led with 14 kills and hit .520 after having one error in 25 attacks and an assist, an ace, two blocks and three digs.

NEC

Top-seeded Chicago State is in the NCAA Tournament for the first time after sweeping Fairleigh Dickinson. 

WAC

UT Arlington — down 14-11 in the fifth — won the program’s first conference title since 2002 after the Mavs beat Grand Canyon 20-25, 25-17, 20-25, 27-23,16-14. UTA is 29-2 and after finishing the regular season 16-0 in the WAC has now won 20 matches in a row.

Brianna Ford continued to lead, this time with 25 kills, an assist, two aces, five blocks and 16 digs. GCU’s Tatum Parrott ended her tremendous season with 25 kills, an assist, an ace, four blocks and nine digs.

And the tourneys still in progress:

American Athletic

There were two upsets in Saturday’s semifinals. 

Fourth-seeded Wichita State not only knocked off the top seed, the Shockers swept South Florida. 

And sixth-seeded Florida Atlantic rallied for a 23-25, 14-25, 25-22, 25-20, 15-10 victory over No. 2 Rice. FAU’s Katelynn Robine had 20 kills with one error in 59 attacks to hit .322 and had four digs and four blocks. Rice, with an RPI of 47, holds out slim hopes for an NCAA Tournament at-large bid.

FAU and Wichita State play at noon Eastern Sunday.

Atlantic 10

No. 14 Dayton plays third-seeded Loyola Chicago in Sunday’s final at 11 a.m. Sunday.

Dayton, which has won 22 in a row, swept fourth-seeded Davidson as the Flyers hit .437. Lexie Almodovar led with 14 kills, hitting .481 after having one error in 27 attacks to go with an ace, two blocks and seven digs.

Loyola beat second-seeded VCU in four for its 11th win in a row. 

Big South

Sunday’s final pits top-seeded High Point vs. second-seeded Winthrop at 4 p.m. Eastern. 

High Point swept Radford and Winthrop beat Presbyterian in four.

Conference USA

Sunday’s final has high-flying Western Kentucky, which has won 23in a row, against third-seeded NM State at 2 p.m. Eastern. WKU swept Kennesaw State as the Toppers hit .507 and five players had six or more kills. Kaylee Cox had 10 kills with no errors in 18 attacks and Kenadee Coyle had nine kills with no errors in 10 swings and two blocks. Third-seeded NM State knocked out second-seeded UTEP in five set as Mari Sharp had 20 kills, hitting .378, with an assist, three digs and two blocks, one solo. 

Horizon League

Both underdogs won Saturday as fourth-seeded Green Bay stunned top-seeded Wright State in five and third-seeded Cleveland State thumped second-seeded Milwaukee in four. They’ll play at 2 p.m. Eastern.

Katie Schulz had 20 kills for Green Bay to go with an assist, four digs and five blocks. 

Nia Hall had 23 kills for Cleveland State, hitting .345 to go with an assist, an ace, three blocks and seven digs. Emma Walker had a career-high 47 digs, three asists and an ace. Milwaukee’s Madi Malone had 30 digs, 19 kills, an assist, an ace and two blocks. 

MAAC

Top-seeded Fairfield plays second-seeded Quinnipiac at 1 p.m. Eastern after Fairfield swept Canisius and Quinnipiac beat Rider in four.

Fairfield, which hit .333, got 15 kills from Mamie Krubally, who had two errors in 25 attacks to hit .520 and added four blocks and four digs. 

Quinnipiac’s Elena Giacomini had 28 kills, hit .473 and had 18 digs and three blocks. 

MAC

Two underdogs advanced in five sets each.

Sunday’s 4 p.m. Eastern title match pits fourth-seeded Western Michigan against third-seeded Ball State. WMU upset top-seeded Bowling Green 25-18, 21-25, 25-23, 20-25, 15-8 and Ball State knocked out second-seeded Central Michigan 25-19, 25-16, 21-25, 21-25, 15-9.

WMU had four players with 11 or more kills, 17 by Madison Merz, who hit .519 and had five digs and four blocks. Andelyn Simkins had 30 digs and two aces.

Ball State’s Carson Tyler had 21 kills, hit .333 and had three assists, an ace, three blocks and nine digs.

MEAC

Top-seeded Howard plays third-seeded Delaware State at 8:30 p.m. Eastern Sunday on ESPNU. 

Howard beat fifth-seeded Maryland Eastern Shore in four and Delaware State knocked out second-seeded Coppin State.

Missouri Valley

Action continues with fourth-seeded Ilinois State vs. No. 8 Missouri State and third-seeded UIC vs. No. 6 Valparaiso. Missouri State swept fifth-seeded Bradley and Valpo beat seventh-seeded Murray State in four.

Ohio Valley

The tournament begins with four matches Sunday. Click here for the OVC Championship page.

Patriot League

Sunday’s 2 p.m. final has top-seeded Colgate entertaining fourth-seeded Army West Point. 

Colgate advanced Friday with a four-set win over Lehigh, while Army knocked off second-seeded Bucknell in five.

SWAC

Sunday’s 2:30 p.m. Eastern final between top-seeded Florida A&M and second-seeded Jackson State is on ESPNU.

FAMU swept Bethune-Cookman in the semifinals and JSU beat Prairie View in four.

SoCon

The top two seeds face off a 4 p.m. Eastern when No. 1 Mercer plays No. 2 Wofford.

Mercer swept The Citadel and Wofford got past ETSU in four. 

Wofford’s Bri  Mahoney had 17 kills, hit .304, and had two aces, 13 digs and five blocks, four solo.

Southland

Southeastern Louisiana, riding the nation’s longest winning streak at 26, plays Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 4 p.m. Eastern. 

SLU beat UIW in four as Cicily Hidalgo had 19 kills, an ace, 11 digs and two blocks, one solo. 

Second-seeded TAMUCC beat third-seeded Stephen F. Austin in four behind 23 kills from Kyndal Payne, who hit .327 and had 18 digs and two solo blocks.

Summit League

The tournament starts Sunday with Denver vs. North Dakota State and Kansas City plays South Dakota.

Sun Belt

The 4 p.m. Eastern first serve is between Arkansas State, which won the East, and Texas State, which finished second in the West.

ASU swept Georgia Southern in the semifinals as five players had six or more kills, 12 by Katilin Whitlock, who had one error in 31 attacks, 15 digs and two blocks. Georgia Southern’s Jillian Gray had 24 kills, hit .435, and had an assist, two aces, a block and five digs.

Texas State swept App State as setter Ryann Torres had three kills in six errorless attempts, 30 assists, three blocks and six digs.

Harward, Deberg get silver in India 

The pair of Harward, who won national championships at USC, and Deberg, the former Missouri and LSU indoor standout who finished her college career playing beach at LSU, lost to Ukrainians Maryna Hladun and Tetiana Lazarenko in the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Challenge title match in Chennai, India.

The 23-21, 21-17 outcome earned the winners $10,000, while Harward and Deberg took home $8,000..

In the match for third place, Americans Molly Shaw and Toni Rodriguez defeated Monika Paulikiene and Aine Raupelyte of Lithuania 21-11, 20-22, 15-8. They earned $7,000. Two other USA pairs made into elimination play. The team of Madelyne Anderson and Brook Bauer ($4,000) knocked Savvy Simo and Abby Van Winkle ($3,000) from the round of 16, and they in turn were beaten in the quarterfinals by Harward and Deberg. 

Shaw’s husband, James, and partner Chailm Schalk were eliminated in the quarterfinals. They took home $4,000. Cody Caldwell and Evan Cory also made it through pool play but lost in the second round of one-and-done and earned $3,000.

Canada needs a national-team men’s coach

Volleyball Canada announced that Tuomas Sammelvuo has left his post as head coach of the senior men’s program.

Sammelvuo took the job in 2022 and Canada qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics by coming second in its pool at the qualification tournament in 2023. Canada finished 10th of 12 at the Olympics.