Volleyball Today: More NCAA conference play begins; TV ratings; AVCA top 25; stat leaders

There are still non-conference matches on Tuesday’s NCAA Division I volleyball schedule, but there is conference-opening play in the ASUN, Big West, Mountain West and Southland. 

There are a total of 12 matches, including unbeaten San Jose State (8-0) vs. Fresno State in the Mountain West and UC Irvine vs. Cal State Fullerton in the Big West.

Things get hopping Wednesday with 20 matches, including Big Ten openers featuring VolleyballMag Super 16 Media Poll No. 3 Penn State at No. 10 Purdue and No. 7 Wisconsin at No. 16 Minnesota. 

The SEC’s got AVCA No. 20 Tennessee home for Alabama and Georgia at Arkansas; the ACC has Miami at Florida State and No. 1 Pittsburgh (9-0) facing 1-9 UMBC; and the Big 12 has five matches including VBM No. 14 Arizona State at TCU (the last team out of our top 16), No. 9 Kansas home for UCF, and unbeaten Arizona (11-0) at AVCA No. 19 Baylor.

684,000 watched volleyball on ABC

From our guy Larry Hamel:

The landmark first regular-season NCAA women’s volleyball match televised by over-the-air ABC on Sunday afternoon had a total-average viewership of 684,000, according to the Nielsen ratings. The number likely would have tracked a bit higher if the match between Nebraska and Louisville had been more competitive. The visiting Huskers swept the Cardinals before a program-record crowd of 14,126 at the spacious KFC Yum! Center in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, the site of the 2024 NCAA semifinals and final in December.

The last roughly two hours of the ABC volleyball telecast competed with NFL games on CBS and Fox. The volleyball match led into a first-round WNBA playoff game between the Connecticut Sun and Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever that logged a total-average viewership of 1.84 million, according to Nielsen.

AVCA top 25

If you missed the first VolleyballMag Super 16 Media Poll of the season, click here.

Pitt remained No. 1 in the latest AVCA Division I Women’s Volleyball Poll, getting 60 of the 61 first-place votes. The other went to No. 2 Nebraska, up from fifth. Stanford dropped a spot to No. 3, Penn State and No. 4, and Louisivlle dropped a notch, respectively. 

Creighton jumped three spots to No. 6, Wisconsin stayed seventh and Texas stayed No. 8. Kansas is up a spot to ninth and Purdue fell four spots to No. 10. 

Arkansas, which was 25th, dropped out, and Miami is back in at No. 25. 

Click here for the complete AVCA top 25.

NCAA volleyball national stat leaders

TCU’s Melanie Parra leads in kills per set (5.32), but is sixth in overall kills with 202. The national kills leader is Giula Cardona of Evansville (233), followed by Caylen Alexander of Hawai’i (229), Panna Ratkai of Purdue Fort Wayne (224), Alexa Edwards of Pacific (211) and Erin Jones of St. John’s (207). Cardona also leads in attacks per set, 14.55 and is fifth in kills per set, 4.96.

The leader in hitting percentage is Keondreya Granberry of Tennessee at .549, followedy by Arizona State’s Claire Jeter (.530), Nebraska’s Andi Jackson (.512), Shea Rubright of San Diego State (.500) and Khori Louis of Florida State (.490).

The NCAA blocks-per-set leader is Purdue’s Raven Colvin (2.03), followed by Julia Haggerty of Boston College (1.95). Colvin also has the most blocks (77), 11 solo. Mari Bell of Idaho State is tied with Haggerty with 72 blocks, but Haggery is tied with NJIT’s Ines Verala atop the nation with 17 solo blocks. 

Drake’s Jada Wills leads in digs per set (6.15) and Mercer’s Brooke Phillips leads with 38 aces, four ahead of UConn’s Emma Werkmeister, who has played seven fewer sets. Phillips’ Mercer teams also leads in aces (126), well ahead of Bryant (110). Mercer is 10-3 after losing its last two and opens SoCon play Friday at Western Carolina.

Pitt leads in team hitting percentage (.354), followed by Penn State (.329) and Kansas (.326).

This one is a surprise: Bucknell and San Jose State lead in opponent hitting percentage (.115). Bucknell is 10-1, 2-0 in the Patriot League, and has won 10 in a row. San Jose State is 8-0, and, as mentioned above, opens Mountain Weste play at Fresno State on Tuesday night.

And, according to the NCAA, 21 players have had triple-doubles this season, five each by Jayln Stout of Coastal Carolina and Notre Dame’s Phyona Schrader. 

The high for kills in a sweep is 25 by South Dakota State’s Sylvie Zgonc, the high in four sets is 42 by Nina Cajic of Tennessee, and the high for a five-setter is 38 by Alexander of Hawai’i.