There were three ranked teams in action Thursday and, while all won, No. 8 Kansas had to go five to beat Kansas State and No. 11 Purdue had to do the same against UCLA. No. 22 Baylor swept Cincinnati.
South Dakota State (17-0) remained the lone unbeaten with a sweep at North Dakota State.
Reverse sweeps? Eastern Michigan did it to visiting NIU in the MAC, the third reverse-sweep victory for the Eagles this season.
The NCAA Division I women’s volleyball slate is full Friday, but there are few big-time matchups as we head into the middle of the conference season.
Also in this edition of Volleyball Today, Athletes Unlimited gets back to it in Mesa, Arizona, and we muster all the virtual hugs we can for Penn State coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley, who shared on social media Thursday that she has breast cancer.Â
NCAA volleyball Thursday
There are eight ACC matches, none pitting ranked teams. Those include No. 1 Pittsburgh home for Cal, No. 4 Louisville home for Wake Forest, No. 17 Georgia Tech at Clemson and No. 19 Florida State at Boston College. Also, North Carolina is at Virginia Tech, Miami is at Syracuse, NC State is at Notre Dame and Duke is at Virginia.
The Big Ten has six matches with only one involving two ranked teams, and it’s a big one for both as No. 12 Oregon goes to No 10 Wisconsin. Second-ranked Nebraska is at Michigan State, No. 3 Penn State is at Ohio State, No. 14 Minnesota is at Rutgers, No. 15 USC is at Maryland and Washington is at Michigan.
Only one ranked Big 12 teams plays when No. 13 Arizona State is home for Colorado. Texas Texas Tech is at Iowa State and Houston is at Arizona.
The SEC shows No. 7 Texas home for Arkansas, No. 23 Florida at Texas A&M, Ole Miss at South Carolina and Oklahoma at Georgia.Â
Sixth-ranked Creighton, which has won eight in a row, has a Big East match against visiting Xavier, and No. 21 Dayton, which has won 10 in a row, has an Atlantic 10 match against visiting George Washington. Dayton is 7-0 in the A10 and GWU is tied for second with VCU at 5-2.
NCAA volleyball Friday
Kansas (15-1, 6-0) rallied to beat Big 12 opponent Kansas State (6-10, 4-3) in the Sunflower Showdown 19-25, 25-15, 22-25, 25-20, 15-10. Toyosi Onabanjo had 14 kills, hit .571, and added two assists, a dig and three blocks, one solo. Rhian Swanson had 12 kills and Reese Ptacek had 11 kills, hit .533, and had 11 blocks. Aliyah Carter led K-State with 15 kills, but had 13 errors … In the other Big 12 match, Baylor (11-6, 3-3) swept visiting Cincinnati (11-6, 2-4) as Elise McGhee had 13 kills, hit .345, and had four digs, and Allie Sczech had 11 kills with no errors in 22 attacks, four digs and five blocks, one solo …Â
In the only Big Ten match, Purdue (14-4, 5-2) came away with a 23-25, 27-25, 25-20, 19-25, 15-11 victory over visiting UCLA (8-8, 2-5) despite a career-high 29 kills from Cheridyn Leverette, who hit .480. It was the most kills by a UCLA player since Mac May had 39 at Washington State three years ago. Purdue’s Eva Hudson had 24 kills, hit .393, and had 17 digs and three blocks. Raven Colvin had 17 kills, hit .556, and had an ace, three digs and six blocks, one solo. Taylor Anderson had a career-high seven kills with one error in 12 tries, 51 assists, an ace, 12 digs and five blocks, one solo …Â
South Dakota State (17-0, 6-0 Summit League) won 25-23, 25-14, 25-18 at North Dakota State as Sylvie Zgonc had 15 kills, two assist, three aces, a block and six digs. The Jackrabbits go to St. Thomas on Saturday … Also in The Summit, Omaha stayed a game back with a five-set win at Denver as McKenna Ruch had 21 kills, hit .529, and had a dig and 10 blocks, two solo. Kali Jurgensmeier had 17 kills, two digs and nine blocks, and Emily Huss, who had four kills with no errors in eight attempts, had nine blocks. Omaha had 20 blocks to Denver’s nine …Â
There’s a five-way tie atop the MAC after Bowling Green knocked off , leaving those two, Toledo, Central Michigan and Eastern Michgan all 6-2. In Bowling Green’s sweep at Buffalo, five players had five or more kills, seven each by Lauryn Hovey, Alexis Mettille and Mia Tyler. Mettille had no errors in 10 swings and five blocks, one solo … Toledo won in four at Akron and Taylor Alt had 20 kills, hit .359, and had an assist, six digs and a block … In EMU’s five-set win over visiting NIU, Abby Stanford had 18 kills, hit .533, and had two digs and three blocks. It was the third time this season Eastern Michigan has won after losing the first two sets … Central Michigan swept Western Michigan as Grace Thomas had 16 kills with no errors in 24 attacks to hit .667 and had two digs and a block …Â
UT Arlington (17-2, 7-0) built its WAC lead to two games with a sweep of visiting Grand Canyon (12-6, 5-2). The Mavs, who have won eight in a row, got 19 kills from Brianna Ford, who hit .318 and had four blocks and five digs. Mollie Blank had two kills in five errorless tries, 39 assists, two blocks and 12 digs. Her team hit .337, while GCU hit .069 … Tarleton State’s Tatum Busch had 23 kills and Allison Bryant 20 in their team’s five-set WAC win at California Baptist. Bryant had an assist, an ace, 22 digs and two blocks, one solo. CBU’s Nicole Mauser had 23 kills, hit .408, and had two digs and two blocks … Seattle U got 18 kills from Arianna Bilby in its sweep of Southern Utah. She hit .455 and had an assist, 15 digs and two blocks … Â
Washington State pulled a half game ahead of idle LMU in the WCC with a four-set win over visiting Oregon State as Sage Brustad had 19 kill, an assist and six digs … San Francisco and Pepperdine are tied with LMU after USF swept Gonzaga and Pepperdine beat Saint Mary’s in four. Pepperdine’s Birdie Hendrickson had 25 kills, hit .380 and had 21 digs and three blocks. Riley Simpson added 15 kills in 28 errorless attacks, four digs and three blocks …Â
All four Big Sky matches were sweeps, including first-place Northern Colorado beating visiting Montana State … Cal Poly, which swept UC Santa Barbara, and UC Davis, which won in four at CSU Bakersfield, remain tied atop the Big West. Olivia Utterback led UC Davis with 16 kills, three assists, an ace, 14 digs and a block …Â
Colorado State and Fresno State are tied for the Mountain West lead after CSU lost in five at San Diego State and Fresno swept at Air Force. Both Fresno State’s Talea Mitchell and Colorado State’s Mayala Jones had 24 kills. Jones hit .347 and had two digs and four blocks. Jones had two assists, an ace, nine digs and two blocks …Â
Red-hot Southeastern Louisiana (16-4, 8-0) won its 16th match in a row to maintain its one-game Southland Conference lead over Stephen F. Austin (15-5. 7-0). SLU swept at Lamar as the Lions hit .333 and Cicily Hidalgo had 13 kills, two aces, three digs and a solo block. SFA hit .466 and swept visiting New Orleans. SFA had 41 kills with seven errors in 73 attacks. Kyanna Creecy had 11 kills in as many swings and five blocks, and Izabella Ortiz had 11 kills with one error in 14 attacks … South Alabama won its Sun Belt match in four at Southern Miss as Briana Wilson had 26 digs, seven assists and an ace.
Athletes Unlimited enters third weekÂ
The third week of the five-week Athletes Unlimited pro volleyball season gets underway Friday in Mesa, Arizona, when Team (Leketor) Member-Meneh plays Team (Bethania) De La Cruz-Mejia at 8 p.m. Eastern, followed by Team (Brittany) Abercrombie vs. Team (Dani) Drews. Both matches can be seen on Bally Sports regional networks and Volleyball World TV.
The four captains are the four top players on the leaderboard in a season in which individual points are paramount. Abercrombie, the former USC standout, leads with 2,075 points. De La Cruz-Mejia, the Dominican Republic Olympian, is second at 1,921. Member-Meneh, who finished her NCAA career at Pittsburgh, had 1,430. Drews, the former great at Utah, has 1,383.
Click here for the complete leaderboard.
And click here to see the schedule and four rosters for this week.
Action continues on Sunday and Monday nights.
From Penn State’s Katie Schumacher-Cawley:
I want to take a moment to share something deeply personal with all of you. Recently, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. This news has been a lot to process, and as you can imagine, it has brought a range of emotions. But I’m approaching this with strength, determination, and an unwavering sense of hope. We will draw inspiration from the many people in our lives that have battled cancer and have emerged victorious.
I am incredibly fortunate to have an amazing support system in my family, team, friends, my Penn State family, and an incredible medical team. Their encouragement and love give me the courage to face the road ahead with a positive outlook. I know this journey will have its challenges, but I also know that with the care and strength of those around me, I am ready to meet it head-on. I also want to take a moment to acknowledge and thank the women and men who have gone through this before me. The strength, courage, and determination you’ve shown have not only been inspiring, but you have also helped advance the incredible progress we see in medicine today. Your journeys have paved the way for better treatments and outcomes, and I’m deeply grateful for that. You have and will continue to help those who are just starting this battle, like myself. Your resilience is making a difference every day.
As I begin this process, I ask for your understanding, compassion, and patience. My focus will be on my family, my team, and of course, my health and recovery. It is business as usual at Rec Hall. I have the most amazing staff that doesn’t skip a beat.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your love and support. I am grateful for the kindness and strength of the Penn State community and Athletic Director Pat Kraft and his leadership staff for their unwavering support for me, my family and our team. It is truly a blessing, and it demonstrates why Penn State is a special place.
As we move ahead, I ask that you please respect the privacy of this personal journey for my family. We want the focus of the next several weeks and months to be on the team, their season and the incredible things they do as inspiring women in the classroom and on the court.
WE AREÂ
