Volleyball Today: No NCAA upsets; 37 kills for Cardona; Athletes Unlimited

There were no upsets Friday in NCAA Division I volleyball on a night when No. 3 Penn State had to go five to win at Ohio State, No. 10 Wisconsin held off visiting No. 12 Oregon in four and No. 22 Florida State had to rally to win in five at Boston College.

Every other match involving a ranked team was a sweep.

There were, of course, more reverse sweeps: Tulane did it at Memphis, Eastern Kentucky did at Queens, Marquette did it to visiting DePaul, Milwaukee did it to visiting Wright State and Oklahoma did it at Georgia.

Lines of the night: Evansville’s Giula Cardona, the 5-foot-11 Argentian senior, had 37 kills in a five-set Missouri Valley win over visiting Southern Illinois. Cardona, who reached 2,000 career kills, had eight errors in 88 attacks to hit .330 and had two blocks and 11 digs. 

Drake won in five at Bradley and Jada Willis had 45 digs in the Missouri Valley victory to go with five assists.

This edition also includes Friday-night Athletes Unlimited volleyball.

NCAA volleyball Saturday

Both Big Ten matches involve ranked teams, as No. 2 Nebraska goes to Ohio State and No. 10 Purdue is home for Indiana.

The three Big 12 matches show No. 8 Kansas at UCF, No. 20 Utah just down I-15 at No. 24 BYU and Cincinnati at TCU.

The ACC and SEC have the day off.

No. 21 Dayton (18-1. 8-0 Atlantic 10), which has won 11 matches in a row after sweeping George Washington, is home for the Revolutionaries again. 

The last unbeaten, South Dakota State (17-0, 6-0 The Summit League), goes to St. Thomas. 

And 0-20 Hampton gives it another try in the CAA at Towson.

NCAA volleyball Friday

Jess Mruzik had 29 kills, 12 digs and four blocks for Penn State in its five-set win over Ohio State, which got 27 kills from Emmi Sellman.

Seven of the eight ACC matches were sweeps. Florida State won in five at Boston College. 

Creighton is 16-2, 7-0 in the Big East, after sweeping Xavier as Ava Martin had 15 kills with one error in 30 attacks to hit .467. She had an assist, an ace, 15 digs and a block.

Houston lost its Big 12 match at Arizona State, but Katie Georgiades had 35 digs, three assists and an ace.

In Marquette’s reverse-sweep win over DePaul, Aubrey Hamilton had 28 kills and Jill Pressly had 25 for DePaul. 

Charleston Southern lost in five to USC Upstate but Skylar Yates had 22 kills, two aces, a block and 23 digs.

In Miami’s five-set win at Kent State, Chelsea Williams had 23 kills.

Drake won in five at Bradley and Macy Daufeldt had 24 kills, hit .339, and had an assist, an ace, 17 digs and two blocks, one solo. As mentioned, teammate Jada Willis had 45 digs, while Bradley’s Irene Mostradini had 30 and seven assists.

Bre Reid had 23 kills, three aces, 13 digs and three blocks for James Madison in a five-set win over Coastal Carolina. The Chanticleers’ Jalyn Stout had 17 kills, hit .333, and had 19 assists, three aces, 14 digs and two blocks. Also in the Sun Belt, App State got a five-set win over visiting Georgia Southern to break the Eagles’ 13-match winning streak. Lulu Ambrose had 21 kills, two aces, three digs and a block.

AU wins for Teams De La Cruz-Mejia, Abercrombie

Team (Bethania) De La Cruz defeated Team (Leketor) Member-Meneh and Team (Brittany) Abercrombie beat Team (Dani) Drews on Friday as the third week of Athletes Unlimited volleyball play began in Mesa, Arizona.

De La Cruz continued to dominate the action and led with 17 kills, hitting .342, to go with an ace and eight digs. Click here to read the match recap.

Abercrombie kept pace with 15 kills, hitting .324, in her team’s victory. She had an assist, 14 digs and a solo block. Click here to read the nightcap report.

Action continues Sunday with Drews playing De La Cruz-Mejia and Member-Meneh facing Abercrombie.