South Dakota State remains the only unbeaten team in NCAA Division I volleyball, but barely, after the Jackrabbits rallied for a 25-18, 21-25, 23-25, 26-24, 15-8 Summit League victory Tuesday over visiting South Dakota. South Dakota State (19-0, 8-0) overcame a 24-22 fourth-set defict.
Buffalo took a half-game lead in the MAC with a five-set win over Akron as Manoela Forlin and Katrin Trebichavska had 23 kills each.
Line of the night: Caylen Alexander of Hawai’i had 28 kills in a four-set Big West win on the incredibly bright blue floor at CSU Bakersfield, hitting .431, and had an assist, three aces, 14 digs and two blocks, one solo. She moved into a tie for second in kills in the NCAA (390) with Binghamton’s Tsvetelina Ilieva. Evansville’s Giula Cardona leads with 455.
The politically-driven madness in the Mountain West continues, where the location of the match between Nevada and San Jose State on Saturday has been moved from Reno, Nevada, to San Jose, California. San Jose State was scheduled to play host to Utah State on Wednesday, but Utah State has forfeited.
Athletes Unlimted had its draft for its four teams heading into the fourth of five weeks of the season. The captains are Brittany Abercrombie, Bethania De La Cruz-Mejia, Morgan Hentz and Leketor Member-Meneh. Click here for the rosters.
And also in this edition of Volleyball Today, former Nebraska great and Canadian beach volleyball Olympian Sarah Pavan has retired.
NCAA volleyball Wednesday
There are 19 Division I matches on the schedule. There would have been 20, but Utah State, well, you know … chalk up another forfeit W for San Jose State.
In the SEC, the Texas teams trade places when No. 7 Texas, which swept at Texas A&M on September 27, plays host to the Aggies. That one is on ESPNU at 8 p.m. Eastern. Texas, the two-time defending NCAA champion, has won nine in a row. Also in the SEC, Alabama is at Oklahoma and Ole Miss is at Mississippi State.
In the Big 12, No, 9 Kansas is home for Iowa State, No. 23 Baylor is at Houston and West Virginia is at Colorado.
There are two Big Ten Matches when No. 10 Purdue is home for Ohio State and No. 15 Minnesota plays host to Northwestern.
The ACC slate shows three matches, including No. 6 Stanford heading to Cal, Miami at Duke and Virginia at Syracuse.
NCAA volleyball Tuesday
Sylvie Zgonc had five of her 24 kills in the fifth set for South Dakota State, which improved to 18-0 overall, 8-0 halfway through The Summit League schedule. There are five teams with just one loss: Dayton, Nebraska, Penn State, Pittsburgh and Kansas.
Zgonc, a 5-foot-11 sophomore outside hitter from Hartford, Wisconsin, had the last two points of the fourth set and the the last three points of the match. She hit .267 after having eight errors in 67 attacks, and added two assists, 13 digs and four blocks, three solo. Setters Camryn Honn and Rylee Martin combined for two kills, 48 assists, three aces and 18 digs. South Dakota (13-6, 5-3) got 20 kills from Lauren Medeck, who had an assist, two blocks and 12 digs, and 19 kills from Kylen Sealock, who had two blocks and seven digs. Kamryn Farris had 22 digs, five assists and an ace. South Dakota had won the last 18 matches between the programs … Also in The Summit, Omaha (9-10, 7-1) stayed a game back with a four-set win over visiting Kansas City as Kali Jurgensmeier had 15 kills, hit .355, and had an assist, four digs and five blocks, Denver swept visiting Oral Roberts and North Dakota State won in four at North Dakota …
Marquette of the Big East swept visiting Milwaukee of the Horizon League as Natalie Ring had 13 kills, hit .400, and had a dig and two blocks …
In the MAC, Buffalo got to 8-2, a half game up in the win column over idle Central Michigan and Bowling Green, with a five-set win over visiting Akron. Manoela Forlin had 23 kills, two aces, six digs and a block, and Katrin Trebichavska had 23 kills, hit .386, and had two assists, an ace, 17 digs and a solo block. Lauren Baker had 22 kills for Akron to go with an assist, an ace, 11 digs and two blocks. Also in the MAC, Western Michigan swept NIU and Ohio beat Kent State in four. WMU’s Madison Merz had 10 kills with no errors in 14 attacks and seven blocks and Julia Marr had 10 kills with one error in 23 swings and two blocks and Ohio’s Kam Hunt had 22 kills, hit .326 and had two aces, 13 digs and a block …
In the only Mountain West match, San Diego State beat visiting UNLV in four as Taylor Underwood had 16 kills, hit .375, and had three digs and two blocks, and Talea Mitchell had 14 kills, a dig and two blocks. UNLV hit .063 … The lone Ohio Valley match saw UT Martin sweep Southern Indiana … Stephen F. Austin (8-1) swept Lamar to get back to a game behind Southeastern Louisiana (9-0) in the Southland Conference. Kyanna Creecy had 11 kills, hit .429, and had two digs and four blocks, and Katherine Holtman had 11 kills, five digs and four blocks one solo. Lamar hit .049.
Nevada’s match with San Jose moved to California
This is the report from The Associated Press:
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — The location of a women’s volleyball match between Nevada and San Jose State on Saturday has been moved from Reno, Nevada, to San Jose, California.
The schools announced the decision Tuesday in a joint statement, with the Mountain West Conference approving the decision.
In the statement, the schools said, “the decision to move the location of the match has been made in the best interest of both programs and the well-being of the student-athletes, coaches, athletic staff and spectators.”
Before the venue change, a group of Nevada players recently issued a statement saying they will not take the floor for what was to be their home game against the Spartans. The players cited their “right to safety and fair competition.” The school, though, reaffirmed at the time the match was still planned and that state law bars forfeiture “for reasons related to gender identity or expression.”
There’s still the possibility the match ends as a forfeit should the Wolf Pack elect not to play. Nevada plays at Fresno State on Thursday.
San Jose State has already seen four teams cancel games this season — Southern Utah, Boise State, Wyoming and Utah State. None of the schools explicitly have said why it was forfeiting. All those schools, except Southern Utah, are in the Mountain West.
Political figures from Wyoming, Idaho and Utah have weighed in and suggested the cancellations centered around protecting women’s sports.
Mountain West commissioner Gloria Nevarez said last week she was heartbroken over what has transpired this season surrounding the Spartans and their opponents.
Canadian Sarah Pavan retires
Sarah Pavan, the 6-foot-5 lanky left-hander who was a star at Nebraska and became a two-time Canadian beach Olympian, has retired. She is 38.
Here is a portion of the report from Volleyball Canada. Her Instagram post follows:
Pavan grew up in Kitchener, Ontario and began playing indoor volleyball at age 10. She retires as one of the most accomplished Canadian volleyball players in history, having represented her country for first at the age of 14 with the junior national indoor volleyball team. Pavan made history by becoming the youngest woman to be selected to the national indoor volleyball team at age 16, before to attend the University of Nebraska for his post-secondary career.
At Nebraska, Pavan won the NCAA indoor volleyball title in 2006 and was a four-time first-team All-American, one of only six women to do so. During her collegiate career , Sarah was named the 2006 AVCA National Player of the Year, the 2007 NCAA Female Student-Athlete of the Year and won ESPN The Magazine’s Academic All-Star of the Year award in the American university ranks in 2007 and 2008, before graduating with a 4.0 GPA in biochemistry.
After graduating, Pavan played with the Canadian national indoor volleyball team and in one of the top professional indoor volleyball leagues in the world. She won the silver medal at the FIVB Club World Championships, where She was named Best Forward. She was also a two-time Brazilian Superliga champion and participated in the CEV Champions League semi-finals.
Pavan played professionally for over a decade in Europe, South America and Asia before making the big decision to compete internationally in beach volleyball in 2013.
