Volleyball Today: Creighton vs. Nebraska; AVCA Poll; Queens & Kings of the Court

If the Cornhusker State is the benchmark of college volleyball, then Creighton at Nebraska is the epicenter.

Look for great ratings for the Big Ten Network on Tuesday night when No. 9 Creighton (5-0) plays at No. 5 Nebraska (5-1) in the annual battle of two of the nation’s top teams in a state where our sport is king. Or, as we should say, queen.

Also in this Volleyball Today, the new AVCA Division I Women’s Volleyball Poll came out Monday and the coaches popularity contest has had few weeks with a greater shakeup from the week before.

Michigan State is going to get a new arena, there was a Queens & Kings of the Court event this past weekend in the Netherlands and its next competition is in Miami at the end of the month, 

NCAA volleyball Tuesday

There are 33 matches on the schedule, none bigger than Creighton at Nebraska. This is the first time in this rivalry that both teams are ranked in the top 10. The 7 p.m. first serve will be called by Larry Punteney and VBM contributor Emily Ehman. Not home? Watch it on FoxSportsGo.

Nebraska has won 27 in a row at home and is 22-0 all-time against Creighton of the Big East. John Cook is 19-0 against Creighton and Bluejays coaching counterpart Kirsten Bernthal Booth is 0-16 against Nebraska. The match was played at Nebraska last year, too, and the Huskers won 25-9, 25-13, 23-25, 25-20. Nebraska won in five in 2002 at Creighton.

Also Tuesday:

No. 8 Wisconsin is home for Milwaukee, which has played quite a tough pre-conference schedule. The Panthers (3-3), lost to Stanford, beat Western Illinois and Northern Illinois, lost to SMU and Loyola Marymount, and beat Weber State.

No. 16 Tennessee plays at Western Kentucky, No. 18 Baylor plays SMU (No. 26 in the 25-team poll), No, 19 Minnesota faces St. Thomas, and No. 21 Florida State, down six places in the poll, is at North Florida.

Also, 6-0 East Carolina is at Campbell, two 3-2 teams play when UC Davis meets Sacramento State, Cal is at Saint Mary’s, Texas State is at Hawai’i, Jacksonville State (5-1) plays at Chattanooga (6-1), while on the other end of the spectrum something’s gotta give when 0-6 Oral Roberts plays at 0-6 Arkansas-Pine Bluff. 

Monday, Nicholls State swept Alcorn, Lipscomb did the same to Nashville rival Belmont, and Washington State beat Eastern Washington in five. Katy Ryan had 20 kills for WSU to go with three digs and two blocks, one solo.

AVCA Division I Women’s Volleyball Poll

In the week following Texas losing twice, Nebraska losing, and Penn State blasting Louisville, 3-0 Pittsburgh is the new No. 1 at 3-0.

Pitt got 29 first-place votes, Stanford (4-0) got 23 first-place votes and is No. 2, followed by 5-0 Penn State, which got six votes. Then came Louisville (5-1), which got a vote, followed by No. 5 Nebraska (5-1), which got two first-place votes. Go figure voting those last three No. 1.

Pitt had been No. 3. The Panthers, coming off three national semifinals in a row, return almost the entire team with great additions, but have beaten then-No. 10 Oregon, Long Beach State and Buffalo, hardly the schedule the other teams in the top six have played. Pitt goes to No. 23 USC on Wednesday. 

Stanford was No. 5, Penn State was seventh, Louisville stayed at No. 4, Nebraska dropped three spots to No. 5 and Texas fell five spots to sixth. 

Purdue is up a spot to No. 7, Wisconsin is down two to No. 8, Creighton is up to No. 9, and Kentucky fell a spot to 10th.

Marquette and UCLA dropped out and Miami is in at No. 20 and TCU is in at No. 25.

Click here for the complete poll.

New digs for Michigan State

As reported by the Lansing State Journal: 

A new Michigan State University sports arena will be the home for MSU’s volleyball, gymnastics and wrestling teams, athletic director Alan Haller said Saturday, a day after the Board of Trustees approved moving ahead with the project. The plan is for the arena to be a 4,000- to 5,500-seat venue, though Haller said they’ll work to make sure it’s large enough to meet the minimum requirements for hosting Big Ten championships in those sports. Beyond that, he envisions a multi-use space that can also host the state finals in a number of Michigan High School Athletic Association sports, as well as concerts and other events in the Lansing area.

Click here for the complete story.

Hermosa Beach photo gallery

The not-AVP Hermosa Beach Open was this past weekend. In case you missed it, check out the results and a fantastic photo gallery:

Queens & Kings of the Court Utrecht 2024

The next Queens & Kings of the Court stop is in Miami in two weeks, but this past weekend in the Netherlands, Alejandro Huerta of Spain and Christoph Dressler of Austria and Katja Stam of the Netherlands and Laura Ludwig of Germany were the winners. 

In this special edition of the competition, which organizers called “The Ultimate Mashup,” players were only allowed to partner with someone of a different nationality.

Huerta and Dressler beat Latvia’s Martins Plavins and Frederick Bialoakosz of England in the men’s final. Stam and Ludwig beat Stam’s usual partner, Raisa School, and Spain’s Daniela Alvarez, the Olympian from TCU.

Click here for the recap. Click here for information about the event at Miami Beach’s Lummus Park on Ocean Drive September 27-29.

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