Nebraska and Creighton put on a fabulous early season NCAA volleyball show as the Huskers prevailed in five, the only upset of Tuesday was by SMU over Baylor, and Cal’s Maggie Lee, the 2023 Pac-12 (remember the Pac-12?) freshman of the year had 28 kills in a win over Saint Mary’s.
There are some big intriguing matches Wednesday and MIVA, the men’s volleyball conference, announced its hall of fame class.
Three top matches highlight Wednesday’s slate
There are only 11 matches on Wednesday’s NCAA Division I schedule, but three are well worth watching, starting with new No. 1 Pittsburgh at No. 23 USC. Pitt is just 3-0, with sweeps of Oregon, Long Beach State and Buffalo. USC (3-1) split with Pepperdine to open the season, lost in four at Creighton and then beat Kansas State in four. That match is at 6 p.m. Pacific and marks the Big Ten Network debut of volleyball-announcing icon Paul Sunderland.
Sixth-ranked Texas (2-2), coming off that loss to Miami, is home for Houston, 3-1 and always a tough out. That one starts at 8 p.m. Central and is on ESPN2.
No. 13 Florida (5-1) is at No. 15 Georgia Tech (4-1), and precedes Texas-Houston on ESPN2.
Second-ranked Stanford (5-0) goes to the aforementioned Pepperdine (1-3). The Waves, after losing the two to USC, split at Hawai’i. That one is on ESPN+.
Western Michigan at Michigan State and Northern Colorado at Colorado should be good ones, and so could Iowa at Iowa State. Also on tap are Liberty vs NC State, Binghamton vs. Hofstra, Bryant vs. Holy Cross and Omaha vs. Long Beach State.
Nebraska holds off Creighton in five
The Big Ten Network got all it could ask for as Nebraska of the Big Ten defeated visiting Creighton of the Big East 25-19, 25-16, 31-33, 16-25, 15-10 in the big Cornhusker State annual battle.
The Huskers (6-1), with five players with nine or more kills, hit .2234 and had two aces and nine serving errors. Creighton (5-1) hit .209 and had four aces and 15 errors.
Norah Sis did nothing to hurt her national player-of-the-year chances as the Creighton outside led with 24 kills, an assist, four blocks and 11 digs. Ava Martin had 17 kills, an assist, an ace, 17 digs and three blocks, one solo.Â
But in the fifth set, the Bluejays were no match for Nebraska, which bolted to a 5-1 lead and was in command the rest of the way. The Huskers hit .444 in the fifth.
Harper Murray led Nebraska with 16 kills, an ace, four block and 14 digs. Lindsay Krause had 15 kills, an assist, an ace, five blocks and five digs. Andi Jackson, who hit .379, had eight blocks. Bergen Reilly had a career-high 57 assists to go with three kills in nine errorless tries, three blocks and 13 digs. Lexi Rodriguez had 21 digs and four assists. Creighton libero counterpart Maddy Bilinovic had 19 digs and five assists.
Click here for the Nebraska recap, and here for the Creighton recap.
Around the nation in NCAA volleyball
There were six other ranked teams in action and all but No. 23 Baylor — knocked off by SMU — won, although No. 16 Tennessee had to go the distance to beat Western Kentucky.
Second-ranked Stanford improved to 5-0 with a 25-22, 25-20, 21-25, 25-15 at UC Santa Barbara as Sami Francis had nine kills with no errors in 16 attacks and 10 blocks, one solo …Â
No. 8 Wisconsin got a big boost from Julia Orzol, back on the front row, in a 25-13, 25-13, 25-14 victory over visiting Milwaukee, which hit .049. Orzol had 14 kills with one error in 19 attacks, two aces, four blocks and seven digs …Â
Tennessee won 25-22, 15-25, 25-12, 23-25, 15-11 at Western Kentucky as Nina Cajic had 17 kills, five blocks and 13 digs and Paityn Chapman had 15 kills, hit .364, and had eight digs and five blocks, one solo. Kaylee Cox led WKU with 18 kills, two aces, 10 digs and two blocks, one solo …Â
No. 19 Minnesota thumped visiting St. Thomas, which hit .034, 25-20, 25-16, 25-21. Lydia Grote, who had 10 kills, had eight blocks …Â
No. 21 Florida State hit .384 and won at North Florida 25-13, 20-25, 25-9, 25-16 as Khouri Louis had 13 kills with one error in 20 swings and four blocks and Audrey Koenig had 12 kills in 21 errorless attacks and three blocks …Â
Up-and-down SMU, which last week upset then-No. 2 Nebraska, swept at Baylor. Both teams are 5-0 after the 25-21, 25-15, 25-16 outcome. Naya Shime continued her strong start to the season with 19 kills, hitting .452, to go with four blocks and six digs. Baylor hit .020 …Â
The line of the day went to Cal’s Maggie Li, who had 28 kills in the Bears’ 25-13, 23-25, 25-22, 26-28, 15-10 victory over Saint Mary’s. Li hit .328 and had two assists, an ace, a block and 10 digs. Li is averaging 4.59 kills per set in seven matches. Denver-transfer Gianna Bartolo had 24 digs and five assists …Â
Cicily Hildago had 17 kills with one error in 38 attacks for Southeastern Louisiana in four-set win over South Alabama. She had two aces, nine digs and two blocks … Rutgers swept LIU and Alissa Kinkela had 15 kills, hit .343, and added six digs and four blocks … East Carolina improved to 7-0 with a five-set win over Campbell as Fran McBride had 16 kills, hit .448, and had two digs and four blocks … Fataima Ramirez had 23 kills for Alabama A&M in a sweep of West Georgia … American improved to 8-1 with a five-set win over Howard, which got 23 kills from Rya McKinnon. AU’s Zedo Yilmaz, a freshman outside from Istanbul, had 18 kills, four aces, 23 digs and three blocks, one solo …Â
My Salukis beat UT Martin in five as Evan Krakowski had 17 kills and hit .412 for Southern Illinois to go with four digs and eight blocks, two solo … Troy hit .353 in a sweep of Alabama State … Mercer is 6-1 after a four-set win over Kennesaw State … Denver beat Air Force in four and Molly Mirabelli had 12 kills with one error in 18 swings and seven blocks, one solo … Julia Ng had 25 digs and two assists in a four-set win for UC Davis over Sacramento State … Coppin State had five players with 10 or more kills in a five-set win over Penn … and Hawai’i beat visiting Texas State in four as Caylen Alexander had 20 kills, four assists, an ace, 10 digs and four blocks.
MIVA announces fifth Hall of Fame class
The inductees will be Suguru Furuichi, Pete Hanson, Angel Aja, Dave Jandasek and John Loftus of Ohio State; Greg Romano of Ball State, and Fred Malcolm and Hector Soto of IPFW, which is now Purdue Fort Wayne.
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