NCAA VOLLEYBALL FANS! There is no paywall at VolleyballMag.com. Keep free volleyball journalism free by becoming a VolleyballMag.com Sustaining Member: https://volleyballmag.com/sustaining-membership/
Or make a contribution through Venmo @VolleyballMag
You may have heard this before, but be prepared. It was Friday in NCAA volleyball, when seemingly anything can and will happen.
Maryland dealt a tremendous blow to Ohio State’s chances of being a top-four NCAA Tournament seed Friday by breaking the visiting No. 5 Buckeyes’ 14-match Big Ten winning streak.
Fourth-ranked Louisville not only avenged its AC loss earlier in the season, it swept visiting No. 7 Pittsburgh
Colorado helped its NCAA at-large chances by sweeping at No. 21 Washington in the Pac-12.
There were upsets galore in the mid-major tournaments going on around the country with NCAA bigs at stake.
And Coppin State’s Andrea Tsvetanova, the national aces leader, tied the NCAA record for aces in a three-set match with 15 as the Eagles won their MEAC tourney match over South Carolina State.
There were two coaching changes announced. NIU will replace Ray Gooden after 21 years, and IUPUI will do the same with Lindsey Froehlich, who was head coach for almost four years.
The recaps and top performances follow, but first a look at Saturday’s NCAA Division I schedule that includes three big regular-season showdowns, one in the Big 12, one in the SEC and another in the Big East.
Automatic NCAA bids will be captured in the following conferences:
— ASUN, top-seeded Liberty vs. No. 2 FGCU;
— CAA, top-seeded Towson vs. No. 3 Delaware;
— Ivy, top-seeded Yale vs. No. 3 Brown;
— MAAC, top-seeded Fairfield vs. No. 6 Quinnipiac;
— NEC, top-seeded Sacred Heart vs. No. 3 FDU;
— Ohio Valley, No. 5 Southeast Missouri vs. No. 6 Tennessee State
— WAC, No. 2 Stephen F. Austin vs. No. 4 Utah Valley
Both ranked teams play in the Conference USA semifinals when top-seeded and No. 20 Western Kentucky plays North Texas and No. 22 Rice faces UTEP.
The America East semifinals get underway with top-seeded and host Binghamton playing New Hampshire and UMBC playing Bryant.
The Atlantic 10 semifinals have top-seeded Loyola Chicago playing George Washington and Davidson playing Dayton.
In the Big South, the top-seeded Fighting Camels of Campbell play Charleston Southern and High Point plays Winthrop.
The Horizon League semifinals pit top-seeded Wright State against Cleveland State and Northern Kentucky vs. Green Bay.
The Patriot League semifinals have No. 1 Colgate playing Loyola Maryland and Army West Point facing Navy.
The SWAC has Alabama State playing Jackson State and Bethune-Cookman playing Florida A&M.
The SoCon semifinals show Chattanooga playing eighth-seeded Furman and Samford vs. Western Carolina.
The Southland semifinals have McNeese vs. Southeastern Louisiana and Northwestern State vs. HCU.
The Sun Belt division winners play in semifinal matches when James Madison takes on Troy and Texas State plays South Alabama.
The MAC and Missouri Valley tournaments get under way Sunday.
In regular-season play, there is not time for a hangover for the home teams in the two Big Ten matches as No. 3 Wisconsin goes to No. 14 Penn State and Michigan is at Maryland.
Eighth-ranked Stanford plays the only Pac-12 match when the Cardinal is home for Arizona.
There are four Big 12 matches, including No. 1 Texas playing host to No 15 Baylor, Iowa State at Kansas, West Virginia at Texas Tech and Kansas State at TCU.
The two powers in the SEC face off in Florida when No. 18 Kentucky visits the No. 10 Gators for back to back matches. Also int the SEC, Alabama is at Arkansas, Texas A&M is at Missouri, Mississippi State is at Tennessee and Ole Miss is back at Georgia.
The Big East rematch of the perennial leaders takes place in Milwaukee when No. 11 Creighton goes to No. 16 Marquette. Creighton won their first match in five on October 16 in Omaha.
The battle for the top continues in the West Coast Conference when No. 2 San Diego plays at Pepperdine and No. 17 BYU is at Loyola Marymount.
There are two ACC matches when Virginia Tech goes to Boston College and Notre Dame goes to NC State.
UNLV goes for its 17th Mountain West win in a row when the Rebels finish the regular season at home against Colorado State.
Want to watch a match? We have the viewing links on the VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings page.
ACC: Louisville (25-2, 16-1) bolstered its case to be a top-four NCAA seed as the Cardinals swept visiting Pittsburgh 25-15, 25-21, 25-18. Louisville, which hit .309, got 13 kills from Claire Chaussee, who had three aces, a block and three digs. Pittsburgh (25-3, 15-1) hit .088 …
No,. 13 Georgia Tech (19-6, 12-4) hit .475 and swept Clemson (13-16, 4-13). GT had 43 kills and five errors in 80 attacks. Julia Bergmann had 13 kills with one error in 24 swings, an assist, two aces and eight digs … Florida State (18-9, 10-6) beat visiting North Carolina (15-12, 7-9) in four as Emily Ryan, who had six blocks, Audrey Koenig, who had 19 digs, and Khori Louis, who had six blocks, had 11 kills each … Miami (18-9, 11-5) swept visiting Syracuse (11-16, 7-10) for its fifth win in a row. Angela Grieve led with 19 kills, hit .389 and had an assist, two aces, six digs and three blocks, one solo
BIG TEN: Ohio State (19-6, 15-2) was as hot as any team in the country and hadn’t lost since September 24. Maryland had lost four of five. No matter, because anything can happen in the Big Ten.
The Terps (15-14, 6-11) stunned visiting Ohio State 16-25, 25-15, 25-18, 25-18.
Sam Csire led Maryland with 22 kills, an assist and seven digs. Her teammates combined for 27 kills and the Terps hit .226. Ohio State, which dropped out of a tie for first in the B1G, hit .155. Gabby Gonzalez led wit 15 kills, two assists, a solo block and 11 digs. Jenaisya Moore had 13 kills and Emily Londot 10, but she hit negative …
Thrid-ranked Wisconsin (22-3, 16-1) is alone in first after sweeping at Rutgers (8-21, 2-15) as the Badgers hit .323 in the 25-13, 26-24, 25-10 victory. Julia Orzol led with 13 kills as she hit .379 and had two assists, an ace, five blocks and eight digs …
Sixth-ranked Nebraska (23-3, 15-2) hit .330 and swept at Iowa (8-20, 2-15). Madi Kubik had 14 kills and hit .407 in the 25-14, 25-17, 25-14 victory. Iowa hit .093 …
No. 14 Penn State (22-6, 11-6) beat visiting No. 9 Minnesota (17-8, 12-5) 25-18, 25-18, 20-25, 27-25. Kashauna Williams had 20 kills, hit .368 and added a block and two digs …
No. 19 Purdue (19-8, 10-7) beat visiting Michigan (15-12, 6-11) in four as Eva Hudson had 15 kills and hit .326 in the 25-23, 23-25, 25-21, 25-22 victory. She added two blocks and seven digs. Raven Colvin had 11 kills, hit .364 and had nine blocks, two solo …
Indiana (14-15, 7-10) won 25-20, 21-25, 25-22, 16-25, 15-13 over visiting Northwestern (17-12, 6-11). Mady Saris had 17 kills for the Hoosers to go with assist, an ace, four digs and three blocks, two solo. The good news for Northwestern, which has lost five in a row, was it got 20 kills from Temi Thomas-Ailara and injured setter Alexa Roussea returned and had seven kills, hit .389, and had 39 assists, two aces, 13 digs and five blocks, one solo …
Illinois (14-13, 9-8) beat visiting Michigan State (11-17, 2-15) in four. Raina Terry had 19 kills, an ace, four blocks and nine digs.
PAC-12: Colorado (18-9, 10-7) hit .347 and won 25-21, 26-24, 25-20 at Washington (18-9, 10-7). Lexi Hadrych had 13 kills with two errors in 23 attacks to hit .423 and added a solo block and a dig. Maya Tabron had 11 kills with one error in 27 attacks and Meegan Hart had eight kills with one error in 14 swings. Washington, which has lost four of six, got 16 kills from Claire Hoffman, who hit .378 …
No. 12 Oregon (20-5, 14-3) won its 10th in a row, a 25-18, 25-27, 16-25, 25-22, 15-10 victory over visiting UCLA (14-12, 8-9). Brooke Nuneviller had 19 kills, two assists, an ace, two blocks and 10 digs. Mimi Colher had 17 kills, an assist, two aces, two blocks and 19 digs, and Gloria Mutiri had 15 kills with no errors in 33 attacks to go with three blocks and five digs. UCLA’s Charitie Luper had 15 kills, two assists, a solo block and 12 digs …
USC (20-8, 12-5) swept at Oregon State (7-20, 2-15) as the Trojans hit .357 … Washington State (20-8, 12-5) hit .354 and swept visiting Utah (15-13, 8-9) as Pia Timmer had 16 kills with three errors in 33 attacks, six digs and a solo block.
ASUN: Top-seeded Liberty (23-7) escaped fourth-seeded Lipscomb (16-13) 17-25, 25-16, 24-26, 25-20, 15-13 and second-seeded FGCU (25-6) hit .352 as it ousted sixth-seeded Kennesaw State (18-10) 25-20, 21-25, 25-18, 25-11. Kamryn Bacus had 23 kills for Liberty, which won its 12th in a row, to go with nine digs and four blocks. FGCU’s Lily Felts and Lauren Clark had 16 kills apiece. FGCU has won nine in a row. In their regular-season meeting Liberty beat FGCU in four.
ATLANTIC 10: Fourth-seeded George Washington beat No. 5 Saint Louis in four as Liv Womble had 20 kllls with one error in 36 attacks. GW plays top-seeded Loyola Chicago in the semifinals. In the other match, third-seeded Dayton beat No. 6 VCU in four and plays second-seeded Davidson. Lexie Almodovar had 17 kills for the Flyers, hit .318, and had an assist, an ace, a block and eight digs.
CONFERENCE USA: WKU and Rice are a match away from another battle. WKU hit .432 and advanced by sweeping Middle Tennessee, North Texas beat UAB in five, Rice swept FIU and UTEP swept Charlotte. WKU’s Paige Briggs hit .591 after having 15 kills with two errors in 22 attacks to go with two assists, two aces, a solo block and six digs. Lauren Matthews had 10 kills with two errors in 16 attakcs and three blocks. Rice’s Saharaa Maruska had 17 kills, hit .359 and had two assists, four blocks and six digs. UNT’s Treyaunna Rush had 17 kills, three digs and five blocks, and UAB’s Maia Rackel had 22 kills.
CAA: Towson (28-1) plays Delaware (17-10) for the NCAA bid. Towson swept Northeastern and Delaware got past upstart William & Mary in five, winning 16-14 after trailing 14-13 in the fifth. Victoria Barrett had 15 kills for Towson to go with an assist, nine digs and four blocks, one solo. Host Towson had 17 blocks and Northeastern hit .034. Lani Mason had 24 kills for Delaware despite hitting .129. She had an assist, four blocks and 18 digs. Towson swept both matches at Delaware in back-to-back meetings in early October.
HORIZON: Top-seeded Wright State, which has won 21 in a row, and second-seeded Northern Kentucky were already into the semifinals. In Friday’s action, third-seeded Green Bay ousted sixth-seeded Youngstown State and fourth-seeded Cleveland State beat fifth-seeded Milwaukee. Alexandra Zakutney had 22 kills for Green Bay against Youngstown State, which was without injured Paula Gursching, No. 2 in the nation in kills. Zakutney hit .471 and had two assists, an ace, three blocks ans seven digs. Cleveland State’s Laken Voss had 14 kills, six digs and a block
IVY: Yale and Princeton tied for the regular-season title, but won play in the final of the inaugural Ivy tournament. That’s because third-seeded Brown (15-9) swept Princeton (21-4) — 30-28 in the third — as Sophia Miller had 13 kills and Kayla Griebel 12. Yale (22-2) advanced with a sweep of Dartmouth (16-9). In their regular-season meetings, Yale won in five at Brown on September 23 and then beat the Bears in four at Yale on October 28.
MAAC: Top-seeded Fairfield (25-6) advanced with a four-set win over Siena (13-17) as KJ Johnson had 20 kills, an assist, 12 digs and three blocks, one solo. Sixth-seeded Quinnipiac (13-14) swept seventh-seeded Rider (11-20) as Ginvera Giovagnoni had 15 kills, hit .375 and had two assists and 12 digs. In their regular-season meetings, Fairfield swept both times.
MEAC: The quarterfinal winners were Delaware State, Howard, Maryland Eastern Shore, and Coppin State. Coppin’s Andrea Tsvetanova, the NCAA’s leader in service aces, tied the NCAA three-set record for aces in a match with 15 to go along with 28 assists and five digs. Her 15 aces was the most by an NCAA Division I player this season.
Howard plays Delaware State and Coppin plays UMES.
NEC: Top-seeded Sacred Heart had to go five to beat LIU and third-seeded FDU (16-15) knocked off second-seeded Saint Francis (12-16) in four. Camryn Lugenbill had 20 kills and hit .356 for Sacred Heart and Karolina Nova had 19 kills for LIU. Sacred Heart, which had won 12 in a row before losing its regular-season finale to Saint Francis, beat FDU in five and then won in a sweep.
OVC: Either way, there will be a surprise winner.
Fifth-seeded Southeast Missouri (17-15) advanced by knocking off top-seeded UT Martin (22-11) in five, while sixth-seeded Tennessee State beat seventh-seeded Lindenwood in five. SEMO got 21 kills apiece from Kayla Closset and Zoey Beasley. Lizzy Lukens had two kills, 45 assists, an ace, 20 digs and block. Johanna Alcantara had 22 kills and hit .320 for Tennessee State to go with two digs and two blocks. In the regular season, Southeast Missouri beat TSU in back-to-back matches in late September, first in a sweep and then in five.
SWAC: In quarterfinal action, Alabama State swept Alabama A&M, Jackson State beat Texas Southern in four, Florida A&M swept Arkansas-Pine Bluff, and Bethune-Cookman beat Grambling in five.
Alabama State plays Jackson State and Bethune-Cookman faces FAMU.
SOUTHERN: The tournament got turned upside down when eighth-seeded Furman knocked off top-seeded ETSU.
Furman plays fourth-seeded Chattanooga and second-seeded Samford plays No. 3 Western Carolina.
Host Furman (10-18), which opened with a play-in victory over UNCG, beat ETSU (21-8) in four. ETSU went 15-1 in in the regular season, which included beating Furman twice. Morgan Cobb had a career-high 15 kills for Furman and hit .344 to go with four digs and two blocks.
Natalie Tylson had 25 kills as Chattanooga (17-15) held off two match points in the third set and pulled off a reverse sweep and beat fifth-seeded Wofford (16-13) in five. Tyson had two aces, a block and 15 digs in the 21-25, 21-25, 27-25, 25-21, 15-8 victory. Samford (17-12) beat The Citadel (11-19) also in five as Gracie Lynn Butler had 21 kills, hit .452 and had an assist, an ace, 17 digs and five blocks, one solo. WCU (18-11) swept Mercer (10-19). Bailey Hartsough had 12 kills with one error in 22 attacks, two assists and 12 digs.
SOUTHLAND: Northwestern State beat Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in five and McNeese swept Texas A&M-Commerce.
TAMUCC’s Leah Stoltus had 25 kills in the loss as she hit .478.
SUN BELT: James Madison hit .317 and swept Georgia Southern and will play Troy, which got past Arkansas State in five. Texas State beat Louisiana in four and plays South Alabama, which swept Coastal Carolina. Tori Hester had 19 kills for Troy.
WAC: Stephen F. Austin advanced by beating Grand Canyon, while Utah Valley upset the home team and top-seeded UTRGV.
SFA (25-4) beat GCU in four as four players had 11 or more kills, 18 by Ielan Bradley, who had four blocks. GCU’s Ashley Lifgren had 20 kills.
In Utah Valley’s sweep, the Wolverines (18-10) got 12 kills apiece from Kazna Tanuvasa and Avery Shewell.
Utah Valley beat SFA in four in their only meeting on October 15.
AROUND THE NATION: Both Big East powers won Friday, setting up Saturday’s match at Marquette. Creighton swept at DePaul 27-25, 25-14, 25-20 for its 17th win in a row, while Marquette beat visiting Xavier in four for its 10th in a row as four players had 10 or more kills, 15 by Aubrey Hamilton, who hit .353 and had a block and 11 digs and 14 by Ella Foti, who hit .423 and had two aces, three digs and three blocks, one solo …
The top three teams in the American Athletic swept as No. 23 Houston beat Memphis for its program-record 18th victory in a row, No. 24 UCF won at East Carolina and SMU won at Tulane. UCF, which hit .324, got 22 kills kills from McKenna Melville, who added an assist, two aces, 14 digs and three blocks, one solo …
Northern Colorado had to pull a reverse sweep to win in five at Eastern Washington to capture the Big Sky regular-season title. UNC, which won its 10th in a row, got 17 kills from Kailey Jo Ince, who hit .317 and had an assist, two aces and 12 digs, and 16 kills from Rachel Hickman, who hit .367 and had three digs and two blocks, one solo … Portland State, which finished two games back, won in five at Sacramento State as Parker Webb had 23 kills, hitting .400, and Makayla Lewis had 22 kills …
Hawai’i beat visiting Cal Poly 16-25, 25-12, 25-16, 25-23 to maintain its Big West lead of two games with three to play. The Rainbow Wahine, playing before their largest crowd of the season, 6,674, won their ninth in a row as they got 17 kills from Amber Igiede, who hit .355 and had an assist, two aces, four digs and five blocks, two solo …
In the only SEC match, Georgia beat visiting Ole Miss in four.
Credit : Source link
