Third-ranked Wisconsin won at No. 14 Penn State in an epic — that might be redundant when talking about the Big Ten these days — five-set battle.
Top-ranked Texas fought off No. 15 Baylor to win the Big 12 title and the NCAA Tournament bid that goes with it.
Second-ranked San Diego did the same in the West Coast Conference when it won at Pepperdine.
No. 16 Marquette not only beat No. 11 Creighton, it swept the visiting Bluejays. The Big East co-champions will likely play against next Saturday for the conference tournament title.
In the SEC, No. 10 Florida swept visiting No. 18 Kentucky to take the SEC lead. They play again Sunday.
There were also seven conference tournament titles — and the NCAA Division I Tournament bids that go with them — claimed on Saturday with 11 more to go Sunday. Read all about them here.
The regular-season recaps and top performances follow, but first a look at Sunday’s schedule:
The battle for the top continues in the Big Ten when No. 5 Ohio State is home for Indiana, No. 6 Nebraska is home for No. 19 Purdue, No. 9 Minnesota goes to Rutgers, Iowa is at Illinois and Michigan State is at Northwestern.
There’s a full slate in the Pac-12, including No. 12 Oregon home for USC, No. 21 Washington ho home for Utah and No. 25 Washington State home for Colorado. Arizona State is at Cal and UCLA is at Oregon State.
In the SEC, where Florida at Kentucky are back at it in Gainesivlle, Mississippi State is at Tennessee, Alabama is at Arkansas and Texas A&M is at Missouri.
There are two ACC matches when Miami goes to Duke and Wake Forest is at Virginia.
Hawai’i can clinch the Big West title and the NCAA bid when it plays host to CSU Bakersfield.
Both ranked American Athletic teams play when No. 23 Houston is home for third-place SMU and No. 24 UCF goes to Temple. Houston has won 18 in a row and holds a one-game lead over UCF. SMU is two games behind UCF, so it still has a chance to finish second.
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BIG TEN: Wisconsin (23-3, 17-1) won 25-19, 22-25, 25-23, 18-25, 15-12 at Penn State (22-7, 11-7) and it was every bit as competitive as the scoreline indicates.
And Wisconsin middle Danielle Hart was remarkable. She had 13 kills with no errors in 20 attacks, four match in a row without an error. Hart also had eight blocks and two digs. Devyn Robinson had 17 kills, hit .308 and had a dig and nine blocks, one solo. Kashauna Williams had 18 kills to lead Penn State, but hit .087 to go with two aces, four digs and two blocks, one solo. Allie Holland had 15 kills with one error in 30 swings to hit .467 and had an ace, four blocks and a dig …
Michigan (16-12, 7-11) won 26-28, 25-22, 25-23, 25-11 at Maryland (15-15, 6-12) behind 18 kills from Jess Mruzik, who had an ace, three solo blocks and 10 digs. Hannah Grant had 25 digs, eight assists and five of her team’s 10 aces. Maryland’s Sam Csire had 15 kills, two aces, a solo block and five digs.
BIG 12: Texas beat visiting Baylor 25-19, 19-25, 25-23, 25-23 to improve to 22-1 and at 14-1 clinched its sixth conference title in a row. Madisen Skinner had 16 kils, an assist, a block and eight digs. Logan Eggleston had 14 kills, hit .321 and had two ace, two blocks and two digs, and Molly Phillips also had 14 kills as she hit .414 and had two blocks. Asjia O’Neal had nine kills, hit .300 and had two aces, five digs and five blocks. Baylor (22-6, 11-4) got 15 kills from Elise McGhee, who hit .400 and had four blocks and a dig …
Kansas (18-9, 8-7) beat visiting Iowa State (18-11, 9-6) in five as Ayah Elnady had 19 kills, two assists, four aces, two blocks and 18 digs … Texas Tech (15-12, 4-10) swept visiting West Virginia (7-21, 0-15) … TCU (15-10, 10-4) beat visiting Kansas State (140-13, 5-9) in four as Audrey Nalls had 14 kills, an assist and 17 digs. Jalyn Gibson had 11 kills, hit .320 and had an assist, three digs and seven blocks, one solo. The 10 victories are the most for TCU since it joined the Big 12 11 years ago.
SEC: Florida (21-4, 13-2) broke its tie with Kentucky (17-7, 12-3) by sweeping the visiting Wildcats 25-18, 25-21, 25-21. Sofia Victoria led a balanced attack with 13 kills. She hit .579 after having two errors in 19 atacks and added a block and a two digs …
Arkansas (17-8, 8-7) swept Alabama (9-18, 3-12), Missouri (9-16, 2-13) brokes its seven-match losing streak and swept visiting Texas A&M (12-16, 4-13), Tennessee (15-12, 9-6) swept visiting Mississippi State (13-12, 6-9) and Georgia (20-7, 11-5) beat visiting Ole Miss (11-15, 7-9) in five. Kacie Evans had 21 kills, three assists, four aces, six blocks and 11 digs.
WCC: San Diego (26-1, 17-0) not only won its 23rd in a row, the Toreros clinched the league title with their 22-25, 25-19, 25-20, 25-20 victory at Pepperdine (18-10, 9-8). Katie Lukes led with 16 kills and hit .452 after having two errors in 31 attacks. She had two assists, two blocks and five digs. Breana Edwards had 14 kills and Gabby Blossom had a kill, 47 assists, 10 digs and five blocks, one solo. Her team hit .307. San Diego goes to BYU for the regular-season finale but has an unsurmountable two-game lead. Pepperdine got 15 kills each from Grace Chillingsworth and Meg Brown and 14 from Emily Hellmuth. Brownh had one error in 24 attacks …
BYU (21-5, 14-2) won 25-20, 25-20, 14-25, 25-23 at Loyola Marymount (17-9, 12-5). Erin Livingston led with `9 kils and Heather Gneiting and Elyse Stowall had 12 each … Saint Mary’s swept visiting Portland and Pacific won in four over visiting Gonzaga.
AROUND THE NATION: In the lone Pac-12 match, No. 8 Stanford (22-4, 17-1) swept visiting Arizona (15-14, 5-13) for its 16th win in a row. Kendall Kipp had 17 kills, hit .316 and had two assists, three blocks and seven digs …
In the ACC, NC State swept visiting Notre Dame and Boston College beat visiting Virginia Tech in five …
The Big Sky finished its regular season. League-leading Northern Colorado swept at Idaho. The tournament starts Wednesday
The Mountain West tournament starts Wednesday and UNLV will go in on a 17-match winning streak. The Rebels hit a remarkable .509 as they beat Colorado State in four to end their regular season. UNLV had 64 kills and eight errors in 110 attacks. CSU lost despite hitting .340 …
The Summit League tournament starts Thursday. The regular-season ended with first-place South Dakota sweeping North Dakota. NCAA kills leader Elizabeth Juhnke had 15 kills, hit .316 and had 12 digs and three blocks, one solo.
JUNAIATA WINS DIII: The top-seeded Eagles from Pennsylvania beat third-seeded Trinity of Austin, Texas, 25-17, 25-11, 25-23 to win the NCAA Division III title. Juniata, which previously won in 2004 and 2006, won the Landmark conference and finishd 31-1. Trinity, from tjhe SCAC, ended 30-5. That lone loss for Juniata was at Trinity on September 16.
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