Volleyball Today: Wins for Pitt, Oregon, ASU, UCLA; international women’s update
Top-ranked Pittsburgh stayed unbeaten with a sweep of visiting SMU, No. 14 in the VolleyballMag Super 16 Media Poll, No. 11 Oregon swept No. 16 USC, No. 12 Arizona State defeated Arizona in four, and UCLA knocked off AVCA No. 24 Washington on Wednesday in NCAA Division I volleyball.
We’ve got the key results and top performances, a look at Thursday’s schedule, and an update on top USA players playing professionally in this edition of Volleyball Today.
NCAA volleyball Thursday
There are three Big 12 matches involving four ranked teams. Eighth-ranked Kansas, the only team without a league loss at 12-1, 3-0, goes to West Virginia (6-9, 0-4). No. 17 TCU (11-3, 3-1) is at Utah, which is not ranked but stands 13-2 and is also 3-1. No. 18 Baylor (10-4, 2-1) goes to No. 23 BYU (9-6, 2-2) and Kansas State (4-9, 2-2) plays at Cincinnati (11-3, 2-1).
The lone Big Ten match has Ohio State (7-7, 0-4) at Northwestern (3-9, 1-3).
The ACC and SEC are idle.
South Dakota State (14-0, 3-0 Summit League), the only other team besides Pitt without a loss, is home for Omaha (5-9, 3-0) in a battle of conference leaders. Third-place North Dakota State (6-6, 2-1) is at Kansas City (3-11, 1-2).
First-place Pepperdine is idle, but second-place San Francisco (10-5, 3-0) plays a West Coast Conference match at Portland (9-5, 2-2), while San Diego (8-6, 3-1) plays at Loyola Marymount (11-4, 3-1) and Washington State (8-5, 3-1) is at Pacific (11-5, 1-3).
UT Arlington (14-2, 4-0), the only WAC team without a league loss, is home for Seattle U, while the two of the three teams tied for second place go at it when Grand Canyon (10-5, 3-1) is at Utah Tech (9-5, 3-1). Southern Utah (7-8, 3-1) is home for California Baptist.
Bowling Green (10-6, 5-0), the only MAC team without a league loss, is home for Eastern Michigan (13-4, 4-1), one of three teams tied for second. Central Michigan (13-4, 4-1) is at Toledo, while Buffalo (8-10, 4-1) is off.
Southeastern Louisiana (13-4, 5-0), tied with idle Stephen F. Austin (13-5, 5-0) atop the Southland Conference, is home for Nicholls.
Georgia Southern (12-1, 2-0) puts its 11-match winning streak on the line in a Sun Belt Conference match against visiting Troy. GSU is tied atop the East Division at 2-0, while Texas State leads the West at 4-0.
SoCon-leading Mercer (13-3, 3-0) goes to Samford (9-5, 3-1).
Tennesse Tech (15-1, 4-0) is the only team unbeaten in Ohio Valley Conference play and has won five in a row. The Golden Eagles play at Lindenwood (10-7, 4-1), which is tied with idle Southeast Missouri (7-10, 4-1) for second place.
NCAA volleyball Wednesday
Olivia Babcock, the 2023 VolleyballMag national freshman of the year, did nothing to hurt her 2024 national player of the year chances as she led Pitt (15-0. 5-0) to a 25-17, 25-18, 25-9 ACC blasting of visiting SMU (12-4, 4-1). The Panthers hit .427.
Babock had a season-high 18 kills — 12 in the second set — and hit .571 with two errors in 28 attacks and continued her serving onslaught with four more aces. Babcock, who had 12 aces this past Sunday at Boston College, also had three blocks and seven digs. Torrey Stafford had 13 kills with two errors in 23 attacks to hit .423 and had four assists, a block and six digs. Valeria Vazquez-Gomez had six kills, an assist, three of Pitt’s 10 aces, 14 digs and two blocks, one solo, and Rachel Fairbanks had two kills in four errorless tries, 37 assists, an ace, a block and seven digs.
SMU’s Natalie Foster had five kills in 12 errorless attacks, but her teammates combined for 20 kills and 15 errors as the Mustangs hit .109 …
Oregon (12-2, 4-1 Big Ten) swept visiting USC (11-4, 3-2) 25-18, 27-25, 25-19. Mimi Colyer had 17 kills with one error in 37 attacks to hit .432 and had nine digs and two blocks, one solo. Mackenzie Morris had 16 digs and three assists. Ally Batenhorst had 11 kills for USC …
Arizona State (15-2, 4-1 Big 12) won 25-20, 23-25, 31-29, 25-15 at Arizona (12-4, 1-4) as the two former Pac-12 teams played their first Big 12 match against each other. Geli Cyr led ASU with 23 kills, hitting .302, and had a block and 17 digs. Mary Shroll had 32 digs and five assists and Argentina Ung had four kills, 42 assists, three blocks and 20 digs. Arizona’s Jaelyn Hodge had 20 kills, two assists, an ace, four blocks and 13 digs …
UCLA (8-6, 2-3 Big Ten) won 25-27, 26-24, 25-22, 25-23 at Washington (13-2 3-2). Cheridyn Leverette led the Bruins with 18 kills and hit .348 to go with three blocks and two digs. Grayce Olson had 16 kills, hit .483, and added an assist, three aces four blocks and five digs. Peyton Dueck had 18 digs and two assists and Audrey Pak had three kills, 51 assists, two aces, a block and five digs. Emoni Bush, who hit .393, and Audra Wilmes had 13 kills each for Washington …
Temple of the American Athletic got 25 kills from Sydney Jones in its five-set win over Binghamton of the America East. Jones hit .327 and had 10 digs. Teammate Taylor Davenport had 21 kills, two assists, an ace, three digs and two blocks, one solo. Binghamton’s Tsvetelina Ilieva had 21 kills, six digs and three blocks … Eastern Kentucky swept its ASUN match with Bellarmine as AG Vandagriff had 10 kills with one error in 18 attacks and two blocks and Jose Schmitendorf had 16 digs, four assists and three aces … New Hampshire of the America East swept visiting High Point of the Big South as Kelly Kaufmann had 13 kills with no errors in 20 attacks to hit .650 and added two blocks …
In Rhode Island’s Atlantic 10 sweep of Fordham, Havyn Rolle had 11 kills, hit .500, and had an ace, four digs and seven blocks, two solo … Houston held on for a five-set Big 12 victory over visiting Iowa State as Angela Grieve had 21 kills, an ace, nine digs and four blocks, one solo. Katie Corelli had 17 kills, hit .394, and had a dig and a block and Kate Georgiades had 26 digs, nine assists and an ace. Iowa State’s Faith DeRonde had 17 kills and Lilly Wachholz had 16 … UConn swept Providence in the Big East and Hanna Tylska had 11 kills with one error in 24 attacks …
UTEP improved to 16-2, 6-0 in Conference USA with a four-set win over visiting NM State as Kaya Weaver had 12 kills with one error in 17 swings to hit .647. She had four blocks, one solo … Kennesaw State came away with a five-set CUSA victory at Jacksonville State. JSU’s Kayla Williams had 22 kills, two assists, nine digs and two blocks … Also in CUSA, Western Kentucky beat Middle Tennessee in four as Kaylee Cox had 15 kills, hit .382, and had four assists, seven digs and two blocks. Izzy Van De Wiele had 12 kills with no errors in 17 attacks to go with a dig and five blocks, one solo …
Missouri of the SEC swept visiting Southeast Missouri State of the OVC as Jordan Iliff had 14 kills, hit .500, and had four of her team’s 10 aces, two digs and two blocks. Maya Sands had 16 digs, seven assists and two aces … Texas A&M won its SEC match in four at Ole Miss as Logan Lednicky had 20 kills, hit .310, and added an ace, 15 digs and four blocks, two solo. Ava Underwood had 21 digs and five assists … Florida A&M beat visiting Bethune-Cookman in five as Iyonnie Sanford had 13 kills and hit .435 in the SWAC match to go with five digs and a block.
USA women playing abroad
While many American women are playing Athletes Unlimited and/or waiting for the starts of the LOVB and Pro Volleyball Federation leagues to begin, plenty of top players are with their pro teams in other countries,
Among last week’s highlights:
In Italy, Khalia Lanier had 10 kills and hit .714 for Imoco Conegliano to go with two blocks and an ace in a sweep of Busto Arsizo … Lindsey Ruddins had eight kills and an ace in Scandicci’s sweep of Cuneo … Simone Lee had 17 kills, a block and an ace as Vallefoglia fell to Firenze in five sets … Ashley Evans had two kills and two blocks as the setter made her A1 debut in Bergamo’s sweep of Perugia … Olympian Avery Skinner was named MVP as Chieri beat Novara in five sets. Skinner had 17 kills and hit .310 ..
In Türkiye, where Dana Rettke made the the move from Italy to Eczacibasi, she had four kills, two blocks and two aces in a sweep of Aras Kargo … Micaya White led Sigorta Shop to a five set win over Sariyer with 22 kills (.327) and three blocks. Yaasmeen Bedart-Ghani had 16 kills, five blocks and three aces … Kendall Kipp had four kills as a substitute in her Turkish League debut as VakifBank was swept by Galatasaray …
In Germany, Madelyn Robinson had 12 kills (.706) and two aces as Stuttgart swept Munster … Danielle Harbin had 15 kills, four blocks and three aces as Potsdam beat Efurt in five sets … Sabrina Starks had 10 kills (.769) added a block and an ace … Krystal Rivers had 12 kills, three blocks and an ace as Stuttgart swept Wiesbaden …
In France, Lexi Hadrych earned MVP honors as TFOC upset Mulhouse in four sets. Hadrych had 23 kills (.419) and three blocks and Karson Bacon had five kills and two blocks. Katelyn Evans led Mulhouse with 24 kills, three blocks and an ace and Annayka Legros had 13 kills (.667) and two blocks … Morgahn Fingall had 13 kills and three blocks as Volero Le Cannet outdueled RC Cannes in five. Lauren Matthews led Cannes with 14 kills, four aces and three blocks … Setter Ella May Powell was named MVP as Nantes swept Chamalieres and she had two aces and a kill …
In Brazil, Jenna Gray and Minas Tenis Clube earned their first title of the season by sweeping the Campeonato Mineiro …
And in Hungary, where Taylor Bannister continues to be a star, Vasas took it first title of the season by winning the MEVZA (Middle European) Super Cup. Bannister had 14 points in the sweep.
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