Volleyball Today: Big ACC battles; Florida tops FSU; Franklin goes off for Wisconsin
Welcome to ACC Wednesday, one of the greatest pre-conference days in recent NCAA Division I volleyball memory.
The league has three of the top four AVCA-ranked teams in the nation and they all play, almost at the same time, against other top-ranked teams.
At 7 p.m. Eastern (greetings from the Iron City), No. 1 Pittsburgh (6-0) plays No. 3 Penn State (8-0) of the Big Ten. It can be seen on the ACC Network.
Also at 7 p.m., No. 4 Louisville (7-1) goes to No. 11 Kentucky (6-3) of the ACC. That one is on ESPN.
And at 8 p.m., second-ranked Stanford (7-0) goes to No. 5 Nebraska (8-1) and it is being shown on the Big Ten Network.
Three other ranked teams are in action as part of the 16 matches on the schedule as No. 8 Texas (3-3) of the SEC goes to former Big 12 rival No. 20 Baylor (7-2) and No. 19 BYU (4-3) of the Big 12 is home for Utah State (2-6) of the Mountain West.
Also in this Volleyball Today are recaps and top performances from a Tuesday in which No. 16 Florida had to rally to beat No. 18 Florida State in five and some big-time performances, including some big-time performances, like Sarah Franklin getting a program-record 33 kills when No. 7 Wisconsin beat Marquette in four sets. That’s 8.25 kills per set.
East Carolina and UT Arlington took their first defeats of the season.
Around the nation
Florida of the SEC hit. 700 in the fifth set as the Gators came back to beat visiting Florida State of the ACC 25-23, 22-25, 21-25, 25-16, 15-6 in an outcome that left both schools 7-2.
Gabrielle Essix led Florida with 16 kills and had one error in 21 attacks to hit .714 to go with a block and a dig. Isabel Martin had 15 kills, hit .367, and had an ace, a block and five digs. Kennedy Martin, back from injury, had 15 kills, a block and seven digs, and Alec Rothe had 10 kills with one error in 15 swings and three blocks and a dig. Taylor Parks had two kills, 56 assists, four aces and 10 digs. Her team hit .348 with seven aces and 16 serving errors.
Florida State hit .245 and had four aces and 13 errors. FSU’s Khory Louis did nothing to hurt her hitting percentage of .455 coming in. She had 18 kills with only one error in 27 attacks to hit .630 with six blocks. Audrey Koenig had 13 kills, two aces, two blocks and nine digs and Taylor Head had 10 kills, an assist, an ace, four blocks and 10 digs …
Sarah Franklin, the 2023 Big Ten player of the year, got her 33 kills for Wisconsin (4-3) in 60 attacks in a 22-25, 25-20, 25-16, 25-22 victory before 15,084 over Marquette (3-4) in Madison’s Kohl Center. She had just two errors and hit .517 to go wth two blocks and eight digs. The previous Wisconsin record for kills was by Dana Rettke, who had 30 in 2018 against Minnesota. Anna Smrek had 15 kills, hit .414 and had three digs and six blocks. Julia Orzol had 10 kills, an assist, an ace and 16 digs. Lola Schumacher had 22 digs and four assists. Carly Anderson, making her first start at setter, had 51 assists, an ace and 11 digs. Wisconsin hit .355 and had five aces and seven errors, while Marquette hit .233 with seven aces and six errors.
Marquette’s Carsen Murray had 12 kills with no errors in 19 attacks and four blocks, one solo. Aubrey Hamilton had 10 kills, two assists, an ace, a block and 12 digs …
UT Arlington (9-1) was off the program’s best start, but hit .083 and got swept at No. 23 TCU (6-2), which hit .469. Jaylyn Gibson led with 15 kills, hitting .462, to go with three assists, six digs and two blocks. Melanie Parra had 12 kills with one error in 28 attacks, three assists, two aces, two digs and two blocks …
East Carolina was 7-0, but lost in three at South Carolina (8-2), which got 18 kills from Riley Whitesides, who hit .615 and had two assists, three aces, six digs and a block … Washington improved to 8-0 with a four-set win over Oregon State (1-7) in a battle of former Pac-12 teams. Four Huskies had 10 or more killls, 12 each by Madi Endsley and Julia Hunt, who had one error in 19 attacks, an assist, an ace and four blocks … Virginia is off to a 9-1 start after beating visiting Middle Tennessee in four. Abby Tadder led with 16 kills, an ace and eight blocks … Bryant is 10-2 after beating Merrimack in four. Aubrey Lapour had 18 kills, hit .302 and had seven digs and two blocks … Utah Valley is 8-2 after beating Weber State in four behind 22 kills by Sami Blackett, who had an assist, two aces, six digs and two blocks …
UNLV beat visiting Hawai’i in five, leaving both teams 6-2. Caylen Alexander of Hawai’i had 23 kills, three aces and 10 digs and Miliana Sylvester had 15 kills with one error in 22 swings to hit .636 to go with an assist, a dig and a block. UNLV had four players with 10 or more kills. Gabreille Arretche-Ramos had 12 kills with one error in 33 attacks, a dig and four blocks… McNeese pulled off a reverse sweep over visiting Tarleton 26-28, 22-25, 27-25, 25-18, 16-14 as McKenzie Moore had 28 kills and Tarleton’s Allison Bryant had 27 … Michigan State beat Purdue Fort Wayne in four as Evie Doezema, Taylah Holdem (all-name team) and Taylor Preston had 14 kills apiece. Nalani Iosia had 22 digs, an ace and 12 assists … Cincinnati improved to 7-2 with a five-set win over Akron as Carly Glendinning had 22 kills and hit . 388 with two assists, two aces, six digs and three blocks …
Seton Hall won in four at LIU as Reagan Merk had 19 kills, three assists, two aces, a block and 21 digs … Duquesne is 8-2 after sweeping Mercyhurst as Avery Hobson had 10 kills with no errors in 18 attacks and Elizabeth Drelling had 10 kills with one error in 18 swings. They both had two aces … Norfolk State swept Hampton and Gabrielle Gilbert had 20 kills with two errors in 39 attacks and two assists, two aces, four digs and three blocks, one solo … Lamar beat Prairie View in four and Maja Malinowska had 20 kills, hit .485, and had 21 digs and a block … Southeastern Louisiana swept Louisiana-Lafayette as former Volleyball Baton Rouge libero Lexi Gonzalez had 11 digs, four assists and four aces.
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