Volleyball Today: NCAA season begins in earnest; AVP Chicago Open
There were more than 200 NCAA women’s matches Friday as the season began in earnest with another full slate on tap Saturday.
Matches of note, in no particular order, include:
Kansas vs. Duke
Pittsburgh vs. Long Beach State
San Diego vs. SMU
Arizona State vs. Lipscomb
TCU vs. Nebraska
High Point vs. BYU
Ohio State vs. Dayton
USC vs. Pepperdine
Western Kentucky vs. Kentucky
Missouri vs. Creighton
Florida vs. Northern Colorado
The AVP Chicago Open heads into the second day of the three-day tournament on the shores of Lake Michigan. We’ve got photos from Mark Rigney, Will Chu, Rick Atwood and Stephen Burns.
Friday’s NCAA volleyball
It’s impossible to keep up with such a massive slate, but here is a look at some key results and top performances.
There were not any major upsets, but certainly some results that got our attention, starting with the ACC.
Fourth-seeded Pittsburgh came out strong and won 25-12, 27-25, 25-23 at No. 10 Oregon of the Big Ten … UCLA of the Big Ten — add that will sound weird until probably mid-season or so — which had votes in the preseason AVCA poll, opened with a five-set victory at No. 14 Georgia Tech. Kiki Horne, a 6-2 freshman from Raleigh, North Carolina, had 12 kills in the 25-20, 11-25, 10-25, 25-19, 16-14 victory … Hawai’i of the Big West, which also got some AVCA votes, held off visiting SMU, another team that plenty of AVCA. UH, which could not have started off worse, was led by junior outside Caylen Alexander had 28 kills in the 7-25, 25-23, 24-26, 25-21, 15-13 victory. She had an ace, a block and 11 digs … Stanford grinded to a 25-20, 27-25, 25-17 victory at the Horizon League’s Milwaukee … And Wake Forest was knocked off at home, swept by Hofstra of the CAA, the Pride’s first win over an ACC school since 2016 … Syracuse, which started 2023 0-6 swept NJIT and then beat Lafayette in four …
The Big Ten went 12-5 on Friday, which included No. 8 Purdue winning a tough four-setter over visiting Kansas State, a team that is not yet ranked but will be. Chloe Chicoine had 17 kills and Eva Hudson 16 for the Boilermakers, while Aliyah Carter had 21 kills for K-State to go with 13 digs and a block .. No. 7 Penn State won in four at No. 15 Tennessee as Camryn Hannah and Jess Mruzik had 19 kills each. Hannah hit .452 and had five digs and two solo blocks, while Mruzik hit .390 and had six digs and a block … Illinois swept Cincinnati and Raina Terry had 13 kills, hit .310, and had two assists, seven digs and two blocks … Indiana hit .420 in a sweep at Kennesaw State … No. 2 Nebraska hit .427 in a sweep of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi which included Lindsay Krause getting 13 kills with two errors in 23 attacks … Speaking of Nebraska, transfer Ally Batenhorst had 11 kills for No. 21 USC in a sweep of Pepperdine to go with an ace, two blocks and four digs …
In the Big 12, Houston beat Omaha in five and libero Kate Georgiades had 25 digs … Kendal Murphy started Baylor’s season in a big way. She had 11 kills with no errors in 19 swings to go with six digs and a block in a sweep of Abilene Christian. The sophomore outside had 42 total kills in 2023. Baylor then swept Tulsa as Murphy had 13 kills with one error in 31 attacks, 10 digs and four blocks … BYU hit .390 in a sweep of Southeastern Louisiana then hit a whopping .488 in a sweep of Fairfield. Claire Little had 16 kills with no errors in 21 attacks …
In the SEC, LSU had to pull off a reverse sweep at home against New Hampshire to open its season. Sophomore outside Jurnee Robinson had 25 kills, an assist, four aces, 13 digs, and three blocks, one solo. Then the Tigers beat Maryland in four as Robinson added 28 more kills, hit .435, and had two assists, two aces, three blocks and 12 digs … Arkansas got past Saint Mary’s in five. Romani Thurman, a sophomore transfer from North Carolina who is from Little Rock, had 19 kills, hit .341 and had 14 digs and three blocks … Georgia beat UC Santa Barbara in five as the No. 25 Bulldogs got 23 kills from Texas A&M transfer Bianna Muoneke, who hit .438 … Kennedy Martin picked up where she left off last season and had 25 kills in Florida’s four-set win over Colorado State. She hit .568 and had five digs and seven blocks, two solo … Alabama went 2-0 and in a win over The Citadel Sophie Agee had 20 kills, an assist, two aces, eight digs and three blocks, one solo. Earlier in a four-set win over Grambling she had 22 kills, two assists, an ace, three digs and three blocks …
A little of this and that: Lipscomb swept California Baptist in a match we previewed last week because of the longtime friendship between Lippy coach Brandon Rosenthal and CBU’s Branden Higa. Lipscomb’s Courtney Jones had 20 kills, hit .340, and had an ace, a block and two digs … Houston Christian lost in five to Texas State, but HCU’s Audrey Pearce had 17 kills with one error in 27 attacks to go with two digs and three blocks, one solo. HCU later lost to Rice, which had four players with 11 or more kills, 15 by Lademi Ogunlana, who hit .520 … Stony Brook defeated Delaware State in five as Leoni Kunz and Kali Moore had 20 kills apiece … The same thing happened in Quinnipiac’s five-set victory over Rhode Island as both Elena Giacomini and Ginevra Giovagnoni had 20 kills each … UT Arlington fifth-year senior outside Brianna Ford had 18 kills and hit .429 in a sweep of Murray State and added an assist, two aces, seven digs and a block … Creighton hit .385 in a sweep of NC State …
Follow @VBMagazine on Twitter (X) to keep up with results in almost real time as our Ed Strong follows every ongoing match and adds incredible insight.
AVP Chicago
Things pretty much went to form Friday as the AVP Chicago Open got underway.
Four women’s pairs won both their matches and square off Saturday as top-seeded Taryn Kloth and Kristin Nuss play fifth-seeded Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft and second-seeded Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes face third-seeded Brandie Wilkerson and Melissa Humana-Paredes.
Cannon and Kraft beat fourth-seeded Julia Scolies and Betsi Flint in the second round 23-25, 21-18, 15-11. Flint-Scoles await the winner of the early match between Madelyne Anderson and Marine Kinna vs. Kim Hildreth and Teegan Van Gunst.
On the men’s side, top-seeded Theo Brunner and Trevor Crabb play fourth-seeded Chase Budinger and Miles Evans and second-seeded Andy Benesh and Miles Partain play sixth-seeded Phil Dalhausser and Avery Drost.
Dalhausser and Drost beat Wyatt Harrison and Brian Miller in the second round after the No. 14 seed stunned third-seeded Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander 17-21, 22-20, 18-16. Crabb-Sander stayed alive with a 21-18, 19-21, 15-12 win over Alison Cerutti and Evan Cory and play 11th-seeded Hagen Smith and Logan Webber on Saturday.
Click here for results and the schedule: https://avp.com/brackets/
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