Volleyball Today: SMU stuns Nebraska; Penn State rolls; USA advances in sitting

And that’s why we don’t do our media poll until after the end of pre-conference play.

The AVCA coaches poll is great for creating interest, but in this NCAA Division I volleyball world where all the best teams play each other right from the get-go, rankings mean little so early in the season.

To wit, on Tuesday, a day after No. 18 Minnesota knocked off No. 1 Texas:

— SMU, barely receiving votes in the poll, not only beat visiting No. 2 Nebraska, the Mustangs swept the Huskers right out of a sold-out Moody Coliseum in Dallas.

— Seventh-ranked Penn State destroyed visiting No. 4 Louisville. 

Third-ranked Pittsburgh, which might well be next week’s No. 1, swept Buffalo and No. 23 Baylor did the same to Rice.

And our long national nightmare is over: Saint Peters snapped its 38-match losing streak that started in 2022 with a season-opening, five-set victory at NJIT. 

We have a photo gallery from Zach Schuster from the Sunday-Monday State Farm Women’s Volleyball Showcase in Milwaukee that featured Texas, Stanford, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Click on any photo to view full size.

Also in this Volleyball Today, the USA women’s sitting team swept Italy to move into the Paris Paralympics semifinals.

There are 18 NCAA Division I matches Wednesday, including Stanford finally getting out of Wisconsin after a week. The Cardinal, who beat Milwaukee last Friday and then Minnesota and Wisconsin, play at No. 24 Marquette. Marquette opened with a sweep at Eastern Illinois.

Kansas, which stayed at No. 13 in the poll, plays host to Wichita State. American, one of five teams up to 4-0, plays Coppin State. Michigan is home for Eastern Michigan.

Later Wednesday, we will do our first weekly Zoom with Emily Ehman of the Big Ten Network and ESPN, who called both the tournament in Milwaukee and the SMU-Nebraska match. AVCA executive director Jaime Gordon will join us to talk about, among other things, how we can shorten college volleyball matches. 

SMU gets biggest victory ever

SMU of the ACC took it to the Huskers from the get-go and thumped visiting Nebraska of the Big Ten 25-23, 25-21, 25-18.

Naya Shime led the Mustangs with nine kills. She had six errors, 10 digs and five blocks, one solo. Maya Tabron had nine kills, added an ace, four digs and two blocks. Natalie Foster had eight kills, hit .462, and had five of her team’s seven aces and two digs. Jamison Wheeler had six kills, two assists, a block and 13 digs. Nnedi Okammor had four kills with no errors in 11 attacks and nine blocks, one solo.

Celia Cullen had two kills, 29 assists, a block and five digs. Her team hit .242.

SMU opened the season with a five-set loss at Hawai’i, where it then beat San Diego in four. The Mustangs finished 26-7 in 2023, 18-1 in the American Athletic, and swept Texas State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament before getting swept by Texas. SMU then moved to the ACC, where the coaches picked the Mustangs to finish sixth this season behind Pitt, Stanford, Louisville, Georgia Tech and Florida State.

Nebraska (3-1), which last lost to an unranked non-conference opponent in 2014, hit .171, .070 in the third set. Merritt Beason led the Huskers with nine kills but hit .107. She had a dig and three blocks. Andi Jackson, who is now hitting .519 for the season, had eight kills in 12 errorless attempts, an ace and six blocks. Harper Murray had six kills but five errors to go with two digs and two blocks. Lindsay Krause had five kills with one error in 16 attacks, two blocks and two digs. 

Around the nation

Penn State (3-0) crushed visiting Louisville (2-1) 25-15, 25-19, 25-13 as the Nittany Lions hit .358. Jess Mruzik led with 13 kills as she hit .367 with an assist, nine digs and three blocks, one solo. Caroline Jurevicious had 11 kills and two blocks, and Camryn Hannah had eight kills with one error in 16 attacks to go with an assist, two aces and three blocks. 

Louisville, which opened with victories over Wisconsin and Tennessee, hit .091 with 28 kills and 19 errors in 99 attacks. Charitie Luper had eight kills and six digs and Cara Cresse had eight kills, an assist, a dig and two blocks. PK Kong had four kills in eight errorless attempts and three blocks, one solo. Reigning ACC player of the year Anna DeBeer continued to struggle offensively. She had two kills but seven errors and is hitting negative for the season. DeBeer had a block and eight digs … 

Saint Peters, which lost its last eight matches in 2022 to finish 1-31, went 0-30 in 2023. Tuesday, the Peacocks won 25-22, 14-25, 25-20, 27-29, 15-11 at NJIT for their first road victory since 2019. 

Maliyah Labrie led with 23 kills, an ace, seven digs and two blocks. Penelope Rivera Morales had 15 kills, four digs and six blocks. Elena Bilhartz, who had one kill and two errors in 16 attacks, nonetheless had nine blocks, two solo. Lagean Colon had 25 digs and two asists.

Saint Peters, which rallied from a 14-8 deficit in the third set, fell behind 10-6 in the fifth before scoring six straight points. 

Saint Peters also had winless seasons in 2011 (0-31), 2016 (0-25) and 2017 (0-30) … 

Pitt (3-0) hit .516 as it routed visiting Buffalo (3-1) 25-13, 25-10, 25-15. The Panthers had 40 kills with seven errors in 64 attacks and 10 aces with only six errors. Valeria Vazquez Gomez and Blaire Bayless had seven kills each and Olivia Babcock six … Baylor (4-0) got 13 kills from Elise McGhee, who had an ace, three digs and a solo block in its 25-20, 25-19, 25-23 sweep at Rice … Auburn got to 4-0 with a sweep of Troy as the Tigers hit .369. Lauren Dreves had 10 kills with one error in 20 swings, an assist, an ace, four digs and a block … Illinois beat visiting Ilinois State 25-13, 20-25, 25-18, 25-18. The Illini, who hit .342, got 12 kills from Averie Hernandez, who had one error in 37 attacks. She had seven digs and four blocks, one solo. Freshman middle Ashlyn Philpot had 11 kills with one error in 18 swings and a career-high 10 blocks, two solo, and Raina Terry had 11 kills with two errors in 30 attacks to go with four aces, six digs and three blocks, one solo. Caitlyn Little had 18 kills for Illinois State … 

Old Dominion beat William & Mary in five but W&M’s Maddie Meyers had 24 kills, three assists, an ace, 15 digs and three blocks … LIU beat Quinnipiac in five behind 21 kills from Camelia Melendez, who had two aces, 12 digs and two blocks … Elon beat Gardner-Webb in five as Sydney Love had 24 kills and hit .357 and Keira Kasten had 22 kills and hit .450 … Stephen F. Austin improved to 4-0 with a sweep of High Point as Katherine Hoffman had 16 kills, hit .500, and had three digs and two blocks … Reaghan Thompson had 23 kills in Northwestern State’s five-set win over Jackson State. She had two assists, two aces, 14 digs and three blocks … Louisiana Tech hit .383 in a sweep of Alcorn State … Northern Colorado won in four at Colorado State, which drew a crowd of 4,362, behind 14 kills and three blocks from Maddie Davies and 13 kills from Alayna Tessena.

USA sitting team into semis

The USA women swept Italy 25-21, 25-23, 25-15 and will play Brazil in Thursday’s semifinals. 

Heather Erickson led with 15 kills, three blocks and an ace. Lora Webster had four kills, five blocks and an ace. Holloway Bridge had seven kills and a block.

China plays Canada in the other semifinal.

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