Volleyball Today: Pitt, Nebraska, Louisville win big; Bemidji St. coach Kevin Ulmer dies

The ACC, which boasts three of top four teams in the AVCA Poll, had a showcase Wednesday in which those teams went 2-1.

Pittsburgh did more than validate its No. 1 ranking as the Panthers demolished previously unbeaten visiting No. 3 Penn State.

Second-ranked Stanford took its first defeat when it was similarly demolished at No. 5 Nebraska.

And No. 4 Louisville won in four at No. 11 Kentucky.

Texas, Oregon and BYU also won. 

The recaps and top performances follow in this NCAA-heavy edition of Volleyball Today which includes some AVCA player news, some SEC tournament news, sad news from Bemidji State, and a personnel item from LOVB.

Thursday in NCAA volleyball

There are seven Big Ten teams in action, three of them ranked. No. 6 Purdue (8-0) is at No. 11 Kansas (7-0) of the Big 12 and can be seen on ESPN+. No. 17 Minnesota goes to Green Bay and No. 21 USC is home for Loyola Marymount. Also in the B1G, Rutgers is at Old Dominion, Iowa is home for South Dakota, UCLA is at UC Davis and unbeaten Washington (8-0 and receiving AVCA top 25 votes) goes to Long Beach State.

The Big 12’s Arizona State (8-1), ranked No. 14, plays Prairie View. Unranked Arizona (9-0) plays North Dakota State. Also in the Big 12, Texas Tech plays FIU, Cincinnati plays Morehead State, Iowa State plays Colgate, Nevada plays UCF, Kansas State plays UC Santa Barbara, Houston plays Texas A&M-Commerce and Colorado plays Colorado State.

None of the ACC’s ranked teams play Thursday, although Boston College plays twice at LSU, first against North Florida and then the home team. Syracuse (9-0) faces Le Moyne, Clemson plays Kennesaw State, Virginia Tech plays Chattanooga and Miami is home for No. 25 Arkansas of the SEC.

Also in the SEC, No. 15 Tennessee plays Western Michigan, Auburn plays Samford, Texas A&M (7-0) plays Northern Iowa, Missouri plays Lipscomb and Southern Miss plays Mississippi State.

Also, among the unbeatens, UConn (9-0) plays New Hampshire, South Dakota State (8-0) plays Idaho State and San Jose State (6-0) plays San Francisco.

ACC goes 2-1 on its special Wednesday 

Top-ranked Pitt, which has been to the last three NCAA national semifinals, was in postseason form as the Panthers hit .379 and swept visiting Penn State 25-22, 25-19, 25-18. Pitt is 7-0 and has not lost a set this season. Penn State of the Big Ten (8-1) was on its heels all match before a Pitt-record home crowd of 11,800 in the Peterson Events Center.

Pitt still has all the weapons from last year, Olivia Babcock, Rachel Fairbanks, Torrey Stafford and Valeria Vazquez Gomez. But throw in freshman middle Ryla Jones, who had 11 kills with no errors in 15 attacks and seven blocks, and, well watch out. Stafford had 17 kills with one error in 29 swings, an assist, two blocks and eight digs.

Click here for the Pitt recap.

Click here for the Penn State recap.

Nebraska (9-1) of the Big Ten bolted ahead early and never looked back as the Huskers routed visiting Stanford 25-17, 25-22, 25-14. The Cardinal, who hit .100, dropped to 7-1.

Click here for the Nebraska recap.

Click here for the Stanford recap.

Louisville (8-1) won the battle of Bluegrass State rivals 25-21, 25-18, 20-25, 25-16 as Kentucky of the SEC dropped to 6-3. Anna DeBeer, obviously out of her offensive funk, led the Cardinals with 13 kills, hitting .300 to go with an assist, an ace, three blocks and 12 digs. Reese Robins had 11 kills with one error in 18 attacks to hit .556 and had a block and two digs. Cara Cresse had six kills in 13 errorless attacks and nine blocks, three solo, and libero Elena Scott had 20 digs and four assists. Brooklyn DeLeye led Kentucky, which hit .118, with 17 kills, an assist, two aces, a block and three digs. Molly Tuozzo had 17 digs, two assists and four aces.

Around the nation

Eighth-ranked Texas (4-3) of the SEC swept at No. 20 Baylor (7-3) of the Big 12 25-17, 25-23, 26-24 as Madi Skinner had 14 kills, hit .417 and had five blocks and six digs. Reagan Rutherford had 11 kills, hit .529, and had four blocks and a dig. Jenna Wenaas had six kills with no errors in 20 attacks and 10 digs. Emma Halter not only had 14 digs and seven assists, but the libero got a kill in two errorless attempts …

No. 12 Oregon (7-1) of the Big Ten won its seventh in a row, a 25-21, 25-22, 25-19 sweep at Portland State (1-9) of the Big Sky. The Ducks, who hit .301, got eight kills from Onye Ofoegbu, who hasd no errors in 11 attacks, an assist and five blocks, one solo … 

The Big 12’s No. 19 BYU (5-3) had to go five to beat Utah State (2-7) of the Mountain West. Claire Little led the Cougars with 17 kills, three aces, a block and eight digs. Elli Mortensen had 13 kills, two assists, an ace, two blocks and seven digs. The latest in the Bower/BYU setter chain, Alex, had two kills with no errors in five tries, 43 assists, fvie blocks and seven digs. Utah State’s Adna Mehmedovic had 14 kills, an assist, a dig and six blocks … 

Cal’s Kate Mansfield had 11 kills with one error in 16 attacks, a dig and a block as the Bears swept Santa Clara … St. John’s got 27 kills from Giorgia Walther and 23 from Erin Jones in a five-set win over Fairfield. Jones had four assists, two aces, 18 digs and a block. Rashanny Solano Smith had 25 digs, three assists and an ace … Virginia improved to 10-1 wih a five-set win over Middle Tennessee in which Kate Dean had 12 kills, hit .450 and had a block and two digs. Milan Gomillion had 22 digs, two assists and two aces … North Alabama of the ASUN swept at the SEC’s Alabama as Reese Ricketts had 15 kills, hit .448 and had 17 digs and three blocks. Alabama hit .133 in the first meeting between the programs since 1978 … Maryland hit .330 in a sweep of Delaware State. Lilly Gunter had 14 digs, five assists and two aces … 

Niagara beat Buffalo in four as Manoela Forlin had 27 kills, hit .340 and had an assist, 15 digs and a block. Niagara had 13 aces, seven by Maria Futey, who had two assists and 20 digs … Furman won in four but Presbyterian’s Hannah Rowe had 11 kills, 19 digs, two aces and two blocks … In Southern Miss’s sweep of Jackson State, Torry Tkach had 11 kills in 22 errorless swings, two digs and a block … Cornell beat Binghamton in four as Eliza Konvicka had 16 kills, two assists, five digs and a block. Binghamton’s Tsvetelina Ilieva had 18 kills, hit .400, and had two assists, four aces and 12 digs … IU Indianapolis beat Indiana State in five as Morgan Ostrowski had 16 kills with two errors in 24 attacks to hit .583 and had an ace and five blocks, one solo … Northwestern swept NIU as Busse Hazan had 12 kills, hit .529, and had an ace, a dig and three blocks … 

SEC to have a tournament in 2025

The Southeastern Conference will relaunch the SEC Volleyball Championship beginning in 2025 and has signed a three-year agreement for the event to be in Enmarket Arena in Savannah, Georgia. There is no SEC school in Savannah.

Oklahoma and Texas joined the SEC this year and next year Vanderbilt will field its first volleyball team.

The SEC Volleyball Championship previously took place from 1979 to 2005. The tournament was held on campus sites from 1979-1987 and 1994-2005, while the event took place at neutral locations from 1988-1993. Earlier tournament champions include Florida (12 titles), Kentucky (five titles), LSU and Tennessee (four titles each), and Arkansas and Georgia (one title each).

AVCA creates POY watch list

How about a little early season player-of-the-year speculation?

The AVCA started with a list Wednesday and has more coming out Thursday and Friday.

Here is the news release:

The AVCA is excited to announce the creation of a Watch List for its 2024 Division I Player of the Year Award, presented by Nike Volleyball.

The inaugural list includes 36 players from 21 schools, and the names will be revealed in groups of 12 over three days—from Wednesday., Sept. 18 to Friday, Sept. 20. There is no order to which list players are on, except that all of a school’s candidates will appear the same day.

The Watch List will be narrowed down in November, and then the names of the finalists will be released before the AVCA Convention. The 2024 AVCA Player of the Year will be announced on Friday, Dec. 20, in Louisville, KY, during the AVCA Convention.

NOTE: The committee can add players not from the original group of 36 to the list that will come out in November.

Click here to see the list of the first 12 players.

Bemidji State coach Kevin Ulmer dies

Kevin Ulmer, 41, died Tuesday after a long battle with cancer.

Ulmer was the head coach of at Bemidji State in Minnesota for nine seasons. He previously was the head volleyball coach at Bethel College in Indiana for four seasons and served as an assistant coach at Georgetown College in Kentucky before that.

He and his wife, Kate, have three daughters.

Bemidji’s match at the at University of Minnesota Crookston has been canceled.

Click here for more on the Bemidji website.

League One Volleyball promotes Spaulding

League One Volleyball (LOVB) has named Rosie Spaulding as president of LOVB Pro. Spaulding was promoted from her role as LOVB’s COO as the league prepares for its 2025 inaugural season.

Before working with LOVB, Spaulding held leadership roles with Super Bowl 50, Rugby World Cup Sevens and the 34th America’s Cup, developed strategies for properties including SailGP, World Rugby and USA Rugby.

LOVB teams begin practicing in mid-November and the season begins January. For more: https://www.lovb.com/pro

 

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