Volleyball Today: SD State gets to 14-0; Hentz, De La Cruz-Mejía win AU openers
South Dakota State drew a record home crowd and improved to 14-0 with a Summit League sweep of Kansas City, but scratch San Jose State (9-1) off the unbeaten list after the Spartans were swept at Colorado State in the Mountain West.
Also Thursday, second-ranked Nebraska swept Illinois, No. 3 Penn State beat visiting Maryland in four sets, No. 8 Kansas won at Colorado and Tennessee Tech improved to 14-1 with an OVC sweep of Western Illinois,
Hampton dropped to 0-16 when the Pirates were swept by Elon in the CAA.
Also in this edition of Volleyball Today, we have the first-night results from Athletes Unlimited.
NCAA volleyball Friday
The big one (because I’ll be there) is unbeaten No. 1 Pittsburgh at Boston College. Also in the ACC, No. 4 Louisville is home for Clemson, No. 5 Stanford is home for NC State, VolleyballMag Super 16 Media Poll No. 16 SMU is at Syracuse, AVCA No. 16 Florida State is at Virginia, No. 19 Georgia Tech is at Notre Dame in a battle of 8-3 teams, Wake Forest is at Cal, Miami is at Virginia Tech and, two days after sweeping at Duke, North Carolina (12-1, 4-0) is home for the Blue Devils.
There are six Big Ten matches, including No. 11 Oregon (11-1), riding an 11-match winning streak, at No. 3 Penn State (12-1). Tenth-ranked Purdue is at Northwestern, No. 12 Minnesota is at UCLA, No. 21 USC is home for Michigan, No. 25 Washington is at Iowa and Michigan State is at Indiana.
The three SEC matches show Georgia at No. 24 Auburn, Tennessee at Ole Miss and LSU at Mississippi State.
There’s a big one in the Big 12 when AVCA No. 20 BYU goes to VBM No. 14 Arizona State. Utah is at Arizona in a battle of 12-2 teams and West Virginia is at Houston.
Sixth-ranked Creighton is at Butler in the Big East and No. 23 Dayton goes to VCU for back-to-back matches in the Atlantic 10.
For you volleyball junkies, I’m doing the double, watching William & Mary at Northeastern, also in Boston, in the CAA in the afternoon before heading to BC.
Winless watch: Hampton (0-16) is home again for Elon in the CAA and Navy (0-13) is home for Lehigh in the Patriot League.
NCAA volleyball Thursday
Nebraska (13-1, 3-0 Big Ten) swept at Illinois (8-5, 0-3) 25-18, 25-22, 25-17. Nebraska, which hit .305, got 10 kills from Merritt Beason, who hit .421, and had an ace, a dig and seven blocks . Also in the B1G, Penn State (13-1, 3-0) beat visiting Maryland (9-5, 0-3) 22-25, 25-20, 25-23, 25-16 as Jess Mruzik had 17 kills, hit .313 and had an assist, three aces and 14 digs. Camryn Hannah had 15 kills, an ace, two digs and three blocks, one solo, and Taylor Trammel had 10 kills with one error in 16 attacks, an ace, a dig and eight blocks. Setter Izzy Stark had two kills, 39 assists and six blocks, one solo. Maryland’s Samantha Schnitta had 19 kills, hit .318, and had two assists, three aces, three digs and three blocks, one solo. And Oregon (11-1, 3-0) blasted visiting Ohio State (7-6, 0-3) as the Ducks hit .340. Mimi Colyer led with 16 kills, hitting .432, to go with two assists, three digs and two blocks. Ohio State’s Emily Londot had 17 kills, an assist, seven digs and two blocks …
Kansas (12-1, 3-0 Big 12) won in four at Colorado (7-8, 0-3) as Caroline Bien had 12 kills, hitting .348, and added an assist, three aces, 13 digs and a block. London Davis also had 12 kills and hit .455 and Toyosi Onabanjo had 11 kills with one error in 18 attakcs to hit .556 and she had three digs and seven blocks. Colorado’s Ana Burilovic had 19 kills, six digs and two block. Also in the Big 12, Texas Tech beat visiting Kansas State in four despite 21 kills by Liz Gregorski. She hit .318 and had an assist, four digs and two blocks. Mia Wesley had 14 kills, a block and a match-high 19 digs for Texas Tech …
South Dakota State improved to 14-0, 3-0 in The Summit League, with a sweep of visiting Kanas City before a home-record crowd of 2,853. SDSU has matched the program’s longest win streak and longest unbeaten streak to start a season in the rally-scoring era. The Jackrabbits went 14-0 in 2000 and SDSU had a 20-match winning streak in 1975. Sylvie Zgonc led with 17 kills against Kansas City to go with two assists, a solo block and 11 digs. Also in The Summit, St. Thomas swept at South Dakota for its first victory against the perennial league power …
Long Beach swept at UC San Diego in the only Big West match as Natalie Glenn had 14 kills and hit .455 to go with an assist, an ace, eight digs and a block … In the Mountain West, because Colorado State DID play San Jose State, the Rams came away with a 25-18, 25-20, 25-20 sweep of the previously unbeaten Spartans. Colorado State, which hit .347, got 12 kills from Malaya Jones and 11 from Naeemah, who hit .563. Blaire Fleming led SJSU with 14 kills but had 10 errors to go with nine digs and two blocks, one solo. Also in the MWC, Boise State beat Air Force in four, Fresno State won in five at Wyoming, Utah State pulled off a reverse sweep at San Diego State and UNLV beat visiting Nevada in five. Lines of note include Boise State’s Paige Bartsch with 20 kills while hitting .306 with two assists, two blocks and 10 digs and teammate Bre Mitchell with 27 digs, six assists and two aces; and Wyoming’s Paige Lauterwasser had 22 kills …
Both Big Sky matches went five. In Weber State’s win over visiting Montana, nine players had four or more kills, while in Montana State’s win at Idaho State, Jourdain Kamps led the Bobcats with 20 kills, hitting .372, to go with a dig and five blocks. Idaho State’s Jamie Streit had a big-time match with 27 kills, hitting .396, 16 digs and three blocks …
Queens had four players with 10 or more kills in its four-set ASUN win at West Georgia, 15 by Jordyn Johnson, who had nine digs and a block … In the only MAC match, Akron won in five at NIU as Emanouela Christodoulou had 19 kills, hit .326, and had four blocks and two digs …
Tennessee Tech is 14-1, 3-0 in the OVC after sweeping Western Illinois. Madolyn Isringhausen led with 16 kills, an ace and 14 digs … Ali Ruffin had 17 kills and 14 digs in The Citadel’s four-set SoCon win at UNC Greensboro, which got 19 kills, five digs and four blocks, one solo, from Allie Sweet …
Ilana De Assis had 21 kills and hit .333 in UTRGV’s Southland sweep of UIW. She added an assist, a block and 13 digs. Also in the SLC, Cicily Hidalgo had 17 for Southeastern Louisiana in its four-set win at McNeese to go with two aces, a solo block and 14 digs …
Georgia Southern improved to 11-1 by sweeping its Sun Belt opener at Marshall. The Eagles have won 10 matches and 22 sets in a row. Reagan Barth led with 18 kills and hit .517 to go with six of her team’s eight aces, 12 digs and two blocks, one solo. Also in the SBC, Arkansas State improved to 13-2, 3-0 with a five-set win at Southern Miss. Kaitlin Whitlock had 17 kills, 17 digs and two blocks, one solo. Aysu Dalgullari had 16 kills to lead Southern Miss and had two assists, two aces, a block and 12 digs. Libero Sunni Sheppard had a whopping 36 digs and two assists …
Grace Chillingworth had 22 kills, an assist, two aces, 12 digs and three blocks, one solo, for Pepperdine in its four-set WCC win at Gonzaga, which got 19 kills, an ace and 14 digs from Maggie Rickert. Also in the WCC, Washington State beat Portland in five as Sage Brustad had 20 kills, an assist, two aces, 11 digs and three blocks, two solo. Emma Barbero had 25 kills, 10 assists and three aces … In the WAC, Seattle U beat Tarleton in four as Arianna Bilby had 20 kills, hit .362 and had two assists, two aces, two blocks and 14 digs. Also in the WAC, Brianna Ford had 19 kills and hit .400 for UT Arlington in its four-set win over Southern Utah. Ford had five assists, an ace, 14 digs and three blocks, one solo. Bryley Steinhilber had 19 kills as Abilene Christian beat California Baptist in five. She hit .333 and had three blocks and 15 digs.
Teams Hentz, De La Cruz-Mejía win AU openers
From Athletes Unlimited, reporting from Mesa, Arizona, as the fourth season of the pro volleyball venture got underway:
Team Hentz used strong performances from newcomers Khat Bell and Marlie Monserez to secure the first victory of the 2024 Athletes Unlimited Pro Volleyball season, a 71-67 come-from-behind result over Team Valentin-Anderson at Arizona Athletic Grounds on Thursday evening.
Bell, making her Athletes Unlimited debut, garnered MVP 1 honors and 282 leaderboard points after posting a team-high 12 kills with six digs and a service ace. Monserez, meanwhile, also contributed a strong effort in her inaugural AU outing with a match-high 35 assists to claim MVP 3 distinction and 272 leaderboard points.
Outside hitter Dani Drews added nine kills and eight digs in the victory, while team captain Morgan Hentz registered a match-high 21 digs.
Outside hitter Madi Kingdon Rishel, the match’s MVP 2 honoree, paced Team Valentin-Anderson in the loss with a match-high 17 kills in 25 attempts in addition to collecting eight digs. Captain Natalia Valentin-Anderson added a double-double of 32 assists and 12 digs.
Team De La Cruz-Mejía utilized a 16-kill outing from opposite Brittany Abercrombie and a 15-kill performance from captain Bethania De La Cruz-Mejía to overcome Team Nuneviller, 76-69.
Middle blocker Kayla Caffey earned her first MVP 1 honor after totaling three solo blocks with three block assists and six kills to finish the opening day of the season with 263 leaderboard points.
Abercrombie made her presence known in her league debut with 16 kills on a .333 hitting percentage. The top pick in the Week One draft garnered MVP 2 laurels and a match-high 341 points toward the standings.
De La Cruz-Mejía finished with 15 kills, 12 digs, and a pair of service aces to garner MVP 3 laurels and 305 leaderboard points.
Libero Manami Kojima finished with a match-high 18 digs in her AU Pro Volleyball debut for Team De La Cruz-Mejía.
Outside hitter Brooke Nuneviller registered 16 kills and 15 digs, while outside hitter Lindsey Vander Weide and rookie libero Mary Lake each contributed 13 digs for Team Nuneviller in the loss.
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