Second-ranked Baylor put a bow on the end of its pre-conference season by routing Texas State of the Sun Belt to improve to 10-0.
In the only power-five conference match, Texas A&M opened SEC play with a four-set win over Alabama as Hollann Hans continued to lead the Aggies, this time with 24 kills while hitting .444.
Lindsey Ruddins had 20 kills and led UC Santa Barbara to a Big West-opening win over CSUN.
The recaps follow, but first a look at Wednesday’s NCAA Division I volleyball schedule.
The Big Ten season gets under way when No. 5 Penn State plays host to Michigan State, Michigan goes to Rutgers and Ohio State plays at Maryland. At Penn State, in support of and to raise awareness for the International Week of the Deaf, they will start with a silent set. Fans will remain silent from the opening serve until Penn State scores its ninth point in the first set. The ninth point was chosen in honor of Jonni Parker, a Penn State sophomore who has moderate hearing loss and wears jersey No. 9.
The Pac-12 schedule starts right off with rivalry matches as No. 10 Washington goes to Washington State, Colorado is at No. 18 Utah, and No. 25 USC goes to UCLA.
There are also three matches in the Big 12, including No. 6 Texas home for Iowa State. West Virginia goes to Texas Tech and TCU is at Oklahoma.
The only SEC match has Arkansas at LSU.
In the ACC, No. 4 Pittsburgh goes to Virginia.
Marquette kicks off the Big East schedule as the No. 10 Golden Eagles are home for Butler and Xavier goes to DePaul.
Click here for the complete NCAA.com scoreboard and to watch any match that is being broadcast, go to the VolleyballMag.com daily TV and streaming listings.
Baylor sweeps: Only the Bears and the Pac-12’s Cal (also 10-0 and home for No. 1 Stanford on Thursday) remain unbeaten.
Baylor beat visiting Texas State (8-6) 25-19, 25-16, 25-11 and held the Bobcats to minus .013 hitting. Shelly Stafford led with 11 kills and hit .471 to go with an assist, an ace, eight digs, and three blocks. Kara McGhee had nine kills in 10 errorless attacks and hit .900 and had four blocks, and Marieke Van der Mark had nine kills, hit .533, and had two blocks. Hannah Lockin had two kills in three errorless attempts, 32 assists, six digs and two blocks. Leading attacker Yossiana Pressley did not play.
Baylor opens Big 12 play at Kansas on Saturday.
“We got a little bit better as the night went on. That’s a tournament team from last year that returns a lot of team players,” Baylor coach Ryan McGuyre said. “ … It’s a good final tune-up, I feel, going into conference for us. Obviously Yossi didn’t play, but we were still able to play some good, in-system volleyball. Middles hit at a high percentage. Marieke (van der Mark) hit at a high percentage for us. There’s things we can work on from tonight. We’re back to zero-to-zero as we start conference.”
Aggies top Bama: Texas A&M is 9-2 after winning the SEC opener 25-20, 25-19, 23-25, 25-19, dropping visiting Alabama to 8-4. Hans not only had her 24 kills, but two assists, an ace, seven digs and three blocks. Mallory Talbert and Lauren Davis had 10 kills each. Talbert hit .333 and had four blocks, and Davis had three blocks. Setter Camille Conner had nine kills, hit .333, had 48 assists, three digs and a solo block.
“I was happy about the balance I saw tonight,” A&M coach Bird Kuhn said. “We always harp on the balance of the game to them. Camille got going to open up the attackers from the start. That’s the thing we talked to her about during the match, but she even felt that on her own. When she can feel that vibe and open it up to get the pins going, it turned into the difference tonight.
“We need to work on recognizing that faster to make the changes sooner in the matches, but overall felt good about this win.”
Eva Borrowdale led Alabama with 11 kills and hit .417 to go with an ace, a dig and two solo blocks.
Big West: UC Santa Barbara, UC Davis, UC Riverside, and Cal Poly all opened with league victories.
UCSB is 11-1 after winning its ninth match in a row. Ruddins not only had 20 kills but hit .314 and had an ace, nine digs and a block in the 25-9, 23-25, 17-25, 25-23, 15-9 victory. Ennis Rowans had 13 kills with one error in 20 swings and hit .600 and had three digs and three blocks, one solo. Tallulah Froley had 15 kills and hit .370 to go with two digs and four blocks.
Nicole Nevarez had 17 kills for CSUN (5-8) and had an assist, 11 digs and two blocks.
UC Davis (9-5) beat visiting UC Irvine (3-10) 25-15, 24-26, 13-25, 25-15, 15-10 behind 18 kills by Lauren Matias, who had two aces, two blocks and 13 digs. Josephine Ough had 12 kills and hit .526 to go with eight blocks, one solo, and Mahalia White had 10 kills and two blocks.
Abby Marjama led UCI with 13 kills and Loryn Carter had 12.
UC Riverside (5-7) beat Cal State Fullerton (8-6) 26-24, 23-25, 26-24, 29-27, going overtime in all three set victories to open with a win for the first time since 2015.
“We grew a lot in those pressure situations,” UCR coach Michelle Patton-Coleman said. “I think it’s important to be on the winning side of some of those points, and we hung in there Tonight and got the job done. I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
Amarachi Osuju led with 20 kills and added two aces, 12 digs and five blocks, one solo. Ayla Fresenius had 15 kills and 17 digs, Alexis Vanlandingham had 12 kils, and Kathleen Lowry and Isabella Scarlett had 10 kills each. Scarlett also had 10 blocks.
Tyler Fezzey led Fullerton with 14 kills, five blocks and three digs, and Julia Crawford had 12 kills, 12 digs and five blocks. Nicole Shuhandler had four kills with no errors in seven attacks and had 11 blocks in a match in which Fullerton held a 17-15 blocks advantage.
And Cal Poly (8-5) swept visiting Long Beach State (3-10) 25-22, 25-23, 25-19. Maia Dvoracek led with 19 kills, hitting .405. She also had three aces, six digs and two blocks. Madilyn Mercer had eight kills with no errors in 16 attacks and hit .500 and had a dig and three blocks, one solo. Kashuana Williams had 14 kills and hit .355 for LBSU and had five digs. Katie Kennedy added 12 kills, four digs and a block.
Around the nation: Montana State (5-5) got the Big Sky season going with a sweep of Montana (1-11). Evi Wilson led with 13 kills, hit .429, and had a block and a dig …
There were three ASUN matches as Kennesaw State (8-5) swept NJIT (1-15), Liberty (8-5) did the same to FGCU (9-3) and Jacksonville (4-10) beat Stetson (2-8) in four. Quin Sulphin had 11 kills with no errors in 18 swings and hit .611 for KSU to go with five blocks, one solo. Amelia Johnson led Liberty with 15 kills and hit .333 and had an ace, 11 digs and two blocks. And Briana Kipp had 15 kills and hit .448 for Jacksonville and aded an assist, three digs and four blocks, two solo. Elena Djokovic led Stetson with 17 kills and hit .500 …
Western Kentucky of Conference USA (14-1) swept the Ohio Valley’s Austin Peay (2-12) as Paige Briggs and Lauren Matthew had 11 kills each …
Carmen Heilemann had 15 kills and hit .519 as Milwaukee of the Horizon League (13-1) swept Valparaiso of the Missouri Valley (5-9) …
In a Metro Atlantic opener for both teams, Canisius (4-9) beat Niagara (1-10) in four as Leah Simmons had 17 kills, two aces and a block. Lafayette improved to 11-5 with a non-conference win over Saint Peters (3-10) as four players had 13 or more kills in a five-set win. Elli Carrera-Justiz and Grace Tulevech had 16 kills each, while Alanis Alvarado had 21 for Saint Peters to go with three blocks and 13 digs …
Southeast Missouri (9-6) won its Ohio Valley opener over UT Martin (4-11) as Mikayla Kuhlmann and Laney Malloy had 11 kills each in the four-set victory …
Fort Wayne (7-8) opened Summit League play with a sweep of Western Illinois (3-11) as Katie Crowe led with 11 kills, two aces, and 10 digs.
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