NCAA volleyball: Wisconsin, Pitt, Florida win; the corrected AVCA top 25

Back from a three-matches-in-three-days NCAA state-of-Texas volleyball sojourn where we saw Rice get thumped at Baylor, Houston get blasted at Texas State and Stanford sweep at Texas. This report recaps Sunday’s results and includes the new AVCA top 25, one that certainly was altered by the matches we attended. There were plenty of other important […]

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Back from a three-matches-in-three-days NCAA state-of-Texas volleyball sojourn where we saw Rice get thumped at Baylor, Houston get blasted at Texas State and Stanford sweep at Texas.

This report recaps Sunday’s results and includes the new AVCA top 25, one that certainly was altered by the matches we attended.

There were plenty of other important results, including Wisconsin escaping again, Pitt beating Kentucky again, and Florida blasting Minnesota.

Interestingly, the Texas trip included seeing five ranked teams, but the feature story generated will be on setter Ryann Torres of unranked Texas State. Look for it here this week.

Also, click here to read about Stanford’s beat-down of Texas and see photos from Matt Smith.

There are only five matches on Monday’s schedule, including Florida State of the ACC at Samford of the SoCon. Texas Tech of the Big 12, 6-1, is going on the road for the first time when the Red Raiders play at North Texas of the American Athletic. Saint Mary’s of the WCC, off to a 5-0 start, third best in program history, is at Sacramento State of the Big Sky. The Big Ten’s Northwestern is at Milwaukee of the Horizon League and UC Davis of the Big West is at Idaho State of the Big Sky.

Want to watch? We have the viewing links for any match that is being shown in our VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings.

AVCA, ADJUSTED: The preseason and first-week polls got much needed correction this week now that the sample size has grown after two NCAA volleyball weekends.

Wisconsin, which twice won in five sets stayed No. 1 and got 61 of the 64 first-place votes.

Louisville, which keeps on rolling and moved up a spot to No. 2, got no first-place votes.

Florida, which got two votes, leaped from No. 8 to No. 3 after not just beating but sweeping Stanford and Minnesota.

Nebraska got the other vote and stayed No. 4. None of the first four teams have a loss.

Stanford, which swept at Texas on Sunday, dropped three spots to No. 5. Oregon stayed No. 6, Texas is still seventh, BYU is up a notch to No. 8, Pitt is up a spot to No. 9 and Minnesota fell five spots to fifth.

Tennessee moved up six spots to No. 18. Houston fell eight spots to No. 21. Both Rice, which tumbled from No. 18, and Western Kentucky (No. 22) dropped out and Hawaii (No. 23) and Auburn (No. 25) moved in. Auburn is ranked for the first time ever.

Six teams are from the Big Ten. The Big 12 and SEC have five teams each. The Pac-12 and ACC have three each. The Big East has two and the Big West one.

Others receiving votes and listed on two or more ballots: Rice 96; Iowa State 78; Western Kentucky 66; Washington 32; Dayton 24; UCF 17; Utah State 11; San Diego 9; James Madison 7; Texas A&M 7; Colorado State 6; Duke 6; Texas State 5.
11 teams mentioned on only one ballot for a total of 55 combined points.
Dropped Out: Rice 18; Western Kentucky 22

BIG TEN: Start with top-ranked Wisconsin, which has been anything but boring this young season and lived on the edge again Sunday against visiting and previously unbeaten Tennessee of the SEC (5-1). The Badgers of the Big Ten improved to 5-0 by winning in five for the second time in three matches, this time 25-16, 25-23, 18-25, 20-25, 15-13.

Wisconsin, which held a 16-6 blocks advantage and hit .306 while the Vols hit .205, got outscored 5-1 to end the fourth set. In the fifth Wisconsin built a 6-1 lead but Tennessee pulled into a 10-10 tie. The Badgers went up 14-23 and finally ended it on a kill by Sarah Franklin, who led with 23 kills while hitting .352. She added an assist, an ace, seven digs and four blocks, one solo.

Devyn Robinson had 15 kills, a dig and five blocks. Carter Booth had eight kills with one error in 17 attacks, a dig and eight blocks, one solo. Anna Smrek had seven kills with two errors in 10 swings, a dig and four blocks, one solo. 

Tennessee’s Morgahn Fingall had 22 kills, an assist, three of her team’s 12 aces (compared to three for Wisconsin), a block and five digs. Jenaisya Moore had 14 kills, a block and three digs. Erykah Lovett, who had an ace, 15 digs and two blocks, and Keondreye Granberry had nine kills each. Grandberry had four blocks and a dig. Caroline Kerr had 55 assists, a kill, an ace, two blcis and 11 digs, and Yelianz Torres had 16 digs, five assists and four aces …

There were eight other matches including Big Ten teams, including the SEC’s Florida (4-0) taking it to visiting Minnesota (2-2) 25-22, 25-18, 25-22. Kennedy Martin led the Gators with 15 kills, an ace, a block and seven digs. Anna Dixon had eight kills and two blocks. Minnesota, which hit .147, got nine kills from Mckenna Wucherer and eight from Taylor Landfair. Landfair had the Gophers’ two aces … 

Nebraska (5-0) won 25-21, 25-15, 25-19 at the Big 12’s Kansas State (4-1). Four Huskers had nine or more kills, including 10 by Merritt Beason, who had an assist, an ace, three digs and six blocks … Jess Mruzik had 26 kills as Penn State (3-2) beat visiting James Madison of the Sun Belt (4-2) 25-18, 20-25, 25-16, 25-16. Mruzik hit .339 and had two assist, an ace, a block and seven digs. JMU’s Miette Veldman had 15 kills … Arkansas of the SEC (4-2) swept Michigan (1-4) as Taylor Head had 17 kills and Jillian Gillen 15 … Iowa (4-2) swept South Dakota State of The Summit League (1-5) behind 17 kills by Caitlan Buettner … Michigan State (4-2) swept Delaware State (3-4) of the MEAC 25-13, 25-16, 25-21 … Illinois (3-1) kept the Valley’s Illinois State (0-6) winless with a 25-23, 20-25, 25-18, 25-20 victory. Raina Terry and Kayla Burbage had 14 kills each. Terry had an assist, an ace, seven digs and four blocks, one solo … Navy of the Patriot League is 5-1 and got 11 kills from Jamie Llewellyn in a sweep of Maryland (4-2).

ACC: The ACC’s Pitt is 4-1 after beating Kentucky (1-3) in back-to-back matches. In Sunday’s 25-21, 25-27, 25-13, 25-22 victory, Torrey Stafford and Olivia Babcock had 13 kills each. Stafford had an assist, five digs and three blocks and Babcock hit .458 and had two assists, seven blocks and three digs. Emma Monks had eight kills in 13 errorless swings and eight blocks, one solo. Kentucky’s Reagan Rutherford had 19 kills, hit .357 and had an ace, five blocks and seven digs … Louisville is 6-0 after sweeping previously unbeaten Missouri of the SEC (5-1), which hit .057. Anna DeBeer and Cara Cresse had 12 kills each. Cresse hit .500 and had six blocks, two solo. Aiko Jones had seven kills with one error in 11 attacks, three aces, a dig and five blocks …

Also in the ACC, Wake Forest is 6-0 as it continues its best start in four years. The Demon Deacon hit .323 and swept FIU (2-5) of Conference USA. Ava Carney hd 12 kills with one error in 23 attacks … Florida State (3-2) lost in four to Auburn of the SEC (5-0). Auburn got 15 kills from Akasha Anderson, 14 from Madison Scheer and 13 from Bella Bell, who had one error in 29 attacks. FSU’s Audrey Koenig had 20 kills … Clemson (4-2) hit .438 and had a 12-3 blocks advantage in a sweep of Green Bay (2-4) of the Horizon League … Boston College (3-3) beat UC Irvine (2-4) of the Big West in four. Alayna Crabtree had 21 kills, hit .326 and had two aces, a block and eight digs. Anna Murphy had 23 digs, two aces and six assists … Could Syracuse go winless? The Orange fell to 0-6 after getting swept by Belmont of the Missouri Valley. 

SEC: Three other SEC teams played and all won in four. Alabama (6-0) beat Sam Houston (4-3) of Conference USA in the first match it didn’t sweep this season, LSU (2-3) got 17 kills from Jurnee Robinson and beat Ball State (2-4) of the MAC and South Carolina (4-1) beat Troy (0-5) of the Sun Belt.

PAC-12: In addition to Stanford beating Texas, three other Pac-12 teams won. Oregon State (3-2) hit .371 and had five players with six or more kills as it swept Boise State (2-2) of the Mountain West … Arizona State is 6-0 and continued its best start in eight years by beating NM State of C-USA (3-2) in four. Shannon Shields had 40 assists, an ace, four digs and six blocks, two solo … Arizona (3-3) got past Grand Canyon of the WAC (3-3) in five. Sofia Maldonada Diaz had 21 kills and 12 digs.

AROUND THE NATION: Creighton (5-1) of the Big East battled to a 25-21, 34-36, 25-20, 25-23 victory over the Valley’s Northern Iowa (3-3). Ava Martin had 22 kills, hitting .396, and had two blocks and six digs. Norah Sis had 16 kills, three assists, two blocks and 16 digs. Kendra Wait had seven kills in 12 errorless tries, 42 assists, ana ce, five blocks and 22 digs, and Ellite Bolton had 25 digs, 10 assists and an ace. Kira Fallert and Emily Holterhaus had 18 killd each for UNI. Fallert had two assists, three aces, two solo blocks and 17 digs. Erin Powers had 24 digs and eight assists. Reese Booth, whose mom Kirsten coaches Creighton, is a UNI commit and will be there this time next year … 

UCF is 6-1 after sweeping winless Alabama State. The Knights hit .514 with 44 kills and six errors in 74 attacks … Tulane hit .425 in a sweep of Alabama A&M … Villanova gave Santa Clara its first loss as Abby Harrell had 19 kills in the four-set win. She had an ace, 12 digs and three blocks … 

South Alabama is 6-0 after sweeping Western Carolina. Hannah Maddux had 15 kills, hitting .433 … In Charlotte’s sweep of Xavier, Lara Kretschmer had 12 kills in 21 errorless swings, an ace, three digs and five blocks … Middle Tennessee swept Kent State and Kayla Henley had 16 kills with no errors in 23 attacks, six aces and seven digs … 6-1 Temple hit .400 in a sweep of Morgan State. Samantha Jo Mikosky had seven kills with no errors in 12 attacks and six blocks, four solo … Towson is 6-1 after sweeping Rider. Aayinde Smith had six kills in eight errorless attacks, an ace and three blocks … In Georgetown’s sweep of VCU Kamryn Lee-Caracci had 10 kills, hit .412 and had an assist and seven blocks, one solo.

FIRST RUTGERS COACH DIES: Rutgers’ first volleyball coach, Socrates “Scott” Mose, died August 28. Moses was the coach there from 1977-82.

Mose was 211-65 and won the 1982 Atlantic 10 title, which got the Scarlet Knights to the NCAA Tournament. It was the first Rutgers women’s program to earn an automatic bid to an NCAA Tournament.

Rutgers noted that Mose also coached the USA Deaf National Team.

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