Things just happen on Friday as the NCAA Division I women’s volleyball world had another one of those days.
Purdue, ranked No. 16 in the AVCA top 25, got 30 kills from Evan Hudson and knocked off visiting VolleyballMag.com Super 16 No. 3 Wisconsin, handing the Badgers their second straight Big Ten loss and third of the season, all on the road.
VBM No. 10 Georgia Tech not only lost its ACC match at unranked Miami, it got lopsidedly swept by the Hurricanes.
AVCA No. 17 Kansas came away with a big victory at No. 13 BYU, while also in the Big 12 unranked Iowa State won at AVCA No. 21 Houston.
Unranked UCLA took No. 2 Stanford to the limit before the visiting Cardinal won in five.
Conference tournaments, with automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament on the line, are in full swing.
The recaps and top performances follow, but first a look at Saturday’s schedule.
Start with the only ACC match of the day, No. 6 Pittsburgh at No. 4 Louisville. Louisville swept their first meeting in four in Louisville on October 13.
There’s a full slate in the Big 12 as No. 7 Texas goes to UCF, AVCA No. 23 Baylor is home for West Virginia, Texas Tech is back at Kansas State and Oklahoma is back at Cincinnati.
There are five Big Ten matches. No. 15 Penn State is home for Northwestern, while Purdue is home for Maryland. Michigan State goes to Rutgers, Michigan is at Illinois and Ohio State is at Minnesota, which has to win to stay in NCAA at-large consideration.
The Pac-12 and SEC are off.
The ASUN Championship and its automatic NCAA bid will be decided between FGCU and Lipscomb. The same goes in America East when UBC plays Binghamton; the CAA, when Towson plays Delaware; Ivy, when Yale plays Brown; NEC, as FDU plays LIU; and WAC, as Stephen F. Austin plays Grand Canyon.
There are too many other conference tournaments underway to list, but they all can be found in our VolleyballballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings, which include viewing links.
BIG TEN: Purdue (18-8, 12-5) battled to a 22-25, 25-19, 25-22, 12-25, 16-14 victory over Wisconsin (23-3, 14-3). Eva Hudson went off for 30 kills, hit .333 and had an ace, 11 digs and two solo blocks. Raven Colvin had 14 kills and four blocks, one solo. Wisconsin, playing again without 6-foot-9 Anna Smrek, got 28 kills from Sarah Franklin, 11 from Carter Booth — who had one error in 19 attacks — and 10 each from Temi Thomas-Ailara and Devyn Robinson …
Nebraska improved to 26-0, 17-0, as its lead grew to three games over Wisconsin as the Huskers swept Michigan. Four Huskers had seven or more kills as their team hit .386 … Minnesota swept Iowa … Penn State beat Michigan State in four as Jess Mruzik had 19 kills … Northwestern won in four at Rutgers behind 24 kills from Julia Sangiacomo … Indiana beat Maryland in four as Candela Alonso-Corcellas had 22 kills.
ACC: Miami hit .353 and swept visiting Georgia Tech 25-21, 25-17, 25-14 as Flormarie Heredia Colon had 15 kills, hitting .591, and Grace Lopez had 12. GT hit .098 … Duke swept Virginia … NC State swept Clemson … Notre Dame upset Wake Forest in five as Sydney Palazzolo had 20 kills … Boston College won in four at Syracuse … Florida State swept independent Chicago State.
BIG 12: Kansas got 25 kills and three blocks from Reagan Cooper in its four-set win at BYU and Ayah Elnady had 18 kills. Erin Livingston had 21 kills for BYU … Iowa State’s Nayeli Gonzalez had 15 kills in the Cyclones’ five-set win at Houston, which got 19 kills from Kenna Sauer … Kansas State swept Texas Tech as Aliyah Carter had 17 kills and Aniya Clinton 15 … Cincinnati beat visiting Oklahoma in five despite 29 kills by OU’s Alexis Shelton.
PAC-12: Stanford hit .340 and won 23-25, 25-11, 25-23, 27-29, 15-7 at UCLA as four players had 12 or more kills, 21 by Kendall Kipp, who hit .409 and had an assist, an ace, eight digs and five blocks. Iman Ndaiye had 16 kills for UCLA … No. 5 Oregon won in four at No. 16 Arizona State despite hitting .175 and ASU’s Marta Levinska getting 26 kills … No. 12 Washington State hit .379 and swept at Colorado … AVCA No. 24 USC won in four at Cal behind 21 kills by Skylar Fields … Oregon State swept at Arizona … Washington won in five at Utah despite 23 kills from the Utes’ Lauren Jardine.
SEC: No. 9 Tennessee swept at LSU as the Vols hit .391. Keondreya Granberry had six kills in nine errorless attacks and five blocks, one solo …AVCA No. 20 Florida swept at Missouri …Georgia got 22 kills from Sophie Fisher, who hit .432 and had three aces and three blocks, as it beat South Carolina in four.
Because of travel and time constraints we have to keep this briefer than usual, but:
Top-seeded FGCU plays No. 2 Lipscomb for the ASUN bid. FGCU beat Kennesaw State in four despite 27 kills from KSU’s Manu Johnsen. Lippy beat North Florida in five …
UMBC beat Bryant and Binghamton beat New Hampshire and the two winners play for the America East title …
The Atlantic 10 tourney continues with Dayton going to its 25th win a row in a semifinal match against Saint Louis and Loyola Chicago plays VCU. Click here for the A10 website …
The CAA final pits top-seeded Towson and second-seeded Delaware … Western Kentucky goes for win No. 23 in a row in the Conference USA Championship semifinals …
Yale plays Brown for the Ivy League bid after top-seeded Yale got 20 kills from Audrey Leak and beat Harvard in four and fourth-seeded Brown knocked out second-seeded Princeton in four …
In the NEC, fourth-seeded LIU upset top-seeded Sacred Heart and will play second-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson for the NCAA bid after FDU beat Saint Francis …
The Patriot League final pits Colgate vs. American after Colgate beat Navy in four and American swept Army West Point. Click here for the Patriot Championship website.
The SoCon semis have The Citadel vs. Samford and Chattanooga vs. Wofford. Click here for the SoCon Championship website.
In the Southland as top-seeded Southeastern Louisiana plays fourth-seeded HCU and No. 2 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi plays third-seeded McNeese. Click here for the Southland website.
All four higher seeds won in the Sun Belt, setting up Saturday’s semifinals between East No. 1 Coastal Carolina vs. West No. 2 South Alabama and West No. 1 Texas State vs. East No. 2 James Madison. The Sun Belt has high hopes for being a multiple-bid league, with JMU at 19 in the RPI, South Alabama at 37 and Texas State at 40. Click here for all the info.
The WAC final pits the two teams that set the bar all season, top-seeded Stephen F. Austin and second-seeded Grand Canyon. SFA, which beat host Utah Valley in four, has won 18 in a row. Grand Canyon swept UTRGV. Click here for the WAC Championship info.
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