Arizona State served notice to the Big 12 — and the rest of the NCAA — that Forks Up is for real.
The Sun Devils, No. 9 in the VolleyballMag Super 16 Media Poll, are now tied for first in the Big 12 after knocking off visiting No. 6 Kansas 26-24, 20-25, 25-20, 27-25 to force atop the standings. ASU is 23-2, 11-1 in the conference, while Kansas is 20-2, 11-1.
Madisen Skinner went off for 25 kills and No. 13 Texas snapped out of its three-match losing streak with a four-set SEC victory at Mississippi State. Two other ranked teams won in the Big 12, No. 17 Baylor and No. 23 Utah.
None of the 13 matches on the Wednesday slate went five sets.
There’s a pro beach tournament in Brazil and Wednesday’s qualifier was awfully tough for Americans. Just one USA pair is left in the entire field after a brutal performance in the qualifier.
It’s all in this edition of Volleyball Today:
The No. 2 team in the VolleyballMag Super 16 Media Poll, Nebraska — 22-1, 12-0 in the Big Ten and riding a 19-match winning streak — makes its first West Coast trip in the new B1G. The Huskers play at No. 12 Oregon (17-4, 9-3) at 10 p.m. Eastern and it’s on the Big Ten Network.
Also in the B1G, No. 13 Minnesota (16-6, 9-3) goes to Washington (17-5, 7-5), where Keegan Cook was head coach from 2015-22, UCLA (10-11, 4-8) is home for Rutgers (5-18, 0-12) and Michigan (16-7, 6-6) goes to Maryland (10-13, 1-11).
There are two Big 12 matches when No. 18 TCU is home for UCF and West Virginia goes to Cincinnati.
The last unbeaten team, South Dakota State (22-0, 11-0 Summit) is home for St. Thomas. Also in The Summit League, South Dakota is at North Dakota State, Kansas City is at Denver and North Dakota is at Oral Roberts.
Southland-leading Southeastern Louisiana — 20-4, 12-0 and on a 20-match winning streak — is home for Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Stephen F. Austin, two games back, is home for McNeese, Nicholls is at Lamar, Texas A&M-Commerce is at Houston Christian, UIW is at Northwestern State and UTRGV is at New Orleans.
There’s a showdown at the top of the West Coast Conference, where Loyola Marymount is 18-4, 10-1 and on a seven-match winning streak. The Lions make the short drive to second-place Pepperdine (12-8, 9-1). LMU won their match in five on October 12. Also in the WCC, Portland is at San Francisco, Oregon State is at Santa Clara, Saint Mary’s is at Gonzaga (mired in a 20-match losing streak) and Pacific is at Washington State.
Big Sky-leading Northern Colorado is home for Sacramento State. Also in the league Montana State is at Idaho, Portland State is at Northern Arizona and Montana is at Eastern Washington.
There are no forfeits expected in the Mountain West, but league-leading Colorado State has the day off. Second-place San Jose State, a game back, is at UNLV. Third-place Fresno State, a game behind SJSU in the win column, is at San Diego State, Wyoming is at Boise State, Nevada is at New Mexico and Utah State is at Air Force.
WAC-leading UT Arlington is off while Utah Valley is at Abilene Christian, Southern Utah is at Tarleton State, Utah Tech is at Grand Canyon and California Baptist is at Seattle U.
Hawai’i, a game back of first-place UC Davis in the win column, plays the only Big West match at UC Riverside.
The lone Missouri Valley match has Belmont at Evansville, which is led by Giulia Cardona. She is the AVCA national player of the week and has an NCAA-best 549 kills. Caylen Alexander of Hawai’i is second with 457. Cardona also leads Alexander in kills per set (5.60-5.25).
The only SoCon match has first-place Mercer at Furman.
There are three Sun Belt matches as Old Dominion goes to James Madison, Troy is at Southern Miss and Louisiana-Lafayette is at Louisiana-Monroe.
In the OVC, Morehead State is at Western Illinois, the only Patriot League match has Loyola Maryland at Navy, and in the SWAC, Arkansas-Pine Bluff plays Grambling and Alcorn plays Southern.
Arizona State, which has won 11 in a row, got 15 kills each from Shania Cromartie and Gei Cyr. But the Sun Devils hit just .166, which included nine errors by Cromartic and 11 by Cyr. Cromartie had four blocks and nine digs and Cyr had two of her team’s six aces — KU had one — and a block and 10 digs. Setter Argentina Ung had three kills in eight errorless tries, 51 assists, a block and 13 digs, and libero Mary Shroll had 24 digs and four assists.
Ayah Elnady led Kansas with 21 kills and had two assists, a solo block and 16 digs. Her teammates combined for 33 kills and 20 errors as the Jayhawks hit .185 …
Baylor (16-6, 8-3) swept at Texas Tech (12-12, 4-8) as Elise McGhee had 15 kills, an assist, an ace, seven digs and five blocks and Kendal Murphy had 11 kills with one error in 26 attacks to go with nine digs and a block … Utah (18-5, 8-4) won in four at Colorado (10-14, 3-9) behind 20 kills from Kamryn Gibadlo, who hit .316 and had two aces and four digs. Allie Olsen had nine kills in 15 errorless attacks, an ace, two digs and four blocks … Houston (11-10, 6-5) swept at Iowa State (9-13, 3-8) as Angela Grieve and Katie Corelli had 12 kills each and ISU hit .099 … Kansas State (9-11, 7-4) swept at Arizona (13-9, 2-9) as Aliyah Carter had 16 kills, an assist, three aces and 12 digs …
Texas (13-8, 8-3 SEC) won in four at Mississippi State (10-9, 4-6) by the unusual score line of 25-8, 25-15, 21-25, 25-17. Madi Skinner had a season-high 25 kills, hitting .408 after having five errors in 49 attacks to go with 10 digs and four blocks, one solo. Ayden Ames had eight kills with no errors in 17 attacks, two digs and seven blocks … Missouri (17-5, 8-2) hit .378 and moved into a first-place tie with idle Kentucky, a game up in the loss column, with a four-set win over visiting Georgia (9-12, 3-8). Mizzou, which has won eight in a row and was the last team out of the AVCA top 25, got 20 kills from Mychael Vernon. She hit .349 and had two assists, an ace, five digs and two blocks. Jordan Iliff had 18 kills, hit .371, and had an assist, two aces, 12 digs and a block …
In the only ACC match, Virginia (18-6, 8-5) had to rally for a 24-26, 25-16, 19-25, 25-17, 15-8 victory over visiting Virginia Tech (7-16, 1-12). It was Virginia’s fourth five-setter in its last six matches and it won three of them. Kate Johnson had 20 digs, seven assists and two aces …
Second-place Marquette (18-6. 12-1) hit .351 and swept at Butler in the only Big East match. Aubrey Hamilton had 12 kills, hit .370, and had two assists, six digs and three blocks, two solo …
First-place Mercer (21-4, 11-1) hit .388 and won the only SoCon match by sweeping at last-place Western Carolina to build its lead to a full game over idle Wofford. Ten different Bears had kills and MeMe Davis had 16 digs, two assists and an ace …
In the SWAC, Jackson State hit .426 and swept visiting Mississippi Valley as Alexis Williams had 18 kills, hit .441, and had two aces, 10 digs and two blocks, one solo … In the only American Athletic match, UAB beat visiting Memphis in four … FGCU of the ASUN won in four at FIU of Conference USA as Shelby Kent had 23 kills, an ace, nine digs and three blocks, one solo.
The Beach Pro Tour is in Brazil this week and just one USA pair remains in the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Elite16 event in Rio de Janeiro.
The operative phrase of Wednesday for the USA was two and barbecue.
On the women’s side, Terese Canon and Megan Kraft begin pool play Thursday, but they were already in the main draw. There are no American men in the main draw.
All four USA teams of Kim Hildreth and Teegan Van Gunst, Madelyne Anderson and Brook Bauer, Chaim Schalk and James Shaw and Hagen Smith and Logan Webber won their first qualifying match and then lost the second.
Two other USA women’s pairs lost their first qualifying match, Kelly Kool and Tiffany Svenssohn and Savvy Simo and Abby Van Winkle. Because I had to know, Kool, 34, is the former Kelly Wood, who was a libero at NC State. Svensshon, 29, is the former Tiffany Creamer who played at Stetson.
Click here for more on the Rio Elite16 from Volleyball World, including the schedule and viewing links on VBTV.
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