Volleyball Today: Huskers sweep Louisville as pre-conference season finishes

There is no NCAA Division I volleyball Monday.

Whew.

After four weeks of pre-conference play, with so many of those Fridays and Saturdays bursting with more than 200 matches per day, we need a break.

That gives us time to come out with the first VolleyballMag Super 16 Media Poll later Monday morning.

And our panel has a lot to consider.

A quick look at the top four conferences show some interesting trends.

In the ACC, just two teams went through the pre-conference unbeaten, AVCA No. 1 Pittsburgh (9-0) and unheralded Syracuse (12-0), a team that finished 2-26 in 2023, 0-18 in conference play. Only one of the 18 ACC teams — Duke at 4-7 — is below .500.

In the Big 12, which now has 15 teams, just one is unbeaten — Arizona at 11-0 — and just one is below .500 — Kansas State at 2-7.

The Big Ten has 18 teams and just one — Washington at 10-0 — is unbeaten, although Michigan, Nebraska, Penn State and Oregon have one loss each. Only Rutgers (5-6) and Northwestern (2-6) are below .500.

And in the SEC, which has 15 teams, no team came out of pre-conference unbeaten, but Auburn (10-1) and Texas A&M) have one loss each. No SEC team is below .500 overall and, surprisingly, the team with the worst winning percentage is AVCA No. 11 Kentucky at 6-5.

The Big East’s Creighton, No. 9 in the AVCA and standing 9-2 after big victories over Purdue and Kansas, will surely be in our top 16. Dayton of the Atlantic 10, won’t be, but the 10-1 Flyers  are the only other team in the coaches poll not from one of the power-4 conferences.

There were seven ranked teams in action Sunday and the only one that lost was No. 4 Louisville, which was steamrolled by No. 5 Nebraska. Top-ranked Pitt, No. 3 Penn State, No. 12 Oregon, No. 16 Florida and No. 22 SMU all won.

The line of the day went to Guila Cardona of Evansville, who had 30 kills in a five-set loss to IU Indianapolis. 

The recaps and top performances follow in this all-NCAA edition of Volleyball Today. We will have a separate story later Monday on the AVP League.

Sunday’s NCAA volleyball results

Top 25

Nebraska (10-1) set the tone early and went on to a 25-16, 25-17, 25-20 victory at Louisville (8-2) — the first regular-season match ever on ABC — that went surprisingly fast.

Nebraska, which beat a top-five team on the road for the first time since winning at Minnesota in February 2021, had seven blocks. Louisville had none. The Huskers hit .305 and had seven aces with seven serving errors. Harper Murray led with 11 kills and had two errors in 31 attacks to go with two assists, an ace and five digs. Merritt Beason had nine kills with one error in 22 attacks, an assist, four blocks and a dig. Andi Jackson had six kills in 11 errorless swings, three digs and four blocks, one solo. Lindsay Krause had five kills, four aces, a block and four digs, and setter Bergen Reilly had four kills in six errorless tries, two blocks and six digs.

Louisville, which hit .133 and had no aces and seven errors, got 12 kills from Anna DeBeer, who had eight digs. Her teammates combined for 27 kills, eight each by Sofia Maldonado Diaz and Charitie Luper. The crowd of 14,126 at the KFC Yum! Center — site of December’s NCAA Division I Volleyball Championship — was a Louisville record … 

Pitt (9-0) hit .398 and swept previously ranked Marquette (4-5). Olivia Babcock had 14 kills, two aces, two blocks and nine digs. Ella Foti had 11 kills with one error in 23 attacks for Marquette … Penn State (10-1) beat Yale (5-3) in four. The Nittany Lions, who hit .371, got 18 kills from Camryn Hannah and 15 from Jess Mruzik … Oregon (8-1) won its eighth in a row with a sweep of visiting Oregon State (2-8), which hit .000. Mimi Colyer led Oregon with 10 kills, two aces, two blocks and 11 digs … Florida (9-2) hit .442 and swept Buffalo (4-9). Kennedy Martin had 12 kills, hitting .526, to go with two assists, an ace, two blocks and five digs. Buffalo hit .080 … And the only other ranked team in action, SMU (8-3) won in four at Northern Iowa (5-7). Jamison Wheeler led the Mustangs with 21 kills, hit .383, and had an assist, two of her team’s 11 aces — Natalie Foster had four — a block and 11 digs. UNI’s Cassidy Hartman had 17 kills, hit .367, and had a block and four digs.

Around the nation

Indiana beat visiting Notre Dame in four as Avry Tatum had 15 kills and Candela Alonso-Corcelles 14 … North Carolina beat visiting Michigan State in four as Emani Foster had 15 kills with one error in 31 attacks, two digs and a block … Ohio State swept Bowling Green behind 19 kills from Emily Londot, who hit .471 and had an assist, 14 digs and a block … Wake Forest got past Davidson in five as Paige Crawford and Laila Ricks had 18 kills each and Olivia Murphy had 17 … Texas A&M beat Troy in four as Logan Ledicky had 16 kills, hitting .355, with an assist, an ace, seven digs and five blocks … 

Syracuse got to 12-0 with a four-set win over Cornell. Ava Palm led with 16 kills and hit .382 to go with two aces, nine digs and a block … UTEP is 10-2 after sweeping Texas State.  Ema Uskokovic had 14 kills, hit .314, and had three aces and three blocks … Oklahoma hit .349 and swept Kansas State. Alexis Shelton had 18 kills, hit .310, and had nine digs and four blocks .. 

Coastal Carolina won in five at NC State as Agata Lesiak had 16 kills, hit .406, and had five digs and two blocks, one solo. Amanda Rice had 18 kills for NC State and seven blocks … In Penn’s four-set win over Rhode Island, Zada Sanger had 22 kills, hitting .409 … Providence beat Quinnipiac in five as Lyric Berry (all-name team) had 15 kills, hit. 500, and had a dig and 10 blocks, four solo. Quinnipiac’s Elena Giacomini had 24 kills, three aces, 11 digs and four blocks, two solo … Alexa Edwards had 21 kills for Pacific in a four-set win over Sacramento State to go with an ace, 11 digs and two blocks. Bridgette Smith had 21 kills for Sacramento State … CSU Bakersfield beat Fresno State in five as Sydney Dunning had 19 kills, an ace, 10 digs and two blocks …

IU Indianapolis beat Evansville in as Morgan Ostrowski had 17 kills, hit .467, and had a dig and five blocks, two solo. Evansville’s Giulia Cardona, who has put up big numbers in her career, had 30 kills, five aces — making her the all-time program leader with 207 — 11 digs and two blocks, one solo … 

In the CAA, Towson improved to 11-1 overall, 2-0 in league play, with a five-set win over William & Mary (4-7, 0-2) as Victoria Barrett had 22 kills, hit .306, and had 14 digs and two blocks. Zyare Abdul-Rahim had 16 kills, hit .375, and had an assist, three digs and four blocks, three solo … Delaware swept Campbell as Anna Logan Gillens had 14 kills, hit .458, and had two digs and two blocks, one solo … College of Charleston beat Elon in four as Emily Banitt had 19 kills, 11 digs and four blocks … Northeastern beat UNCW in four … 

Loyola Maryland kept Navy winless with a five-set Patriot League victory in which Lauren Link had 17 kills, two assists, an ace and 19 digs.

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