Volleyball Today: USC tops Minnesota; big Saturday stats lines; AU on tap Sunday

Just three ranked teams played Saturday as AVCA No. 21 USC knocked off VolleyballMag Super 16 Media Poll No. 12 Minnesota in four sets and No. 23 Dayton swept at VCU.

Of course there were reverse sweeps. Kansas State did it to visiting Iowa State, Davidson did it to visiting George Mason, Eastern Michigan did it to visiting Miami and Murray State did it to visiting Evansville.

Lines of the day: There were plenty worth noting.

Speaking of Evansville, the Purple Aces lost at Murray State but Giula Cardona had 31 of her team’s 49 kills — hitting .274 after having 11 errors in 73 swings — an ace, six digs and a block. The 5-foot-11 senior from Argentina, the 2023 Missouri Valley player of the year, had 30 kills twice already this season. She had 40 in a match last season. 

Jacksonville lost its Conference USA match at Liberty in five, but the Gamecocks’ Kayla Williams had 29 kills, hit .460, and added three assists, five of her team’s 11 aces and six digs. In Stony Brook’s five-set CAA win over visiting College of Charleston, Charleston’s Emily Banitt had 28 kills, hitting .303, with an assist, 17 digs and two blocks, and Stony Brook’s Kali Moore had 26 kills, an assist, eight digs and a block. In Denver’s five-set Summit victory at North Dakota, Cassie Davis had 27 kills, hitting .478, with an assist, two aces, eight digs and a block.  Montana won its Big Sky match at Weber State in five sets as Jourdain Kamps had a career-high 26 kills, hitting .382, to go with two digs and eight blocks, two solo.

Key results, top peformances and a look at Sunday all follow in this edition of Volleyball Today.

Volleyball Sunday

The showcase NCAA Division I match Sunday is on ESPN at 1 p.m. Eastern when Texas, No. 7 in the VolleyballMag Super 16 Media Poll, makes its first SEC trip to AVCA No. 18 Florida. 

Also in the SEC, No. 13 Kentucky is home for Missouri, No. 24 Auburn is home for Texas A&M, Arkansas is at Oklahoma, Georgia is at Alabama, Tennessee is at Mississippi State and LSU is at Ole Miss.

All the ranked ACC teams are in action, including No. 4 Louisville home for No. 19 Georgia Tech at 1:30 p.m. on the ACC Network. Top-ranked Pittsburgh is at Syracuse, No. 5 Stanford is home for Wake Forest, AVCA No. 16 Florida State is at Virginia Tech, No. 17 SMU is at Boston College, Miami is at Virginia, Clemson is at Notre Dame and NC State is at Cal. 

The only Big 12 match is the second half of the ESPN doubleheader when No. 15 Baylor goes to No. 22 TCU. Both teams are 10-3.

The four Big Ten matches include No. 9 Wisconsin home for Washington, at 13-0 one of the last three unbeatens (Pitt and South Dakota State are the others). This is Washington’s first B1G trip to Madison. Second-ranked Nebraska is home for Iowa, No. 10 Purdue is home for Michigan State, Northwestern is at Illinois and Ohio State goes to Indiana. 

The only West Coast Conference match of the day is on ESPNU when Pepperdine goes to Washington State. 

Winless watch: 0-14 Marist is home for 1-13 Manhattan in the MAAC. The Red Wolves lost in four Saturday to Iona. 

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Sunday is also the second night of Athletes Unlimited. 

At 7 p.m. Eastern, Team De La Cruz-Mejia plays Team Valentin-Anderson on ESPN+ and then at 9:30, Team Hentz plays Team Nuneviller on ESPNU. 

After the first two matches, Brittany Abercrombie is the individual lead with 341 points and e Bethania De La Cruz-Mejis (her team captain) is second with 3-5. Abercrombie had 16 kills, hit .325, and had an ace, nine digs and a solo block in her first match.

Around the nation

USC (11-3, 3-1 Big Ten) came away with a 25-23, 22-25, 25-11, 25-18 victory over visiting Minnesota (9-5, 2-2) which played a four-set match for the first time this season. USC, which hit .320, got 19 kills from Ally Batenhorst, who hit .348 and had an assist, three aces, two blocks and six digs. Jadyn Livings had 13 kills, hit .500, and had four blocks, and Adonia Faumuina had 12 kills, an assist, eight digs and five blocks, two solo. Mia Tuaniga had two kills, 48 assists, four blocks and nine digs. Minnesota, which hit .146, got 16 kills from Lydia Grote, who had an ace, two digs and a solo block. Julia Hanson had nine kills, two assists, an ace, eight digs and two blocks. 

Also in the Big Ten, Michigan (13-2, 3-1) won in five at UCLA (7-6, 1-3) as five players had eight or more kills, 19 by Allison Jacobs, who had an assist, 16 digs and two blocks, one solo; and Maryland (10-5, 1-3) swept Rutgers (5-10, 0-4), which took over sole possession of last place …  

Dayton just keeps on rolling. The Flyers are 14-1, 4-0 in the Atlantic 10, after sweeping for the second straight day at VCU. Lexie Almodovar had 15 kills, two blocks and four digs and Brooke Smith had 11 kills with one error in 11 attacks, a dig and a solo block. Also in the A10, in Saint Louis’s five-set win loss to Duquesne, Addy Brus had 25 kills, an assist, two aces, 10 digs and four blocks; and in Davidson’s reverse-sweep win over George Mason, Isabel Decker had 24 kills, three assists, an ace and 15 digs …

Kansas State came back to beat visiting Iowa State 28-30, 23-25, 28-26, 25-17, 25-20 as Aliyah Carter led with 19 kills in the Big 12 match. She had an ace, four digs and five blocks. Ella Larkin had 23 digs, seven assists and two aces. Brenna Schmidt had four kills, a dig and 11 blocks, one solo. K-State had 21 blocks, most for the program since 2014. Iowa State’s Maya Duckworth had 23 kills, nine digs and five blocks, Brooke Stonestreet had 25 digs, eight assists and an ace, and Pam McCune had 10 blocks, two solo. Also in the Big 12, Cincinnati swept visiting UCF as Carly Glendinning had 13 kills, an assist, two aces, five digs and a block; and Colorado beat visiting Texas Tech in five as Lily Dwinel had 16 kills, hit .375, and had two digs and nine blocks … 

In West Georgia’s five-set ASUN win at Austin Peay, Sanai Young had 17 kills, hit .417 and had four blocks. FGCU is now 13-3, 5-0 in the ASUN after sweeping at North Florida as Skylar English, who hit .455, and Shelby Kent, who hit .467, had 17 kills each; and in Jacksonville’s four-set ASUN win over Stetson, Breanna McDonough had 23 kills, an assist, four aces and 12 digs … Dylan Maberry had 13 kills with one error in 26 swings to hit .462 in High Point’s Big South sweep of Charleston Southern, adding 10 digs and a block … Yale beat Princeton in four in the Ivy League as Payton Bryan had 19 kills with one error in 28 swings to hit .643, and Princeton’s Sydney Bold had 24 kills, hit .404, and had an assist, four digs and a block. Also in the Ivy, in Dartmouth’s sweep of Columbia, Kauany Gutz had 14 kills, hit .462, and had two aces and nine digs … Rider beat Canisius in four in the MAAC and Paige Giehtbrock had 19 kills, hit .421, and had three of her team’s 10 aces, 15 digs and three blocks … 

In the Big West, Hawai’i swept at Long Beach State, leaving both teams at 3-1, tied atop the standings with Cal Poly, UC Davis, UC Irvine and Cal State Bakersfield. Caylen Alexander had 18 kills for Hawai’i, hitting .452, to go with an ace and 10 digs. In CSUN‘s five-set win at Cal State Fullerton, Hailey Brockway had 19 kills, two assists, 14 digs and three blocks, one solo … Towson is 14-2, 5-1 in the CAA after sweeping N. C. A&T as Victoria Barrett had 15 kills, two aces, nine digs and two blocks. Also in the CAA, Hofstra won in five at Campbell, but the Camels’ Gwen Wolkow had 23 kills, three assists, 10 digs and three blocks. And since I’m now following Northeastern, Brynn Smith had 13 kills, hit .345, and had nine digs and three blocks in a sweep of visiting William & Mary. The Huskies are 5-1 in the league … Youngstown State lost in five at Northern Kentucky but Abbie Householder had 23 kills in the Horizon League defeat. Also in the Horizon, Wright State is 13-3, 5-0 atop the conference after hitting .422 and sweeping Cleveland State. Sam Ott had 12 kills with no errors in 25 attacks, an assist, 13 digs and two blocks, and Reilly Zegunis had 11 kills with no errors in 16 attacks and an ace and three blocks … 

In the MAC, in Eastern Michigan’s reverse sweep over Miami, Abby Stanford had 14 kills, hit .500, and had a dig and 10 blocks, one solo. In Buffalo’s MAC sweep of Kent State, Abby Leigh had 11 kills with no errors in 14 attacks to hit .786 and she had two assists, three digs and three blocks, one solo … 

Northern Iowa hit .405 in a Missouri Valley sweep at UIC. Also in the Valley, Drake won in four at Valparaiso as Ashlynn Kuhn had 19 kills, hitting .405, with three digs and two blocks … Malaya Jones had 20 kills, an assist, three aces and nine digs in Colorado State’s four-set Mountain West win over Fresno State. The Rams, 8-6, are 4-0 and stayed a game up in the loss column over San Jose State (9-1, 4-1) because it won by forfeit when Wyoming would not play the Spartans … Saint Francis won its NEC match in four at LIU and Korrin Burns had 23 kills, hitting .326 with nine digs … In a 26-24, 25-20, 29-27 OVC sweep of Little Rock, Morehead State’s Irene Wogenstahl had 16 kills with two errors in 32 attacks and eight blocks, two solo … 

Bucknell is 14-1, 6-0 in the Patriot League after sweeping at Navy for its 14th win in a row. Tijana Kostic had 11 kills with no errors in 20 attacks to hit .550 and she had two assists, six of her team’s 17 aces, seven digs and a block … Mercer’s Skye Ekes had 21 kills in her team’s five-set SoCon victory over Chattanooga. She hit .407 and had an assist, an ace and a solo block … Kyndal Payne had 15 kills with one error in 21 attacks to hit .667 in Texas A&M-Corpus Christi’s sweep of Lamar. She added two assists, an ace, 12 digs and a block. Also in the Southland, McNeese swept New Orleans and McKenzie Moore had 12 kills with no errors in 23 attacks, assist, 14 digs and three blocks … Abilene Christian beat Seattle U in five in the WAC and Alexis Strong had 23 kills and a block … Pacific won its WCC match over visiting Santa Clara in five as Alexa Edwards had 19 kills with one error in 44 attacks to hit .409 and added four of her team’s 12 aces, nine digs and two blocks, one solo. Also in the WCC, Nemo Beach (all-name team) had 13 kills and hit .333 as San Diego hit .346 and beat visiting Oregon State in four. Teammate Isabel Clark also had 13 kills and three errors but in 28 swings, hit .357  and had two assists, two aces and 12 digs.

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