Volleyball Today: Nebraska, Louisville win 5-setters; Hawks to coach UCLA men; AU recaps

There were no upsets Friday in NCAA Division I volleyball on a night when second-ranked Nebraska was taken to the limit by No. 9 Purdue and No. 4 Louisville had to win in five at No. 21 Florida State in the only matches between ranked teams.

There were, of course, reverse sweeps. Boston College did it at Cal, Jacksonville did it at West Georgia, Bryant did it to visiting New Hampshire and Drake did it to visiting Murray State.

Lines of the night: In Purdue Fort Wayne’s wild 26-28, 25-23, 25-22, 24-26, 28-25 Horizon League victory over visiting Oakland, Panna Ratkai had 30 kills for the third time in her career, hit .289 after having nine errors in 78 swings, and added two assists, three aces, 16 digs and three blocks. There were 20 ties and four lead changes in the fifth set! 

Lipscomb’s Karlie McNabb had 28 kills and hit .480 in her team’s five-set ASUN win over North Alabama to go with an assist, two aces and seven digs. Drake’s Macy Daufeldt had 28 kills for Drake in its reverse-sweep win over visiting Murray State as she hit .355 and had an ace, 12 digs and two solo blocks. Chattanooga lost its SoCon match in five to visiting The Citadel, but Char’e Vanzandt had 27 kills, hit .389, and had three aces, four digs and two blocks. And a nod to Dayton’s Lexi Almodovar, who had 21 kills in a sweep of Loyola Chicago, hitting .500 with two assists, five digs and two blocks. 

Key NCAA results and top performances follow.

Also in this edition of Volleyball Today, we have UCLA hiring John Hawks to replace John Speraw as its men’s coach and Friday’s results from the two Athletes Unlimited matches.

NCAA volleyball Saturday

The ACC has three matches as No. 1 and unbeaten Pittsburgh, which swept the Mustangs on Wednesday, goes to No. 14 SMU, No. 6 Stanford is home for Boston College and Syracuse is at Cal.

The Big Ten shows No. 2 Nebraska home for Rutgers, No. 9 Purdue at Iowa, No. 14 Minnesota home for Maryland and Illinois at Michigan State.

Every one of the four Big 12 matches involves a ranked team. No. 8 Kansas is at Cincinnati, No. 17 TCU is at No. 23 BYU, No. 18 Baylor goes to Utah and No. 12 Arizona State plays at Texas Tech.

The SEC is off.

In the Big East, No. 5 Creighton is at St. John’s and in the Atlantic 10, No. 22 Dayton is home again for Loyola Chicago.

South Dakota State, at 15-0 the only team other than Pittsburgh with no defeats, puts its 4-0 Summit League record on the line against North Dakota. 

Pepperdine, tied with San Francisco atop the WCC, plays LMU, tied with Washington State a game back. USF plays Oregon State and WSU plays Saint Mary’s.

Four of the five top teams in the CAA got at it again when Charleston faces Towson and Northeastern plays Hofstra.

UT Arlington, 15-2 and 5-0 in the WAC, has won six in a row and plays at Abilene Christian.

Winless watch: 0-18 Hampton plays a CAA match at UNC Wilmington. 

NCAA volleyball Friday

ACC: Fourth-ranked Louisville (13-2, 5-0) came away with a 16-25, 25-21, 25-21, 21-25, 15-9 victory at No. 21 Florida State (11-4, 3-2). Anna DeBeer had her best match of the season, finishing with 23 kills — her previous season high was 13 — and hit .333 to go with an ace, 11 digs and two blocks. Audrey Koenig had 22 kills for FSU, hitting .340, with three aces, nine digs and a block … 

No. 6 Stanford (12-2, 4-1) swept visiting Syracuse (12-5, 0-5) as Sami Francis had 12 kills and .524 in the 25-22, 25-13, 25-8 victory.  Francis, who had one error in 21 attacks, had six blocks. The Orange hit minus .023 … 

NC State (8-5, 3-2) ended the eight-match winning streak of visiting North Carolina (12-2, 4-1) as Amanda Rice had 19 kills, hit .484 and had an ace, six digs and five blocks, one solo. NC State drew a Reynolds Coliseum record crowd of 3,431  … No. 20 Georgia Tech (10-4 ,2-3) swept visiting Virginia Tech (6-9, 0-5) … Duke (7-9, 3-2) won in four at Wake Forest (10-6, 2-3) as Kerry Keefe and Taylor Williams had 16 kills apiece … Miami (11-5, 2-3) rallied to beat visiting Notre Dame (9-5, 2-3) 25-22, 19-25, 19-25, 25-13, 15-12 … Virginia (14-2, 4-1) swept at Clemson (8-8, 0-5) … Boston College (8-9, 1-4) pulled off a reverse sweep at Cal (9-8, 1-4) as Halle Schroder had 16 kills in the 21-25, 21-25, 25-17, 25-19, 19-17 victory. She added an ace, 18 digs and two blocks, one solo. Brooklyn Yelland had 22 digs, six assists and an ace.

BIG TEN: Second-ranked Nebraska (15-1, 5-0) came away with a 25-22, 22-25, 23-25, 25-22, 17-15 victory over No. 9 Purdue (12-4, 3-2) which both out-hit Nebraska (.311 to .242) and out-blocked the Huskers (15-5.5). Nebraska, which faced match point at 15-14, rallied on kills from Merritt Beason, Taylor Landfair and Beason to end it. Beason finished with 22 kills and had an assist, an ace, eight digs and two blocks. Eva Hudson had 26 kills for Purdue, hitting .349, to go with 15 digs and a block, and Chloe Chicoine had 22 kills, hitting .327, and had 13 digs and a block … 

All of the other five matches were sweeps. No. 3 Penn State (15-1, 5-0) won at Michigan State (7-9, 0-5) as Jess Mruzik had 14 kills, an ace and 10 digs … Illinois (10-5, 2-3) won at Michigan (13-3, 3-2) as Raina Terry had 16 kills, hit .364, and had an assist, a dig and four blocks, one solo … No. 14 Minnesota (10-5, 3-2) hit .358 and beat visiting Indiana (9-6, 2-3). Lydia Grote had 13 kills with no errors in 23 attacks to hit .565 and had two digs and three blocks .. Iowa (9-8, 3-2) beat visiting Rutgers (5-11, 0-5) … No. 10 Wisconsin (10-4, 4-1) beat Maryland (10-6, 1-4) as the Badgers out-blocked the visitors 14-1. CC Crawford, who had eight kills with one error in 16 attacks, had an ace, two digs and nine block assists. Maryland hit .043.

SEC: Just one of the league’s ranked teams was in action as No. 19 Florida (11-4, 2-2) beat visiting Mississippi State (7-6. 1-3) in four. Kennedy Martin had 14 kills, two aces, five digs and four blocks … Georgia (7-7, 1-3) drew a record home crowd of 8,376 — shattering the previous best of 5,303 — and beat South Carolina (9-5, 0-3) in five as Sophie Fisher had 18 kills, two aces, three digs and nine blocks. Erykah Lovett had 17 kills, hit .400 and had four aces, 10 digs and three blocks as the Bulldogs out-blocked South Carolina 18-2. Riley Whitesides had 22 kills for South Carolina to go with three aces, eight digs and a block … LSU (10-6, 2-3) beat visiting Oklahoma (7-6, 1-4) in four despite 21 kills by OU’s Alexis Shelton, who hit .359 and had an assist, an ace, six digs and four blocks, one solo. LSU’s Jurneee Robinson had 17 kills, two assists, three of her team’s 11 aces, eight digs and three solo blocks … Missouri (11-5, 2-2) swept visiting Alabama (9-6, 1-3) as Jordan Iliff had 17 kills with three errors in 28 attacks to hit .500 and added three aces and two blocks, one solo.

AROUND THE NATION: Fifth-ranked Creighton (14-2, 5-0) swept its Big East match at Villanova (11-5, 4-1) as Ava Martin had 13 kills as the Bluejays matched the program’s best start. Martin had one error in 25 attacks to hit .480 and had an assist, four of her team’s nine aces, four digs and a block. Setter Kendra Wait had five kills in 10 errorless tries, 33 assists, an ace, nine digs and seven blocks … Also in the Big East, Marquette (8-6, 4-1) kept pace with a four-set win at St. John’s (13-6, 2-3) as Aubrey Hamilton had 17 kills, hit .316, and had an assist, seven digs and three blocks, one solo … DePaul (12-5, 4-1) won in five at Georgetown as Audrey Kemp had 22 kills, hit .311, and had three digs and four blocks … 

No. 22 Dayton (16-1, 6-0) swept visiting Loyola Chicago (9-8, 4-2) in the Atlantic 10 as Lexi Almodovar had 21 kills with two errors in 38 swings, two assists, five digs and two blocks. She’s averaging 4.55 kills per set. Karissa Kaminski had 16 digs, four assists and two aces … In the other A10 match, VCU beat visiting Saint Louis in four and Julia Rienks had 22 kills, an ace, three digs and four blocks, one solo. Anja Kujundzic had 24 digs and eight assists … 

UC Davis (10-5, 5-1) took over sole possession of first in the Big West with a 22-25, 25-21, 28-26, 25-17 win at Hawai’i (9-6, 3-2). Oliva Utterback had 21 kills, hit .318, and had an assist, two aces, five digs and four blocks …

Buffalo (9-10, 5-1) is alone atop the MAC — with four teams tied for second a game back in the loss column — after its five-set win at Miami in which Katrin Trebichavska had 22 kills, an assist, an ace, 14 digs and two blocks. A day after upsetting Bowling Green, Eastern Michigan (11-10, 5-2) got swept at Toledo (12-7. 5-2), which got 15 kills from Izzy Granger, who hit .323 and had an ace and 17 digs. Bowling Green’s (10-8, 5-2) woes continued as it lost in five at home for the second straight night, this time to Central Michigan (14-5, 5-2). CMU’s Natalia Rejment had 17 kills, hit .324 and had three assists, an ace, nine digs and three blocks … 

In Jacksonville’s ASUN reverse sweep at West Georgia, Breanna McDonough had 26 kills, an assist, two aces and four digs … Also in the ASUN, Lipscomb improved to 8-8 but stayed tied atop the league at 5-0 with FGCU and Central Arkansas. Karlie McNabb had 28 kills and hit .480 in her team’s five-set win over North Alabama to go with an assist, two aces and seven digs …

Madi Malone had 25 kills in a five-set win for Milwaukee (11-7, 6-0) at Northern Kentucky in the Horizon League to go with two assists, 12 digs and three blocks. Wright State (14-3, 6-0) kept pace with a sweep at Youngstown State as Sam Ott and Maya Ayro had 17 kills each … In a wild one at Purdue Fort Wayne, the Mastodons beat visiting Oakland 26-28, 25-23, 25-22, 24-26, 28-25 as Panna Ratkai had 30 kills … 

South Florida won its American Athletic match at Wichita State in four as Nalya Sawtelle had 20 kills and Maria Clare Andrade 19 and 20 digs. Rice, which swept North Texas, and USF are tied atop the AAC at 5-0 … Catyon White had 23 kills, 13 digs and a block for Gardner-Webb in its four-set Big South win at Charleston Southern … College of Charleston (14-5, 6-1) swept visiting Towson (14-3, 5-2) and is tied with Hofstra (10-6, 6-1), which beat Northeastern (7-8, 5-2) in four, atop the CAA. Delaware (9-4, 5-1) was off … 

All four Ivy League matches were sweeps, including Yale (9-3, 4-0) beating Cornell to build a one-game lead over Harvard (8-5, 3-1), which lost at Princeton … Howard swept Morgan State in the MEAC and Rya McKinnon had 20 kills, hit .500, and had two assists, an ace, 12 digs and a block … Saint Francis hit .337 in an NEC sweep of Central Connecticut as Korrin Burns had 18 kills with three errors in 28 attacks to go with three aces and five digs …

App State, which has dealt with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, went to Old Dominion and got a four-set win to improve to 9-3, 3-0 in the Sun Belt. ODU (13-3, 2-1) had won 10 in a row.

Hawks returns to UCLA to coach NCAA-champion men

From the UCLA news release:

John Hawks, who was an assistant coach for UCLA from 2015-22 and head coach at Loyola University Chicago from 2022-24, has been named the third head coach in UCLA men’s volleyball history.

Hawks also currently serves as the head coach of the U21 USA National Team, and recently won Gold at the NORCECA Qualifiers this past summer in Mexico, earning a bid to the World Championships in China next summer.

In Hawks’ two seasons as head coach of Loyola Chicago, he posted a 40-17 record (.702 winning percentage), earned Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) Coach of the Year honors in 2023, and coached six All-Americans.

Click here for the complete news release.

Hawks replaces his old boss, John Speraw, who resigned to become the CEO of USA Volleyball after winning the last two NCAA championships.

Team Abercrombie, Team De La Cruz-Mejia win in Athletes Unlimited

Team (Brittany) Abercrombie defeated Team (Kayla) Caffey 73-69 — but lost two of the three sets in a 25-17, 24-26, 24-26) outcome — on Friday night in Mesa, Arizona.

In the nightcap, Team (Bethania) De La Cruz-Mejia beat Team Nootsara (Tomkom) 79-62, winning 25-12, 26-24, 28-26.

Abercrombie led her team with 278 points, getting a match-high 16 kills, an ace and 10 digs. Morgan Hentz had 21 digs and seven assists. Brooke Nuneviller led Team Caffey with 11 kills, an assist, 10 digs and a solo block. 

Leketor Member-Meneh led the winners with 13 kills, hitting .370, and had two assists, two solo blocks and eight digs. De La Cruz-Mejia had 12 kills, an assist, four of her team’s six aces and four digs. Natalia Valentin-Anderson had 19 digs, 31 assists and an ace to take top points honors with 364.

Madi Kingdon Rishel led Nootsara with 16 kills, nine digs and a solo block. 

The next AU matches are Sunday when Nootsara plays Abercrombie and Caffey plays De La Cruz-Mejia.

Click here for the first-match recap.

And click here for the second-match recap.

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