Volleyball Today: Stanford gets tough sweep at SMU; big win for Bama; USF takes over AAC lead

SMU played Stanford on Wednesday in front of 2,761, second-largest volleyball crowd at Moody Coliseum and the first time with a former president in attendance.

George Bush and his wife Laura watched No. 5 Stanford come away with a sweep over the No.  9 Mustangs that was every bit as close as the 25-22, 25-23, 35-33 score indicated.

Five other ranked teams won — including Georgia Tech pulling off a reverse sweep against visiting Clemson — on a Wednesday that had just 17 matches, but No. 25 Auburn lost in five to Alabama.

South Florida is alone in first place in the American Athletic Conference after an impressive sweep.

Things are busier Thursday as we head to Holyoke, Massachusetts, for the annual International Volleyball Hall of Fame induction celebration weekend.

NCAA volleyball Thursday

There is one match in the Big Ten when UCLA goes to No. 11 Purdue. 

The two matches in the Big 12 show league-leading No. 8 Kansas home for Kansas State and No. 22 Baylor home for Cincinnati.

The ACC and SEC are off but there are four matches in The Summit League, including the last unbeaten team in the nation, 16-0 South Dakota State. The Jackrabbits, 5-0 in conference play,  go to last-place North Dakota.

The six Southland Conference matches include both teams unbeaten in league play. Southeastern Louisiana (15-4, 7-0) — which has won 15 in a row and features the last player from my club, Volleyball Baton Rouge that I retired in 2019, libero Lexi Gonzalez — goes to Lamar. Stephen F. Austin (14-5, 6-0) is home for New Orleans. 

There are four matches in the West Coast Conference, including Washington State, tied for the lead with idle LMU, home for Oregon State in a battle of the two former Pac-12 teams. 

The WAC leaders go at it when UT Arlington (16-2, 6-0) puts its seven-match winning streak on the line against visiting Grand Canyon (12-5, 5-1).

MAC-leading Buffalo (10-10, 6-1) is home for Bowling Green (10-8, 5-2), one of four teams tied for second.

Northern Colorado (13-5, 4-1), tied with idle Idaho State and Sacramento State for the Big Sky lead, is home for Montana State (6-11, 4-2), which is alone in fourth place. 

Two of the three Big West teams tied for the lead are in action as UC Davis (10-5, 5-1) goes to CSU Bakersfield and Cal Poly (12-5, 5-1) is home for UC Santa Barbara. Long Beach State (11-5, 5-1) is off.

Colorado State, which holds a one-game lead over Fresno State in the Mountain West, is at San Diego State and Fresno is at Air Force.

NCAA volleyball Friday

Stanford (14-2, 6-1) came away with a 25-22, 25-23, 35-33 victory at SMU (13-5, 5-2), winning a wild third set and overcoming its own serving ineptitude: The Cardinal had three aces and 22 serving errors. Stanford hit .303, while SMU hit .247 and had two aces and 15 errors. Note to former President Bush: Not every match has that many missed serves. There were 44 ties and 20 lead changes.

Elia Rubin led Stanford with 18 kills, hitting .368, and had an assist, one of those aces, three blocks and five digs. Ipar Kurt had 16 kills — including the match winner — hit .344 and had two block and a dig. On the match-ending rally, Kurt had a chance to end it, but was blocked and libero Elena Oglivie made a remarkable cover and then had the assist on the last play. She had 14 digs and five assists. Setter Kami Miner had two kills in as many tries, 41 assists, an ace, four blocks and six digs.

SMU’s Maya Tabron had 11 kills, hit .400, and had three assists, an ace, seven digs and three blocks, one solo. Naya Shime had 10 kills, hit .318, and had 11 digs and three blocks. Celia Cullen had a kill, 28 assists, a block and nine digs …

In the other ACC match, No. 17 Georgia Tech (12-4, 4-3) had to pull off a 24-26, 27-29, 25-21, 25-16, 19-17 reverse sweep over last-place Clemson (8-10, 0-7). Bianca Bertolino had 23 kills for GT to go with three assists, an ace, 16 digs and two blocks. Tamara Otene had 20. kills, two aces, 18 digs and two blocks. Clemson’s Azyah Dailey had a career-high 30 kills, hit .313, and had nine digs and a solo blocks. Mia McGrath had 18 kills, three assists, 12 digs and two solo blocks … 

There were two SEC matches as No. 16 Kentucky (10-7, 4-2) won in four at Tennessee (9-7, 2-4) and Alabama (10-7, 2-4) knocked off visiting No. 25 Auburn (14-3, 4-2) in five. In Kentucky’s 25-21, 14-25, 25-22, 25-21 victory, Brooklyn DeLeye led with 23 kills, hit .304, and had an assist, an ace and 10 digs. Asia Thigpen, a freshman making her first start, had 15 kills with one error in 24 attacks, hitting .583, to go with an assist, eight digs and a solo block. Tennessee’s Hayden Kubik had 14 kills, 15 digs and a block. Alabama won 25-23, 15-25, 22-25, 26-24, 16-14 as four players had 10 or more kills, 15 apiece by Sophie Agee and Chaise Campbell. Francesca Bertucci had 25 digs and eight assists. Bella Bell had 22 kills and hit .465 for Auburn and added three blocks, one solo. Alexis Dacosta had 24 digs and five assists …

No. 13 Arizona State (17-2, 6-1) swept its Big 12 match with visiting Houston (8-8, 3-3). Geli Cyr led with 13 kills, an assist, two aces, 11 digs and two blocks and Claire Jeter had 12 kills with no errors in 27 attacks to hit .444 and had two digs and a solo block. Houston’s Angela Grieve had 16 kills, an ace, six digs and two blocks … No. 18 TCU (13-4, 5-2) swept at Texas Tech (9-9, 1-5) as Melanie Parra had 19 kills, hit .400, and had an assist, two aces, 10 digs and a block … No. 24 BYU (11-6, 4-3) beat visiting Iowa State (8-8, 2-3) behind 13 kills each from Claire Littel and Elli Mortensen … West Virginia (7-11, 1-6) broke through with its first league win, a four-set victory over visiting UCF (8-7, 1-5). Hailey Green had 19 kills with one error in 31 swings to hit .581 and had a solo block. Cassidy Tanton had 17 kills, two assists and eight digs … Colorado (10-8, 3-3) won 15-25, 25-17, 25-21, 25-27, 18-16 at Arizona (12-5, 1-5) as Lily Dwinell had 20 kills, hitting .356, and added two digs and two blocks. Ana Burilovic and Sydney Jordan had 16 kills each. Burilovic had an assist, two aces, four digs and three blocks, one solo, and Jordan, who hit .400, had an assist, three aces, 16 digs and two blocks. Arizona’s Carlie Cisneros had 19 kills, Jaelyn Hodge 17 and six blocks, and Jordan Wilson had 16 kills, two aces, 11 digs and three blocks … 

South Florida (11-7, 7-0) took over sole possession of first place in the American Athletic Conference with a 25-21, 25-14, 25-23 sweep of visiting Rice (11-5, 6-1). The 7-0 start is the program’s best conference start since 2002 when it went 12-0 in Conference USA. Maria Clara Andrade had 21 kills, hit .405, and had two blocks and five digs. Naiya Sawtelle added 19 kills, hit .531, and had two blocks and nine digs. Lia Schneider had 20 kills and six assists. Rice got 12 kills from Samarah Hill … Colgate of the Patriot League won in four against visiting Binghamton of America East, which got 28 kills from Tsvetelina Ilieva, who hit .379 and had an assist, an ace and 10 digs. Colgate’s Abby Shadwick had 19 kills, hit .400, and had two assists, an ace, nine digs and two solo blocks … UAlbany hit .339 in a four-set America East win at Siena of the MAAC. Shynelle Woroniuk had 16 kills, an assist, two aces, three digs and a block. Kiki Provatas had four aces to go with two assists and two digs … 

Northwestern (4-11, 2-5) won its Big Ten match over visiting Iowa (9-10, 3-4) in four as Kennedy Hill had 12 kills in 19 errorless attacks to hit .632 and had three digs and six blocks, one solo. Sophia Summers had six kills, hit .308, and had an assist, five of her team’s 13 aces, three digs and five blocks, two solo. Rylen Reid had six aces … Also in the B1G, Illinois (12-5, 4-3) beat visiting Indiana (9-8, 3-2) in four. Raina Terry had 16 kills, 10 digs and five blocks … And Hampton dropped to 0-20 as the Pirates of the CAA lost in four to visiting Norfolk State of the MEAC.

SoCon moves tournament

From the Southern Conference:

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The 2024 Ingles Southern Conference Volleyball Championship, originally slated for Asheville, North Carolina, will be contested on Nov. 21-24 at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

“We heard very clearly from some of our closest partners – Ingles Markets, Explore Asheville, Harrah’s Cherokee Center – Asheville, and the Asheville Buncombe Regional Sports Commission – that it is in everyone’s best interest to move this year’s Ingles SoCon Volleyball Championship to allow Asheville time to recover from the effects of Hurricane Helene” said SoCon Commissioner Michael Cross. “Asheville has been an outstanding host for many SoCon championships and we look forward to playing at the Harrah’s Cherokee Center – Asheville next year. We extend prayers and support to everyone who has been affected by this tragic and heartbreaking situation. We appreciate Wofford College’s willingness to host the Championship on short notice and are looking forward to providing an outstanding championship experience for our student-athletes, coaches and fans.”

The Southern Conference is helping with the recovery efforts in Asheville by partnering with World Central Kitchen to help provide meals. Donations can be made here.

All pre-sale tickets that were purchased for the tournament in Asheville will be honored at Wofford.

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