NCAA volleyball: Who’s unbeaten? AVCA Poll, POWs, Marquette wins
Just seven teams in this week’s AVCA Division I Coaches Poll are unbeaten as the NCAA women’s volleyball season heads into the third weekend.
We have a list below of all the teams that remain undefeated, and, a credit to all the tough scheduling, there are not that many.
Just one ranked team was in action Tuesday as No. 23 Marquette beat visiting Loyola Chicago in four.
WEDNESDAY’S SCHEDULE: The showcase match of the day is in Omaha when No. 17 Creighton of the Big East and second-ranked Nebraska of the Big Ten face off in their annual meeting. We featured two of the players, best friends Norah Sis of Creighton and Lindsay Krause of Nebraska on Tuesday.
Top-ranked Texas of the Big 12 is home for UC Davis of the Big West.
The SEC’s Missouri plays the Big 12’s Kansas State, which is off to a 5-1 start; the Missouri Valley’s Drake, also 5-1, goes to Iowa State of the Big 12; and 4-0 Kansas of the Big 12 goes across the state line to play at Kansas City of the Summit League.
Two of the better teams in the Northeast play when St. John’s of the Big East goes to MAAC power Fairfield. In all there are 17 matches on the schedule.
You can find the viewing links at the VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings.
AVCA POLL: Texas (4-0) and Nebraska (5-0) stayed 1-2 in this week’s poll. Minnesota moved up a spot to third, trading places with Louisville, which lost to this week’s No. 8, Ohio State.
Georgia Tech (5-0) stayed at No. 5, Wisconsin stayed No. 6 and Pittsburgh moved up from 10th to No. 7.
The other unbeatens in the top 25? Purdue (6-0) at No. 9, Oregon (4-0) at No. 18, Kansas (6-0) at No. 19, and Penn State (6-0) at No. 20. Oregon plays at Minnesota on Friday before playing Penn State on Saturday, so at the best there will be just six unbeatens next week.
Pepperdine moved in at No. 24; Illinois (1-3), the only team with a losing record in the poll dropped from 19th to No. 25; and USC, which took losses to No. 17 Creighton and No. 14 Kentucky, dropped out.
Click here for the complete AVCA Poll.
AVCA POW: The national player of the week is Logan Eggleston, the senior outside hitter for Texas who is tearing it up. Eggleson last week averaged 5.43 kills in seven sets. She also averaged 1.86 digs in a four-set win over Minnesota and sweep of Stanford, which is up to No. 11 this week. Eggleston had 22 kills, four aces, six digs and two blocks against Minnesota and 16 kills, an assist, three blocks and seven digs against Stanford.
POWER 5 POWs: The ACC player of the week is Georgia Tech’s Julia Bergmann and the top freshman is Ava Brizard of NC State. Bergmann had 47 kills in three victories and hit .392 with 23 digs, nine blocks and five aces. Brizard had 32 kills in three matches … Not surprisingly, Eggleston of Texas is the Big 12 POW. The defensive honor went to Texas Tech’s Maddie Correa and the top rookie is Baylor’s Riley Simpson … In the Big Ten, there were co-players of the week in Northwestern’s Hanna Lesiak and Ohio State’s Emily Londot. Lesiak is the first Northwestern player to be honored as the POW since Maddie Slater in September 2015. The B1G defensive player is Maddie Schermerhorn of Purdue, the top setter is Penn State’s Seleisa Elissaia, and the freshman Purdue’s Eva Hudson, who was last week’s POW … Utah’s Madelyn Robinson is the Pac-12 POW after averaging 4.5 kills and 3.08 digs. The defensive honor went to Colorado’s Alexia Kuehl, who averaged two blocks a set in sweeps of Illinois and Iowa. Kuehl ranks second in NCAA in blocks per set behind Maryland’s Rainelle Jones. And the Pac-12 top freshman is Oregon’s Mimi Colyer, who had 21 kiills in 30 attacks with one error …
The SEC POW and top offensive player is Kentucky’s Reagan Rutherford, who averaged five kills and hit .473 in three victories. There were co-defensive players, Kentucky’s Eleanor Bevins and Mississippi State’s Lily Gunter. The top setter was Kentucky’s Emma Grome and the freshman honor went to Texas A&M’s Logan Lednicky.
MONDAY-TUESDAY RESULTS: No. 23 Marquette of the Big East beat new Atlantic 10 member Loyola Chicago 25-19, 25-14, 27-29, 25-19 as freshman Ella Holmstrom had 17 kills, 13 more than her previous career total. Holmstrom added two assists and four blocks. Aubrey Hamilton had 15 kills, two blocks and nine digs, and Ella Foti had 12 kills, hit .333, and had two assists, three blocks and 15 digs. Carly Skrabak had 19 digs and nine assists. Loyola’s Emily Banitt had 18 kills, hit .361, and had four blocks and two digs …
Four ACC schools won non-conference matches Tuesday. Clemson beat the SEC’s South Carolina. Camryn Hannah led with 24 kills while hitting .340 to go with a dig and four blocks. Wake Forest swept N.C. A&T, Duke won in four at Elon and North Carolina won in four at Charlotte. Emani Foster had 28 kills for Charlotte, hit .369, and had two assists, an ace, 12 digs and five blocks, two solo …
Two other SEC teams swept as Texas A&M got 18 kills from Lednicky, who hit .412 and had two aces, seven digs and five blocks in its win over Sam Houston, and Auburn hit .400 in its win over Alabama A&M …
Kennesaw State improved to 5-1 with a sweep of Samford. Claire Parsons had 12 kills with no errors in 19 attacks and four blocks … Brown lost in five to Bryant but Sophia Miller had 23 kills, an assist, an ace, 10 digs and six blocks … Saint Francis (PA) beat Duquesne, leaving both teams 1-6, as Korrin Burns had 24 kills, an assist, an ace, 12 digs and a solo block …
North Texas swept Texas Southern … Rice swept McNeese … Louisiana Tech beat Louisana-Monroe in five …
Crystal Burk had 27 kills as South Dakota State beat Chicago State in five. Burk had an assist, seven digs and six blocks … Delaware State swept Bowie State … American improved to 6-0 with a four-set win over Coppin State behind 22 kills by Zeynep Uzen. Coppin State got a school-record 36 digs from Ashley Roman … Tennessee State won in four at Evansville … Fairleigh Dickinson won in four at NJIT … Western Illinois swept at Eastern Illinois … Prairie View stayed winless at 0-8 as visiting Texas A&M-Commerce (1-6) swept … UNCG beat visiting Queens in four … UTRGV improved to 7-1 with a sweep at 0-8 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi … Tarleton State beat visiting UIW in four …
Monday, UC Davis had four players with 11 or more kills and beat Sacramento State in four. Casi Newman had four kills in eight errorless swings, 44 assists, an ace, seven digs and three blocks. Josephine Ough had 11 kills and nine block … Boise State won in four at Idaho State. Lauren Ohlingher had 17 kills for Boise State and Sadie Bluth had 19 for ISU.
WHO’S STILL UNBEATEN?
Air Force (6-0)
American (6-0)
Auburn (5-0)
Boston College (6-0)
Bucknell (6-0)
Colorado (5-0)
Georgia Tech (5-0)
Jacksonville State (6-0)
Kansas (6-0)
Miami-FL (6-0)
Michigan (6-0)
Michigan State (6-0)
Mississippi State (5-0)
Nebraska (5-0)
North Alabama (5-0)
Northwestern (6-0)
Oregon (4-0)
Penn State (6-0)
Purdue (6-0)
San Francisco (6-0)
Stephen F Austin (7-0)
Texas (4-0)
Texas Tech (6-0)
Towson (7-0)
Valparaiso (6-0)
Wright State (5-0)
(Thanks for Dalton Franck for the research).
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