NCAA volleyball: Purdue sweeps Minnesota, no other Friday upsets
Most of the matches Friday in NCAA volleyball had predictable outcomes, almost big news in a season that has been most unpredictable after the first month.
One that didn’t go to form was No. 11 Purdue not only beating No. 8 Minnesota, but sweeping the visiting Gophers. For that matter, there were seven matches in the Big Ten and six were sweeps.
Valparaiso took its first loss after starting 12-0. That leaves five teams in Division I still unbeaten, Towson, Auburn, Penn State, Texas and UCF.
The recaps and top performances follow, but first a look at Saturday’s schedule.
Top-ranked and unbeaten Texas, coming off its five-set scare at Kansas, plays host to Oklahoma and will honor its 2012 NCAA championship team. No. 14 Baylor is off, but also in the Big 12 Texas Tech is at West Virginia, Iowa State goes to TCU and Kansas is at Kansas State.
There are three matches in the Big Ten, highlighted by No. 7 Ohio State at No. 3 Nebraska. Michigan is at No, 9 Penn State and Northwestern is at Illinois.
The Pac-12 has Washington State at USC and Arizona at Utah.
The SEC”s Kentucky, ranked No. 15, is home for LSU, No. 12 Florida is at South Carolina, unbeaten Auburn is at Alabama, Tennessee is at Texas A&M and Ole Miss goes to Arkansas.
In the Big East, No. 19 Marquette is home for Butler. No. 22 Creighton is off, but Connecticut is at St. John’s and Providence is at Seton Hall.
There’s another showdown in the West Coast Conference when No. 17 Pepperdine goes to No. 16 BYU. Fourth-ranked San Diego is home for Loyola Marymount, Saint Mary’s is at Gonzaga and Pacific is at Portland.
The lone Conference USA match has No. 24 Western Kentucky at Middle Tennessee.
The ACC is idle.
Want to watch a match? We have the viewing links on the VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings page.
BIG TEN: Purdue (10-1) won its league opener by coming away with a 25-18, 25-23, 32-30 victory over visiting Minnesota (5-4). There were 21 ties and nine lead changes in the third set when both teams had chances to win, five times for Purdue. Eva Hudson, the freshman phenom, got 10 of her match-high 21 kills in the third. Hudson hit .364 and had seven digs and two blocks. Minnesota’s Taylor Landfair had 17 kills, an assist, two blocks and six digs. We featured Purdue on Friday …
No. 7 Ohio State (5-4) swept at Iowa (6-6). Emily Londot led with 13 kills as she hit .407 and had an assist, five digs and a block … Penn State (12-0) swept visiting Indiana (7-6) despite hitting .181 … No. 2 Nebraska (9-1) swept visiting Michigan State (9-3). Madi Kubik had 14 kills, an ace, four digs and a block … Michigan (10-1, 1-1) hit .333 and swept at Rutgers (6-7, 0-1) as Jacque Boney had 14 kills with one error in 16 attacks to hit .813. She added an assist and four blocks … Illinois (6-5) opened B1G play with a four-set win over visiting Maryland (9-4). Raina Terry had 20 kills, three assists, an ace, four digs and a block … No. 6 Wisconsin (7-2) swept visiting Northwestern (11-2). Julia Orzol had 12 kills with one error in 22 attacks and Devyn Robinson had 10 kills with two errors in 17 swings and three blocks.
ACC: No. 2 Louisville (10-1) opened league play by sweeping at Miami (7-5). Claire Chaussee, had 14 kills and four digs and the Cardinals hit .329 … No 10 Pittsburgh beat visiting North Carolina in four as Serena Gray had 10 kills with one error in 12 attacks, an ace, two blocks and three digs … No. 13 Georgia Tech swept visiting Wake Forest as four players had eight or more kills, nine by Erin Moss, who had three blocks, one solo …
NC State won in five at Virginia … Syracuse beat visiting Duke in four as Naomi Franco had 12 kills and seven blocks, one solo … Ava Francis had 17 kills and hit .452 as Virginia Tech won in five at Clemson … Florida State got 11 kills from Sydney Conley, who hit .562, and swept visiting Notre Dame, which hit .000.
AROUND THE NATION: In the lone Pac-12 match of Friday, Oregon State (6-6) had four players with 10 or more kills and beat Cal (7-5) in five. Mychael Vernon led OSU with 17 kills, two digs and three blocks, one solo. Kinlsey Swan had 10 kills in 21 errorless attacks and three blocks. Cal’s Leah Schmidt had 19 kills, three assists, two aces, 13 digs and five blocks …
Creighton (9-3) swept visiting Georgetown as the Bluejays hit .374. Norah Sis had 11 kills, hit .346 and had an ace, five digs and a block … Also in the Big East, Butler won in four at DePaul and Amina Shackelford had 22 kills, hit .390, and had four digs and five blocks …
Both ranked Conference USA teams won as No. 23 Rice swept UTSA and No. 24 WKU swept at UAB. WKU hit .495 with 54 kills and nine errors in 91 attacks. Paige Briggs led with 16 kills while hitting .462 …
UCF (9-0) won its American Athletic opener by sweeping at Memphis (10-4). McKenna Melville had 15 kills, an ace, a block and 10 digs … Tulsa won its AAC match in five over Cincinnati as Kayley Cassaday had 22 kills, an assist, five digs and a solo block … Northern Iowa won its Missouri Valley match in five at previously unbeaten Valparaiso, which opened 12-0. UNI’s Sydney Peterson, the Texas transfer now playing for her mom, had 20 digs and eight assists …
Mahalia White had 20 kills as North Florida pulled off a reverse sweep and beat visiting FGCU in five in the ASUN … Also in the ASUN, Jacksonville State hit .411 and had four players with 11 or more kills in its four-set win over visiting Central Arkansas … Central Michigan got a big four-set Mid-American win over visiting Ball State as it hit .316 with four players with 10 or more kills. Elly Medendorp had 14 kills, hit .520 and had a dig and block … Also in the MAC, NIU hit .402 in its sweep of Akron as Brianna Scuric and Charli Atiemo had 11 kills each and just three errors between them …
NJIT hit .458 in its America East sweep of Hartford … Saint Louis won its Atlantic 10 match at Rhode Island in five and Carlie Rodgers had 19 digs, six assists and two aces … The Fighting Camels of Campbell swept at Gardner-Webb in the Big South as Melody Paige had 18 kills with one error in 27 attacks to hit .630 to go with two digs and four blocks … UC Santa Barbara’s Macall Peed had 30 digs, five assists and an ace in a five-set Big West win at UC San Diego … Also in the Big West, Hawai’i swept visiting UC Davis as Amber Igiede had 10 kills, hit .389, and had an assist, two aces and four blocks, two solo …
Milwaukee beat Youngstown State in four as Ari Miller had 16 kills in the Horizon League match, hitting .367 with three aces, two digs and six blocks, two solo … Yale improved to 9-1 with a four-set Ivy League win at Brown in which Audrey League and Cara Shultz had 16 kills each … St. Francis Brooklyn lost in five at Central Connecticut but SFU’s Camelia Melendez had 24 kills, two aces and 17 digs in the NEC match. CCSU’s Rachel Picha had 28 digs, eight assists and five aces … American won its Patriot League match in four, but Loyola Maryland’s Lauren Link had 22 kills, six digs and a block … Also in the Patriot, Army West Point swept at Lafayette as Paige Fixemer had 12 kills with one error in 19 attacks, two aces, a dig and six blocks, one solo …
Chattanooga beat visiting Furman in four as Natalie Tyson had 23 kills and hit .358 in their Southern Conference match … South Alabama won in four at Southern Miss as both teams had an attacker with big numbers n the Sun Belt match. USA’s Hannah Maddux had 25 kills, three digs and four blocks, one solo. USM’s Mia Wesley had 26 kills, an assist, an ace, 11 digs and three blocks, one solo.
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