NCAA volleyball: Houston topples UCF, WSU upsets Oregon, Buckeyes hold on

Another Freaky Friday in NCAA Division I volleyball. 

Previously unbeaten No. 23 UCF? Knocked off in four in the American Athletic Conference at Houston.

No. 12 Oregon, the last unbeaten in the Pac-12? Not anymore after losing in five at Washington State. 

Sixth-ranked Ohio State went up 2-0 and then had to win in five against No. 13 Penn State.

Jacksonville State took its first ASUN loss, getting swept by Kennesaw State, and Youngstown State’s Paula Gursching had 33 more kills in a win over Robert Morris. 

The roundup follows, but first a look at Saturday’s schedule.

The match of the day is in the Big Ten when No. 7 Wisconsin (10-3, 4-1) plays at No. 5 Purdue (14-1, 5-0). Nebraska (13-1, 5-0) plays at No. 24 Michigan (12-2, 3-1) and Indiana (9-8, 2-3) goes to Iowa (6-10, 0-5), which is winless in the conference but giving opponents fits.

There are two matches in the Big 12 when No. 17 Baylor goes to West Virginia and Texas Tech is at TCU.

Both ranked Big East teams are in action when No. 18 Marquette is at Seton Hall and No. 21 Creighton is at Providence.

No. 22 Rice plays a Conference USA match at UTEP. Rice is 14-0, 4-0 in C-USA, and has won 10 in a row.

Towson (16-0, 6-0 in the Colonial Athletic Association), along with idle Texas as the only overall unbeaten teams left, plays at Delaware (10-4, 6-0), so one of those teams will fall off the pace. Hofstra (9-8, 6-0) is home for College of Charleston.

The six-match SEC slate includes No. 15 Florida home for upstart LSU and No. 19 Kentucky back at Arkansas. 

All three ranked West Coast Conference teams play at home, as No. 4 San Diego entertains Santa Clara, No. 14 BYU has San Francisco and No. 20 Pepperdine plays Saint Mary’s.

The American Athletic, ACC and Pac-12 have Saturday off.

Want to watch a match? We have the viewing links on the VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings page. The listings are updated through Sunday.

Houston (14-2, 5-0 AAC) beat a ranked team for the first time since 2003 with its 25-23, 22-25, 26-24, 25-22 victory over visiting UCF (12-1, 4-1). Isabel Theut had 22 kills, hit .349 and had three blocks, and Abbie Jackson had 15 kills, a block and seven digs.

Rachel Tullos had three kills and seven blocks, one solo. Kate Georgiades had 28 digs, four assists and an ace. Houston hit 187, while UC hit .102. That included a tough match for McKenna Melville, who led the Knights with 17 kills, but she hit .045 to go with seven blocks and five digs … 

Oregon (10-2), 4-1) was the last team unbeaten in Pac-12 play, but the Ducks lost 22-25, 28-26, 13-25, 25-18, 15-9 at Washington State (11-5, 3-2). The Cougars, who hit .170, got 21 kills from Pia Timmer, who had an ace, two blocks and six digs. Laura Jensen had 11 kills, a solo block, an ace and 17 digs. Oregon, which hit .239, got 20 kills apiece from Brooke Nuneviller and Mimi Colyer. Nuneviller had two aces, 14 digs and two blocks, one solo … Also in the Pac-12, No. 8 Stanford got 22 kills from Kendall Kipp, who hit .395 and had three assists, four aces, five digs and three blocks in a sweep at Colorado., No. 16 Washington swept visiting Oregon State, Utah swept visiting Cal, USC won in four at Arizona and UCLA swept at Arizona State … 

Ohio State (8-5, 4-1) hit .312 and won 25-17, 25-15, 25-27, 22-25, 15-11 over visiting Penn State (12-3, 2-3) behind 21 kills apiece from Gabby Gonzales and Jenaisya Moore, who hit .500. Emily Londot had 12 kills and five blocks. Penn State, which hit .203, got 20 kills from Kashauna Williams, who had a solo block and a dig … Also in the B1G No. 11 Minnesota hit .378 and swept at No. 24 Michigan as Taylor Landfair had 18 kills and hit .452, Illinois swept at Maryland and Northwestern swept visiting Rutgers … 

In the ACC, No. 2 Louisville hit .430 and swept at Boston College and No. 9 Pittsburgh hit .367 and did the same at Clemson and No. 10 Georgia Tech swept visiting Virginia. Wake Forest had a record home crowd of 714 as the Deacons beat North Carolina for the first time in three years and Notre Dame got new coach Salima Rockwell her first conference win with a sweep at Syracuse, Florida State swept visiting Duke and NC State won in four at Virginia Tech … 

Both ranked Big East teams won as No. 18 Marquette swept at St. John’s, while No. 21 Creighton had to pull a reverse sweep to win in five at Connecticut. Norah Sis had 27 kills, hit .357 and had an ace, 11 digs and two blocks … 

Iowa State dealt visiting Kansas a four-set defeat in the only Big 12 match as Alexis Engelbrecht, Eleanor Holthaus and Soleil Thomas had 11 kills each … 

In the SEC, No. 19 Kentucky won in four at Arkansas as Reagan Rutherford had 26 kills, hit .367 and had 14 digs and nine blocks, Ole Miss beat visiting Alabama in four and Mississippi State swept at Texas A&M as Gabby Waden had 20 kills and hit .444 to go with three digs and three blocks, one solo … 

Paula Gursching had 33 kills for Youngstown State in its five-set Horizon League win over visiting Robert Morris. She had six errors in 64 attacks to hit .422 and had an assist, three aces, 20 digs and a block … 

Amber Igiede had 15 kills with no errors in 23 swings in Hawaii’s Big West sweep of UC Irvine. Igiede added four assists, two digs and two blocks … Kennesaw State had a surprising sweep at Jacksonville State, leaving both teams 4-1 in the ASUN … Indiana State’s Karinna Gall had 23 kills in her team’s five-set Missouri Valley win over visiting Missouri State, which got 24 kills from Manuela Ibarguen.

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