Stanford increases Pac-12 stranglehold, conference leaders roll on in NCAA volleyball

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Eighth-ranked Stanford crushed No. 19 Washington in the fifth set of their match Sunday and in doing so all but wrapped up the Pac-12 championship. 

Purdue broke its four-match skid, and conference leaders kept winning, including Pittsburgh, Florida, Houston Creighton, Liberty and Rice.

The recaps and top performances follow.

Monday, there are seven NCAA Division I matches, six in the SWAC. Click here for the SWAC volleyball website for the full schedule and standings.

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PAC-12: After winning Sunday, Stanford (16-4, 11-1) not only holds a two-game lead in the standings, the Cardinal plays seven of its eight remaining matches against teams in the bottom two thirds of the field. No. 18 Oregon is alone in second at 15-5, 9-3, followed by Washington (16-6, 8-4), USC (16-7, 8-4) and Washington State (15-7, 8-4). Colorado is alone in sixth  at 15-7, 7-5, followe by Utah (13-10, 6-6).

Stanford won at Washington 25-18, 19-25, 23-25, 25-18, 15-5 and in the fifth set, the stats were staggering: The Cardinal had eight kills with one error in 15 attacks and two aces. Washington went 0 for 13 with four errors. For the match, Stanford hit .340. Elia Rubin led with 21 kills and had an ace, two blocks and eight digs. Kendall Kipp had four of her 20 kills in the fifth set and hit .349 to go with an assist, five digs and three blocks. Caitie Baird had 20 kills, hit .370, and had an assist, two aces, 12 digs and five blocks. Kami Miner had three kills in seven errorless tries, 47 assists, two aces, three blocks and 11 digs. Elena Oglivie had 20 digs, nine assists and an ace.

Claire Hoffman led Washington with 20 kills, two assists, an ace, three blocks and nine digs. Shannon Crenshaw added 12 kills, an assist and 13 digs … 

Oregon swept at Arizona State as the Ducks hit .357. Brooke Nuneviller had 20 kills with one error in 37 attacks, three assists, an ace and nine digs. … 

Washington State hit .388 and swept visiting Cal. Pia Timmer had 15 kills, hit .462, and had an ace, three digs and a block … 

Colorado had three players with nine kills and one with eight and dealt visiting USC a four-set loss as the Trojans defeat for the third time in a row. Meegan Hart had nine kills in 17 errorless atacks and four blocks, one solo … UCLA had a surprising sweep at Utah as Charitie Luper had 15 kills, an assist, an ace, two solo blocks and 16 digs … Arizona beat visting Oregon State in five as Sofia Maldonado Diaz and Jaelyn Hodge had 22 kills each. Diaz had eight digs and six blocks and Hodge hit .391 and had five digs and four blocks.

ACC: Pittsburgh (22-2, 12-0) built its lead to a full game over idle Louisville (20-2, 11-1) by sweeping at Virginia Tech (9-14, 2-10) for its 12th win in a row. in the 25-14, 25-17, 25-17 victory. Pitt hit .327 while the Hokies hit minus .037 … 

No. 10 Georgia Tech (17-4, 10-2) stayed a game back in third with a 25-22, 25-16, 23-25, 25-22 win at NC State (12-11, 6-6). Julia Bergmann had 25 kills, an assist, 17 digs and two blocks … Florida State (15-8, 7-5) and Miami (14-9, 7-5) are tied for fourth after lost in four at Boston College and Miami swept at Syracuse. BC’s Jenna Pollock had 22 kills and hit .340. Miami’s Angela Grieve had 19 kills and hit .381 … 

Wake Forest hit .358 and swept Virginia … North Carolina beat visiting Clemson in four as Mabrey Shaffmaster had 21 kills, hit .395 and had an ace, 18 digs and four blocks, two solo … Notre Dame took Duke to the limit before the visiting Blue Devils won in five. Duke’s Gracie Johnson had 20 kills, three aces, 15 digs and two blocks.

BIG TEN: Purdue (16-6, 7-5) broke its four-match losing streak as the No. 12 Boilermakers beat visiting Indiana (13-11, 6-6), which in turn snapped the Hoosiers’ four-match winning streak. Purdue hit .347  in the 18-25, 25-18, 25-10, 25-13 victory. Eva Hudson led with 15 kills and hit .433 after having two errors in 30 attacks to go with an ace, five digs and three blocks, one solo. Indiana hit .057 …

Illinois won 21-25, 25-18, 25-12, 25-19 at Rutgers (7-17, 1-11) as the Illini (11-11, 6-6) hit .350. Raina Terry had 19 kills, hit .366, and had two aces, six digs and four blocks. Rylee Hinton had eight kills in 11 errorless attacks and nine blocks, one solo … 

Michigan (14-8, 5-7) beat visiting Michigan State (10-13, 1-11) 25-17, 25-17, 26-24 … Northwestern (17-7, 6-6) followed up its upset of Purdue with a 26-24, 25-23, 25-21 win over visiting Iowa (7-16, 1-11). The Wildcats hit .365 and Temi Thomas-Ailara had 19 kills.

SEC: No. 14 Florida (18-4, 10-2) maintained its half-game lead over No. 20 Kentucky (14-6, 9-2).

The Gators battled to a five-set win over visiting Arkansas (14-7, 5-6) as Marina Markova had 17 kills and Sofia Victoria 16 in the 20-25, 25-23, 25-18, 20-25, 15-7 victory. Taylor Head had 17 kills for the Hogs and Tatum Shipes had 11 kills, hit .474 and had 11 blocks, two solo … 

Kentucky swept Auburn (18-5, 7-5) to move to a full game ahead of idle Georgia. UK hit .456  in the 25-13, 25-20, 25-15 win with 49 kills and eight errors in 90 attacks. Four players had 10 or more kills, 12 by Adanna Rollins, who had one error in 20 swings … 

Mississippi State (12-10, 4-5) rallied for a 26-24, 16-25, 16-25, 25-21, 16-14 win at LSU (13-9, 7-5). State, which hit .150, got 22 kills from Gabby Waden, who had 11 digs and three blocks. Lily Gunter had 36 digs and four assists. Sanaa Dotson had 18 kills for LSU to go with two assists, three aces, 12 digs and two blocks. Ella Larkin had 31 digs and six assists.

AROUND THE NATION: Both ranked American Athletic Conference teams won, including No. 23 Houston, whose coach, Dave Rehr, is one of our guests Monday on our weekly NCAA Zoom. The Cougars (21-2, 12-0) won their 13th in a row by sweeping visiting East Carolina. Theut Isabel had 16 kills, hit .452 after having two errors in 31 attacks, and added an assist and three blocks. Abbie Jackson had 15 kills with two errors in 27 attacks, two aces and eight digs … UCF (19-1, 11-1), whose only loss was to Houston seven matches ago, kept pace by winning in four at Wichita State as McKenna Melville had 23 of her team’s 55 kills. Melville hit .308 and had an assist, an ace, three blocks and seven digs … Also in the AAC, Temple won in five at Tulane and Peyton Boyd had 20 kills with one error in 33 attacks and added 15 digs and a block … 

There were two Big 12 matches. No. 13 Baylor (19-4, 8-2) swept visiting West Virginia (7-16, 0-10) as the Bears hit .341 in the 25-19, 25-5, 25-18 victory. Kara McGhee had six kills and seven block. WVU’s five points were the fewest ever in a set against Baylor. And Oklahoma (12-10, 2-8) snapped a six-match losing streak as it won in five at Kansas (15-7, 5-5) as in the 25-23, 22-25, 25-22, 21-25, 16-14. Taylor Preston had 22 kills for OU to go with an assist and 12 digs. Megan Wilson had 16 kills, an assist, four aces, 12 digs and two blocks, and Morgan Perkins had eight kills and eight blocks …

No. 15 Creighton (20-3, 12-0) swept its Big East match at St. John’s (16-9, 7-4) to move a full game ahead of idle Marquette and drop St. John’s out of a tie for third with idle Xavier. Norah Sis had 20 kills for Creighton as the Bluejays won their 12th in a row … 

Rice swept UTEP in Conference USA as the No. 21 Owls got 15 kills from Anota Adekunle, who had two errors in 25 attacks. Rice (10-0) is a game behind idle No. 22 Western Kentucky (11-0) … 

Liberty (17-7, 10-2) broke its tie at the top of the ASUN with visiting Lipscomb (12-11, 9-3) with its 25-12, 25-22, 31-29 victory. Kamryn Bacus had 16 kills and hit .351 to go with three assists, two aces and 12 digs … Also in the ASUN, Mackenzie Vernon had 23 kills for Central Arkansas in a five-set win over North Alabama … 

UMBC had won 23 America East matches in a row, but Binghamton made it a race by pulling to a game of the top by beating the Retrievers in five. Stefana Stan had 26 kills and hit .478 and Tsvetelina Illeva had 26 kills for Binghamton … 

In the only Big West match, UC Santa Barbara pulled to within a game of idle first-place Hawai’i with a sweep of UC San Diego. UCSB hit .320. Michelle Ohwobete led with 11 kills …  

Coppin State is now 10-1 and improved its MEAC lead over second-place Howard (8-2) by sweeping the Bison …

Hofstra finally lost, but it was to independent Chicago State, so the Pride still lead the Colonial Athletic Association. Towson, however, is only a game back after beating William & Mary in four. Irbe Lazda had 17 kills, hit .367, and had an assist, three digs and a block … Also in the CAA, UNCW won in five at Delaware despite 27 kills by the Blue Hens’ Lani Mason, who had two assists, 13 digs and three blocks … Hofstra, which had won 12 in a row, all in the conference, lost in four to visiting Chicago State. Yanlis Feliz had 24 kills for Chicago State, hitting .327, and had an assist, two aces, a block and 10 digs … 

Marist hit .333 in its MAAC sweep of Saint Peter’s … Also in the MAAC, Rider won in four at Siena and Morgan Romano had 20 kills, hit .390 and had an ace, eight digs and a block … 

Grambling’s Jayden James had 24 kills in a five-set SWAC loss to Alabama State to go with six assists, an ace, 19 digs and a block … Taylor Roberts had 23 kills and hit .370 in Prairie View’s five-set win over Bethune-Cookman.

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