And that’s why we don’t do our media ballot till after the top of pre-conference play.
The AVCA coaches ballot is nice for creating curiosity, however on this NCAA Division I volleyball world the place all the perfect groups play one another proper from the get-go, rankings imply little so early within the season.
To wit, on Tuesday, a day after No. 18 Minnesota knocked off No. 1 Texas:
— SMU, barely receiving votes within the ballot, not solely beat visiting No. 2 Nebraska, the Mustangs swept the Huskers proper out of a sold-out Moody Coliseum in Dallas.
— Seventh-ranked Penn State destroyed visiting No. 4 Louisville.
Third-ranked Pittsburgh, which could nicely be subsequent week’s No. 1, swept Buffalo and No. 23 Baylor did the identical to Rice.
And our lengthy nationwide nightmare is over: Saint Peters snapped its 38-match shedding streak that began in 2022 with a season-opening, five-set victory at NJIT.
Now we have a photograph gallery from Zach Schuster from the Sunday-Monday State Farm Ladies’s Volleyball Showcase in Milwaukee that featured Texas, Stanford, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Click on on any photograph to view full dimension.
Additionally on this Volleyball Right this moment, the USA girls’s sitting workforce swept Italy to maneuver into the Paris Paralympics semifinals.
There are 18 NCAA Division I matches Wednesday, together with Stanford lastly getting out of Wisconsin after per week. The Cardinal, who beat Milwaukee final Friday after which Minnesota and Wisconsin, play at No. 24 Marquette. Marquette opened with a sweep at Japanese Illinois.
Kansas, which stayed at No. 13 within the ballot, performs host to Wichita State. American, one in every of 5 groups as much as 4-0, performs Coppin State. Michigan is dwelling for Japanese Michigan.
Later Wednesday, we are going to do our first weekly Zoom with Emily Ehman of the Massive Ten Community and ESPN, who referred to as each the match in Milwaukee and the SMU-Nebraska match. AVCA govt director Jaime Gordon will be a part of us to speak about, amongst different issues, how we are able to shorten school volleyball matches.
SMU will get largest victory ever
SMU of the ACC took it to the Huskers from the get-go and thumped visiting Nebraska of the Massive Ten 25-23, 25-21, 25-18.
Naya Shime led the Mustangs with 9 kills. She had six errors, 10 digs and 5 blocks, one solo. Maya Tabron had 9 kills, added an ace, 4 digs and two blocks. Natalie Foster had eight kills, hit .462, and had 5 of her workforce’s seven aces and two digs. Jamison Wheeler had six kills, two assists, a block and 13 digs. Nnedi Okammor had 4 kills with no errors in 11 assaults and 9 blocks, one solo.
Celia Cullen had two kills, 29 assists, a block and 5 digs. Her workforce hit .242.
SMU opened the season with a five-set loss at Hawai’i, the place it then beat San Diego in 4. The Mustangs completed 26-7 in 2023, 18-1 within the American Athletic, and swept Texas State within the first spherical of the NCAA Match earlier than getting swept by Texas. SMU then moved to the ACC, the place the coaches picked the Mustangs to complete sixth this season behind Pitt, Stanford, Louisville, Georgia Tech and Florida State.
Nebraska (3-1), which final misplaced to an unranked non-conference opponent in 2014, hit .171, .070 within the third set. Merritt Beason led the Huskers with 9 kills however hit .107. She had a dig and three blocks. Andi Jackson, who’s now hitting .519 for the season, had eight kills in 12 errorless makes an attempt, an ace and 6 blocks. Harper Murray had six kills however 5 errors to go along with two digs and two blocks. Lindsay Krause had 5 kills with one error in 16 assaults, two blocks and two digs.
Across the nation
Penn State (3-0) crushed visiting Louisville (2-1) 25-15, 25-19, 25-13 because the Nittany Lions hit .358. Jess Mruzik led with 13 kills as she hit .367 with an help, 9 digs and three blocks, one solo. Caroline Jurevicious had 11 kills and two blocks, and Camryn Hannah had eight kills with one error in 16 assaults to go along with an help, two aces and three blocks.
Louisville, which opened with victories over Wisconsin and Tennessee, hit .091 with 28 kills and 19 errors in 99 assaults. Charitie Luper had eight kills and 6 digs and Cara Cresse had eight kills, an help, a dig and two blocks. PK Kong had 4 kills in eight errorless makes an attempt and three blocks, one solo. Reigning ACC participant of the yr Anna DeBeer continued to wrestle offensively. She had two kills however seven errors and is hitting detrimental for the season. DeBeer had a block and eight digs …
Saint Peters, which misplaced its final eight matches in 2022 to complete 1-31, went 0-30 in 2023. Tuesday, the Peacocks received 25-22, 14-25, 25-20, 27-29, 15-11 at NJIT for his or her first street victory since 2019.
Maliyah Labrie led with 23 kills, an ace, seven digs and two blocks. Penelope Rivera Morales had 15 kills, 4 digs and 6 blocks. Elena Bilhartz, who had one kill and two errors in 16 assaults, nonetheless had 9 blocks, two solo. Lagean Colon had 25 digs and two asists.
Saint Peters, which rallied from a 14-8 deficit within the third set, fell behind 10-6 within the fifth earlier than scoring six straight factors.
Saint Peters additionally had winless seasons in 2011 (0-31), 2016 (0-25) and 2017 (0-30) …
Pitt (3-0) hit .516 because it routed visiting Buffalo (3-1) 25-13, 25-10, 25-15. The Panthers had 40 kills with seven errors in 64 assaults and 10 aces with solely six errors. Valeria Vazquez Gomez and Blaire Bayless had seven kills every and Olivia Babcock six … Baylor (4-0) received 13 kills from Elise McGhee, who had an ace, three digs and a solo block in its 25-20, 25-19, 25-23 sweep at Rice … Auburn received to 4-0 with a sweep of Troy because the Tigers hit .369. Lauren Dreves had 10 kills with one error in 20 swings, an help, an ace, 4 digs and a block … Illinois beat visiting Ilinois State 25-13, 20-25, 25-18, 25-18. The Illini, who hit .342, received 12 kills from Averie Hernandez, who had one error in 37 assaults. She had seven digs and 4 blocks, one solo. Freshman center Ashlyn Philpot had 11 kills with one error in 18 swings and a career-high 10 blocks, two solo, and Raina Terry had 11 kills with two errors in 30 assaults to go along with 4 aces, six digs and three blocks, one solo. Caitlyn Little had 18 kills for Illinois State …
Previous Dominion beat William & Mary in 5 however W&M’s Maddie Meyers had 24 kills, three assists, an ace, 15 digs and three blocks … LIU beat Quinnipiac in 5 behind 21 kills from Camelia Melendez, who had two aces, 12 digs and two blocks … Elon beat Gardner-Webb in 5 as Sydney Love had 24 kills and hit .357 and Keira Kasten had 22 kills and hit .450 … Stephen F. Austin improved to 4-0 with a sweep of Excessive Level as Katherine Hoffman had 16 kills, hit .500, and had three digs and two blocks … Reaghan Thompson had 23 kills in Northwestern State’s five-set win over Jackson State. She had two assists, two aces, 14 digs and three blocks … Louisiana Tech hit .383 in a sweep of Alcorn State … Northern Colorado received in 4 at Colorado State, which drew a crowd of 4,362, behind 14 kills and three blocks from Maddie Davies and 13 kills from Alayna Tessena.
USA sitting workforce into semis
The USA girls swept Italy 25-21, 25-23, 25-15 and can play Brazil in Thursday’s semifinals.
Heather Erickson led with 15 kills, three blocks and an ace. Lora Webster had 4 kills, 5 blocks and an ace. Holloway Bridge had seven kills and a block.
China performs Canada within the different semifinal.
