October 26 is the day that Marty McFly went back to the future. This year on October 26, Wednesday, No. 7 Washington goes to No. 17 Stanford in a key Pac-12 battle. There are only 15 matches on the NCAA scoreboard for the day, but it’s the biggest, especially since Washington holds the same seventh spot in the NCAA RPI but Stanford is No. 12.
There were only 17 on the Tuesday slate, but some important results including Wyoming beating Colorado State in the Mountain West for the first time since 2011, Texas State quietly getting to 9-1 in the Sun Belt, Radford getting to 10-1 in the Big South, and North Dakota getting bragging rights in its state.
First the other matches of note on Wednesday, also the date in 1881 of the shootout at the OK Corrral:
In a quirk in the Big Ten schedule, No. 19 Ohio State goes to Maryland on Wednesday and then Maryland turns right around and goes to Columbus on Friday.
There are two matches in the SEC, as the league’s only unbeaten team, Missouri, goes to Texas A&M, and Mississippi State plays at Arkansas.
The big one in the Big 12 is Saturday when No. 2 Texas plays at No. 6 Kansas, but on Wednesday, Texas entertains Oklahoma, Kansas goes to Texas Tech and Kansas State goes to Iowa State.
In the ACC, red-hot Georgia Tech plays host to Clemson. The Yellow Jackets (17-5, 8-2 ACC) have won seven in a row.
Also, Connecticut goes to Temple in the American Athletic Conference and Dayton (22-1) tries to keep the nation’s top record when it puts its 11-match win streak on the line at Morehead State in a non-conference match,.
Wyoming stuns Colorado State
The Cowgirls improved to 14-9 overall, 7-3 in the Mountain West, with their 27-25, 27-25, 16-25, 25-18 victory over Colorado State, the school’s first since November 13, 1997.
“We have to give this team a lot of credit for really executing down the stretch,” Wyoming coach Chad Callihan said. “I thought in warmups we were pretty sharp and crisp. Our defense has been really good all throughout this conference season and tonight it was tremendous.
“Offensively, as well this group went out there and made those plays, they made it happen tonight. We understand what comes with these rivalry games, so we wanted to go out there to grind and compete.”
Senior Laura Beach had 13 kills and hit .320 and had a match-high eight blocks. Sophomore Emily Lewis added 12 kills, senior Kayla Slofkiss had nine kills with seven digs and four blocks and freshman Tara Traphagan posted a career-high eight kills and hit .462.
Colorado State dropped to 14-7, 8-2, and the loss created a three-way tie for first in the league with UNLV and Boise State.
Jasmine Hanna led the Rams with 15 kills and her team outhit Wyoming .178-.129. By the way, the last time Wyoming beat CSU it was in five at Wyoming in 2011, but according to the Wyoming website that season and the three before it were “vacated due to NCAA violations.”
Texas State, Radford roll on
Texas State beat visiting UT Arlington 25-23, 25-23, 23-25, 25-23 — all four sets had the same score — to improve to 16-9 overall, 9-1 in the SBC. The Bobcats, who have won seven in a row, got 16 kills from junior Jaliyah Bolden. Senior Lauren Kirch added 13.
Maddie Palmer had 22 kills and 17 digs as Radford won at Liberty 26-28, 25-22, 25-20, 25-20 to improve to 19-4 overall, 10-1 in the Big South. Liberty had won eight in a row and dropped to 13-10, 8-3.
Palmer moved into third on Radford’s all-time rally-scoring list with 967 kills and is a five-time Big South player-of-the-week selection this season.
And North Dakota went out of conference to sweep North Dakota State 25-16, 25-19, 30-28 to improve to 17-9 overall. Junior Julia Kaczorowska had 14 kills with no errors. The Eagles, 8-2 in the Big Sky, get back to league __play Friday at Montana.
