Visiting No. 19 Utah surprised No. 16 Oregon.
Top-ranked Nebraska cruised past Iowa, while No. 15 Michigan State dealt Purdue a tough blow and No. 17 Michigan swept Indiana.
No. 5 Texas swept Baylor, K-State had to go five to win at West Virginia, but Notre Dame took a big hit by losing at Louisville.
No. 24 Kentucky won at Arkansas.
Cleveland State saw its winning streak snapped at Green Bay.
And Fairfield got all it could handle at Stony Brook.
All the Wednesday details after a check of Thursday’s schedule.
In the Pac-12, Oregon and Utah have to bounce back quickly, since Oregon plays host to Colorado and Utah goes to Oregon State.
No. 25 Arizona goes to No. 11 Washington, No. 9 Stanford plays host to USC, and No. 13 UCLA plays at Cal.
The Big Ten, SEC, ACC, and Big 12 have the night off.
But the two ranked teams in the West Coast Conference, No. 7 San Diego and No. 12 BYU, are in action. USD entertains Portland, while BYU plays host to Gonzaga.
No. 14 Hawai’i of the Big West is at UC Irvine and No. 20 Western Kentucky of Conference USA, is home against North Texas.
The tight Mountain West has the leaders in action as Boise State entertains Fresno and Colorado State goes to San Diego State. Wyoming, a game off the pace, goes to Nevada, and UNLV, a half game behind Wyoming, entertains Utah State.
The Big Sky is another conference with a tight race and all the leaders are in action. North Dakota leads the North with Northern Colorado a game back. UND goes to South leader Northern Arizona, while UNC plays at Southern Utah. Sacramento State, tied with NAU in the South, entertains Idaho State.
Click here for a complete list of Thursday’s matches.
Utah matches best Pac-12 win total
The Utes are 18-8, 9-6 Pac-12, after their win at Oregon that left the Ducks 17-7, 10-5 and now a half-game off the conference lead. The nine wins ties Utah’s best since joining the league.
Junior Adora Anae paced Utah with 15 kills and junior Carly Trueman had four of her 11 kills in the fourth set. Sophomore Berkeley Oblad had two of Utah’s match-high seven service aces and led with six total blocks. Emma Kirst added eight kills and two blocks.
Lindsey Vander Weide led Oregon with 15 kills and added 12 digs. Amanda Benson had a season-high 28 digs. Brooke Van Sickle added 12 kills filling in on the outside for the injured Jolie Rasmussen.
“Lindsey was great. I don’t know what to say, I don’t want to say this with any excuses. With Jolie out, it changed the chemistry and the chemistry was so good Friday and even into Sunday,” Oregon coach Jim Moore said.
Big 12: Longhorns, K-State, Iowa State win
Texas grinded past visiting Baylor to improve to 19-3, 11-1 Big 12, with its 25-23, 26-24,25-16 victory.
Senior Paulina Prieto-Cerame led with 17 kills, her third-highest of the year, connecting on 17 of 36 swings to hit .444. Freshman Micaya White had eight kills and eight digs, while senior Chloe Collins had 33 assists and three kills, tying her season-high. Freshman Morgan Johnson had a season-high tying seven blocks.
Baylor, 19-8, 7-4, got 19 kills from Katie Staiger, who continues to have a fantastic season. She also had 11 digs. Aniah Philo had 11 kills and 17 digs.
Iowa State is 15-9, 7-5 after winning at Oklahoma 28-26, 20-25, 25-22, 25-20.
Six Cyclones had at least 10 kills, with Jess Schaben leading with 14.
Oklahoma dropped to 13-12, 4-8.
Kansas State is 18-8, 7-6) after winning at West Virginia 26-24, 25-19, 22-25, 22-25, 15-10 to drop the Mountaineers to 12-14, 3-9.
Brooke Sassin led K-State with 14 kills and 11 digs.
Big Ten: Nebraska, MSU, Wolverines win
The Huskers rolled over visiting Iowa 25-14, 25-18, 26-24 to improve to 23-1, 14-1, as Iowa dropped to 18-9, 8-7.
Nebraska was led by its middles as Briana Holman had 12 kills and four blocks while hitting .409, and Amber Rolfzen had nine kills with no errors for a .643 hitting percentage to go with her team-high five blocks.
Kadie Rolfzen added eight kills, 14 digs and five blocks as the Huskers held Iowa to .108 hitting.
Meghan Buzzerio led Iowa with 10 kills.
Michigan’s 25-17, 25-22, 25-22 win over Indiana left the Wolverines 21-6, 10-5, as junior middle blocker Claire Kieffer-Wright led with 12 kills and hit .421. Indiana fell to 16-12, 5-10.
And Michigan State improved to 22-5, 11-4 as it dealt Purdue a 30-28, 25-22, 25-19 defeat. It was the Spartans fifth win in a row as they got 10 blocks and seven kills from Alyssa Garvelink, and 12 kills and five blocks from Chloe Reinig.
Purdue’s Danielle Cuttino had 13 kills and three blocks, while Faye Adelaja posted 12 kills, hit .471, and added five blocks and three digs.
Kentucky wins, Louisville stops Irish, Cleveland State loses
Kentucky rolled past Arkansas 25-21, 25-17, 25-19 to get to 19-8, 12-2 in the SEC. Arkansas fell to 5-20, 3-10.
Senior Anni Thomasson broke the UK 25-point rally scoring era service ace record when she recorded an ace in the second set. Thomasson now sits at 99 aces in her career and moved past former three-time AVCA All-American Whitney Billings.
Kentucky’s Leah Edmond led with 18 kills, hit .471 and had 10 digs.
Louisville has had a tough season, but Wednesday night the Cardinals were awfully tough at Notre Dame in a 22-25, 25-21, 25-20, 25-22 victory that lifted them to 9-16, 4-11 in the ACC. Notre Dame, which could ill afford a loss, dropped to 19-8, 10-5.
Morgan Miller had 14 kills, 18 assists, two aces and three blocks to lead Louisville, with Melanie McHenry adding 14 with 18 digs. Janelle Jenkins had 13 kills with three blocks and libero Molly Sauer had a career high 38 digs.
Jemma Yeadon led ND with 12 kills and three blocks.
Cleveland State had already clinched the top spot in the Horizon League tournament, but the Vikings saw their 13-match winning streak broken at Green Bay 25-17, 23-25, 13-25, 25-21, 15-7. It left CSU 22-5, 13-2, while Green Bay is 19-8, 11-4.
Fairfield still has the nation’s longest winning streak, 19, but barely kept it alive at Stony Brook 21-25, 25-19, 22-25, 25-20, 18-16 in a non-conference matchup. Fairfield, 25-5, got 22 kills from Skyler Day.
