Wolf Pack now 12-15 overall and 6-6 following the loss.
The Loyola University New Orleans volleyball team had a tall task in front of them on Saturday as they welcomed the Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC)-leading University of Mobile for a match at First NBC Court.
Despite the unfavorable odds, the Wolf Pack (12-15, 6-6 SSAC) started the match up 1-0 over the Rams (18-6, 11-1 SSAC) thanks to a 3-0 run to close out the frame. Despite their best effort to keep the momentum rolling, Loyola dropped the next three-straight sets to give the Rams the 3-1 (25-22,16-25,19-25,8-25) victory on the road.
With the score knotted at 22-22 in the opening set, a kill by Tylar Beckham (SO/New Orleans, La.) followed by a Rams error and an ace from Natavia Mitchell (SO/Austin, Texas) gave Loyola the 1-0 lead and the momentum heading into set two.
With the score tied at 12-12 in the second set, the visitors strung together a 9-2 run to grab the comfortable 21-14 advantage. A kill by Beatriz Agosto (FR/Miami, Fla.) would be the last point the Wolf Pack would score - dropping the second set 16-25 to knot the match at 1-1.
Kills from Malea Howie (FR/Greenwood, Ind.) and Beckham put Loyola up 2-0 to start the third frame. The Rams quickly answered with two points of their own to knot the set before two Mobile errors put the home team up 4-2. The two-point lead proved to be the biggest and the last for the Wolf Pack in the set as Mobile grabbed the third set 25-19 to shift the momentum in its favor.
The Rams used that momentum to dominate the fourth set 25-8 to claim the match at First NBC Court 3-1.
Loyola recorded a .023 (35-32-130) hitting percentage on Saturday with 27 assists, 49 digs and four blocks. Meanwhile, the Rams chalked up a hitting percentage of 0.291 (53-16-127) to go along with 49 assists, 50 digs and an impressive eight blocks in the victory.
Howie led the Wolf Pack with 19 kills on Saturday while Sunni Blanchard (FR/Pierre Part, La.) chipped in a team-high 16 assists off the bench. Elizabeth Scioneaux (JR/Reserve, La.), Katie Philippi (SR/Metairie, La.) and Kaitlynn Watson (FR/South Lake Tahoe, Ca.) each scooped up nine digs in the loss and Allison Hartmann (SO/Slidell, La.) added nine kills on 28 attempts.
Mobile featured three double-digit kill performers, led by Mirella Gatterdam and Hannah Buck's 15 a piece. Annie Kate Hudson gave out a team-high 24 helpers off the bench while Jessica Bagwell notched nine digs in the victory.
Loyola hits the road on Friday, Oct. 21, to take on SSAC foe Faulkner University at 7:00 p.m.
Washington's Bailey Tanner gets the pancake against Utah/Stephen Burns photo
Nebraska evened the score with Ohio State on a relatively calm and semi-predictable Friday in the Big Ten.
But not in the Pac-12. No, things are nuts in the Pac-12, where three unranked teams pulled off road upsets as Arizona won at No. 12 Stanford, Colorado won at No. 13 Washington State and USC won at No. 9 Oregon.
Said USC coach Mick Haley afterward, “If everything works out this weekend we could have eight teams tied for first place in this conference. There’s that possibility.”
In a battle for the top of the ACC, eighth-ranked North Carolina got all it could handle at Notre Dame before escaping wth a five-set victory.
All the other ranked teams that played won Friday and there is starting to be some separation in some of the non-power-five leagues, like American now 8-0 in the Patriot League after the Eagles swept Loyola for their ninth consecutive victory.
But first, a look ahead to Saturday’s matches.
In the Big Ten, top-ranked Wisconsin goes to No. 18 Michigan, No. 3 Minnesota plays at No. 14 Michigan State and Northwestern plays at No. 24 Illinois. Neither Penn State, Ohio State nor Purdue get time to recover, because Penn State goes to Indiana, Iowa visits Columbus and Rutgers plays at Purdue.
There is only one match in the Pac-12, when Arizona State goes to Stanford, and just one in the ACC, where Virginia plays at Duke.
In the Big 12, there four matches and No. 6 Kansas at TCU could be interesting. Texas Tech goes to Iowa State, Baylor is at West Virginia and Kansas State goes to Oklahoma.
The SEC is off on football Saturday.
There are plenty of other big matches happening Saturday outside the power-five conferences. In the West Coast Conference, No. 5 San Diego goes to Portland, which is coming off its big Thursday-night upset of No. 11 BYU, while BYU goes to Gonzaga.
Dayton, now 19-1, puts its 6-0 Atlantic-10 mark on the line at Davidson.
Washington’s Courtney Schwan hits past two Utah blockers to end the second set/Stephen Burns photo
Pac-12: Arizona snaps long streak
Start with the Pac-12, where suddenly Arizona is riding a three-match road winning streak after winning last weekend at USC and UCLA and then Friday. The Wildcats won at Stanford 25-21, 28-26, 25-27, 25-21 to improve to 13-6 overall — remember the Wildcats lost their first three matches of the season — and 5-2 in the Pac-12. Stanford is 10-5, 4-3.
It was the first time Arizona beat Stanford after 19 defeats, a streak started in 2005.
“I’m really proud of our kids,” Arizona coach Dave Rubio said. “I don’t think it was our best match of the year but we found a way to grind it out and found a way to win.”
Setter Penina Snuka had 59 assists — most in the league this year — and 19 digs as her team hit .273 and had a season-high 73 kills.
“Penina and Laura (Larson, 14 digs) refused to let us lose,” said Rubio. “Penina’s defense was amazing. Maybe the best I’ve ever seen – she was at a whole different level. We’ll keep running with it and keep trying to get better. We have to keep getting better. There’s a lot of room for improvement.”
Kendra Dahlke tied her career-high with 22 kills and had 12 digs, three blocks and an ace.
Kalei Mau had 17 kills, 14 digs, two blocks and an ace.
Katarina Pilepic had 15 kills — seven in the first set — and hit .412.
“Kendra, Katarina and Kalei were unbelievable,” said Rubio. “They had to work hard to score.”
Stanford, coming off a loss last Sunday to visiting Utah, lost back-to-back home matches for the first time in coach John Dunning’s 16 seasons on The Farm.
Kathryn Plummer led the Cardinal with 12 kills and a career-high 17 digs. Merete Lutz had 11 kills and five blocks and hit .345, while Inky Ajanaku had 11 kills, hit .435 and had three blocks.
Washington State was unbeaten at home, but Colorado put an end to that five-match streak with its 25-15, 19-25, 25-19, 19-25, 15-13 victory.
It left the Buffs 11-6, 3-4 in the Pac-12, while WSU is 15-4, 5-2.
“Winning is always fun. Winning when you __play well is even more enjoyable,” first-year Colorado coach Jesse Mahoney said. “We are more excited about this match as our first true road win. This was a really hostile environment against the top team in the Pac-12. I told the girls that it wasn’t so much the win that I was proud of, but how we played and how we responded to all of the pressure tonight.”
Gabby Simpson led with 17 kills, while Stephanie Shadley and Alexa Smith had 13 apiece. Anna Pfefferle hit .500 while she had eight kills and Naghede Abu hit .455 with six kills.
Washington State’s McKenna Woodford led with 17 kills, while Kyra Holt added 13 to move into second place on the all-time WSU list and Taylor Mims 12. Claire Martin had 10 blocks.
“First of all, Colorado is a great team. I thought they played extremely well,” WSU coach Jen Greeny said. “I was a little disappointed in the way we came out, especially in that first set. Our serving and passing wasn’t as good as I thought it needed to be, to be able to beat a team as good as Colorado. We need to be more aggressive in those two areas and then offensively as well. We got better as we went along. In the fifth set we just missed some key serves and you certainly can’t do that when you are going to 15 points. So we had some great aces, but it was a little bit streaky.
“I think we just had really great moments at the end, really aggressive, and moments where we were being a bit tentative. We just can’t do that in this conference against tough teams. We just really need to be aggressive more consistently.”
USC keeps bouncing back. Friday at Oregon, the Women of Troy lost a tough first set and then came away with a 28-30, 25-22, 25-20, 25-21 victory that left them 12-6, 4-3 in the Pac-12, while Oregon is 12-5, 5-3.
“Nobody can win at home,” Haley said. “What’s going on”
Indeed.
Freshman outside Khalia Lanier led with a career-high 23 kills and also had eight digs. Elise Ruddins had 11 kills and hit .588, while Alysse Ford had 10 kills, eight digs and three blocks.Niki Withers and Brittany Abercrombie each had seven kills and four blocks apiece. And Jordan Dunn had two kills and a career-high nine blocks, one solo.
“I think we’re getting better,”Haley said. “I like my team better. They’re playing hard, they’re working hard in practice.”
Taylor Agost and Ronika Stone had 12 kills apiece for Oregon. Stone also had seven blocks.
“We are not grinding,” said Oregon coach Jim Moore, whose team is 1-3 on its homestand.
“That’s literally one of the things I was going to say. We are not grinding it out. We are not getting tough when it gets in a crucial situation. We are in a slump offensively. We have some pinhitters that basically hit zero, they’re all way down there, under .100. Then you really have to grind it out and we are just not doing a very good job of that.”
No. 21 Utah had its chances at No. 7 Washington, especially when it held a 21-16 lead in the first set. But the Huskies rallied and went on to a25-21, 25-15, 25-18 sweep.
Their fourth win in a row left the Huskies 15-2, 5-2, while Utah, which saw a three-match road winning streak over ranked teams end, is 13-5, 5-2.
Junior Tia Scambray led UW with 12 kills, with nine digs, two aces, and four assists. Junior Courtney Schwan had nine kills and 10 digs. Junior Carly DeHoog hit .455 with five kills on 11 swings without an error.
“Serving and passing is the foundation of any good team, so I think we’re starting to develop a nice identity there, but we’ve got some work to do on both sides of the ball after the ball is in play,” Washington coach Keegan Cook said. “Tia had a great performance that didn’t start out that well, but she didn’t change her behavior and she kept working and I think after a little different swing in set two, she was aggressive from then on, and so I’m really happy for her performance.”
Utah got 12 kills from Carly Trueman and 11 from Anae Adora.
No. 20 UCLA won at Oregon State 25-14, 25-21, 25-20. to improve to 14-4, 5-3, behind 14 kills, six digs and three blocks from freshman Torrey Van Winden. Lila Toner led OSU (8-10, 1-6),with 13 kills.
And at Cal, Arizona State created a three-way tie at the bottom of the league by beating the Bears 25-21, 21-25, 28-26, 25-22 for coach Stevie Mussie’s first Pac-12 win. ASU is 8-11, 1-6, while Cal is 7-10, 1-6.
Big Ten: Nebraska works hard to pay back Ohio State
The second-ranked Huskers have just one loss this season, and that was at home two weeks ago to Ohio State. Consider things even, because Nebraska went to Columbus on Friday and came away with a 25-20, 25-20, 23-25, 27-25 victory.
The Huskers (15-1, 6-1 Big Ten) beat the Buckeyes (12-7, 2-5) for the first time since 2013 after three defeats. In doing so, Nebraska won its 12th straight road match, its longest road winning streak since 2003 to 2005.
Kadie Rolfzen tied her career high with 21 kills with just two errors for a .413 hitting percentage. She also had 11 digs for her 44th career double-double.
Andie Malloy had 11 kills and two blocks, and Mikaela Foecke had 10 kills, six digs and three blocks. Amber Rolfzen had eight kills and three blocks, while Briana Holman had seven kills and four blocks.
Kelly Hunter had 44 assists and a career-high 19 digs, as well as three kills. Justine Wong-Orantes recorded a season-high 23 digs and surpassed 1,600 for her career, joining Olympian Kayla Banwarth as the only Huskers to do so.
Taylor Sandebothe led Ohio State with 19 kills and seven blocks. Madison Smeathers added eight kills, while Valeria Leon had 16 digs and is 20 away from becoming the school’s all-time leader.
No. 10 Penn State’s winning streak is now 13 after the Nittany Lions won at No. 22 Purdue 25-18, 25-17, 25-17. Penn State is 15-3 and the only unbeaten in league __play at 7-0. Purdue fell to 11-7, 1-6.
Simone Lee led the Nittany Lions with 16 kills, while Haleigh Washington had eight and hit .583.
Purdue, which has lost five matches in a row, got 11 kills from Danielle Cuttino and nine from Azariah Stahl.
Also in the Big Ten, Iowa went on the road and improved to 15-4, 5-2 by sweeping Maryland 25-23, 26-24, 25-19, leaving the Terps 9-11, 0-7. And Indiana beat visiting Rutgers 23-25, 25-11, 25-18, 25-22. Indiana is 13-7, 2-5, while Rutgers, which won a set in the Big Ten for the first time this season, is 4-16, 0-7.
Notre Dame’s Katie Higgins attacks against North Carolina
ACC: UNC wins at ND in five
Perhaps no team has made more strides this season than Notre Dame, but North Carolina is still tops in the ACC after coming away with an 18-25, 25-19, 25-19, 16-25, 15-13 victory in South Bend.
“I’m just really proud of how well our team fought, of our resilience and determination to hang in there,” said UNC coach Joe Sagula, whose Tar Heels improved to 15-2, 7-0 in the ACC.
“I thought that Notre Dame played an outstanding match—some of the best defense we’ve seen all year—probably one of the top-10 defensive teams in the country. Their transition game was great, and it took a great effort by us to overcome that on the road. The fact that our team was able to hang in there, I couldn’t be any prouder.”
Julia Scoles had career highs of 23 kills and 20 digs to lead UNC. Taylor Leath had 15 kills and 23 digs and Taylor Treacy had 11 kills. Leath had back-to-back kills to end the match.
“It was a great battle for both teams tonight,” Sagula said. “I think the crowd got to see a really good volleyball match. A different type of match, one that was won by defense, dig by dig.”
Notre Dame is 15-4, 6-1.
Ryann DeJarid had a remarkable 40 digs for Notre Dame. Katie Higgins led with 11 kills and Jemma Yeadon had 10 kills and 11 digs.
“We are going to learn a lot from this match,” second-year Notre Dame coach Jim McLaughlin said. “We’re ready to play and had good emotion. I am proud of the effort and energy and all of that stuff. We just have to be a little better for a little longer periods of time but we will get there.”
No. 15 Florida State had to go five to hold off visiting Virginia Tech 25-13, 25-21, 15-25, 24-26, 15-8 and stay tied with Notre Dame and Duke at 6-1 in the ACC.
FSU is 13-3 overall, while VT is 8-10, 3-4.
Milica Kubura and Christina Ambrose had 12 kills each and Katie Horton added 10 and eight digs.
Also in the ACC on Friday, Wake Forest pulled out a five-set victory over visiting Virginia, Syracuse won in four at Clemson, Pittsburgh won in four at Miami, and Georgia Tech beat visiting Boston College in four. Pitt and Georgia Tech are two games off the pace at 5-2.
Carli Snyder celebrates with Florida teammates Allie Monserez, left, and Rhamat Alhassan/Javier Fernandez, LSU Athletics
SEC: Florida cruises at LSU
The ninth-ranked Gators are 15-2, 5-1 in the SEC, after crushing LSU 25-15, 25-20, and 25-11.
After the match, we caught up with the dean of SEC coaches, Mary Wise, who team has just one senior in All-American right side Alex Holston.
She might not be Florida’s best player, but junior Carli Snyder, whose all-around effort included 12 kills and 10 digs, is the Gators’ most important. She seems to be the player who holds it all together, from flawless defense to a wicked BIC.
The SEC’s other ranked team, No. 23 Kentucky, which is the only team in the SEC to beatFlorida and stands atop the league at 6-0, swept visiting Arkansas 25-20, 25-19, 25-17. UK has won 11 matches in a row while losing only two sets.
Ashley Dusek led with 15 kills, while Leah Edmond and Olivia Dailey had 11 each.
Texas A&M, once ranked, won its fifth in a row with a 25-6, 25-15, 25-18 crushing of South Carolina. The Aggies are 11-6 and tied with Florida at 5-1.
Also in the SEC, Tennessee beat Ole Miss in four.
Hawai’i, WKU, Dayton, American keep rolling, Radford falls
No. 17 Hawai’i improved to 13-5, 6-1 in the Big West by beating visiting UC Irvine 5-14, 25-21, 24-26, 25-18 behind 20 kills from Nikki Taylor.
No. 25 Western Kentucky won its 10th in a row and maintained its hold on first place in Conference USA with a four-set win over UAB. The Lady Toppers are 19-2 overall and 6-0 in C-USA.
Dayton continues to have the best record in the country. The Flyers are 19-1, 6-0 in the A-10 after winning at VCU 25-21, 25-19, 22-25, 25-21, Jessica Sloan and Kendyll Brown had 12 kills apiece for Dayton.
Radford saw its seven-match winning streak snapped at Charleston Southern as the Highlanders lost in four to fall to 16-4, 7-1 in the Big South. Charleston Southern is 5-0 in the league.
American is 18-6, 80 after the first half of the Patriot season by sweeping Loyola. Three teams are tied for second at 5-2.
Horizon League leader Cleveland State swept Wright State to improve to 14-6, 7-1 halfway through the league schedule … The leaders won in the Missouri Valley as Wichita State (14-5, 7-1) beat Indiana State behind 16 kills by Mikaela Raudsepp, while Lily Johnson had 25 kills to lead Missouri State (15-7, 6-2) past Illinois State in five.
Missouri State takes its five-match winning streak to Missouri Valley Conference foe Illinois State. Southern Illinois is also 6-2.
In the Ivy League, Princeton swept Yale to improve to 12-3, 6-0 in the league, with its 10th win in a row.
Murray State swept Tennessee Tech to improve to 11-8, 6-1, to stay tied with Austin Peay atop the Ohio Valley Conference, Austin Peay swept Jacksonville State.
Florida Gulf Coast has won 17 of 18 after beating Jacksonville to improve to 18-3, 5-1 in the Atlantic Sun. FGCU is a game back of Kennesaw State and a game ahead of North Florida and Lipscomb. Kennesaw swept USC Upstate and is 12-8, 6-0.
SMU improved to 7-1 and is a half-game ahead of Cincinnati in the American Athletic Conference after a tough sweep of Memphis 31-29, 25-22, 25-23.
Finally, South Dakota is off to its best Summit League start ever at 7-0 as the Coyotes swept Omaha to improve to 18-3.
With Lee moderating, Lipscomb coach Brandon Rosenthal and Transylvania coach Kyle Walton argue the merits of both leagues. Rosenthal has the Big Ten; Walton the Pac-12.
And Lee would like to add that he also would have included Texas and Florida when he got his shot late in the conversation.
Kelsie Payne, left, and Taylor Soucie put up the Kansas block against K-State's Kylee Zumach/KU photo
Another night of NCAA volleyball and another night of surprises.
But then again, you could argue why would we be surprised that No. 1 lost again?
This time it was Wisconsin, getting absolutely crushed by visiting No. 3 Minnesota 25-20, 25-18, 25-14.
Also losing?
No. 14 Michigan State at No. 24 Illinois and No. 16 Oregon to visiting No. 20 UCLA.
For the record, both No. 4 Texas and No. 6 Kansas were winners.
First, Thursday’s matches of note.
The Big Ten has the night off, but Friday’s four matches include No. 2 Nebraska at No. 19 Ohio State in the rematch of Nebraska’s only defeat, and No 10 Penn State, the lone unbeaten team in league play, at No. 22 Purdue.
There is just one ACC match when NC State goes to Louisville.
The Pac-12, SEC and Big 12 have the night off.
Also: In the West Coast Conference, No. 5 San Diego goes to Gonzaga and No. 11 BYU plays at Portland. North Dakota tries to maintain first in the Big Sky Conference when the Fighting Hawks __play host to Montana State, Texas State tries to do the same in the Sun Belt Conference West Division when the Bobcats go to UT Arlington, and San Diego State plays the first of three Mountain West matches in five days as the Aztecs go to Wyoming trying to stay in striking distance of Colorado State and UNLV.
No one could argue with the analysis from Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield, whose team’s first appearance in the top spot of the AVCA poll probably will only last one week.
“I think you move up to No. 1 for the first time and then you get your butt kicked by anybody and you can sit there and think it’s the easy thing to say ‘Hey we were full of ourselves’ or whatever,” Sheffield said.
“But that had nothing to do with this particular match. It certainly can happen, but that wasn’t what tonight was. … that would be unfair to Minnesota to say that that was the reason, but also because I know my team and we just got outplayed tonight, period.”
Minnesota, a former No. 1, is 14-2 overall and 6-1 in the Big Ten.
Wisconsin fell to 14-2 — as its nine-match win streak ended — and to 6-1 in the Big Ten, leaving only Penn State (6-0) unbeaten in league play. It was also Wisconsin’s first Big Ten defeat in nearly two years, an 18-match streak.
Minnesota was led by Sarah Wilhite with 12 kills and eight digs. Hannah Tapp and Paige Tapp both added five blocks. Hannah Tapp had 11 kills and hit .429) and Paige Tapp had nine kills and hit .438.
Molly Lohman hit .625, adding a season-best nine blocks. Alexis Hart had seven kills and two blocks. Dalianliz Rosado had 11 digs, and setter Samantha Seliger-Swenson had 41 assists, five digs and two blocks.
“We were certainly happy with our performance last night, but, as you can imagine with nine Big Ten teams in the top 25, it’s very quickly on to the next one,” said Minnesota coach Hugh McCutcheon, whose team goes to Michigan State on Saturday.
Wisconsin hit a season-low .050 percent (37 kills, 27 errors in101 attempts) as Minnesota held the Badgers to a negative hitting percentage in both the first and third sets.
Conversely, Minnesota and had just 13 errors in 99 attempts and out-blocked the Badgers 14-3.
Junior Kelli Bates led Wisconsin with 10 kills, sophomore Tionna Williams added six, and senior Haleigh Nelson had five kills and UW’s only service ace.
“I thought Kelli [Bates] did a great job,” Sheffield said. “Her hitting numbers were a little lower because she got blocked there a little bit at the end but I thought she was great, her whole game tonight was really solid. I thought our passers did a really good job. I thought Lauren (Carlini) was making the most of the choices that she wanted to make.
“They beat us at the net and part of that was due to our serving, but that wasn’t a match that shows the separation of two teams. That was a match that shows the separation of two teams in that particular match, so we’ll get back to work.”
Illinois likewise made short work of visiting Michigan State 25-21, 32-30, 25-19, although the second set was something else.
Illinois is 12-6, 5-2, while MSU is 15-4, 4-3.
Illinois coach Kevin Hambly, whose team was coming off a four-set loss to Wisconsin, was glad his team didn’t get wrapped in the score.
“They did a really nice job tonight, the best job we have done all night of being moment-to-moment,” Hambly said.
Senior Naya Crittenden had a match-high 12 kills on 20 swings and only three errors for a .450 hitting percentage, while sophomore Ali Bastianelli had 11 kills on 17 attacks and only two errors to hit .529. Freshman Jacqueline Quade added 10 kills on 23 swings and only three errors to hit .304.
“We really just fought and went after it,” Crittenden said. “It was, I agree, comparable to that (second set at Wisconsin). We were up a little bit and they came back but we really grinded that out and I think everyone did a really great job with just putting it all on the court.”
“Something we talked about before the match was not making the same mistake twice,” sophomore setter Jordyn Poulter said. “I think there was a lot of regret after the Wisconsin match about executing when we were up, so we had every intention on every pass and every detail was there.”
Michigan State’sAutumn Bailey and Brooke Kranda each had 11 kills, while Alyssa Garvelink had eight kills without an error and added a season-best seven blocks for the second straight match.
“We had that comeback in the second set, and coming out on the short end of that in the end I think took some wind out of our sails,” MSU coach Cathy George said. “We committed far, far too many errors to allow ourselves to have much success. We know that we’ll need a much, much better effort come Saturday when we are at home against Minnesota. We have two days of practice to get our heads back on straight and clean up the things that hurt us tonight.”
Also in the Big Ten, No. 18 Michigan blasted Northwestern 25-17, 25-18, 25-13 to improve to 16-3, 5-2. The Wildcats are 7-12, 0-7.
Senior Kelly Murphy led Michigan with nine kills.
UCLA wins at Oregon in five
Freshman Torrey Van Winden had the best match of her career, with 19 kills and 12 digs while hitting .341 in UCLA’s 26-28, 25-23, 25-20, 21-25, 15-9 victory.
“I’m not very happy with the result,” Oregon coach Jim Moore said. “You have to win that [second] set. You have to put people away – we’re not responding well to pressure. UCLA did a great job, they came out even in the first set and put a lot of pressure on us.”
UCLA is 13-4, 4-3 in the Pac-12, while Oregon dropped to 12-5, 5-2.
Freshman Jolie Rasmussen led the Ducks with 18 kills and Taylor Agost added 16 kills while recording a career-high seven blocks. Lindsey Vander Weide had 12 kills and 11 digs. Amanda Benson led the Ducks with 24 digs. Sumeet Gill came off the bench and had a season-high six blocks.
“It’s a heartbreaker. It really felt like a rollercoaster,” Benson said. “We’d be up, then we’d be down, and then we’d be tied and we’d let them slip, then we’d slip. That’s what you get with a young team and you just have to learn how to be mature and grow from that.”
Madison Rigdon of Kansas hits over the Kansas State triple block/KU photo
Longhorns, Jayhawks win in Big 12
Texas won at Baylor 21-25, 25-17, 25-17, 25-18 in a key Big 12 match that left the Longhorns 14-2, 6-0.
Sophomore Yaasmeen Bedart-Ghani, who is adjusting to a move to the middle, had a monster night. She had nine blocks, three solo, and 10 kills on 12 swings with no errors for a career-best .833 hitting percentage.
“I feel better with more practice. It hasn’t been as difficult as I thought it would be,” Bedart-Ghani said. “I have a little bit more to worry about on the blocking front and don’t have as much time to hit … the vision and angles are a little different, but I’m really enjoying it.
Junior Ebony Nwanebu and freshman Micaya White led Texas in kills with 16 each, Nwanebu hit .483 and added six digs, three blocks and one ace.
White hit .273 and had eight digs and two blocks.
Senior Paulina Prieto Cerame had 12 kills, hit .250, and had three digs and a season-high five blocks.
Baylor, 15-6, 3-2, got 25 kills and 10 digs from Katie Staiger, who is having a tremendous season.
“They have a lot of firepower. We knew we had to __play great defense to slow them down,” Baylor coach Ryan McGuyre said.
“I thought it was going to be more a matter of if our offense could keep up. In all four sets, in the first 75 percent we’d get side-outs and trade points back and forth. In the first, we took a late push and managed to pull it out in the end. In the next three, we’d go back and forth, but they managed to pull it out in the end.”
Kansas stayed a game back of Texas with its 25-15, 25-20, 25-23 sweep of Kansas State to improve to 16-2, 5-1, while the Wildcats fell to 14-5, 3-3.
Senior middle blocker Tayler Soucie set the tone early during the season’s first volleyball edition of the Dillons Sunflower Showdown by recording four blocks during an early 9-0 run in the first set.
“That blocking display was pretty impressive. It obviously set the tone,” Kansas coach Ray Bechard said. “When you block for points like that, that can really get your team going. That was a really great way to start it. That’s a very good K-State team. We were pretty motivated to play well tonight.”
Junior outside hitter Madison Rigdon led the Jayhawks with 14 kills, while junior right side Kelsie Payne and Soucie each had 11. Soucie finished with six block assists. Freshman outside hitter Jada Burse added eight kills, as those four accounted for all but three of KU’s 47 kills.
K-State got 14 kills from Alyssa Schultejans and nine from Katie Reininger.
Also in the Big 12, visiting Oklahoma worked hard to win the first two sets and then cruised in the third to beat Texas Tech 28-26, 25-23, 25-17. Oklahoma is 12-7, 3-3, while the Red Raiders fell to 10-11, 0-6.
And West Virginia had a rare mid-season non-conference match, winning at Robert Morris 5-22, 26-24, 25-15.
Caroline Rassenfoss of Wake Forest attacks against Duke/WFU photo
Duke over the Deacons in five
In the only ACC match of the night, visiting Duke was down 6-2 in the fifth before rallying for a 20-25, 25-22, 22-25, 25-17, 15-12 victory. The key was Anna Kropf, who had all four of her kills in the fifth as her team won its fourth five-set match of the season to improve to 12-5 overall and 6-1 in the league.
“We dug a big hole for ourselves in that fifth set, which you never want to do,” Dukecoach Jolene Nagel said. “We did a good job of moving on to the next point. That first touch was really important. Anna stayed very in tune with the match. She came in and just did a great job to light us up at a crucial time.”
Jordan Tucker led the Blue Devils with 16 kills and four blocks. Freshman right-side Samantha Amos had a career-high 14 kills. Sophomore middle blocker Leah Meyer added 13 and those three combined to hit .376.
Wake Forest is 7-11, 3-4.
Caroline Rassenfoss led Wake with 21 kills and Kylie Long had 16. Katie Moore had a career-high 14 kills and hit .367. Caitlyn Della also had a career-high with 13 kills. She hit .333.
Auburn, Alabama win in SEC
Auburn swept Georgia 25-11, 25-16, 25-19 as the Tigers improved to 10-10 but got over .500 in the SEC at 4-3. Georgia, which was SEC winless last season, is 13-7, 0-6. Gwyn Jones led Auburn with 12 kills and hit .474.
Both teams are 3-3 in the league after Alabama beat visiting Mississippi State 21-25, 25-20, 25-20, 25-21. Bama is 14-5, while State is 11-9.
Cleveland State atop Horizon
In a battle of what were two teams tied for first, Cleveland State won for the sixth straight time to improve to 15-4 overall and 6-1 in the Horizon League with its 25-22, 25-23, 25-11 sweep of visiting Green Bay (13-6, 5-2).
Huekels and Blanchard each collect 14 assists in the sweep.
The Loyola University New Orleans volleyball team took a step outside of conference __play on Thursday as they welcomed Gulf Coast Athletic Conference member Tougaloo College for a match at First NBC Court.
Thursday was the definition of a team effort for Loyola, with the Wolf Pack (12-14) using 17 players to complete the 3-0 (25-14,25-16,25-14) sweep of the Lady Bulldogs (9-7) at home.
Loyola used brilliant serving from Maddie Huekels (SO/Dyer, Ind.) to start the opening set up 4-0. The Wolf Pack then strung together an 11-5 run to stretch the advantage to 15-5 in the first frame. With the score 23-14 in favor of the home team, Anna Katherine Brunini (SO/Madison, Miss.) recorded an ace, which Tougaloo followed with an error, to give Loyola the set victory at 25-14.
The second set proved much of the same, with the Wolf Pack racing out to a 4-0 advantage, thanks in part to two kills by Lindsay Ulfig (JR/Saline, Mich.). Loyola was able to keep the Lady Bulldogs at a safe distance for the remainder of the set and another kill by Ulfig (her fifth in the set) sealed the 25-16 win.
Tougaloo showed some fight in the third set but the home team remained unfazed – scoring the final four points of the set to earn to 3-0 sweep on Thursday.
The Wolf Pack collected a .258 (38-14-93) hitting percentage against the Lady Bulldogs with 28 assists, 36 digs two blocks and nine service aces.
Allison Hartmann (SO/Slidell, La.) paced Loyola with 10 kills on 17 attacks (.353) while Sunni Blanchard (FR/Pierre Part, La.) and Huekels each handed out 14 assists in the win. Katie Philippi (SR/Metairie, La.) recorded 13 digs off the bench and Lindsay Ulfig chipped in seven kills on Thursday.
Taylor Kangethe led Tougaloo with five kills and Saije Bady gave out a team-high 11 assists in the loss.
The Wolf Pack return to Southern States Athletic Conference __play on Saturday, Oct. 15, when they welcome league-leading Mobile to First NBC Court for a match at 11:00 a.m.
Long Beach State’s Yizhi Xue hits against Hawai'i/Ed Chan, VBshots.com
Freshman volleyball players often have a difficult transition to college life.
They’re away from their homes for the first time, there are those grueling two-a-days in preseason, and then the travel in season can be taxing.
So for Long Beach State’s Yizhi Xue, a middle blocker from Nanjing, China, you would imagine the adjustment is even more difficult.
Long Beach State’s Yizhi Xue leads the 49ers in blocking/Ed Chan, VBshots.com
“When I first arrived, I was very quiet, and barely spoke to my coaches, teammates, anyone, Xue admitted. “They were really nice. They were all really encouraging and supportive, they were all cheering for me to get better.”
She was so nervous that it caused her some intestinal discomfort.
“I panicked the first game,” she said. “I got a stomachache I was so nervous. Now I can relax and enjoy the game.”
It certainly appears that way. The 6-foot-4 international business major is taking care of business on the court, averaging 1.70 kills per set and hitting .316. She leads the 49ers in blocks with 75, four solo, and even has 15 digs.
Known to her friends as Eri, she has been the Big West Conference defensive player of the week (September 12) and the freshman of the week (October 3).
“It’s an incredible cultural difference coming from China,” Long Beach coach Brian Gimmillaro said. “Every day she works hard, laughs, she has a good time. Now we’re at the point where she gives us a hard time, and we give her a hard time back. She feels comfortable enough that she will roll her eyes at us or give us that funny look. She is fun to be around, and she’s very serious when she needs to be serious, and fun when you need to be fun.”
We asked her about the differences between Chinese and American training methods.
“The sports environment in China is very different,” Xue said.“Here you are very fierce about your sports. It’s very different, here you have cheerleaders, DJs, and music.
“The environment is quite different, it’s much more positive. In China, the coaches put more stress and pressure for you to get better, and you can be punished when you don’t perform. It’s different here, they encourage a lot, and they want to understand why you are doing something wrong and how to improve you.”
Long Beach State, 12-7 overall and atop the Big West at 6-0, plays host to Cal State Northridge on Saturday.
It will be another step in the American education of Xue who admittedly has difficulty understanding many of the details of life in this country, like having to pay taxes and leaving tips, neither of which exist in China.
And not only that, she doesn’t like the rice she’s served in the dorm.
“She tells me how bad it is all the time.,” Gimmillaro said. “”Some day I’ll bring her a whole big tub of rice just to make her feel better.”
If the rice is her biggest problem adjusting to American life, Xue should do very well for herself.
Wisconsin's Haleigh Nelson and coach Kelly Sheffield are ranked No. 1 and welcome No. 3 Minnesota to Madison on Wednesday
UNLV keeps winning.
The Rebels went to New Mexico on Tuesday and their 25-16, 19-25, 32-30, 25-16 victory left them 17-2 overall, 6-1 in the Mountain West.
UNLV, the No. 20 team in the VolleyballMag.com Mid-Major Poll, is ranked 18th in the latest NCAA RPI. Only San Diego (5) and BYU (13) have better RPIs than the Rebels among non power-five teams.
“What an intense match,” UNLV coach Cindy Fredrick said. “We came out so strong with good passing and hitting. In the second set, we just could not block and (New Mexico) took advantage of that. In the third, we showed so much toughness.”
UNLV got 20 kills from Bree Hammel, who hit .255. She also had 10 digs. Alyssa Wing added 10 kills and seven digs, while Ashley Owens had nine kills and Sadie Stutzman and Elsa Descamps had eight each. Descamps also had four blocks.
“We got such great hitting by Bree in sets three and four. Ashley and Elsa kept their block honest and Elisa (Woinowsky), Laura (Butler) and Carly (Riehl) played awesome defense tonight.”
This was the first of four consecutive road matches for UNLV, which goes to Utah State on Saturday.
Back to the other results from Tuesday, including Western Kentucky’s exciting win over Lipscomb — but first Wednesday’s matches to watch:
There’s a huge one brewing in Madison in the Big Ten when No. 3 Minnesota (13-2, 5-1 Big Ten) plays at Wisconsin (14-1, 6-0), which is ranked No. 1 for the first time. It’s at 8 p.m. and will be shown on the Big Ten Network.
Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield is going after his 100th victory with the Badgers. His team has won 18 consecutive Big Ten matches since losing to — wait for it — Minnesota on October 17, 2015. That was also the last time Wisconsin lost at home.
Also on tonight’s schedule, there are two other Big Ten matches when No. 14 Michigan State plays at No. 24 Illinois and No. 18 Michigan goes to Northwestern. The Michigan State-Illinois battle should be nothing short of everything you expect from two ranked B1G teams this year, especially since both teams are part of the four-team 4-2 logjam behind the leaders, Wisconsin and Penn State (6-0) and Nebraska and Minnesota (5-1).
In the only Pac-12 match of the night, No. 20 UCLA is at No. 16 Oregon. Oregon is hot and tied with Washington State for the league lead at 5-1, while UCLA is 3-3 and needing to win on the road.
The Big 12 is busy.
No. 4 Texas goes to Baylor in a match that marks a huge opportunity for the home team to make a statement. The Bears are 9-1 in Waco and this one has pay attention written all over it. Also, No. 4 Kansas entertains Kansas State. Oklahoma plays at Texas Tech, and West Virginia goes out of conference to __play at Robert Morris.
The only ACC match of the night has Duke at Wake Forest.
There are two SEC matches on the schedule, Georgia at Auburn and Mississippi State at Alabama.
Western Kentucky’s Kaelin Grimes goes for the pancake against Lipscomb/Steve Roberts photo, WKU Athletics
There was an interesting non-conference matchup in Bowling Green on Tuesday when No. 25 Western Kentucky beat visiting Lipscomb.
WKU of Conference USA, No. 3 in the VBM Mid-Major Poll, improved to 18-2 with a 15-25, 25-23, 28-26, 16-25, 16-14 victory. Lipscomb of the Atlantic Sun, the VBM No. 21 team, is 10-7.
“All I can say about our team is that they never quit because we got our butts handed to us for a lot of the night,” WKU coach Travis Hudson said. “But we did persevere, continued to grind and luckily found a way to win.”
Outside hitter Carlyle Nusbaum led Lipscomb with 22 kills. Right side Taylor Racich added 14, while outside hitter Lauren Anderson and right side Chloe Rogers had 11 apiece.
“It was a great match,” Lipscomb coach Brandon Rosenthal said. “I am completely proud of our girls to come back on a short rest and have short memories. I don’t have any problems with what anybody on the team did. We fought hard and came up short.
“I asked them to give me everything they have got and they did. Unfortunately, as I told them going into it, sometimes when you go all in it is not going to work out but at least you know where you stand.”
There were C-USA matches Tuesday in a league in which WKU remains alone at the top at 5-0, After Rice saw its eight-matching winning streak broken at Florida Atlantic and Marshall swept visiting FIU, FAU, Rice and Marshall are all 4-1.
Marshall’s Madison Hill led with Thundering Herd with 13 kills and a career-high eight blocks.
In another interesting non-conference match, Iowa State of the Big 12 went to South Dakota and swept the Coyotes 25-11, 25-12, 25-21.
Iowa State, 9-8, gets back to Big 12 business Saturday when Texas Tech visits Ames.
South Dakota is 17-3 and leads the Summit League at 6-0.
San Diego (15-2) was the unanimous No. 1 in this week’s VolleyballMag.com Mid-Major Poll, getting all 10 first-place votes from a diverse panel of coaches from different conferences around the country.
West Coast Conference rival BYU (16-2) regained the second spot.
Western Kentucky (17-2) moved up from No. 4 to third, and Creighton (12-6) took over the fourth spot. Hawai’i (12-5), last week’s No. 2, dropped to fifth after losing at Long Beach State. Long Beach (12-7) is tied for sixth with Dayton, which has the best record in the poll at 18-1.
UNLV (16-2) stayed at No. 20.
San Diego State (12-7), which went 3-0 last week in the Mountain West, joined the poll at No. 25.
Rank
School
Total Points Adjusted
First Place Votes Adjusted
Win/Loss Record
Previous Rank
1
San Diego
250
10
15-2
1
2
BYU
238
0
16-2
3
3
Western Kentucky
225
0
17-2
4
4
Creighton
217
0
12-6
5
5
Hawai’i
205
0
12-5
2
T-6
Dayton
196
0
18-1
6
T-6
Long Beach State
196
0
12-7
7
8
Wichita State
185
0
12-5
8
9
Marquette
168
0
15-4
9
10
Missouri State
148
0
13-7
11
11
Colorado State
146
0
11-5
13
12
Coastal Carolina
112
0
13-4
15
13
Southern Illinois
102
0
15-6
17
14
Northern Iowa
101
0
13-7
16
15
Arkansas State
95
0
13-7
12
16
Loyola Marymount
89
0
12-6
10
17
Cal Poly
86
0
10-6
21
18
Santa Clara
77
0
11-7
18
19
UT San Antonio
73
0
12-4
14
20
UNLV
69
0
16-2
20
21
Lipscomb
39
0
10-6
19
T-22
Miami, Ohio
35
0
13-4
25
T-22
South Dakota
35
0
17-2
24
24
UC Santa Barbara
31
0
11-7
23
25
San Diego State
23
0
12-7
NR
Others receiving votes and listed on two or more ballots: Boise State 20, Northern Arizona 19, Villanova 14, Kennesaw State 9, UCF 6.
9 teams mentioned on only one ballot for a total of 41 combined points.
Dropped Out: Northern Arizona 22.
The VolleyballMag.com Mid-Major Poll includes all teams not in the “power-five” conferences, the ACC, SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12.
The Iowa Hawkeyes bench celebrates a point during their game against the Iowa State Cyclones in the Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk Series Friday, Sept. 11, 2015 at the Carver-Hawkeye Arena. (Brian Ray/hawkeyesports.com)
After upsetting Purdue and beating Indiana last weekend, the once-lowly Iowa Hawkeyes stand 14-4 overall, 4-2 in the Big Ten, and in a place the program hasn’t been since 1988.
Third-year coach Bond Shymansky, who grew up in Iowa City, played club volleyball for the Hawkeyes and has two degrees from Iowa, couldn’t be happier after enduring a 2-18 Big Ten finish in 2015.
There is no doubt that the toughest part of this year’s schedule lies ahead, but for now Iowa is enjoying the feeling of having won four Big Ten matches in a row. This weekend the Hawkeyes __play at Maryland and Ohio State.
Huekels hands out 29 assists while Beckham collects 20 kills in the SSAC victory.
Coming off a bye week, the Loyola University New Orleans volleyball team returned to the court on Monday evening against Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC) opponent William Carey University.
Despite jumping out to a 2-0 advantage in Hattiesburg, Loyola (11-14, 6-5 SSAC) would need five sets to dispel the Lady Crusaders (6-13, 4-7 SSAC) on Monday. Powered by career numbers from Maddie Huekels (SO/Dyer, Ind.) and Tylar Beckham (SO/New Orleans, La.), the Wolf Pack defeated William Carey 3-2 (18-25,18-25,25-21,25-17,12-15) to earn a pivotal league victory.
The first set saw both teams battle to a 6-6 tie before the Wolf Pack strung together a 7-2 run to take the 13-8 advantage. Loyola was able to keep William Carey at a safe distance for the remainder of the set and two back-to-back kills by Huekels gave the visitors the 25-18 victory.
A handful of errors by the Lady Crusaders helped the Wolf Pack take the early 7-2 lead in the second set. William Carey was able to come back and cut the deficit to just three at 20-17 before kills by Malea Howie (FR/Greenwood, Ind.), Beckham and Allison Hartmann (SO/Slidell, La.) sealed the 25-18 win in the second frame.
Threatened with the possibility of getting swept, William Carey took the next two sets to knot the match at 2-2.
The deciding set was tied up at 9-9 before the Wolf Pack strung together five-straight points – highlighted by two kills from Lindsey Ulfig – to grab the 14-9 advantage in the final frame. William Carey cut the score to 14-12 before Ulfig shut the door with a kill off an assist from Huekels to give Loyola the 15-12 win in the set and the 3-2 victory in the match.
The Wolf Pack recorded a 0.245 (60-24-147) hitting percentage with 51 assists, 51 digs and six blocks on Monday night.
Individually, Beckham led the Wolf Pack with a career-high 20 kills on 33 attempts. Huekels paired a career-high 29 assists with 10 kills and five digs while Hartmann chipped in 13 kills and three blocks in the win. Sunni Blanchard (FR/Pierre Part, La.) added 16 assists against the Lady Crusaders and Katie Philippi (SR/Metairie, La.) scooped up 13 digs off the bench.
Chassidy Harris recorded 19 kills for William Carey and Mikaela Hall handed out a game-high 46 assists in the loss.
The Wolf Pack will welcome Tougaloo College to First NBC Court for a non-conference match on Thursday, Oct. 13 at 6:00 p.m.
Wisconsin is the top-ranked team in NCAA volleyball.
The Badgers, whose only loss came at North Carolina on Sept. 9, are 14-1 overall and 6-0 in the Big Ten. Accordingly, they are ranked No. 1 in both the AVCA Division I Poll and latest NCAA RPI rankings released Monday.
It is the first time Wisconsin has been ranked No. 1 by the AVCA.
In the AVCA, the top three are all from the Big Ten: No. 2 is a former No. 1, Nebraska. The third spot goes to last week’s No. 1, Minnesota.
In the NCAA RPI, Minnesota is No. 2, Texas of the Big is No. 3 and Nebraska is No. 4. The fifth spot goes to Stanford, which is ranked 12th in the AVCA poll.
The only team to match rankings in both listings is No. 8 North Carolina.
Click here for the AVCA Division I poll.
Click here for the NCAA RPI.
There are teams not ranked in the AVCA top 25 that appear in the RPI, including No. 15 UNLV, No. 20 TCU, No. 23 Missouri, No. 24 Coastal Carolina and No. 25 USC.
The AVCA Division II poll also came out Monday and the only unbeaten team in the division, Minnesota Duluth, is ranked No. 1.
Paige Tapp of Minnesota hits through the Northwestern block/Minnesota photo
Down goes No. 7!
Down goes No. 10!
Down goes No. 14!
Down goes No. 18!
Down goes No. 19!
The saying was about football, but on any given Sunday in NCAA volleyball any team can lose. The casualties were No. 7 Stanford falling to unranked Utah, No. 10 Washington State getting hammered at No. 20 Oregon, No. 14 Ohio State falling to No. 23 Michigan, No. 18 UCLA losing to Arizona, and No. 19 Colorado getting beat by Cal, which hadn’t won a Pac-12 match since October 29 last year, breaking a 14-match losing streak in the league.
There are just five matches on the NCAA Division I schedule Monday. That includes two teams ranked in the VolleyballMag.com Mid-Major Poll, No.17 Southern Illinois at No. 8 Wichita State in a key Missouri Valley battle. Also, Delaware goes to Northeastern and who’s coaching? More on that later.
Ivana Vanjak swings against Utah/Stanford photo
Cal, Arizona, Utah score big Pac-12 victories
Start with Cal, which was 5-35 the past two years in the Pac-12 and was 0-5 entering Sunday’s match against visiting Colorado.
The Bears improved to 7-9, 1-5 with their 25-22, 25-23, 18-25, 25-21 victory, two days after experiencing both the high of having the return of liver-recipient Savannah Rennie but losing in three to Utah.
Sophomore middle blocker Belen Castillo had a career-high 16 kills and matched her career-best with six blocks. Junior Christine Alftin tied a career-high with 16 digs to go along with 13 kills. And Cal registered 14 blocks as a team – its highest total since Oct. 31, 2014 against Oregon.
“There were such mixed emotions Friday, between the high of Savannah and the low of playing maybe our worst match of the season,” Cal coach Rich Feller said. “Our locker room talk after or match on Friday was very low. We were happy Savannah was back on the court, but we were very disappointed. They were hard on themselves and the coaches were hard on the players.”
Colorado, rather, fell to 10-6, 2-4, as the Buffs fell to 0-4 on the road this season.
Sophomore Alexa Smith had 14 kills, while junior Gabby Simpson had 12Simpson also recorded 20 assists and eight digs while Smith tied a team-best 14 digs.
“This was a disappointing loss. Cal played well, but we helped them along with our share of unforced errors and missed opportunities. Everyone in our league defends their home floor well and we have to find a way to break through on the road.”
They get the chance again next weekend with a tough trip to Washington and WSU.
Speaking of WSU, the Cougars are off to their best start in 18 years, but Sunday they were no match for Oregon. The 25-21, 25-10, 25-14 sweep took just 1 hour, 16 minutes as Oregon bounced back from getting swept two days earlier by visiting Washington.
“The loss was really tough, we came out really aggressive,” said Oregon junior Taylor Agost, who led the Ducks with nine kills. “We were all over them, we just really wanted this win. The energy was high and the focus was really good and we came out and were successful.”
It left Oregon (12-3) and WSU (15-3) tied atop the Pac-12 standings at 5-1. Washington, Utah, Stanford and Arizona are all 4-2.
Agost hit .409 and Jolie Rasmussen, who also had nine kills, hit .438. Lauren Page had seven kills and hit .700 and also had six blocks.
“There was a different feeling before this game,” Oregon coach Jim Moore said. “We felt like we were protecting something. We have to learn to be the top team. We have to stop wanting to be the underdog. We have to start accepting the fact that we’re good and people expect you to win.”
WSU hit just .056.
“We got out-played in every single category today,” Cougars coach Jen Greeny said. “We have to be tougher mentally and be able to respond. We aren’t sneaking up on anyone. When the pressure is getting put on us from another team we need to be able to respond and I don’t think well did that very well today.
“Oregon is a fantastic team and expected their strong offense but I’m disappointed that we didn’t respond in those situations and especially our side-out percentage was atrocious. We have to be able to put the ball away especially against a good offensive team because they are going to fire right back at you. That is definitely something that we have to get back in the gym and get better at.”
Kyra Holt led WSU with nine kills.
Arizona coach Dave Rubio, in his 27th year, had never won both matches in the Los Angeles road swing. Well, after upsetting USC on Friday, the Wildcats came back from being down 0-2 at UCLA to win 18-25, 17-25, 25-16, 25-21, 15-12.
“We had to dig deep for this one,” Rubio said. “It’s been a while since I’ve been involved in a match like that. I am extremely proud of how we fought back against a really good UCLA team.”
Arizona, once 0-3, is now 12-6, 4-2. UCLA is 12-4, 3-4.
Penina Snuka (45 assists, 25 digs), Kalei Mau (18 kills, 17 digs) and Kendra Dahlke (12 kills, 17 digs) led Arizona. AndTyler Spriggs did not have an attack in the first two sets, but inn the final three had 12 kills on 24 error-free swings, three digs and three blocks.
“Tyler Spriggs played lights out,” Rubio said. “She subbed in the third set and came up huge for us.” UCLA freshman Torrey Van Winden had a team- and career-best 16 kills, also setting a personal high with seven digs and tying a season best with four blocks. Junior Reily Buechler added 14 kills and seven digs, while senior Jordan Anderson posted 12 kills and five digs. Senior Taylor Formico had 36 digs and eight assists.
Utah beat Stanford for only the second time in school history and the first time since 2000. The 26-24, 20-25, 25-23, 25-19 victory marks the first time the Utes have won three straight matches on the road against AVCA top-25 ranked opponents. Previous Utah beat then-No. 9 BYU and then-No. 16 Colorado.
Utah is 13-4, while Stanford is 10-4.
Adora Anae led with 20 kills, four aces and a couple of blocks, while Carly Trueman added 13 kills and Tawnee Luafalemana 11 kills and four blocks.
Merete Lutz led the Stanford with 13 kills on .345 hitting and nine blocks. Inky Ajanaku added 11 kills, hitting .474, nine blocks, three digs and an ace, while Audriana Fitzmorris had 12 kills and three blocks.
Washington had to go four to win at Oregon State 26-24, 17-25, 26-24, 25-12 to improve to 14-2, 4-2, while OSU fell to 8-9, 1-5.
Two days earlier Washington swept Oregon, but lost freshman middle Kara Bajema, who had 12 kills, to a foot injury.
Crissy Jones moved to middle and had 12 kills, hitting .324, and served three aces, including two in a row that came when UW went from down 22-24 in the first set.Courtney Schwan led all players with 21 kills and added 17 digs, while hitting .421 with four assists.
Amber Rolfzen of Nebraska gets the ball over the Purdue block/Nebraska photo
Ohio State reeling in Big Ten
A week earlier, Ohio State knocked off then unbeaten and No. 1 Nebraska. But Friday, the Buckeyes got swept at Michigan State and then Sunday lost at Michigan 25-20, 25-23, 16-25, 27-25. It was Michigan’s first win over a ranked team this season as the Wolverines improved to 15-3, 4-2 in the Big Ten. Ohio State is 12-6, 2-4.
Senior Abby Cole led Michigan with 16 kills and no errors to hit .667. Junior Adeja Lambert had 15 kills, while junior Katherine Mahlke had a season-high 12 and hit .375.
Taylor Sandebothe, who had five blocks, had 17 kills and hit .333. Luisa Schirmer also had 17 kills and hit .359.
Purdue was one of those ranked teams that lost, but it was at No. 3 Nebraska, where the Huskers are awfully tough in the Devaney Center. The 25-17, 25-13, 25-17 sweep left Nebraska 14-1, 5-1, while Purdue dropped to 11-6, 1-5.
Purdue hit a season-low .031.
The Huskers hit .273 as Kadie Rolfzen had 11 kills and nine digs while hitting .350. Mikaela Foecke had eight kills and hit .368. Briana Holman and Andie Malloy each had seven kills. Amber Rolfzen had five to go with her season-high-tying nine blocks.
Danielle Cuttino led Purdue with 12 kills.
Also in the Big Ten on Sunday, No. 1 Minnesota made short work of Northwestern 25-17, 25-21, 25-17. The Gophers are 13-2, 5-1, while Northwestern is 7-11, 0-6.
Minnesota was led by Sarah Wilhite with 14 kills, nine digs, and three aces. Hannah Tapp followed with six blocks and 13 kills, hitting .417. Molly Lohman hit .462, adding five blocks. Sophie Beckley had seven digs, while Alyssa Goehner had five. Dalianliz Rosado and Samatha Seliger-Swenson both had 11 digs.
Symone Abbott had nine kills for Northwestern
Kentucky, Mizzou stay atop SEC
No. 11 Florida is still a game and half back of the SEC leaders after sweeping South Carolina 25-14, 25-19, 25-19. Florida, which got 10 kills and six blocks from Rhamat Alhassan, is 14-2, 4-1. Freshman middle Rachael Kramer had eight kills and hit .636. She also had five blocks.
No. 25 Kentucky swept Tennessee 25-16, 25-18, 25-16 and is 13-4, 6-0.
The Wildcats, who have won 10 in a row, were led by junior Darian Mack, who had nine kills and hit. 571. Freshman Leah Edmond had a match-high 14 kills and hit . 407.
“I really like our focus and it shows on game day,” UK coach Craig Skinner said. “In practice we’ve been doing a good job of really trying to improve and work on specific things. I was a little worried today that coming out of the break after being up 2-0 that we might let down a little bit, but having the lead didn’t seem to phase them. That type of competitive maturity is very important.”
Missouri is 15-3, 6-0, and likely to appear in Monday’s AVCA rankings after sweeping Arkansas 25-19, 31-29, 25-12 for its 10th consecutive victory. Alyssa Munlyn led with eight kills while hitting .667. Kira Larson had six kills and hit .417.
Texas A&M won its fourth consecutive match and improved to 13-0 in the all-time series against Ole Miss with a 25-12, 21-25, 25-20, 25-18 victory. The Aggies are 10-6 and tied with Florida in the SEC at 4-1. Ole Miss is 12-6, 1-4.
Also in the SEC on Sunday, Auburn swept visiting Alabama and LSU did the same at Georgia.
UNC stays unbeaten in the ACC
North Carolina swept visiting Miami 25-20, 25-10, 25-18 to improve to 14-2, 6-0 in the ACC.
“I thought we played well in the first two sets and played in such a dominant fashion,” UNC coach Joe Sagula said. “I think we really stayed with our game plan, and we got better as the match went on. I also like the overall emotion our team expressed throughout the match today. Real excitement, appreciation for all the good plays from each teammate, and I think that’s something that will help us a lot.”
Freshman Julia Scoles led with 12 kills, eight in the third set alone. She did not have an error, hitting .480 with three service aces, six digs and two solo blocks.
“She’s a very smart player, even for being so young,” sophomore teammate Casey Jacobs said. “It’s really cool, because you see her making smart plays when the set’s off, or just really going after it. A lot of times, players might go softer or give a free ball, but she goes after it all the time. It’s just raw athleticism.”
Florida State had to earn it at NC State 25-22, 25-19, 23-25, 27-25 as the No. 16 Seminoles improved to 12-3, 5-1. NC State is 10-8, 3-3.
Katie Horton had 15 kills for FSU. Mara Green had 12 and Melanie Keil had seven blocks.
Another team that is making a run at the rankings is Notre Dame. The Irish won their seventh in a row by sweeping Boston College 25-18, 25-21, 25-12 to go 6-0 in the ACC for the first time in school history.
Jemma Yeadon led the Irish with 14 kills and hit .419. Rebecca Nunge added 10 kills as Notre Dame improved to 15-3, the program’s best start since 2005.
Wake Forest, 7-10 is 3-3 in the ACC after beating visiting Pittsburgh. The Deacons won four ACC matches total last year.
Pitt is 13-5, 4-2 after losing 25-21, 25-22, 21-25, 25-11.
“After this road trip, we learned a lot about ourselves,” Pitt coach Dan Fisher said. “It’s time to hit the reset button, work really hard and gain some confidence back in practice.”
Also in the ACC, Duke beat Virginia Tech in four and Syracuse beat Louisville in five.
Temple wins in five
Temple forged a tie atop the American Athletic Conference standings by going to SMU and beating the Mustangs 25-19, 25-23, 21-25, 19-25, 15-9. It left both teams 5-1 in the league and tied with Cincinnati for first place.
“Going into the match, we knew we’d have to defend really well,” Temple coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam said. “SMU is a really good hitting team and they are a great blocking team, so we knew it was going to be a battle at the net. Today, we kept battling, and we got the kills when we needed them, and if we __play like a team like this, we’ll have a shot to beat anyone.”
Temple, 12-4 overall, got 19 kills and 17 digs from junior Irem Asci.
SMU, 12-6, got 17 kills from Brittany Adams and 15 from Katie Hegarty.
Four teams are tied for second in the AAC at 4-2, UConn, UCF and Tulane.
In Conference USA, Rice won for the eighth time in a row to improve to 12-7 and maintain first place at 4-0 after sweeping FIU. UTSA fell a game off the pace when it lost at Marshall in five.
Delaware coach suspended
A story in the newspaper The News Journal reports that:
NEWARK – University of Delaware volleyball coach Bonnie Kenny and associate head coach Cindy Gregory have been put on administrative leave by UD, The News Journal learned on Sunday.
When asked, UD athletics spokesman Scott Selheimer confirmed the coaches were “placed on leave until further notice. The leave began this past Friday.”
Selheimer would not provide reasons for UD’s decision, such as the nature of any disciplinary action or if it may have been something the coaches requested. It’s also not known what the leave entails, including prohibitions on contact with the team.
On the school’s website, Kenny and Gregory are still shown as coaches. To read the entire news story, click here.
Delaware, 8-12 overall and 0-5 in the Colonial Athletic Association, plays at Northeastern on Monday.
Co-Publisher Lee Feinswog thought it would be a good idea to choose my 10 best beach photos of the year. For a photographer, that’s a lot like selecting your favorite children.
In the end, I whittled it down to my top 10, but also threw in the five other candidates that I agonized over. Let me know below if you think the bottom five should have been included in the top 10, or if I missed one of your other favorite photos.
These 10 photos are the result of a (very round estimate) of 100,000 photos.
I shoot with the Canon 1DX II (14 frames per second max) and the Canon 1DX (12 frames per second max). At those frame rates, the numbers add up pretty quickly, which explains why I end up backing up 12 terabytes to remote external drives, local external drives, and blu-ray 25GB disks.
My favorite lenses are the Sigma 120-300 f2.8 OS Sport model, the Canon 70-200mm f2.8L IS Mark II, Canon 24-70 f2.8L Mark I, Canon 16-35mm f2.8L Mark II, and the Canon 8-15mm f4L circular fisheye.
If you would like to see more of my shots, please visit my website VBshots.com.
10, Taylor Crabb, AVP Chicago, 9/4/2016
Taylor Crabb has rapidly become one of the best defensive players on the tour. Here he absorbs the full force of a Billy Allen spike.
I probably waste over 10,000 exposures a year trying to capture this sort of image. As soon as the spiker hits the ball, I’m pre-focused on the defender and fire two or three exposures just in case something happens. Over 99 percent of the time, nothing happens, and I end up spending more time deleting images and depreciating the value of my camera. Every once in a while, I’ll get an interesting image like this, where the defender makes an interesting one handed stab, an overhand dig, whatever. It happens often enough that I’m still convinced that it’s a sound practice.
9, USC, USAV Beach Collegiate Challenge, Hermosa Beach, 4/9/2016
Allie Wheeler, Nicolette Martin, Kelly Claes, Sara Hughes, Abril Bustamante, Jenna Belton, Zoe Nightingale, Sophie Bukovec
Nicolette Martin and Allie Wheeler are congratulated by their USC teammates as they clinch the championship match. If you haven’t experienced the drama of women’s college volleyball, you should check it out.
8, Miles Evans, AVP Huntington Beach, 5/7/2016:
During most of 2016, the AVP fields were weakened due to the grueling Olympic qualification process. At AVP Huntington Beach, former UCSB Gaucho Miles Evans took full advantage, scoring his first fifth-place finish (previous best of 17th). If he keeps making digs like this, he will score more fifths and beyond.
7, Maryna Samoday, NVL San Antonio, Sideliners Grill, San Antonio, 6/25/2016:
Sorry all you blockers out there, but it’s difficult to get a great photo of you. The diggers get great photos of themselves laying out for balls, but all blockers typically get is nice jubilation photos after scoring a block.
This photo is a nice exception. Maryna came down off the block and had to chase down an errant Kim Hildreth dig. This photo is what I call “Jim Wolf style.”Jim loves the low angle perspective, which gives you a different look than the typical eye level perspective.
For this shot, I set up on an open court to avoid being run over by a player, laid on my belly to get as low as possible, and placed a towel underneath me to separate the sand and my equipment. I was lucky enough to capture the photo with Maryna’s fist inside the ball, my favorite shot of the tournament.
6, Brandon Joyner, NVL Port St. Lucie, Club Med Sandpiper Bay, Florida, 5/21/2016:
Frustration and disappointment are as much a part of the athletic experience as celebration and joy. As a photographer I have accepted the fact that it is part of the event and should therefore be documented as well, within limits.
We have all experienced a frustrating loss, and to me, this image offers a view into Brandon’s frustration. Fortunately for him, his season went much better after this, so much so that he was named the NVL’s Most Improved Male Player.
5, Taiana Lima/Brazil, World Series of Beach Volleyball, Marina Green park, Long Beach, 8/25/2016:
Every photographer has a small group of players in mind for a specific photo, for defense, for spiking, for jubilation. I’m sure Taiana Lima is at the top of every photographer’s defense lists because she is the most athletic and acrobatic digger on the women’s side, in my opinion. She’s quick and has extraordinary hustle and timing.
On this play, she was caught out of position on the line, when her opponents went jumbo. She recovered to make a spectacular dig and score the point.
4, Sara Hughes, Merle Norman stadium, USC, Pac-12 beach championships, 4/29/2016:
Sara Hughes is a baller. She and partner Kelly Claes have won a ridiculous number of consecutive college matches going back to their sophomore year. And more than that, they are both sweet, nice, and down to earth. A pleasure to interview.
I was having a pretty average day of shooting (read: I was frustrated and missing a bunch of shots), so I tried to visualize the shot that I wanted. I visualized one of the Witt twins (Hughes/Claes opponents at the time) hitting a high line shot and Sara diving to retrieve it. This shot usually requires you to pre-focus on a spot because the AI servo autofocus usually isn’t fast enough to give you a tack sharp photo like this one.
Anyway, less than five points later, it all came together. One of the Witt twins (don’t ask me which one, the one that plays left) hit high line, Sara made a great save, and I was pre-focused and got the shot. Better than that, the photo renewed my confidence that day and ended up with some pretty nice captures.
5, Dave Counts, Dinosaur tournament, Kalapaki Beach, Kau’ai, Hawai’i, 3/20/2016:
Let’s lead off with the fact that Dave should have gone for this dig with his left hand, but it is a much more interesting photo using his right hand.
For those of you not familiar with the Dinosaur tournament, it’s a reference to age. The total age of the two players must exceed 80 for the men, and 70 for the women. For every four years that you exceed the age of your opponents, you earn one point, to a maximum of four points.
The tournament is played on an old school 30×30 court, has old school side-out scoring, no net serves, all of those pre-2000 rules. The final wasn’t played due to a medical condition, so Dave Counts/Mike Bruning were co-champions with Jim Nichols/Greg Lyle. Tarin Locascio and Laura Ratto won on the women’s side.
Anyway, for those of you in your 40’s and beyond, you need to come out to this tournament. Beach doubles with a bunch of your friends in Hawaii? Yes, please!
2, Priscilla Piantadosi-Lima and Angela Lewis Akers, NVL Hermosa Beach, 8/12/2016:
With an unexpected injury to Kristen Batt-Rohr, Priscilla went deep into the Rolodex to recruit Angela Lewis Akers. The pair had not played together since 2008, but managed to eke out a fifth-place finish despite Angela having played sparingly in the last few years.
I’ve known Angela since she was 14-years-old, so I really enjoyed seeing this team together again.
1, Mark Burik AVP Chicago, 9/2/2016:
OK, there are two types of photos that are popular. First, a peak action photo that brings the viewer into the action, and second, a photo that shows something that the viewer hasn’t seen. And that’s hard, because we’re all inundated with photos these days.
This photo is an example of the latter. Sure, technically it’s not a great photo, the light isn’t very good, there’s no ball and not much face in the photo, but yes, it’s different and when I took the time to see it after the tournament, I knew it was a winner.
The almost top-10
Katie Spieler, AVP Chicago, 9/3/2016: Katie, one of the stalwarts of the Hawaii Wahine beach program, gets sandy at AVP Chicago.
The younger Sanjay, Mexico Classic volleyball tournament, Rosarito, Mexico, 6/26/2016: I so wanted to be able to sneak in a photo from Mexico into the top 10. This year the dates conflicted with an NVL event, so I jumped off my plane when I landed in San Diego and drove down to Papas and Beer in Rosarito in time for the quarterfinals to keep my streak alive, my 25th consecutive year attending this event! By the way, a father-son duo won the tournament and this is of the 16-year-old son. Sadly, I never got their first names.
Paul Araiza, Pacific BeachFest, San Diego, 10/1/2016: Love this wide angle of Paul spiking. It’s rare that you can get the sun in the frame perfectly at the net. The lens flare adds to the shot, and I like how the official, John Rodriguez, is leaning to get an angle on the blocker.
Jennifer Snyder, NVL Port St. Lucie Player’s Championship, 9/10/2016: Love those Florida clouds, because we don’t get anything like that in Southern California.
