The Rolfzen twins, Kadie, left, and Amber, lead the Huskers against Penn State on Wednesday/Nebraska photo
A game that wasn’t now is, some big matches are on tap for Wednesday, and the coaching carousel has begun its postseason spin.
Start with UC Irvine, which went five, sort of, to beat visiting Long Beach State after being down 10-4 in the fifth. This was the match that was originally played on September 24 but was rescheduled for Tuesday. More on that match in a bit.
It’s that time of year. As the regular season ended for many mid-majors, coaches leave. Accordingly, there are now openings at Montana and Troy.
Wednesday’s slate includes three matches in the Big Ten, starting with No. 1 Nebraska playing host to No. 15 Penn State.Nebraska won 22-25, 25-17, 25-23, 23-25, 15-11 at Penn State on November 4.
Also, Purdue goes to Indiana and Rutgers is at Iowa.
The only Pac-12 match has No. 9 UCLA playing host to Oregon State.
The only ACC match has No. 6 North Carolina entertaining Virginia.
In the Big 12, No. 4 Kansas goes to West Virginia, while No. 7 Texas — No. 1 in the NCAA RPI — plays host to Texas Tech. Baylor goes to TCU and Oklahoma is at Kansas State, which is not ranked but is No. 19 in the RPI.
The SEC has Texas A&M — another team not ranked but No. 23 in the RPI — at Tennessee and Ole Miss at Mississippi State.
There is a huge match in the Mountain West, with Colorado State at Boise State in a battle of the two teams tied for first at 13-2 in the league.
In the American Athletic Conference, league-leader SMU tries to keep its one-game lead with two matches left over Cincinnati when it entertains Tulsa.
UCI beats Long Beach State
The final score was 25-22, 25-23, 26-28, 17-25, 17-15, but there so much to it than that.
Back on September 24, UCI won the first set 25-22 and was leading 20-18 in the second where — seven weeks later — it would be resumed. But in that first meeting, they played it out and Long Beach won in five. However UCI successfully protested to the Big West, won the appeal, and the match was rescheduled to be played from that point in the second set.
And so Tuesday the Anteaters improved to 11-17 overall, 6-8 in the Big West. Long Beach is 17-10, 11-3.
UCI was led by outside hitter Victoria Dennis with 24 kills, seven digs and two solo blocks. Middle blocker Danielle Geiger tied her career-high with 19 kills and three block assists, while opposite Harlee Kekauoha added 11 kills and 10 digs. Libero Luna Tsujimoto had 20 digs followed by outside hitter Haley DeSales who tied her career-high with 18 digs and pitched in five kills and three aces. Setter Ali Koumelis had 16 digs in the first two sets.
Nele Barber had a career-high 25 kills, getting 16 of them on Tuesday night, and 13 digs.
YiZhi Xue had a career-high 14 kills and hit .400. Ashley Murray and Peyton Grahovac had 11 kills each. Missy Owens finished with a career-high 59 assists, plus had 19 digs and five kills. Libero Hailey Harward had 26 digs to finish just one shy of her career high.
Clearly these two teams were evenly matched: In their other meeting October 28 at Long Beach, UCI won in five 19-25, 27-29, 25-20, 25-17, 15-12.
Openings at Troy and Montana
Tuesday Troy coach Sonny Kilpatrick resigned. He was 145-211 in 11 seasons. Troy competes in the Sun Belt Conference and this season was 10-23, 4-12 in the league.
Click here to read the entire Troy story.
Brian Doyon is out at Montana. He resigned on Monday after Montana finished a 6-26 season, 4-12 in the Big Sky. Doyon was 13-41 in two seasons.
Click here for the entire Montana story.
Middle Tennessee’s head coach Dan Ahiers resigned September 27th. The Blue Raiders finished 5-24, 2-12 in Conference USA under assistant coach Jeff Huebner.
That’s just three NCAA Division I head-coach openings. Rest assured more are coming.
John Forman is an assistant volleyball coach at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas, an unlikely landing place for someone with as varied a resume as his in the sport. We connected because he and partner Mark Lebedew are in the process of publishing a book called “Volleyball Coaching Wizards.”
While it’s a volleyball book, the coaches interviewed are not the usual suspects and, clearly, Forman thinks outside the box. The interviews are with Carl McGown, Giovanni Guidetti, Ruth Nelson, Garth Pischke, Teri Clemens, Jefferson Williams, Tom Turc and Craig Marshall.
You can also keep up with Forman at his website coachingvb.com, where he is a prolific blogger.
John Foreman
By John Forman for VolleyballMag.com
Back when I was an undergraduate finance student I read a book called Market Wizards by Jack Schwager. Little did I know at the time how much influence it would have on me.
Market Wizards is a collection of interviews with top traders, investors, and money managers. A whole generation of traders — if not more — can say they were influenced by that book and the follow-up editions published in later years.
The folks interviewed didn’t share any great secrets. What they did, though, was inform and inspire. Readers got to see how these market greats got to where they were and what they had to overcome along the way.
The Market Wizards franchise greatly expanded in the literature of trading. The books tell numerous stories about people most of us would otherwise never hear about. They also share tales of the markets themselves. It makes things highly relatable, even to someone who just dabbles in the markets.
Honestly, I’m not sure what led me to think up a volleyball-coaching version of Market Wizards in the spring of 2015. I had not read that book in years. I think it was just a merging of different influences and ideas swirling around in my head at the time.
I lived in the U.K., pursuing a PhD and coaching at the University of Exeter. I started a coaching blog less than two years prior as a way to share information and ideas with my peers in the southwest of England. Quickly, though, it developed an international readership. That, in turn, let me connect with coaches in other countries.
I leveraged my new contacts to spend time with three professional clubs in Germany during 2014. The coaches I hung out with there were Australian, Argentinian, and Italian. A true multinational, multicultural experience.
I think that exposure gave me a lot of respect for coaches in different places and at different levels. In the U.S., I coached college and juniors volleyball for a number of years. Seeing what the sport — and coaching — is like beyond America’s borders, though, provides a whole different perspective. This is even more so the case in places where volleyball is not a major sport.
One of the coaches I became friends with while I was in England is Mark Lebedew. At the time he coached for Berlin Recycling Volleys, the three-time German men’s champions. I visited with Mark a couple of times and one of the things we talked about is the lack of a good volleyball coaching literature — at least in English.
Think about a sport such as basketball. The stories of coaches like John Wooden and Phil Jackson are well known. They are the subject of multiple books. There are books and documentaries about great players and great teams of the past and present. Their stories are known and told.
What about volleyball, however? Mike Hebert is one of very, very few who have shared their stories in a broad, public way. There are plenty of high profile coaches in our sport, but how much do we really know about how they got there?
And what about the history of the sport? Not many of us know it very well, if at all. For Americans it doesn’t even seem to exist prior to the USA men winning gold at the 1984 Olympics. Many of the key developments in volleyball, however, took place during the 1960s and 1970s. Sadly, too few realize or appreciate that.
I wanted to share the people and the stories, putting together the idea of respecting the contributions of coaches at all levels of the sport, and in all parts of the world, with the desire to share their stories. What you end up with is the “Volleyball Coaching Wizards” project.
Basically, Volleyball Coaching Wizards is about identifying great coaches — wherever they may be, at whatever level they coach — and interviewing them to hear their stories and gain insights into how they think.
Some coaches are well known nationally and/or internationally. This project is also about expanding the volleyball literature and perhaps encouraging others to go a step further and produce more, deeper content.
I managed to convince Mark Lebedew to be my partner on the Volleyball Coaching Wizards project. Honestly, it didn’t take much doing. He and I have, at this writing, recorded nearly 40 interviews. There are many, many more coaches still on our list to speak with (I think I counted something like 300 recommendations at one stage). In other words, we’ve only just started!
Bits of each interview we do are posted via social media as short-form content to share what these great coaches have to say. Mark and I also drill down on some of their observations, ideas, and opinions as part of a podcast. Definitely look us up on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and iTunes. I think one of the cool things you’ll find is that much of what the Wizard coaches say isn’t just about volleyball — or even necessarily just about sports.
Although the trend these days is toward shorter-form content, like what we have already been sharing, there is still something to be said about publishing a book. It brings a level of credibility to your work and, by extension, your subject. That’s one of the reasons we decided to develop a series of Volleyball Coaching Wizards books.
The initial one is due out shortly. Consider it an introduction to the project. It will contain eight of the interviews we’ve done so far. They were selected to be representative of the inclusive nature of the project. Both genders are included, and all levels. Half are American, while the other half are international. They combine for a truly impressive number of victories and championships, though that isn’t the only way to measure success. A couple are well known. Others definitely are not.
Eight interviews just provides a sampling of what we’ve got, of course. Even that, though, should be enough to enlighten, inspire, and perhaps even entertain volleyball coaches all over the world. To quote the foreword Kathy DeBoer wrote for us:
“So what is the lesson of these tales of wizardry?
“That excellent coaching, while not easy, is not magic.”
Hopefully, we are just at the beginning stages of developing the kind of resource that can positively influence coaches for years to come.
To keep up with the progress of the book and more things John Forman, go to http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/
Nicolas Grbic, Man-Bok Park, Misty May-Treanor, Emanuel Rego and Danielle Scott Arruda, who was joined by her daughter Julianne/Lee Feinswog photo
HOLYOKE, Mass. — The induction weekend tipped off Friday night with a reception at which the five honorees were introduced and given proclamations and the like from local and state politicians.
It was quite a gathering of volleyball Who’s Who. The inductees came from all over. We will have complete coverage of the Saturday-night induction ceremonies here on Sunday.
The 31st induction class has Nikola Grbic in from Serbia as he joins his brother in the IVHOF, five-time USA Olympian Danielle Scott Arruda here from Baton Rouge, Misty May-Treanor flying in from Long Beach where she was an indoor star before becoming the greatest beach player ever, Brazilian beach star Emanuel Rego visiting from Brazil, and coach Man-Bok Park of South Korea here from his home in Peru.
The International Volleyball Hall of Fame is located here where the sport was invented and the city of Holyoke takes great pride in that. No place is it more evident than the patch adorning the uniforms of the city’s police force. This photo is from the uniform of chief James Nieswanger. Note how the volleyball is part of the city log:
Saturday’s functions include a luncheon at which the inductees will get rings and plaques and then Saturday night is the induction dinner and ceremony.
For your viewing pleasure, a couple of photos from Friday:
On the left, Lori Okimura, chair of the USA Volleyball Board of Directors, and Debbie Green, the former Long Beach State and international star who won a silver gold medal in 1984. Retiring USA Volleyball chief executive officer Doug Beal and VolleyballMag.com co-publisher and editor Lee Feinswog
Brooke Schwab of Central Connecticut is the Northeast Conference defensive player of the week/Steve McLaughlin Photography
Kentucky swept the SEC POWs.
Hawai’i swept the Big West.
Duke did the same in the ACC.
New Hampshire took three of the four America East awards.
How about Bowling Green senior outside hitter Jelena Sunjic, who had 41 kills in 65 swings with no errors to be named the Mid-American East offensive POW?
Or Oral Roberts junior outside Laura Milos, who was the Summit League POW for the fifth time this year and 11th in her career after averaging nine kills per set last week?
That’s just a sampling of another week of big performances around NCAA Division I volleyball.
You can look forward every Tuesday to the VolleyballMag.com roundup of the POWs around the country.
POWs, of course, are players of the week, and we will do our best to list the honorees from all 32 Division I conferences here.
ACC
Player of the week: Duke senior middle blocker Jordan Tucker
Freshman: Duke setter Cindy Marina
Worth noting: Tucker averaged four kills per set, one and a half blocks per set and a .468 hitting percentage over the two games. Tucker currently ranks fifth in the conference in hitting percentage, averaging a .341. Marina averaged 11.33 assists per set. Against Pittsburgh, she contributed 37 assists, six digs, three kills, two aces and two blocks.
The complete ACC release
Big 12
Offensive: Iowa State junior right side Samara West
Defensive: Texas junior libero Cat McCoy
Freshman: Iowa freshman libero Hali Hillegas
West had 16 kills against Texas and hit .400, and earlier had 11 kills and hit .526 at Oklahoma. McCoy averaged 5.25 digs last week and 4.83 for November.Hillegas, who won last week, too, averaged five digs.
The complete Big 12 release
Big Ten
Player of the week: Minnesota senior outside Sarah Wilhite
Co-Defensive: Michigan State junior middle Alyssa Garvelik
Co-Defensive: Wisconsin junior middle Kelli Bates
Setter: Minnestoa junior Rachel Minarick
Freshman: Maryland outside Gia Milana
Worth noting: Garvelink is a repeat winner. She averaged 2.6 blocks per set, while Bates averaged 5.5 digs.
Wilhite averaged four kills and hit .299 for the week and also had 24 blocks and 21 digs.
Minarick averaged 12.3 assists.
The complete Big Ten release
Washington’s Tia Scambray is the Pac-12 offensive POW/Stephen Burns photo
Pac-12
Offensive: Washington junior outside Tia Scambray
Defensive: Washington State sophomore middle Taylor Mims
Freshman: Stanford outside Torrey Van Winden
Worth noting: Scambray averaged 5.50 kllls, hit .443 and averaged 2.67 digs. She had a career-high 20 kills in three sets against Arizona State. Mims averaged 1.89 blocks, while Van Winden averaged 3.5 kills, hit .383 and her line against Stanford showed 19 kills, two aces, eight digs and four blocks.
The complete Pac-12 release
Southeastern Conference
Player of the week: Kentucky junior libero Ashley Dusek
Offensive: Kentucky junior middle Kaz Brown
Defensive: Dusek
Setter: Kentucky sophomore Olivia Dailey
Freshman: Kentucky outside Leah Edmond
Worth noting: All Wildcats. Brown hit .643 in one match and .435 in the other and averaged 3.29 kills and 1.86 blocks. Dusek had 54 digs in two matches and did not have a reception error. Dailey averaged 14 assists, more than two over her average and had a career-high six blocks at Ole Miss. And Edmond continued her fabulous first season by leading UK in kills twice, averaging 5.14 kills and 2.29 digs.
The complete SEC release
America East
Player of the week: New Hampshire senior middle Demi Muses
Worth noting: Watson and Severtson repeated their honors. Muses averaged 4.3 kills, hit .367 and won the award for the fifth time this season. Severtson averaged 11.86 assists and two digs. Watson averaged 4.86 digs, while Tanski avearged 3.14 iills and 2.86 digs.
The complee America East release
American Athletic
Offensive: SMU freshman setter Kendal Patterson
Defensive: UCF sophomore libero Jordan Pingel
Worth noting: Patterson averaged 13.17 assists and 13 digs against USF. Pingel averaged 6.83 digs per set, more than two over her season average.
The complete American Athletic release
Atlantic Sun
Player of the week: Lipscomb sophomore outside Carlyle Nusbaum
Defensive: Kennesaw State sophomore middle blocker Liesl Engelbrecht
Worth noting: Nusbaum won her sixth such honor and fifth this season as she averaged seven kills and her 24 kills against UNF was twice more than anyone else in the match. Engelbrecht averaged two blocks and 3.17 kills, while Serrano had 13 blocks in two victories and hit .483.
The complete ASUN release
Danielle Rygelski of Saint Louis is the Atlantic 10 POW again
Atlantic 10
Player of the week: Saint Louis senior outside Danielle Rygelski
Defensive: Rhode Island senior middle blocker Layne Self
Rookie: VCU middle blocker Jasmin Sneed
Worth noting: Rygelski, who won the award last week, too, averaged 6.71 kills and 1.86 digs, while hitting .444. Self averaged 2.33 blocks, while Sneed hit .378 and averaged 2.14 kills.
The complete A-10 release
Big East
Player of the week: Butler senior outside Anna Logan
Freshman: St. John’s outside Gaia Traballi
Worth noting: Logan averaged 4.25 kills and hit .275. She had a total of 34 kills in two matches. Trabelli averaged 5.78 kills and 2.33 digs.
The complete Big East release
Big South
Player of the week: Winthrop senior middle blocker Brianna Gray
Defensive: High Point sophomore middle blocker Jordan Hefner
Freshman: Campbell outside hitter Allena Heath
Worth noting: Heath, a repeat winner, had 21 kills against Gardner-Webb. Gray had 38 kills, 17 blocks and hit .469 in three matches. Hefner averaged 2.57 blocks and just less than a kill.
The complete Big South release
Big Sky
Offensive: North Dakota junior middle blocker Faith Dooley
Defensive: Portland State junior libero Tasha Bojanic
Worth noting: Dooley had 25 kills in two matches and hit .583, while Bojanic averaged 6.33 digs.
The complete Big Sky release
Nikki Taylor of Hawai/’i is the Big West POWEd Chan, VBshots.com
Big West
Player of the week: Hawai’l senior right side Nikki Taylor
Worth noting: Taylor averaged 4.5 kills, 1.83 digs, 1.5 blocks and hit .440. Maglio had 12 blocks in two wins and 12 kills while hitting 4.35. Iosia averaged 10.17 assists and 3.83 digs.
The entire Big West release
Colonial Athletic Association
Offensive: Delaware senior outside Autumn Jenkins
Defensive: Elon senior middle blocker Ally Karle
Rookie: James Madiso setter Sarah Martin
Worth noting: Jenkins had 36 kills in two matches and 23 digs. Karle had 18 blocks and ended her career with 390, 120 this season.
The complete Colonial release
Dajana Buskovic of UTSA is the Conference USA offensive POW
Conference USA
Offensive: UTSA senior outside Dajana Boskovic
Defensive: Southern Miss junior libero Natalie Druhan
Setter: Southern Miss sophomore Sarah Bell
Freshman: Florida Atlantic outside Sigourney Kame
Worth noting: Boskovic, who will be featured here later this week, had 39 kills in two matches and won the award for the ninth time, fourth this season. Druhan averaged 6.43 digs. Bell had 88 assists and now leads the league at 12.02 assists per set. Kame had 33 kills, eight digs and two blocks in two wins.
The complete C-USA release
Horizon League
Offensive: Youngstown State sophomore middle blocker Sarah Varcolla
Worth noting: Varcolla had 25 kills and hit .375, while Hurley had 52 digs in two matches.
The complete Horizon release
Ivy League
Player of the week: Princeton senior outside Cara Mattaliano
Co-Rookie: Columbia freshman middle blocker Chichi Ikwuazom
Co-Rookie: Harvard freshman outside Grace Roberts Burbank
Worth noting: Mattaliano had 38 kills in two matches. Ikwuazom hit .545 with 24 kills and seven blocks, while Roberts Burbank had 44 kills and hit .307.
The complete Ivy release
Metro Atlantic
The MAAC is a week behind. These are the winners for last week.
Kent State libero Challen Geraghty is the MAC West defensive POW
Mid-American
MAC East offensive: Bowling Green senior outside Jelena Sunjic
MAC West offensive: NIU senior middle blocker Jenna Radtke
MAC East defensive: Kent State junior libero Challen Geraghty
MAC West defensive: Western Michigan freshman libero Kathleen Reilly
Worth noting: Radtke is back, but last week was the West defensive POW. Sunjic had 41 kills in 65 swings with no errors to hit .631. Radtke averaged 31.2 kills and 1.5 blocks. Geraghty averaged 6.62 digs and was perfect in 66 serve receptions. And Reilly averaged 6.38 digs.
The complete MAC release
Mid-Eastern
Player of the week: North Carolina Central senior outside Casey Curran
Setter: North Carolina junior setter Paige Phillips
Worth noting: Curran had 18 kills, 16 digs and three aces in a win over NC A&T. Phillips had 41 assists and 19 digs in that match.
The complete MEAC release
Missouri Valley
Player of the week: Wichita State sophomore outside Tabitha Brown
Defensive: Wichita State senior libero Dani Mostrom
Freshman: Missouri State setter Daniele Messa
Worth noting: Messa took the honor for the third week in a row after averaging 11.43 assists, 1.14 kills and 2.57 digs. Brown averaged 5.29 kills, 1.43 digs and 1.14 blocks. And Mostrom averaged 6.29 digs.
The complete Valley release
Mountain West
Offensive: Colorado State junior middle blocker Alexandra Poletto
Defensive: Colorado State freshman middle blocker Kirstie Hillyer
Worth noting: Poletto averaged 2.62 kills and hit .459, while Hillyer averaged 2.38 blocks in eight sets.
The complete Mountain West release
Northeast Conference
Player of the week: Sacred Heart sophomore outside Makayla Dole
Defensive: Central Connecticut senior middle blocker Brooke Schwab
Rookie: LIU Brooklyn freshman setter Amanda Hubbard
Worth noting: Dole won the honor for the fourth time after averaging 4.75 kills and hitting .300. Schwab had 13blocks, an NEC single-match season-high and the second most in program history, against Sacred Heart. She had four more blocks against Fairleigh Dickinson. And Hubbard averaged 12.38 assists.
The complete Northeast release
Ohio Valley
Offensive: Belmont junior outside Arianna Person
Defensive: Murray State senior libero Ellie Lorenz
Setter: Murray State senior Hannah Stultz
Newcomer: Tennessee State freshman middle blocker Payten Clark
Worth noting: Stultz is a repeat winner. She had 113 assists in two matches. Person had 40 kills, four blocks, 23 digs and two aces in two matches. Clark had 20 kills and 12 blocks in two matches.
The complete OVC release
Patriot League
Player of the week: Holy Cross senior outside Mandy Sifferlen
Rookie: Army West Point freshman outside Allie Strong
Worth noting: Sifferien had 49 kills in two matches and averaged 4.97 kills per set for the season. Strong had 25 kills and 16 digs in two matches.
The complete Patriot release
Southern Conference
Offensive: Mercer junior outside hitter Morgan MacGilvary
Defensive: Mercer senior libero Tori Penrod
Worth noting: Penrod went back-to-back after averaging 5.86 digs and ended her career with an ace in each of her two matches. MacGilvary averaged 4.43 kills and hit .413.
The complete SoCon release
Southland Conference
Offensive: Texas A&M Corpus Christi junior outside Brittany Gilpin
Defensive: Central Arkansas junior middle blocker Megan Nash
Worth noting: Gilpin had 20 kills and hit .419 against Lamar and then had 17 kills and hit .390 against Houston Baptist. Nash had 17 blocks in two matches.
The complete Southland release
Southwestern
Not available as we posted.
Summit
Offensive: Oral Roberts junior outside Laura Milos
Defensive: South Dakota sophomore libero Lauren Mattison
Worth noting: Milos won for the second straight week. She has won the award 11 times overall and five this season. She averaged a whopping 9.0 kills per sent and hit .345 and had six aces. Mattison averaged 5.5 digs.
The complete Summit releasehttp://www.thesummitleague.org/sports/wvball/2016-17/releases/20161114ium534
Defensive: Georgia Southern senior libero Alex Beecher
Setter: Arkansas State senior Mallory Warrington
Freshman: Arkansas State outside Kenzie Fields
Worth noting: Warrington won the award for the 10th time this season. She had 50 assists and 23 digs in a win over Little Rock. Hardeman averaged 4.17 kills and hit .535, while Beecher averaged 6.5 digs. Fields had 15 kills in her only match of the week.
The complete Sun Belt release
West Coast
Player of the week: BYU senior middle Amy Boswell
Worth noting: Boswell had 14 kills and hit .435 against Gonzaga and then had 10 kills and six blocks against Portland.
The complete WCC release
Western Athletic
Player of the week: Utah Valley junior outside hitter Lexi Thompson
Worth noting: Thompson averaged four kills, hit .393 and added almost a block and a dig per set. She ranks sixth in the league at 3.40 kills per set.
Orie Agbaji is part of a Texas incoming freshman class ranked No. 5 in the country by VolleyballMag.com via a polling of nearly 20 NCAA Division I women's coaches
By Mike Miazga
In this year’s VolleyballMag.com women’s top recruiting classes poll, one thing is evident.
The rich are getting richer.
Panelists for the Class of 2016 rankings — this year comprised of nearly 20 NCAA Division I women’s coaches — were clear in their voting: The nation’s elite programs cornered the market on elite incoming freshmen.
Of the 10 teams on this year’s list, eight have a place in the American Volleyball Coaches Association 2016 top 25 preseason poll and five find themselves in the top 10. And those 10, which account for securing about 60 percent of the players chosen to the VolleyballMag.com Fab 50 list, also have a combined 18 NCAA titles to their credit.
Stanford was the near unanimous choice and the runaway first-place finisher with 57 percent more voting points than second-place Oregon.
Also of note is the No. 4 entry in the rankings North Carolina. Veteran UNC coach Joe Sagula secured himself an impressive 2016 class and his peers certainly felt the same way.
No. 1 Stanford
Audriana Fitzmorris Jenna Gray
2016 recruits:Audriana Fitzmorris (6-6, MB, St. James Academy, Overland Park, Kan., Invasion), Jenna Gray (6-1, S, St. James Academy, Overland Park, Kan., Invasion), Morgan Hentz (5-9 DS-Libero, Notre Dame Academy, Park Hills, Ky., NKYVC), Caitlin Keefe (5-11, DS, Marymount, Los Angeles, Calif., Sunshine VBC), Michaela Keefe (6-2, OH, Marymount, Los Angeles, Calif., Sunshine VBC), Kathryn Plummer (6-6, S-RS, Aliso Niguel, Aliso Viejo, Calif., T-Street)
The skinny: Not much explanation needed with this haul — wow! Fitzmorris was the 2015 Volleyballmag.com girls’ high school player of the year and teamed with Gray in leading St. James Academy out of Kansas to tremendous success over the last few years. Fitzmorris, Gray, Hentz, Michaela Keefe and Plummer are all 2016 Volleyballmag.com Fab 50 picks, while Hentz and Plummer were 2015 Volleyballmag.com girls’ high school All-American first-team selections. “This is a class we have been looking at for a long time,” said Stanford coach John Dunning. “When last year’s seniors (on the 2015 roster) came in, they had a big impact. We knew from experience that when they leave that is better be a good year in recruiting for us. We are lucky to have a lot of really good students who are also great volleyball players in this class and who were very interested in Stanford. It needed to be a class for us that can make an impact and I definitely believe it will.”
No.2 Oregon
Willow Johnson Brooke Van Sickle
2016 recruits:Willow Johnson (6-3, RS, Notre Dame, Phoenix, Ariz., AZ Storm), Jolie Rasmussen (6-2, OH, Canyon Crest Academy, San Diego, Calif., San Diego VBC), Ronika Stone (6-3, MB, Valley Christian, San Jose, Calif., Vision), Brooke Van Sickle (5-9, Libero, Battle Ground, Wash.,Excel NW VBC )
The skinny: A total of eight voting points separated the Nos. 2-5 classes in this poll with coach Jim Moore’s Ducks getting the nod at No. 2 with this four-player elite group. Johnson, Rasmussen and Stone were 2016 Fab 50 selections, while Johnson and Stone earned 2015 Volleyballmag.com girls’ high school All-American honorable mention accolades. Van Sickle and Stone were 2015 Under Armour All-American first-team picks, while Rasmussen, whose sister plays at Minnesota, was an Under Armour second-team pick. Johnson, the daughter of MLB Hall of Famer Randy Johnson, was a USA Today All-American first-team pick and has high school state and club national titles to her credit. “Ronika Stone probably is the one that is jumping out most at people,” Moore said. “However, Brooke is maybe the best volleyball player of all of them. Willow probably is the best right-side in the country and it’s great she is left-handed. Jolie is physical and very special. Those four kids are going to step in and make a big impact on this program. They have all the talent in the world and we think they are going to be very special, but they haven’t played here yet. How they handle adversity will determine how good they really are going to be.”
No. 3 USC
Raegan LeGrand Khalia Lanier
2016 recruits:Imani Davis (6-3, MB, All Saints Episcopal, Fort Worth, Texas, TAV), Raegan LeGrand (5-10, OH, Papillion La Vista South, Papillion, Neb., Nebraska Juniors), Daley Krage (6-4, RS, St. Charles North, St. Charles, Ill., Club Fusion), Khalia Lanier (6-2, OH, Xavier College Prep, Phoenix, Ariz., AZ Storm) The skinny: Another elite recruiting class for longtime Trojans coach Mick Haley. Lanier was rated the top player in the Class of 2016 by a panel of NCAA Division I coaches who participated in the 2016 Volleyballmag.com Fab 50 voting. Lanier also was the 2015 Gatorade national player of the year. Lanier and Davis were Fab 50 selections, while LeGrand was a 2015 Volleyballmag.com girls’ high school All-American second-team pick. Krage was an elite high school and club player in the Chicago suburbs. “All four freshmen could earn a starting spot in the lineup this year,” said Haley. “Khalia highlights a great class and Reagan is everything that was advertised. Daley adds size and power to the opposite position and Imani has grown to 6-6 and will challenge in the middle.”
Taylor Borup Julia Scoles
No. 4 North Carolina 2016 recruits:Taylor Borup (6-4, OH, Loudon Co., Leesburg, Va., Metro VBC), Holly Carlton (6-7, S-RS, Potomac Falls (Va.), Metro VBC), Katharine Esterley (6-2, MB, Chapel Hill, N.C., Triangle VBC), Mariah Evans (5-10, S, Lewis Palmer, Colorado Springs, Colo., Colorado Juniors), Mia Fradenburg (5-6, DS-Libero, Cardinal Gibbons, Raleigh, N.C., Triangle VBC), Greer Moseman (5-6, DS-Libero, Torrey Pines (San Diego, Calif., Coast VBC), Julia Scoles (6-1, OH, South Iredell, Statesville, N.C., Carolina Juniors). The skinny: North Carolina graduated five seniors, four of whom 27th-year coach Joe Sagula noted were essentially four-year starters. Thus, the Tar Heels needed to replenish the cupboard and did so exceptionally with this class. Borup, Carlton and Scoles were 2016 Fab 50 selections and Scoles earned 2015 Volleyballmag.com girls’ high school All-American honorable-mention accolades. “We have seven total players who have played on high-profile club teams and accomplished a lot in their high-school careers,” said Sagula. “Julia and Taylor ranked among the Top 10 opposite hitters in the nation and Holly is one of the top two setter-right sides. Mia was the MVP on a state-championship team and Mariah set her team to back-to-back state championships. Greer played for Torrey Pines, which is consistently ranked one of the Top 10 high-school programs in the country.” Sagula sees the freshman group fitting into his system rather nicely. “We liked the 6-2 system, which means one of the incoming setters—Holly or Mariah—will have to play. Both middle blocker spots are open, so Katharine will compete for playing time and add depth. Possibly the biggest void is our six-rotation player. Julia and Taylor have done it at a very high level and we see them competing for that spot. Mia and Greer will add depth to our serve-receive and passing core. With the graduation of Heather Gearhart, we will be looking for someone who can help us in a variety of ways as she did.”
Orie Agbaji Autumn Rounsaville
No. 5 Texas 2016 recruits:Orie Agbaji (6-2, MB, Oak Park, Kansas City, Mo., Club North), Riley Fisbeck (6-1, S, La Grange, Texas, Houston Juniors), Claire Hahn (5-5, Libero, Westlake, Austin, Texas, Austin Juniors), Autumn Rounsaville (5-5, Libero, Dripping Springs, Texas, Austin Performance), Blair Westerlund (6-3, MB, Brentwood Christian, Round Rock, Texas, Austin Juniors) The skinny: Another super-impressive class here that joins a Longhorns squad that reached the NCAA final last season. Agbaji, one of four in-state recruits in this class, was rated the No. 4 senior in the Class of 2016 by a panel of NCAA Division I coaches who voted on the Volleyballmag.com Girls Fab 50. Agbaji, Rounsaville and Westerlund were Fab 50 selections, while Agbaji also earned 2015 Volleyballmag.com girls’ high school All-American honorable mention status. “Orie is a big-time athlete. She is very physical, touching around 10-8,” Texas coach Jerritt Elliott told www.texassports.com, the school’s athletics website. “She has the ability to be really good in front of the setter and behind. We think he has a great upside-her work ethic stands out to me. She is determined to be great.” Agbaji has been named the Big 12 Conference preseason freshman of the year.
Savvy Simo
No. 6 UCLA 2016 recruits:Madeleine Gates (6-3, MB, La Jolla, Calif., Coast VBC), Kylie Miller (5-11, S, Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., Forza1 VBC), Jamie Robbins (6-1, OH, Laguna Beach, Calif., TStreet VBC), Savvy Simo (5-10, DS-Libero, Torrey Pines, San Diego, Calif., Wave VBC), Torrey Van Winden (6-3, MB, Vintage, Napa, Calif., Five Starz VBC). The skinny: Bruins coach Mike Sealy went up and down the Golden State to secure this Top 10 class. Gates, Miller and Van Winden all were 2016 Volleyballmag.com Fab 50 selections, while Gates, Miller and Simo all can be found in the 2015 Volleyballmag.com girls’ high school All-Americans presentation. “We picked up for players who can make an immediate impact in four positions with Kylie at setter, Torrey at opposite, Madeleine in the middle and Savvy as a defensive specialist,” said Sealy. “They all can __play physically and mentally at the necessary level to be successful right away. The class as size and skill.” Sealy also likes Robbins versatility. “Jamie is left-handed good utility pickup for our program.”
Darrielle King
No. 7 Florida 2016 recruits:Morgyn Greer (6-3, OH, Dripping Springs, Texas, Austin Jrs.), Allie Gregory (5-6, DS-Libero, Assumption, Louisville, Ky., KIVA), Chanelle Hargreaves (5-4, DS, Wharton, Tampa, Fla., Tampa United VBA), Cheyenne Huskey (6-2, S, Columbus, Texas, Texstar/Houston Skyline), Darrielle King (6-3, MB, DeSoto, Texas, TAV), Rachael Kramer (6-8, MB, Desert Vista, Phoenix, Ariz., Aspire VBC), Camille Nieves (5-7, DS, Montverde, Fla., Top Select VBA), Mia Sokolowski (6-3, OH, Tucson, Ariz., Zona VBC) The skinny: This is the biggest incoming freshman class in coach Mary Wise’s long tenure at the school. Florida also has the most 2016 Volleyballmag.com Fab 50 selections this year with six. That group includes Greer, Gregory, Huskey, King, Kramer and Sokolowski (who enrolled at UF in January). Another addition to the team is CK Knop (5-8, DS) who transferred from the University of Michigan where she played two seasons. Knop played club at San Gabriel Elite. “These recruits will be a big part of our short-term and long-term plans,” said Wise. “This class, with its talent and size, has the chance to be one of the most special groups to __play here.”
Alexis Hart
No. 8 Minnesota 2016 recruits:Alexis Hart (6-0, OH, Truman, Independence, Mo., Invasion), Brittany McLean (6-1, OH, Rosemount, Minn., Northern Lights VBC), Regan Pittman (6-5, MB, St. Thomas Aquinas, Overland Park, Kan., KC Power VBC), Lauren Litzau (5-8, DS-Libero, Greendale, Wis., Milwaukee Sting). The skinny: The Golden Gophers packed a powerful punch with this four-player class. Hart, McLean and Pittman all were 2016 Volleyballmag.com Fab 50 selections. Pittman, a sliver medalist with the U.S. girls’ youth national team, was the MVP of the Under Armour all-star match during last year’s AVCA convention. She joined Hart and McLean as Under Armour All-American first-team selections. “Alexis and Brittany bring both athleticism and experience to aid them in competition for Big Ten player of the year and Olympian Daly Santana’s vacated position at the pin,” Minnesota assistant coach Laura Kasey said. “Regan adds size and a wicked arm to a very talented core of middles. Lauren brings a high volleyball IQ to our backcourt to round out the class that in a few short days of preseason has already shown an impressive capacity to learn and improve.”
No. 9 San Diego 2016 recruits:Peyton Douglass (5-6, Libero, Mead, Spokane, Wash. Renovator VBC), Thana Fayad (6-2, OH, Oak Bay, British Columbia, Canada), Megan Jacobsen (6-2, MB, Bellarmine Prep, Tacoma, Wash., Kent Juniors), Allyson Eylers (6-1 S, Highland, Gilbert, Ariz., Aspire VBC), Anna Newsome (5-9, S, Joaquim Blume, Barcelona, Spain), Megan Priest (5-8, Libero, Oak Ridge., El Dorado Hills, Calif., NCVC) The skinny: Two interesting names in this group are foreign players Fayad and Newsome“These two are much further along than most freshman,” longtime San Diego associate head coach Brent Hilliard said. “Thana has a chance to be the best outside hitter to ever come through San Diego. She is a full six-rotation player who can hit out of the front and back row. Anna played in the top level of the Italian Serie at 18 years of age. She has been setting athletes almost twice her age and is more developed then 99 percent of the setters coming into college.” San Diego is also high on Douglass, a libero from a lesser-known Washington club. Jacobsen will help the team in the middle. “She’s the best middle-hitting prospect we have had in a long time,” said Hilliard. “She can hit hard off one or two feet and has an internal battery that already is tops on our team.” Eylers can set and play the right side, while Priest will help on the defensive end. “This is the best class we’ve had in over a decade,” said Hilliard.
No. 10 Nebraska 2016 recruits:Hunter Atherton (6-0, OH-S, Coffman, Dublin, Ohio, Mintonette), Lauren Stivrins (6-5, MB, Chapparral, Scottsdale, Ariz., AZ Storm) The skinny: The defending national champions have a small but powerful class here. Both Atherton and Stivrins were 2016 Volleyballmag.com Fab 50 picks and Atherton was honored in the 2015 Volleyballmag.com girls’ high school All-Americans presentation. “Lauren is a big-time middle blocker who adds size, speed and a championship mindset to our team,” said Nebraska coach John Cook. “Hunter is a very athletic setter who flies around the court.” Atherton enrolled at Nebraska in January and Cook noted she has developed well in the Husker Power program, the school’s strength and conditioning arm. Also of note on the transfer front, Nebraska picked up 2014 first-team All-American middle blocker Briana Holman (6-1, junior) via transfer from LSU. She sat out last season per NCAA transfer rules.
Tia Scambray of Washington get the dig against Arizona State/Stephen Burns photo
The new AVCA Division I Poll comes out later Monday.
Good luck with that.
What a week it was.
In that poll, you can be sure that the top four spots, belonging to Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Kansas, will stay the same. After that it’s anyone’s guess. And also Monday afternoon the NCAA will release the latest RPI and you can bet there are a lot of nervous coaches out there as we get inside two weeks left to the NCAA regular season.
There were two upsets among the ranked teams in action Sunday, as No. 25 Arizona lost in the Pac-12 at Washington State and No. 21 Missouri took a tough loss at South Carolina. Neither team is ranked, but in the ACC Virginia winning in five at Notre Dame was quite a surprise. Also in that league, Duke keeps rolling and won at Pittsburgh.
But No. 2 Minnesota, No. 6 Florida, No. 11 Washington, No. 18 Florida State, No. 23 Dayton — which wrapped up a perfect Atlantic 10 season — and No. 24 Kentucky all won.
Sunday was not without its surprises, especially in the mid-majors, from St. John’s winning in five at Marquette in the Big East to Elon dealing visiting Northeastern a five-set loss in the Colonial to high-flying Sacred Heart having to go five to beat Central Connecticut in the Northeast.
Even as Denver clinched the Summit League title it had to go five to do so at North Dakota State. Cincinnati got an important win in the America Athletic at Connecticut, and New Hampshire bolstered its America East tournament No. 1 seed by beating Binghamton.
There are five matches on the NCAA Monday schedule and four more Tuesday, all in the SWAC.
Wednesday’s schedule is light, too, but the 18 matches on tap include Kansas at West Virginia, Texas playing host to Texas Tech, Penn State at Nebraska, Oregon State at UCLA and NC State at North Carolina.
Maryland celebrates beating Rutgers
Big Ten: Gophers sweep Northwestern, Maryland beat Rutgers
Northwestern on Friday nearly knocked off No. 3 Wisconsin. That high didn’t last long as Minnesota came to Evanston and put away the Wildcats in an hour, 16 minutes, 25-14, 25-13, 25-10. The Gophers are 21-4, 13-3 in the Big Ten after their sixth consecutive sweep.
Minnesota hit .475 to Northwestern’s .097 and outblocked the Wildcats 10-1. Sarah Wilhite led with 12 kills, hit .370 and had 10 digs.
Northwestern is 8-20, 1-15. Symone Abbott led with nine kills.
Maryland’s Liz Twilley attacks against Rutgers
Maryland topped visiting Rutgers 25-16, 27-25, 25-21 to improve to 11-17, 3-13. Rutgers, still looking for that second Big Ten set victory of the season, dropped to 4-25, 0-16.
Sophomore outside hitter Liz Twilley led Maryland with 12 kills and hit .333. Gia Milana had 11 kills.
ACC: Florida State, Duke win to keep pace
The Seminoles got 21 kills from Katie Horton and 18 from Milica Kubura, both career highs, in their 25-23, 25-9, 24-26, 25-20 win at Syracuse. FSU is 20-5, 13-3 in the ACC, while the Orange fell to 7-19, 6-10.
Christina Ambrose had 12 kills, hit .300 and had three digs and a block.
Duke stayed two games behind idle but league-leading North Carolina and a half game up on FSU by sweeping Pittsburgh on its home floor 25-22, 28-26, 25-23.
The records don’t tell the story, however. Duke is 20-6, 13-2, while Pitt fell to 20-8, 11-5. Duke last week had an RPI of 75, while Pitt was 27.
Leah Meyer led Duke with 14 kills, while Jordan Tucker had 13. The two middles combined to hit .578 and get 11 blocks.
“Pitt is a really well balanced team and hard to defend,” Duke coach Jolene Nagel said. “We helped ourselves by controlling the ball and moving the offense around. Getting our middles involved is a big part of that.”
Notre Dame took a huge blow from visiting Virginia as the Cavaliers, down 0-2, came away with a 13-25, 20-25, 25-23, 25-13, 15-13 victory. It left Notre Dame 19-9, 10-6, while Virginia improved to 7-21, 4-12.
The match was tied at 13 in the fifth when UVa senior Jasmine Burton got a kill and then Burton and freshman Kat Young combined on a block. Just as an aside, Louisiana-Lafayette also has a player named Kat Young.
Burton and senior Haley Kole led Virginia with 19 kills each and Burton had 11 digs and five blocks.
“It was a nice win on the road and it feels very good to get two wins on the weekend,” UVA coach Dennis Hohenshelt said. “We were not very good at the beginning of the match and just continued to grind away. Game three gave us a lot of confidence and we rode it through game five.”
Notre Dame got 15 kills from Jenna Yeadon, while Sam Fry had 12 blocks.
Also in the ACC on Sunday, Miami went to Boston College and won in four, Virginia Tech beat visiting Wake Forest in three and NC State swept visiting Clemson to improve to 17-11, 10-6, as first-year coach Linda Hampton-Keith seems to have the Wolfpack going in the right direction. They have quietly moved into a sixth-place tie with Notre Dame and have surpassed the program’s 2015 win total and the 10th ACC victory was the most for NC State since 2013.
“A win is a win and we’ll take it and move on,” Hampton-Keith said. “Hopefully, we learned some lessons along the way that we have to start strong in each match. It was nice to see the poise and the maturity of our team to fight back after we got down in the third set.
“Although it wasn’t our prettiest match, there were some good things that came out of it.”
Pac-12: Both Washingtons win
Washington moved back into a tie with UCLA atop the league, a game ahead of Oregon and Stanford and two games up on Utah.
The Huskies made short work of visiting Arizona State 25-20, 25-21, 25-14 to improve to 22-4, 12-4 Pac-12. ASU is 9-19, 2-14.
Junior Tia Scambray had a career-high 20 kills in just the three sets and hit .567.
“What an outstanding match for her,” Washington coach Keegan Cook said. “She hasn’t stopped working all season. She hasn’t had a match like this all season but her approach to the game has not changed. She comes to work every day. So really happy for her, she deserves it, she played outstanding and has practiced outstanding all year.”
Junior Crissy Jones had nine kills and 11 digs.
Ivana Jeremic led ASU with 12 kills and hit .417.
Washington State coach Jen Greeny got her 200th career college win as the Cougars beat visiting Arizona 25-18, 27-29, 25-23, 21-25, 15-12 despite 31 kills by Arizona’s Kalei Mau.
“I’m proud of the way was came out today. The number of wins is great but it’s really for this team this year and seeing if we can finish strong,” Greeny said. “We’re focusing on trying to meet our ultimate goal of getting to the NCAA Tournament.”
Her team is 19-9, 9-7, while Arizona fell to 16-12, 8-8. The 19 wins is the most for WSU since 2002.
Kyra Holt led the Cougars with 17 kills, 12 digs and four blocks. Casey Schoenlein had a career-high 15 kills, hit .419 and had five blocks. McKenna Woodford had 13 kills, 13 digs and three blocks.
Mau also had two aces and 17 digs for the Wildcats. Kendra Dahlke had 17 kills, two aces and 14 digs. Laura Larson led the match with 25 digs while Penina Snuka had 60 assists. McKenzie Jacobson added six blocks and Devyn Cross four.
“I’m obviously disappointed that we lost in five,” Arizona coach Dave Rubio said. “But I’m proud of how we competed. We didn’t execute well at the end of the third or fifth sets, those were sets we certainly could have won.”
SEC: Gators chomp, UK wins, but Mizzou falls, A&M hanging around
Florida is alone at the top at 14-1, followed by Kentucky at 13-2 and Missouri and Texas A&M at 12-2.
Florida swept visiting Alabama 25-18, 25-16, 25-12 for its 12th win in a row, the last eight by sweeps.
It left the Gators 24-2 overall as it got 12 kills from Carli Snyder, 11 from Rhamat Alhassan and 10 from Alex Holston. The Florida defense included six blocks by Alhassan as Bama hit .000. What’s more, the nation’s kills leader, Krystal Rivers, had just seven kills in 27 swings with seven errors and hit .000 herself. Rivers is now 26 kills away from the school record.
This is straight from the South Carolina recap of the Gamecocks’ win over Missouri:
COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina volleyball team threw a spur-sized monkey wrench into the SEC standings Sunday evening, as the Gamecocks stunned conference leader Missouri in four sets, 25-20, 23-25, 26-24, 25-23. The Tigers came into the match ranked 21st nationally, but the Gamecocks used 17 kills from Mikayla Shields and a double-double from Koko Atoa-Williams to pull off the upset. It was the program’s first win over a top-25 team since Sept. of 2006.
“In my six years, this is the biggest win we’ve had as a program,” head coach Scott Swanson said after the match. “We told the kids in the pregame talk that we were going to upset Missouri tonight, and they believed it. They came out and they worked and they fought and did everything they could. We executed really really well, and a lot of team effort… this is a signature win for us, it’s huge.”
His team won for the third time in four matches, while Mizzou saw its three-match winning streak end. Missouri is 21-5, while USC improved to 18-8, 6-8.
Melanie Crow led the Tigers with 17 kills and 13 digs, Carly Kan had 14 kills and 16 digs.
Kentucky won at Ole Miss 26-28, 25-15, 25-22, 25-15. The Wildcats are 20-6, 13-2, while Ole Miss dropped to 15-12, 4-10.
“I really liked our focus and work during rallies to keep putting pressure on Ole Miss,” Skinner said. “Our balance is a great example of how we need to play. We don’t need to rely on one aspect of the game and we were effective in everything today. It’s good to see that type of __play in November as we head down the stretch.”
Freshman Leah Edmond led with 18 kills. Kaz Brown added 12 kills and six blocks, two solo. Setter Olivia Dailey had 53 assists, two digs and six blocks, one solo.
Lexi Thompson led Ole Miss with 16 kills.
Texas A&M freshman outside hitter Hollann Hans (pronounced haulin’ hands, courtesy of A&M SID Debbie Darrah) recorded a team-high 12 kills without an error to lead the Aggies to a 25-20, 25-20, 25-16 victory over visiting Georgia.
It was the seventh consecutive victory and the 12th win in the last 13 matches for the Aggies, now 18-7, 12-2. Georgia is 12-13, 1-13 and took its ninth consecutive loss and remains winless in SEC road matches.
LSU swept Mississippi State for its second home win of the season. The 25-21, 25-23, 25-20 victory gave the Tigers back-to-back home victories after losing their first 11 at home this season.
“I really think we got the monkey off of our back,” LSU coach Fran Flory said. “Today we played the way we are capable of playing. We played the way we were expected to __play this season and I am glad we finally got there. The way we managed the match today was the most impressive thing to me. Our confidence grew and we didn’t try to do too much. Today they looked like they understood the opportunities they had and didn’t try to do too much.”
LSU is 9-16, 4-10, while State is 12-17, 4-11. Gina Tillis had 12 kills to lead LSU for the 19th time this season.
And Arkansas swept visiting Tennessee 25-23, 25-22, 25-20, leaving the Razorbacks 6-20, 4-10, and Tennessee 15-12, 5-9.
Around the nation
No. 23 Dayton beat VCU 25-21, 28-26, 17-25, 25-14 to end the regular season 28-1, 14-0 in the A-10. Jessica Sloan and Lauren Bruns had 18 kills each …
Coastal Carolina improved to 24-4, 15-1 tied atop the Sun Belt with Arkansas State, with a 25-17, 25-18, 25-11 sweep of South Alabama. The Chanticleers, playing in the SBC for the first year, have won 13 in a row …
In the American Athletic, SMU is No. 1 at 13-2, but Cincinnati beat UConn to get to 13-3 and Temple hit .419 as a team to beat East Carolina and move to 12-4 …
New Hampshire won the America East regular-season title by beating Binghamton. The Wildcats closed the regular season with eight consecutive wins to improve to 19-10, 10-2. Demi Muses led with 15 kills …
Northeastern lost at Elon and Charleston lost at UNCW, leaving the Colonial Athletic Association standings showing James Madison the regular-season winner at 19-10, 11-5, and Towson, Hofstra, Northeastern and Charleston all tied for second at 10-6. Charleston ended up with the No. 2 seed for the league tournament and the bye that goes with it …
Denver won the Summit League with a 23-25, 25-16, 25-20, 21-25, 15-9 victory over visiting North Dakota State. The Pioneers are 21-7, 13-3 and shared the regular-season title with South Dakota.“I’m extremely proud of our entire team,” Denver coach Tom Hogan said. “The players and the staff knew we would have to battle this weekend on the road against the second and third place teams in our conference.
“We fought extremely hard in both five-set matches and to walk away with a conference championship and taking the top seed on tie-breakers is something special.”
Denver (2014-16) joins IUPUI (2012-14), NDSU (2008-11), Valparaiso (2003-05) and Oral Roberts (1997-2002) as the only teams to win at least a share of the Summit League regular-season volleyball championship in three or more consecutive seasons in league history.
Ainise Havili, left, and Tayler Soucie put up the block for Kansas against TCU/KU photo
Every day some NCAA volleyball team gets our attention.
Saturday it was Iowa State, dealing a totally unexpected five-set Big 12 loss to visiting No. 5 Texas, a team that was seemingly cruising along and ready for the postseason.
The Big Ten gave us unranked Ohio State knocking off No. 11 Penn State, 18-16 in the fifth, and lowly Northwestern making No. 3 Wisconsin go five to win in Chicago.
No. 13 UCLA won at No. 9 Stanford to take over sole possession of first in the very top-heavy Pac-12.
No. 7 San Diego bounced back and Creighton clinched its league.
All that and more, like Fairfield extending the longest winning streak in the nation to 20 matches, but first a look at Sunday’s schedule.
There are two Big Ten matches as No. 2 Minnesota goes to what should be a very tired Northwestern and Rutgers goes to Maryland.
In the ACC, No. 8 North Carolina is off, but at 15-1 pretty much has the title wrapped up. Duke is 12-2, No. 18 Florida State is 12-3 and Georgia Tech is 12-4. However, Georgia Tech No. 50 in the RPI and Duke is No. 75, so they have little margin for error. Pitt is 11-4 and pretty much out of the title hunt, but still stands No. 27 in the RPI.
Sunday, Florida State is at Syracuse, while Duke goes to Pittsburgh. Notre Dame, 10-5 in the league and No. 45 in the RPI, plays host to Virginia.
Also, Miami is at Boston College, Wake Forest goes to Virginia Tech and Clemson __play at NC State.
There are two Pac-12 matches, with No. 11 Washington — now a half game out of first — playing host to Arizona State and No. 25 Arizona at Washington State.
The SEC has a full slate, including No. 6 Florida entertaining Alabama, No. 21 Missouri at South Carolina and No. 24 Kentucky at Ole Miss. Also, Georgia goes to Texas A&M, Tennessee is at Arkansas and Mississippi State plays at LSU.
The Big 12 is idle Sunday.
There are 46 matches in all and to see the full list, click here.
Iowa State celebrates after upsetting visiting Texas on Saturday/Luke Lu, Iowa State Athletics photo
Big 12: Iowa State’s big upset, Kansas alone in first
Iowa State won its sixth in a row and biggest of the season with its 23-25, 25-21, 20-25, 25-21, 15-11 victory over visiting Texas.
Since Kansas beat visiting TCU 21-25, 25-16, 25-16, 25-17, it left the Jayhawks alone atop the league. Kansas is 23-2, 12-1, Texas is 19-4, 11-2, while Iowa State is 16-9, 8-5 and TCU 11-12, 4-9.
Baylor, which swept West Virginia, is 20-8 and in third place at 8-4.
Back to Iowa State, where the Cyclones got a career-high 16 kills from Samara West, who hit .400. Jess Schaben added 15 and 18 digs and Morgan Kuhrt and Grace Lazard had 12 kills each.
Texas got 18 kills from junior Ebony Nwanebu, who hit .366, and senior Paulina Prieto Cerame had 17 kills. Freshman Micaya White had 13 kills, 11 digs and a career-high three service aces.
“The last week to two weeks I had a sense of team that they’re for real,” said coach Christy Johnson-Lynch, whose team had lost seven in a row Texas. “They’re playing to do something special. I like where we’re headed.”
That would be to Kansas on Saturday with another opportunity to keep moving up. Iowa State has an RPI of 41, which puts them in a must-win situation the rest of the way.
“There are some big matches coming up,” Johnson-Lynch said. “We can still get better.”
Kansas is pretty good right now. The Jayhawks have won 11 in a row and 15 in a row at home.
Madison Ridgon of Kansas gets the dig against TCU/KU photo
Senior middle blocker Tayler Soucie, who was recognized before the match as third Jayhawk to reach 500 career blocks, had a season-high 11 blocks, adding nine kills on a .348 hitting percentage. Senior libero Cassie Wait had 30 digs for her second-career 30-dig output in a four-set match.
Junior outside hitter Madison Rigdon recovered from a slow start and had a match-high 20 kills and 11 digs. Rigdon had seven kills on 11 errorless swings in the fourth set.
“After the first set, defensively I thought that we took over more and more as the match went on,” Kansas coach Ray Bechard said. “You can see with 14 blocks and 72 digs; Soucie with 11 block-assists and Wait with 30 digs – those two dominated the match defensively. Offensively we got better as the match went on too – .289 is a good number in the Big 12.”
Baylor beat the Mountaineers 25-17, 25-21, 25-23. Katie Staiger led with 18 kills and hit .424 and had seven digs.
Oklahoma improved to 14-12, 5-8, by sweeping Texas Tech, 10-18, 0-13.
Pac-12: UCLA alone at the top, USC, Oregon State win
UCLA’s 25-16, 21-25, 25-23, 16-25, 15-11 win at Stanford left the Bruins 21-5, 12-4 Pac-12 and dropped the home team to 17-7, 11-5.
UCLA freshman Torrey Van Winden tied a career high with 19 kills, adding eight digs, four blocks and two service aces, while junior Reily Buechler added 18 kills and nine digs as their team swept Stanford for the first time since 2011.
Stanford saw its six-match winning streak end
Freshman Kathryn Plummer had 17 kills and 10 digs. Junior Ivana Vanjak tied her career-high with 13 kills, while junior Merete Lutz had 13 kills, hit .478 and had a career-best five digs.
Freshman middle blocker Audriana Fitzmorris finished with 11 kills and a match-best seven blocks. Senior middle blocker Inky Ajanaku had eight kills and six blocks.
USC won at Cal 26-24, 25-12, 25-21 and is 17-10, 9-7, while the Bears dropped to 9-17, 3-13. Sophomore Alyse Ford led USC with 14 kills and hit .600. Junior Brittany Abercrombie had nine kills and four blocks. Cal’s Christine Alftin had 11 kills.
Oregon State was down 10-9 in the fifth and rallied for a 25-15, 23-25, 25-17, 18-25, 15-13 win over visiting Colorado. OSU is 11-16, 4-12, while CU is 13-13, 5-11. Mary-Kate Marshall led Oregon State with 21 kills and hit .310. She also had 14 digs.
Big Ten: Big win for OSU, Wisconsin gets a scare, Spartans win
Ohio State has not been the same since winning at Nebraska in October, but everything was right on Saturday as the Buckeyes beat Penn State for the first time since 2006. The 25-23, 15-25, 19-25, 25-22, 17-15 victory left Ohio State 17-11, 7-9, while the Nittany Lions fell to 19-8, 11-5.
The fifth set was tied 16-16 when Luisa Schrimer ended it with two kills. She finished with 15 kills. The leader was senior middle Taylor Sandbothe, who had a match-high 25 kills, hit .320, and had two blocks. Taylor Hughes and Audra Appold had 10 kills each.
Penn State got 19 kills apiece from Haleigh Washington, who hit .621, and Simone Lee. Washington also had four blocks.
No. 15 Michigan State drew a sellout crowd for its 25-23, 28-30, 25-23, 25-22 win over visiting No. 17 Michigan as junior Autumn Bailey with 19 kills and 20 digs and Alyssa Garvelink had nine kills and eight blocks. Their team improved to 23-5, 12-4, while Michigan dropped to 21-7, 10-6.
The match featured 32 tie scores and 13 lead changes overall. Michigan State had a volleyball record-attendance crowd of 6,838 fans, believed to be the largest non-basketball crowd in Jenison Field House history.
Abby Cole led Michigan with 16 kills and Claire Kieffer-Wright had 12 kills and hit .435.
No. 2 Wisconsin escaped with a 25-27, 18-25, 25-21, 25-22, 15-10 victory at Northwestern, which dropped to 8-19, 1-14 in the Big Ten, so this would have been the upset of the season.
Wisconsin, rather, improved to 22-3, 14-2, as senior outside Romana Kriskova led with 18 kills and hit .567.
She saved us, no question,” Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield said. “I thought she was great tonight. But that’s one of the strengths of our team. Just about everybody played pretty well last night except but her, and tonight she put us on her shoulders and played really well. That’s one of the things a lot of our kids do. They don’t have bad matches too many times in a row. They usually respond the right way.”
Freshman Molly Haggerty had 16 kills, adding 12 digs, while junior Lauryn Gillis had 13 kills.
“I’m not sure we came out with the intensity that we needed to __play a Big Ten opponent to tell you the truth,” Sheffield said. “(Northwestern) looked the fresher of the two teams and at the end of the day that was on me. I’m not sure that I had us ready to go at the level that we needed to do.
“When our backs up against the wall, this team has been pretty good in those scenarios. It was a grind. Our team kind of got into the grind and got in the fight and that was a tough win. That’s a good team over there, no matter what their record is.”
Junior Symone Abbott had a career-high 26 kills for Northwestern on a career-high 72 attempts and hit .319.
No. 1 Nebraska swept Indiana for its 16th consecutive road victory. The 25-16, 25-16, 25-11 whipping left Nebraska 24-1, 15-1, and dropped the Hoosiers to 16-13, 5-11. Mikaela Foecke led with 12 kills and hit .385.
No. 2 Minnesota swept Illinois 25-19, 25-18, 25-20 and is 20-4, 12-3, while the Illini are 14-13, 7-9. Sarah Wilhite led with 12 kills and 11 digs, while Alexis Hart had 10 kills. Michelle Strizak led the home team with 15 kills.
Purdue beat visiting Iowa 21-25, 25-19, 25-22, 25-16 as junior Danielle Cuttino had 16 kills and junior Azariah Stahl had 15. Their team is 16-11, 6-10, while Iowa, which got 12 kills from Reghan Coyle,dropped to 18-10, 8-8.
ACC: UNC rallies again to best Georgia Tech
No. 8 North Carolina is living on the edge. Two weeks ago it lost in five at Pittsburgh. The Tar Heels followed that with a four-set win at Miami, a five-set win at Florida State, a sweep Friday at Clemson and then had to go five again Saturday to beat visiting Georgia Tech.
The 22-25, 18-25, 25-14, 25-15, 15-8 victory left UNC 23-3, 15-1 ACC, while Georgia Tech is 21-7, 12-4.
In between sets two and three, “I actually challenged a bunch of them, especially the seniors,” UNC coach Joe Sagula said. “I basically said, ‘The seniors need to set the tone and pick it up; you guys need to make a difference going forward,’ and they did.”
Sophomore Taylor Leath led with 17 kills, hitting .353, while Julia Scoles had 13 kills and Fricano 10. Senior Taylor Treacy had a career-high nine blocks.
Teegan Van Gunst led the Jackets with 14 kills and 15 digs and had four aces.
WCC: Sweeps for San Diego and BYU
Lisa Kramer had 12 kills to lead No. 7 San Diego to a win two days after the Toreros were upset by Portland. The 25-20, 25-18, 25-22 victory left USD 22-4, 13-2 in the WCC.
No. 12 BYU kept pace by sweeping Portland 25-10, 32-30, 25-15 as Whitney Young Howard had 14 kills and Lacy Haddock 12. Amy Boswell had 10 kills and six blocks.
“I thought our team played well as a whole, but I thought our seniors played exceptionally well,” BYU coach Heather Olmstead said. “Whitney, Amy, Hannah (Robison) and Makenna (Santiago) all brought it tonight and it was fun to go out and play for them on Senior Day.”
The Creighton Bluejays after winning the Big East for the third time in a row, this year with a 16-0 record/A.J. Olnes photo
Hawai’i wins, Creighton clinches Big East — again
Visting No. 14 Hawai’i swept UC Davis 25-19, 25-19, 25-16 for its eighth win in a row, which includes 22 consecutive sets. Nikki Taylor had 16 kills as her team improved to 20-5, 13-1 in the Big West.
It brought coach Dave Shoji’s career record to 1,199-203-1, one win shy of becoming just the second NCAA DI to win 1,200. Only Russ Rose, 1,208-194, is ahead of Shoji.
No. 22 Creighton won its third straight outright BIG EAST Conference regular-season title with its 25-18, 25-22, 25-13 victory over Providence. Creighton is the first team to win three straight outright Big East titles since Notre Dame — now in the ACC — did so from 1999-2002.
Creighton is 22-6 and finished perfect in the league at 16-0.
Jaali Winters led the Bluejays with 12 kills and eight digs. Lauren Smith and Marysa Wilkinson had eight kills each.
Around the nation:
Lipscomb wrapped up the Atlantic Sun tournament No. 1 seed and tied for the title with Kennesaw State by sweeping North Florida. Kennesaw State, also 12-2, swept Jacksonville.
“It means a lot from the standpoint of the grind of regular season conference play,” said Lipscomb coach Brandon Rosenthal, whose Bison won the top spot by a difference in sets. “There has been a ton of pressure on these girls and the pressure is exactly what we want. If there wasn’t pressure then we weren’t doing the right things to begin with.
“It is great to see them get rewarded. We work hard. The staff does an unbelievable job of executing the game plan and getting the girls to play to the best of their abilities. It is special when you see them play at the highest level.”
SMU improved to 21-7, 14-2 in the American Athletic Conference, by beating USF 25-16, 25-23, 25-20 and leads Cincinnati by a game and Temple by two …
In the Big Sky, North Dakota swept visiting Northern Colorado to clinch the overall title outright, Northern Arizona swept visiting Southern Utah and Sacramento State swept visiting Weber State. It left UND 14-2, two games ahead of UNC in the North, while Sacramento State is 13-3 and stayed a game ahead of NAU …
There was big MAC-tion in the Mid-American, as NIU had to go five to beat Ball State to improve to 23-5, 13-1 atop the East, while Miami swept Buffalo to keep the identical record atop the East. Jenna Radtke had 19 kills and 10 blocks for NIU …
Boise State and Colorado both won to get to 13-2 in the Mountain West. Boise swept visiting San Jose State, while Colorado won in three at Nevada. Boise won its 11th in a row and Alexandra Poletto hit .818 for CSU …
Fairfield is 26-5, 18-0 in the Metro Atlantic after sweeping second-place Quinnipiac to extend the nation’s longest winning streak to 20. Junior Megan Theiller had 30 kills in 60 swings and hit .317. She also had 21 digs …
The Missouri Valley saw Missouri State stay on top at 14-2 with a 3-1 win over visiting Illinois State, while Wichita State stayed a game back by sweeping Indiana State. UNI is a game behind the Shockers at 12-4 after sweeping Bradley …
Sacred Heart keeps rolling. Its sweep of Bryant left the Pioneers 20-7, 12-1, as Makayla Duke had 16 kills and hit .400. It means Sacred Heart will be the host for the Northeast Conference tournament …
American is 15-1 in the Patriot League after sweeping Loyola. It marks the 14th time in the 16 seasons that the Eagles have been in the Patriot League that they finished the season with one league loss or less …
In the SWAC, Texas Southern swept Alcorn State to get to 13-2 …
The Southern Conference title goes to East Tennessee State after the Buccaneers swept Mercer to get to 21-7, 13-3 …
Texas A&M Corpus Christi had already clinched the Southland, but won in four at Houston Baptist to improve to 21-7 and finish the regular season 16-0. The Islanders were perfect in the Southland last season, too …
South Dakota beat South Dakota State to clinch a share of first in the Summit League. The Coyotes, 24-6, 13-3, won the program’s first conference title. USD can win the regular season title outright if North Dakota State beats Denver Sunday …
New Mexico State had already won the regular-season title, but the Aggies swept UMKC to improve to 23-6, 13-1 in the Western Athletic Conference.
