NCAA: Iowa State upsets Texas, UCLA wins at Stanford, Wisconsin

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.

http://www.ncaa.com/scoreboard/volleyball-women/d1

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.

Wolf Pack swept by Bethel on day two of the SSAC Championship

Loyola closes out __play in the 2016 SSAC Volleyball Championships today with a matchup against Dalton State at 3:00 p.m.

  

Looking to bounce back after a 3-1 loss against No. 3-seeded Coastal Georgia to start the tournament, the No. 7-seeded Loyola University New Orleans volleyball team returned to the Cramton Bowl Multiplex on Friday afternoon to square off against No. 2-seeded Bethel University on day two of the Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC) Volleyball Championships.

The Wildcats showed why they were co-regular season champions on Friday, using an impressive .452 hitting percentage and 45 assists by Kaylee Ginnings to complete the 3-0 sweep of the Wolf Pack in Pool-B action.

An attack error by SSAC Player of the Year Eloisa Sales started off the opening set to give Loyola the 1-0 advantage. With the Wolf Pack trailing 5-6, recent SSAC All-Freshman Team member Tylar Beckham (FR/New Orleans, La.) connected on a kill off an assist by Sunni Blanchard (FR/Pierre Part, La.) to knot the opening set at 6-6. Bethel followed with a kill to bring the score to 6-7 before Anna Katherine Brunini (SO/Madison, Miss.) laid down a kill of her own to make the score 7-7. The remainder of the set proved to be anything but close, as Bethel ended the frame outscoring Loyola 18-4 to take the 25-11 victory.

With the second set locked at 3-3, kills by Beckham and Blanchard gave the Wolf Pack the early 5-3 advantage. Bethel battled back to tie the set at 5-5 before a kill from Beatriz Agosto (FR/Miami, Fla.) off a helper by Blanchard gave Loyola the lead back at 6-5. That would be the last advantage the Wolf Pack would hold for the remainder of the set, as the Wildcats retook the lead and push it to as much as 12 before claiming set two 25-14.

The third set proved similar to the second, with Loyola taking a slim lead early on. As with the second set, Bethel quickly bounced back and began putting the set out of reach as the third frame progressed. The Wildcats built the lead to as many as 11 points until the very end when a kill by Shayla Smith handed Bethel the 12-point victory (25-13) in set three and the win.

Loyola collected a 0.061 (26-20-99) hitting percentage with 23 assists and 32 digs in the loss.

Beckham and Malea Howie (FR/Greenwood, Ind.) each notched five kills against the Wildcats, with Howie adding three digs off the bench. Blanchard handed out a team-high 12 assists in the match and Maddie Huekels (SO/Dyer, Ind.) chipped in a team-best eight digs to go along with 10 assists and two kills.

Sales led all players with 15 kills, while Yumi Garcia scooped up a match-high 15 digs for Bethel.

Loyola caps off __play at the 2016 SSAC Championships later today with a matchup against Dalton State at 3:00 p.m.

Volleyball ends 2016 season with 3-1 victory over Dalton State in the SSAC Championships

Wolf Pack end the season with a 15-23 overall record.

  

The No. 7-seeded Loyola University New Orleans volleyball team looked to end the 2016 season on a high note as they took on No. 6-seeded Dalton State College in the final match of pool __play of 2016 Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC) Volleyball Championships.

Thanks to career days by Lindsay Ulfig (JR/Saline, Mich.) and Sunni Blanchard (FR/Pierre Part, La.), the Wolf Pack downed the Roadrunners 3-1 at the Cramton Bowl Multiplex to end the 2016 season with a 15-23 overall record.

The first set was about as close as it could have been as both teams battled to 14 ties throughout. With the match knotted at 26-26, back-to-back Loyola errors gave Dalton State the 28-26 victory to start the match.

Set two was nearly as close as the first, with neither team being able to build a lead larger than four points.  In the final moments of the second set, the Wolf Pack used kills by Ulfig, Allison Hartmann (SO/Slidell, La.) and Malea Howie (FR/Greenwood, Ind.) (all assisted by Blanchard) to grab the set second 25-23 to knot the match at 1-1.

Loyola jumped out to the early 8-2 advantage in set three and never looked back en route to the 25-18 victory to take the 2-1 lead.

The fourth set saw Dalton State race out to a 7-2 lead to start. The Wolf Pack answered with an 8-2 run to retake the lead at 10-9. The Roadrunners took the 24-23 lead late and looked primed to steal the fourth set before an error on Anna Metzler knotted the match at 24-24. A Dalton State kill put the Roadrunners up 25-24 before a kill by Hartmann off an assist by Maddie Huekels (SO/Dyer, Ind.) tied the match up again, 25-25. The match would tie again at 26-26 before two back-to-back Dalton State errors sealed the 28-26 victory for the Wolf Pack.

Loyola notched a 0.222 (59-23-162) hitting percentage on Friday with 52 assists, 64 digs and six total blocks in the victory.

Ulfig led Loyola with a career-high 17 kills on 31 attempts off the bench, while Blanchard handed out a career-high 30 helpers to go along with nine digs against Dalton State. In her final match, Katie Philippi (SR/Metairie, La.) scooped up a match-high 21 digs and Hartmann collected 14 kills in the win. Huekels tallied a double-double with 13 assists and 11 digs, while Tylar Beckham (FR/New Orleans, La.) added seven kills and a team-high five blocks.

Anna Metzler had a huge match for Dalton State – putting up 19 kills and 20 digs in the loss.

NCAA: Princeton is first in, no upsets but plenty of big wins as many races tighten

Lipscomb setter Morgan Elmore does all she can to get to the ball in the Bison's victory over Jacksonville on Friday/Grant Exline photo

A rare night without upsets. It happened Friday in NCAA volleyball, but it was hardly a night without important results, from Princeton becoming the first team qualified for the NCAA Tournament by clinching the Ivy League’s automatic NCAA bid to Wisconsin, Penn State, North Carolina, Florida State, Florida all winning.

Creighton and Dayton remained unbeaten in their respective leagues and Washington State broke a four-match losing streak.

All that and more, but first a look at Saturday’s massive schedule of 105 matches, some that will decide conference races and so many key to tournament seeding, both in the respective leagues and the NCAA Tournament.

There are six matches in the Big Ten, including No. 1 Nebraska at Indiana, but the showcase battle has No. 17 Michigan at No. 15 Michigan State. No. 2 Minnesota plays at Illinois, No. 3 Wisconsin goes to Northwestern, No. 10 Penn State goes to Ohio State andIowa plays at Purdue.

In the Pac-12, No. 13 UCLA is at No. 9 Stanford, USC plays at Cal and Colorado is at Oregon State.

The Big 12 is busy, with No. 4 Kansas playing host to TCU and No. 5 Texas at Iowa State. West Virginia goes to Baylor and Texas Tech is at Oklahoma.

The ACC has just one match, but it pits league leader No. 8 North Carolina against Georgia Tech, coming off a five-set comeback win against NC State on Friday night and fighting for its postseason life.

The SEC has football Saturday off.

The two ranked West Coast Conference teams — tied for first — are in action. No. 7 San Diego, coming off being upset by Portland, plays host to Gonzaga, while No. 12 BYU gets Portland at home.

No. 14 Hawai’i plays at UC Davis.

No. 22 Creighton, which rules the Big East and beat visiting Providence on Friday, plays host to the Friars again on Saturday.

Also, SMU would like to get its focus back onto the court when the Mustangs entertain South Florida. SMU is 20-7 and leading the American Athletic at 13-2, but this past week the school got some bad publicity when it uninvited the daughter of one of the Dallas police officers killed last summer from doing an honorary first serve.

This is from the Dallas Morning New story:

The daughter of one of the Dallas police officers killed during the July 7 ambush was told she was no longer invited to hit an honorary serve at a volleyball game at Southern Methodist University “in light of recent events and diversity within the SMU community.”

The university has since apologized and re-extended the invitation, but it did not explain why the invite was spiked in the first place.

To read the entire story, click here.

For a complete list of all the Saturday matches, click here.

Katie Stadick of Illinois attacks against Wisconsin/Craig Pessman, Illinois Athletics photo

Big Ten: Wisconsin, Penn State, Ohio State win

Wisconsin won at Illinois 25-17, 25-18, 25-21 as junior Lauryn Gillis led with 13 kills while sophomore Tionna Williams added 10. Haleigh Nelson had seven blocks. The Badgers are 21-3, 13-2 and a game behind Nebraska for the league lead.

Illinois, which dropped to 14-12, 7-8, hit just .069 and got six kills each from Michelle Strizak and Katie Stadick.

Penn State won at Maryland 21-25, 25-22, 25-18, 25-18 to improve to 19-7, 11-4. Maryland, 10-17, 2-15, drew a crowd of home-record crowd of 1,808.

Simone Lee led Penn State with 17 kills, Heidi Thelen added 10 and had four blocks. Haleigh Washington had eight kills and nine blocks.

Freshman outside hitter Gia Milana led the match with 20 kills while adding 11 digs. Freshman setter Taylor Smith had 37 assists and a career-high 17 digs.

“It was a tough match tonight against a very good team,” head coach Steve Aird said. “I thought we played hard and did some nice things, but Penn State was better tonight. I am proud of the program, and proud that so many people came out to support us. We are going to be really good in the next few years and the goal is to battle the rest of the season, develop and grow.”

Rutgers has five matches left to win its second set of the season in Big Ten play. The Scarlet Knights fell to 4-24, 0-15 in their 25-12, 25-12, 25-16 loss at Ohio State. The Buckeyes are 16-11, 6-9.

Taylor Sandbothe led Ohio State with 10 kills and hit .533. Lauren Cloyd led Rutgers with seven kills.

Georgia Tech’s Kodie Comby hits against NC State’s Sarah Konchan on Friday/Chris Baird photo

ACC: UNC, FSU, Georgia Tech win

No. 8 North Carolina swept visiting Clemson 25-16, 25-12, 25-11 to improve to 22-3, 14-1, as Hayley McCorkle had nine kills with no errors and Taylor Borup had eight kills on 10 swings and hit .700.

“I can’t even say who stood out, because every one of them played so well,” UNC coach Joe Sagula said. “I think this is one of the best matches Hayley has played, without question. We were looking to rest her, but we said ‘There’s no way we can take her out,’ because she was playing so well.”

No. 18 Florida State had to go four to win at Boston College 22-25, 25-17, 25-17, 25-18. The Seminoles, 19-5, 12-3, got 10 kills and 13 digs from Katie Horton and 16 kills from Milica Kubura.

Duke stayed a game behind UNC and a game ahead of FSU by winning at Virginia Tech 25-26, 25-17, 25-15 to improve to 19-6, 13-2. Jordan Tucker led with 11 kills and four others had five or more.

“Our team did a great job of playing one point at a time and staying aggressive,” Duke coach Jolene Nagel said. “We wanted to give Virginia Tech something tough to handle whether it was our serve or when we have the chance to attack. We kept our composure on defense so that we could transition successfully. I’m really proud of our focus and determination to execute so efficiently tonight. This was a great team effort.”

Georgia Tech is hanging on at 21-6, 12-3 after winning at NC State 21-25, 23-25, 25-18, 25-14, 15-7. Teegan Van Gunst led with 20 kills and 13 digs, Gabriela Stavnetchel added 13 kills and Annika Van Gunst had 11.

Julia Brown had 19 kills for the Wolfpack, 16-11, 9-6.

Pittsburgh stayed in the chase by beating visiting Wake Forest to improve to 20-7, 11-4, with a 25-21, 25-20, 27-25 victory.

Freshman Stephanie Williams led with 16 kills in 23 swings without an error and hit .696. She also had eight digs. Junior Mariah Bell added 12 kills, two blocks and eight digs.

Wake, 9-17, 5-10, got 11 kills from Kylie Long.

Also, Miami beat Syracuse and Virginia won at Louisville.

Washington State snaps skid

The Cougars, who had lost four in a row, beat visiting Arizona State 25-23, 25-22, 23-25, 26-24 in the only Pac-12 match of the night. Taylor Mims had 14 kills and 11 blocks as WSU improved to 18-9, 8-7, as Arizona State fell to 9-18, 2-13.

WSU’s 19 team blocks is also tied for fifth-best in school history.

Kyra Holt led the Cougars with 17 kills and had eight digs and five blocks. Casey Schoenlein added nine kills and four blocks with McKenna Woodford had eight kills and four blocks.

“Winning feels really good, especially against another Pac-12 team because everyone in the conference is good,” Mims said.

“It’s great having a really tall team. Just the way we set it up is know the other hitters on your side and go out and be aggressive with it. With our defense behind us, it’s great knowing that we can take up so much space and it’s easier for us. McKenna ending up with those blocks is just one of those little things that get us that momentum back.”

SEC: Florida, Texas A&M notch victories

No. 6 Florida beat visiting South Carolina 25-13, 25-20, 25-15 as the Gators hit above .350 for the seventh consecutive match and tied their season high of nine service aces.

Florida has won 11 in a row, swept the last seven matches, and has a half-game lead atop the league. The Gators, 23-2, 13-1 SEC, got 11 kills from Alex Holston and 10 from Carli Snyder.

South Carolina is 17-8, 5-8. Desso Legros led with 10 kills.

Texas A&M kept pace with a 27-25, 29-27, 25-20 win over visiting Mississippi State. The Aggies are 17-7, 11-2, while State is 12-16, 4-10.

Kaitlyn Blake led with 13 kills and three blocks and Jazzmin Babers added 12 kills and six blocks. State’s Eva Grace Singleton had 16 kills.

Also, Ole Miss beat visiting Tennessee 25-19, 25-23, 26-24, and LSU stayed out of the cellar and won its first home match of the season by beating last-place Georgia 25-22, 21-25, 23-25, 25-10, 15-10.

Dayton’s Jane Emmenecker sets against Davidson /Leon Chuck, Pressbox Photo LLC

Creighton, Dayton stay perfect in their leagues

No. 22 Creighton clinched a share of the Big East title by beating visiting Providence 25-15, 25-18, 25-13 to improve to 21-6, 15-0.

Taryn Kloth led the Bluejays with 14 kills and hit .560 to set a career-high for hitting percentage in a single-match, and Lauren Smith added nine kills on .562 hitting. The same teams __play Saturday.

No. 23 Dayton won the Atlantic 10 by beating visiting Davidson 25-22, 25-19, 25-19 to improve to 27-1 — the best record in the country — and 13-0 in the league.

Junior Jessica Sloan had a match-high 18 kills to go with seven digs and two blocks while sophomore Lauren Bruns had 11 kills.

Wichita State’s Mikaela Raudsepp hits in the Shockers’ victory over Illinois State

Around the nation

Princeton is the first team in.

Princeton went down to the wire to clinch the Ivy League’s automatic NCAA bid by winning in five against visiting Cornell. The Tigers, 18-4, 12-1, were down 5-0 in the fifth and that comeback, combined with Harvard beating Yale in five, gave Princeton the title and for the first time since they are going back to the NCAA Tournament. Yale, which split with Princeton this season, is 17-4, 10-3 …

Lipscomb stayed atop the Atlantic Sun by sweeping visiting Jacksonville as Carlyle Nusbaum had 18 kills and 10 digs. The Bison are 19-7, 11-2, and remain tied with Kennesaw State, 17-10, 11-2, which swept North Florida. Also in the ASUN, FGCU won in five at USC Upstate to improve to 24-5 — its most wins since moving to Division I — and 10-3 in the league …

New Hampshire swept visiting Albany to tighten up the America East stretch run. UNH is  18-10 and leads the league at 9-2 while Albany finishes its regular season 15-9, 9-3. UNH finishes up against Binghamton on Sunday. UNH is the host for the AE tournament that starts Friday …

Missouri State stayed atop the Missouri Valley by sweeping Indiana State to get to 22-7, 13-2, while Wichita State stayed a game back by beat Illinois State in four to improve to 1907, 12-3. Wichita State is 36th in the NCAA RPI and might get an NCAA at-large bid, while Missouri State is 49th and needs to win the league tournament to get in. Northern Iowa, 46 RPI kept pace by sweeping Loyola Chicago to get to 20-8, 11-4 …

Radford finished its home schedule 11-0 and improved to 23-5, 14-2 Big South, as it won the league’s regular-season title. The Highlanders also avenged one of their only two conference losses and recorded their 13th sweep of the year. The 23 regular-season wins are the most for the program since 2000, while the 14 conference victories are the highest total since the 2001 squad went 14-0 in league play. It is the second time in three years that Radford has gone unbeaten at home …

In a battle that left them tied for the lead with one match left, South Dakota improved to 23-6, 12-3 in the Summit League by beating visiting Denver in five, 15-13 in the fifth, dropping the Pioneers to 20-7, 12-3. Audrey Reeg had 24 kills for South Dakota. South Dakota plays host to South Dakota State on Saturday, while Denver entertains North Dakota State on Sunday …

Cleveland State swept Wright State to improve to 23-5, 14-2 Horizon …

The respective MAC division leaders are both 22-5, 14-1 as Miami beat Akron in three and Northern Illinois swept Toledo …

Logan Carter of Austin Peay hits through the SIUE block of  Ashley Witt, left, and Taylor Joens/Robert Smith, APSU Athletics photo

Murray State, 19-8, 14-1 Ohio Valley Conference, stayed a game ahead of SIUE, 20-6, 13-2. Murray State beat visiting Eastern Illinois in four as Scottie Ingram had 22 kills, while SIUE dealt Austin Peay, 22-10, 11-4, a huge blow by winning in three …

Texas Southern improved to 17-9, 13-1 in the SWAC by sweeping Southern …

In the Sun Belt, Coastal Carolina improved to 23-4, 13-1, by sweeping Troy. Coastal has a huge seven-match lead in the East Division, while Arkansas State, which was idle, is up by two matches in the West.

Wolf Pack swept by Bethel on day two of the SSAC Championship

Loyola closes out __play in the 2016 SSAC Volleyball Championships today with a matchup against Dalton State at 3:00 p.m.

  

Looking to bounce back after a 3-1 loss against No. 3-seeded Coastal Georgia to start the tournament, the No. 7-seeded Loyola University New Orleans volleyball team returned to the Cramton Bowl Multiplex on Friday afternoon to square off against No. 2-seeded Bethel University on day two of the Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC) Volleyball Championships.

The Wildcats showed why they were co-regular season champions on Friday, using an impressive .452 hitting percentage and 45 assists by Kaylee Ginnings to complete the 3-0 sweep of the Wolf Pack in Pool-B action.

An attack error by SSAC Player of the Year Eloisa Sales started off the opening set to give Loyola the 1-0 advantage. With the Wolf Pack trailing 5-6, recent SSAC All-Freshman Team member Tylar Beckham (FR/New Orleans, La.) connected on a kill off an assist by Sunni Blanchard (FR/Pierre Part, La.) to knot the opening set at 6-6. Bethel followed with a kill to bring the score to 6-7 before Anna Katherine Brunini (SO/Madison, Miss.) laid down a kill of her own to make the score 7-7. The remainder of the set proved to be anything but close, as Bethel ended the frame outscoring Loyola 18-4 to take the 25-11 victory.

With the second set locked at 3-3, kills by Beckham and Blanchard gave the Wolf Pack the early 5-3 advantage. Bethel battled back to tie the set at 5-5 before a kill from Beatriz Agosto (FR/Miami, Fla.) off a helper by Blanchard gave Loyola the lead back at 6-5. That would be the last advantage the Wolf Pack would hold for the remainder of the set, as the Wildcats retook the lead and push it to as much as 12 before claiming set two 25-14.

The third set proved similar to the second, with Loyola taking a slim lead early on. As with the second set, Bethel quickly bounced back and began putting the set out of reach as the third frame progressed. The Wildcats built the lead to as many as 11 points until the very end when a kill by Shayla Smith handed Bethel the 12-point victory (25-13) in set three and the win.

Loyola collected a 0.061 (26-20-99) hitting percentage with 23 assists and 32 digs in the loss.

Beckham and Malea Howie (FR/Greenwood, Ind.) each notched five kills against the Wildcats, with Howie adding three digs off the bench. Blanchard handed out a team-high 12 assists in the match and Maddie Huekels (SO/Dyer, Ind.) chipped in a team-best eight digs to go along with 10 assists and two kills.

Sales led all players with 15 kills, while Yumi Garcia scooped up a match-high 15 digs for Bethel.

Loyola caps off __play at the 2016 SSAC Championships later today with a matchup against Dalton State at 3:00 p.m.

Volleyball ends 2016 season with 3-1 victory over Dalton State in the SSAC Championships

Wolf Pack end the season with a 15-23 overall record.

  

The No. 7-seeded Loyola University New Orleans volleyball team looked to end the 2016 season on a high note as they took on No. 6-seeded Dalton State College in the final match of pool __play of 2016 Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC) Volleyball Championships.

Thanks to career days by Lindsay Ulfig (JR/Saline, Mich.) and Sunni Blanchard (FR/Pierre Part, La.), the Wolf Pack downed the Roadrunners 3-1 at the Cramton Bowl Multiplex to end the 2016 season with a 15-23 overall record.

The first set was about as close as it could have been as both teams battled to 14 ties throughout. With the match knotted at 26-26, back-to-back Loyola errors gave Dalton State the 28-26 victory to start the match.

Set two was nearly as close as the first, with neither team being able to build a lead larger than four points.  In the final moments of the second set, the Wolf Pack used kills by Ulfig, Allison Hartmann (SO/Slidell, La.) and Malea Howie (FR/Greenwood, Ind.) (all assisted by Blanchard) to grab the set second 25-23 to knot the match at 1-1.

Loyola jumped out to the early 8-2 advantage in set three and never looked back en route to the 25-18 victory to take the 2-1 lead.

The fourth set saw Dalton State race out to a 7-2 lead to start. The Wolf Pack answered with an 8-2 run to retake the lead at 10-9. The Roadrunners took the 24-23 lead late and looked primed to steal the fourth set before an error on Anna Metzler knotted the match at 24-24. A Dalton State kill put the Roadrunners up 25-24 before a kill by Hartmann off an assist by Maddie Huekels (SO/Dyer, Ind.) tied the match up again, 25-25. The match would tie again at 26-26 before two back-to-back Dalton State errors sealed the 28-26 victory for the Wolf Pack.

Loyola notched a 0.222 (59-23-162) hitting percentage on Friday with 52 assists, 64 digs and six total blocks in the victory.

Ulfig led Loyola with a career-high 17 kills on 31 attempts off the bench, while Blanchard handed out a career-high 30 helpers to go along with nine digs against Dalton State. In her final match, Katie Philippi (SR/Metairie, La.) scooped up a match-high 21 digs and Hartmann collected 14 kills in the win. Huekels tallied a double-double with 13 assists and 11 digs, while Tylar Beckham (FR/New Orleans, La.) added seven kills and a team-high five blocks.

Anna Metzler had a huge match for Dalton State – putting up 19 kills and 20 digs in the loss.

NCAA: Portland stuns No. 7 USD, an upset-free Pac-12, WKU, TAMUCC, Hawai’i win

Alexandra Psoma of San Diego State gets up to attack against Colorado State/Ed Chan, VBshots.com

Since it’s Veterans Day, we honor all those who served.

In the case of volleyball, almost everyone serves and, of course, every __play begins with a serve.

So we serve up for you a look at Thursday’s results and Friday’s schedule.

And what would a night in NCAA volleyball be without serving up an upset?

Start with the West Coast Conference where we had a big surprise as visiting Portland went to San Diego and knocked off the No. 7 Toreros in five. The other ranked WCC team, No. 12 BYU, beat Gonzaga.

In the Pac-12, No. 19 Utah went 2-0 on its Oregon trip by winning at Oregon State. No. 16 Oregon, a night after being upset by Utah, beat Colorado in four.

Also in the Pac-12, No. 11 Washington swept visiting No. 25 Arizona, No. 9 Stanford took four to beat USC and No. 13 UCLA swept Cal.

It was also a big night in the Big Sky and Mountain West conferences and No. 14 Hawai’i beat UC Irvine.

All that and more, but first a look at Friday’s schedule, starting with the Big Ten, where No. 10 Penn State goes to Maryland, No. 3 Wisconsin goes to Illinois and Rutgers plays at Ohio State.

There is one Pac-12 match, as Arizona State plays at Washington State.

In the SEC, No. 6 Florida entertains South Carolina. Tennessee goes to Ole Miss, Mississippi State plays at Texas A&M and Georgia goes to LSU in a battle to stay out of last place in the league.

The ACC is chock full with seven matches, starting with No. 8 North Carolina playing host to Clemson. No. 18 Florida State goes to Boston College. Duke, a game behind UNC and trying to maintain its one game lead over FSU, goes to Virginia Tech, while Georgia Tech goes to NC State. Pittsburgh plays host to Wake Forest. Also, Miami is at Syracuse and Virginia is at Louisville.

The Big 12 is idle.

No. 22 Creighton plays host to Providence as it defends the top spot in the Big East and No. 23 Dayton tries to close out a perfect Atlantic 10 season against visiting Davidson.

Among the mid-majors in action are the Missouri Valley leaders as Missouri State plays host to Indiana State and Wichita State entertains Illinois State and Albany has a key America East matchup at New Hampshire.

Lipscomb attempts to maintain first in the Atlantic Sun against visiting Jacksonville, Radford does the same against Charleston Southern in the Big South, Horizon leader Cleveland State tries to bounce back from its first loss when it plays host to Wright State, and in the MAC the respective division leaders are in action as NIU goes to Toledo and Miami is home for Akron.

Click here for the complete list of Friday’s matches.

WCC: Stunning loss for USD, BYU wins

San Diego was unbeaten at home this season, but for the second time this season Portland pulled off a big WCC upset. Earlier the Pilots dealt BYU, then No. 11, its first loss. Thursday night’s 25-27, 20-25, 25-16, 25-20, 13-15 result left USD 21-4, 12-2 in the WCC, while Portland improved to 15-11, 9-6.

Portland, beating its highest-ranked opponent ever, got 12 kills from Reghan Pukis and 11 from Hannah Troutman. The last time Portland won in San Diego was 1987.

Lisa Kramer, as always, was big for USD and led with 27 kills and hit .396. Jayden Kennedy had 15 kills and hit .314. Thana Fayad had 12 kills and 14 digs.

BYU’s 25-16, 25-17, 19-25, 25-14 win over Gonzaga left the Cougars 23-3 and back into a first-place tie with USD at 12-2.

Freshman McKenna Miller led BYU with 20 kills and hit .472. Middle blocker Amy Boswell had 14 kills while Lacy Haddock 11. Mary Lake had 28 digs.

“I thought we played a great match,” BYU coach Heather Olmstead said. “I liked our energy and thought we were pretty focused for the match. We did lose our focus for a slight moment in the third set and it cost us, so we have to learn to __play better overall. I liked the way we bounced back in the fourth set.”

Pac-12: No upsets on a busy night

Before the recaps, note that three teams are tied for first in the Pac-12 at 11-4, Washington, UCLA and Stanford. Oregon is a half game back at 11-5 and Utah right behind at 10-6 as the top five teams have begun to separate from the peloton.

Utah beat Oregon on Wednesday and then won at Oregon State on Thursday to improve to 19-8, 10-6 in the Pac-12. Junior Adora Anae had 16 kills and three blocks in the 25-22, 25-23, 25-22 victory. It’s the most wins for the Utes in league play since joining the Pac-12.

Tawnee Luafalemana and Carly Trueman added seven kills each for Utah, now 10-2 on the road this season.

Oregon State is 10-16, 3-12.

Oregon is 18-7, 11-5, after beating Colorado 25-21, 20-25, 25-20, 25-16. 

Lindsey Vander Weide led with 20 kills and hit .381 and had a career-high four aces. Taylor Agost added 10 kills and Ronika Stone nine. Seniors Kacey Nady and Amanda Benson were big on their senior night, with Nady getting a season-high seven blocks and Benson tying her season high with her second straight 28-dig match.

Jolie Rasmussen, the freshman outside who has had a strong season for Oregon, continued to sit out with an ankle injury.

“We didn’t do very well last night, we did better tonight. I don’t know when she’ll be back,” Oregon coach Jim Moore said. “She’s walking around great, she’s still in a boot right now, but that is mostly just precautionary. She is making us hopeful, that’s for sure.”

Colorado is 13-12, 5-10. Alexa Smith led the Buffs with 15 kills.

Washington juniors Courtney Schwan and Tia Scambray combined for 27 kills and a .338 attack percentage the Huskies improved to 21-4, 11-4 with their 25-23, 25-20, 25-20 victory.

Arizona, 16-11, 8-7, got 11 kills from Kalei Mau.

Stanford is 17-6, 11-4, after holding off visiting USC 25-19, 25-21, 23-25, 25-22, which dropped the Women of Troy to 16-10, 8-7.

Senior Inky Ajanaku and freshman Kathryn Plummer had 13 kills each. Ajanaku hit .500 and had a match-high eight blocks, while Plummer had six digs, three blocks and two assists. Freshman middle blocker Audriana Fitzmorris added 12 kills, hit .360, and had five blocks and three digs. Junior Ivana Vanjak added 10 kills and three blocks.

USC freshman outside hitter Khalia Lanier had 8 kills and 12 digs. Sophomore Alyse Ford added 14 kills and eight digs, while middle blocker Elise Ruddins had 10 kills while hitting .353 with three blocks.

UCLA blasted visiting Cal 25-15, 25-20, 25-6, and, no, that last set score is not a typo.

UCLA improved to 20-5, 11-4 as it got 12 blocks, including a career-high eight from senior Claire Felix, while senior Taylor Formico added 21 digs.

Freshman Torrey Van Winden led with nine kills, hit .389, and had nine digs and three blocks. Junior Reily Buechler had eight kills, eight digs and three blocks, sophomore Kyra Rogers had five kills and three blocks and senior Jordan Anderson added four kills and four digs. UCLA hit .275.

Cal is 9-16, 3-12. Junior Christine Alftin had 10 kills and seven digs for the Bears.

Streaking teams: WKU, TAMUCC, Hawai’i roll on

No. 20 Western Kentucky won its 18th in a row as Alyssa Cavanaugh had 12 of her 18 kills in the first set and the Lady Toppers beat visiting North Texas 29-27, 25-18, 25-22. WKU is 27-2, 14-0 in Conference USA. Sydney Engle added 12 kills.

“It has been a struggle, it’s been a fight every night,” said WKU coach Travis Hudson, whose team won its 45th consecutive match at home. “We may have had more talented teams in the past but we will never have a group that fights as hard as this.

“To win a conference tournament you have to be good for three days, but to win a regular season conference title you have to be good for two months.”

Texas A&M Corpus Christi won its ninth in a row and improved to 20-7, 15-0 Southland Conference, with a 25-16, 20-25, 25-12, 25-23 victory over visiting Lamar.

“I couldn’t be more proud of how we handled adversity and difficult situations in this match,” TAMUCC coach Steve Greene said. “The way the team responded between sets two and three and came out with a renewed vigor really shows their competitive drive.”

Junior Brittany Gilpin led the Islanders with a career-high 20 kills and hit .419.

Hawai’i cruised at UC Irvine 25-14, 25-13, 25-18 to improve to 19-5, 12-1 Big West as Annie Mitchem tied her career-high with a match-high 13 kills and Emily Maglio tied her career-high with a match-high nine blocks.

The victory left veteran coach Dave Shoji’s career record 1,198-203-1, just two wins shy of becoming only the second coach in NCAA DI history to record 1,200 career wins.

Colorado State setter Katie Oleksak against SDSU/Ed Chan, VBshots.com

Mountain West:

After Thursday’s action, Boise State and Colorado State lead the league at 12-2. UNLV is chasing at 11-4.

Boise State won for the 10th time in a row by sweeping Fresno 25-15, 25-21, 25-15 to improve to 21-6, 12-2 and get their 10th league sweep of the season.

“I feel like as things started rolling and we were winning in three, we got healthy.” Boise State coach Shawn Garus said. “We didn’t have these long, grueling, two-hour matches. We were efficient, we got in and out, and we rested and got ready for the next day. What that’s led to is all 14 players playing at a very high level in practice which has gotten us ready for the next match.”

Maddie O’Donnell led with 12 kills and five blocks.

Colorado State, which has traditionally won the MWC, won at San Diego State in five 22-25, 25-21, 18-25, 25-20, 15-9. The Rams, 18-7, 12-2, got 12 kills apiece from Alexandra Poletto and Sandra Cizmic and 11 from Jasmine Hanna.

VolleyballMag.com’s Ed Chan caught up with both Poletto and coach Tom Hilbert after the match.

UNLV kept pace with its 25-22, 25-17, 25-20 win over visiting Utah State to improve to 22-5, 11-4, as Bree Hammel had 11 kills, seven digs, three blocks and three aces to give her 37 for the season.

Wyoming took a big hit and fell to 17-10, 10-4, by losing at Nevada.

Big Sky: UND, UNC in a battle

Things are tight at the top of the two divisions.

North Dakota clinched a share of the regular-season title and maintained its one-game lead in the North with a 25-18, 25-22, 25-22 win at Northern Arizona that left UND 22-9, 13-2 Big Sky, and NAU 21-7, 11-4.

Northern Colorado won at Southern Utah 25-15, 25-21, 25-18 to set up a winner take all match on Saturday against North Dakota for the regular-season title. UNC is 18-9, 12-3.

In the South, Sacramento State pulled ahead of NAU by a game by beating Idaho State 25-23, 25-21, 19-25, 25-21 for its seventh consecutive win. The Hornets are 18-11, 12-3.

New Mexico State clinches WAC

The Aggies had to go five at Chicago State but their 25-18, 21-25, 23-25, 25-17, 15-9 victory gave them their second straight Western Athletic Conference title and third in four years and secured the No. 1 seed when they play host to the league tournament.

“We didn’t play well until partway through the fourth set,” said NMSU coach Mike Jordan, whose team improved to 22-6, 12-1. “We struggle … but when we play well we’re fun to watch.”

Jordan Abalos finished with 16 kills and 11 digs and Tatyana Battle had 19 kills and 13 digs.

Also Thursday:

SMU swept UCF to improve to 20-7 overall, 13-2 in the American Athletic Conference … Ohio beat Kent in four to get to 15-12, 11-4 in the Mid-American Conference … North Dakota State beat South Dakota State in four to improve to 13-16, 11-4 in the Summit …

And Dajana Boskovic had 18 kills and Antonela Jularic 17 as UTSA won in four at Charlotte to improve to 19-6, 10-3 in Conference USA.