International Volleyball

Penn St. tops Minnesota; Nebraska rallies at IU; Cincinnati, Iowa St. win

Penn St. tops Minnesota; Nebraska rallies at IU; Cincinnati, Iowa St. win

Minnesota’s Melani Shaffmaster gets up to set against Penn State/Christopher Mitchell photo

No. 15 Penn State kept its Big Ten “0” intact before a hostile house of more than 5,000 in a tense four-setter with No. 13 Minnesota in the only match involving teams ranked in the VolleyballMag.com Super 16 Media Poll.

Elsewhere on a busy Saturday night, undefeated Nebraska survived a first-set speed bump against Indiana, which set a program attendance record at its Wilkinson Hall; Cincinnati recorded its initial victory as a member of the Big 12; while Iowa State, Marquette, Dayton, Virginia Commonwealth and Rice remained unbeaten in their respective conferences.

The stat line of the night went to Xavier’s Carrigan O’Reilly, who scored the winning kill in a 17-15 fifth set during a Big East victory at Georgetown. That punctuated an effort that saw the Musketeers setter rap 10 kills on 21 attempts (with one error), dish out 35 assists, make 11 digs and get four blocks (one solo). The triple-double was the third of the graduate student’s career. O’Reilly became the only active D-I setter to have reached the milestones of 500 kills and 1,000 digs.

The recaps and top performances follow, but first a look at Sunday’s NCAA Division I women’s volleyball schedule as the calendar turns to October.

The big match of the day is in Eugene, where Washington State, the No. 6 team in the VolleyballMag.com Super 16 Media Poll, tackles No. 7 Oregon in a key Pac-12 showdown. Also in the Pac-12, No. 3 Stanford is home against Arizona, Utah is at UCLA, Arizona State tries to bounce back from its first defeat when it travels to Cal and Colorado is at USC.

A full slate in the ACC sees Louisville, No. 5 in the VBM Super 16, play at NC State. No. 9 Pittsburgh hosts Syracuse, No. 12 Georgia Tech visits Wake Forest, Boston College is at Virginia, Virginia Tech is at Clemson, North Carolina is at Miami and Duke is at Florida State.

Top-ranked Wisconsin heads the Big Ten schedule when the Badgers are home for Michigan. Maryland is at Ohio State, Rutgers is at Michigan State, and Purdue is home for Northwestern.

In the SEC, No. 4 Florida is at South Carolina, No. 11 Tennessee is at Ole Miss, Georgia is at Auburn in a match televised on ESPN2 at 1 p.m. Eastern, Missouri is at Texas A&M, Kentucky goes to Alabama and Mississippi State is at LSU.

No. 16 Creighton has a home Big East test against Seton Hall. The lone Big 12 match pits Baylor against…

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