No. 1 Wisconsin faces No. 2 Nebraska after USC upsets No. 4 WSU, No. 5 Louisville survives

Finally.

This is the day when the top two teams in the VolleyballMag.com Super 16 Media Poll face off: Top-ranked Wisconsin goes to No. 2 Nebraska in a battle of Big Ten teams that are each 18-0 overall and 9-0 in the Big Ten.

But we can’t get to that before talking about another freaky Friday, in which No. 4 Washington State lost at unranked USC, which pulled off a late-night Pac-12 reverse sweep. Or that No. 5 Louisville had to pull off an ACC reverse sweep of its own to win at Wake Forest. Or that No. 7 Arkansas won in four at Tennessee in the SEC, or that unranked Missouri swept at AVCA No. 23 Auburn. 

The Citadel swept Samford to improve to 21-0, 9-0 in the SoCon and plays at Chattanooga Saturday,, and Le Moyne finally broke through as the 1-17 Dolphins beat Stonehill in the NEC.

Line of the day: Purdue Fort Wayne’s Panna Ratkai, a redshirt-freshman outside hitter from Hungary, had 35 kills in a five-set loss to Milwaukee, most kills in the Horizon League since 2011. And she also had four aces, three blocks and seven digs.

Worth noting: Paige Briggs, who not only had 14 kills and hit .522, had 10 aces in Western Kentucky’s sweep of Sam Houston.

The recaps and top performances follow, but first a look at Saturday’s NCAA Division I women’s volleyball schedule, starting with the long-awaited Wisconsin-at-Nebraska match. The 7 p.m. Central match will be shown on the Big Ten Network and it features the nation’s top offensive team, Wisconsin, against one of the best on defense. Wisconsin leads the B1G in kills per set (14.02) and hitting percentage (.315). Nebraska leads the nation in opponent hitting percentage (.123). Wisconsin is a veteran team; Nebraska is young. And both teams are dealing with injuries. Wisconsin has won 27 B1G matches in a row, including 10 sweeps in a row; Nebraska leads the all-time series 19-13-1, Wisconsin has won the last 10. 

The team just behind, 8-1 Penn State, is off Saturday but plays host to Purdue on Sunday. Also in the B1G Saturday, Iowa is at Maryland, Michigan at Northwestern and Ohio State at Indiana.

There are three Big 12 matches and all involve ranked teams. AVCA No. 24 is at No. 21 Baylor, AVCA No. 22 Houston is at Texas Tech and AVCA No. 20 Kansas is at TCU.

The ACC, Pac-12 and SEC have the day off.

Dayton, No. 15 in the VBM Poll, won its 16th in a row Friday…