Volleyball Today: Big ESPN Sunday; 38 kills for Alexander of Hawai’i; AVP League

This is a big Sunday for NCAA volleyball with back-to-back matches on ESPN featuring No. 9 Creighton at No. 4 Louisville and then No. 6 Texas at No. 2 Stanford.

It comes on the heels of a Saturday in which there were no major upsets but No. 7 Purdue beat No. 10 Kentucky and unranked Wright State beat No. 20 Miami and previously ranked Marquette defeated No. 24 Dayton.

Both No. 1 Pittsburgh and No. 3 Penn State stayed unbeaten ahead of their Wednesday night matchup at Pitt on the ACC Network.

Line of the day: In a five-set win by Hawai’i over Texas State, Caylen Alexander had 38 kills while hitting .338 in the 25-22, 19-25, 25-21, 21-25, 15-12 victory. She had 13 errors in 74 attacks for the Rainbow Wahine (6-1) to go with two aces, 13 digs and a block. Alexander, a 6-foot junior from Alpharetta, Georgia, had nine kills in the fifth set. It’s the most kills for a UH player since Jamie Houston had 35 in 2006.

Three players had 29 kills on Saturday, Emily Londot for Ohio State and two in defeats, Maike Bertens of Morgan State and Ella Rudd of Fresno State.

The AVP League began Saturday and the results follow in this edition of Volleyball Today.

NCAA volleyball Sunday

There’s a fairly busy slate with a handful of ranked teams in action, including one of the more anticipated early season matches when No. 6 Texas (3-2) of the SEC goes to No. 2 Stanford (6-0) of the ACC. Texas is the two-time defending NCAA champion but has had its early season struggles. Stanford will be playing its home opener. The match is on ESPN at 3 p.m. Eastern.

The coverage on ESPN begins at 1 p.m. Eastern when fourth-ranked Louisville (6-1) of the ACC has a 1 p.m. first serve against visiting No. 9 Creighton (7-1) of the Big East. Two other ranked ACC teams play Sunday, as No. 21 Florida State (6-1) is home for the Big 12’s UCF (5-0) and No. 20 Miami, sure to fall out of the top 25, plays Buffalo at Ohio State. Wake Forest (5-3) plays South Carolina (7-1) of the SEC, North Carolina (5-1) plays the Big 12’s Kansas State (2-4) and Cal (6-3) plays UC Irvine of the Big West (5-3).

Among the other Big 12 teams playing Sunday, No. 11 Kansas (6-0) entertains the ASUN’s Lipscomb (3-5). No. 18 Baylor (6-2) plays Samford (5-1) of the SoCon and  Utah (6-1) faces Northeastern (2-5) of the CAA.

There are five Big Ten teams playing, none ranked, including unbeaten…