Florida, ranked No. 15 in the VolleyballMag Super 16 Media Poll, faced deficits of 9-3 and 10-5 in the fifth set at Oklahoma on Thursday night before rallying to win the SEC opener for both teams.
The only other ranked team in action, AVCA No. 17 BYU, opened Big 12 play with a four-set win over visiting Colorado.
South Dakota State had to pull off a reverse sweep at the Jackrabbits improved to 12-0 with a five-set Summit League victory at Oral Roberts, and California Baptist got its first victory.
We’ve also got Athletes Unlimited Volleyball in this report. The first matches of the fall season are next Thursday and AU announced the rosters, schedule and significant TV news.
NCAA volleyball Friday
Because of realignment, there is no shortage of first-time conference matchups this first week of conference play.
That includes VBM No. 13 Georgia Tech playing its first ACC match against visiting AVCA No. 23 SMU, VBM No. 3 Stanford going to Notre Dame, and No. 4 Louisville home for Cal. Top-ranked Pitt goes to Clemson and Syracuse puts its 12-0 record on the line at 8-1 North Carolina. Virginia, off to a 10-1 start, goes to Wake Forest. Also in the ACC, Boston College is at Duke and Virginia Tech is at NC State.
Four of the five Big Ten matches are first-time conference matches when No. 2 Nebraska is home for UCLA, No. 11 Oregon is home for Illinois, No. 20 USC is home for Ohio State and 10-0 Washington is home for Indiana. Michigan State plays at 10-1 Michigan.
There are four matches in the Big 12 with plenty at stake from the get-go, including No. 14 Arizona State (12-1) at No. 19 Baylor (9-3). No. 9 Kansas (10-1) is home for Houston and UCF goes to Kansas State.
In the SEC, the lone “new” match features No. 8 Texas going to Texas A&M. No. 13 Kentucky is at Auburn, which is 10-1, Mississippi State is at South Carolina and Missouri goes to LSU.
The only other AVCA-ranked teams in action are No. 6 Creighton opening Big East play at home against Providence, and No. 24 Dayton, as the 10-1 Flyers open Atlantic 10 play against visiting Rhode Island.
In addition to the aforementioned unbeatens, 12-0 UConn opens Big East play at Marquette. Also of note Friday, Old Dominion (11-2) is at Georgia Southern (10-1) and Georgia State (9-3) goes to Arkansas State (10-2) in the Sun Belt and George Washington (10-3) goes to Duquesne (9-3) in the A10.
Winless watch: 0-13 Hampton is at Hofstra in the CAA and 0-11 Navy is at Army West Point in the Patriot League.
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