On Thursday, the NCAA Division I women’s volleyball spotlight shined on some mid-majors who made statements, including Southeastern Louisiana (Southland), Utah State (Mountain West), Sacramento State (Big Sky), Stephen F. Austin (WAC) and Denver and Omaha (The Summit League).
Pepperdine continued its West Coast Conference dominance and No. 5 Texas won at West Virginia.
Friday the focus is on the Power 5, starting in the ACC, where the top four teams play each other.
Louisville (20-2, 11-1), the No. 3 team in the VolleyballMag.com Super 16 Media Poll, plays at No. 11 Georgia Tech (19-3, 10-2), while No. 7 Pittsburgh (20-3, 11-1) is at Florida State (16-8, 10-2). The implications are huge for all four, with Louisville at No. 5 in the RPI, Pitt at 6, Georgia Tech at 17 and FSU at 30. The team a game back, Miami (15-7, 8-4, RPI 39) is home for Virginia. Wake Forest (16-7, 7-5, RPI 31) is at Duke, NC State (17-6, 7-5, RPI 39) is home for Boston College. Virginia Tech is at North Carolina and Notre Dame is at Clemson.
Two teams coming off surprising losses highlight the Pac-12 schedule when No. 4 Stanford plays host to No. 9 Washington State. Stanford holds a two-game lead over No. 6 Oregon and No. 13 Arizona State and is up three games on WSU. Oregon is home for Utah, while ASU is at UCLA. Washington goes to Cal, Colorado is at Oregon State and Arizona is at USC.
SEC-leading No. 12 Kentucky (11-7, 9-1, RPI 10) is at South Carolina, while No. 10 Tennessee (18-3, 9-2, RPI 13), a half game back of idle Arkansas (20-4, 10-2, RPI 8), plays at AVCA No. 20 Florida (14-5, 6-4, RPI 16). Alabama is at Texas A&M and Mississippi State is at Missouri.
The Big 12 slate includes league-leading No. 5 Texas back at West Virginia, No. 14 Kansas home for Kansas State, No. 15 BYU home for Cincinnati, AVCA No. 22 Houston home for UCF, and Iowa State at TCU.
Just two of the Big Ten’s ranked teams are in action and they play each other when top-ranked and unbeaten Nebraska goes to Penn State. Nebraska has won the last six meetings, but this series rarely disappoints and this one should be quite a defensive battle. Nebraska tops the B1G in opponent hitting percentage (.125) and Penn state is third (.171). They also rank 1 and 3 in kills, so something has to give. Iowa is at Michigan, Minnesota is at…
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