International women’s volleyball: Rivers leads Stuttgart; big week for Skinner

This is our weekly update on USA women playing professional volleyball around the world. Most of the players are former NCAA standouts:

Champions League

In the only upset of the quarterfinal round, Krystal Rivers had 22 kills and a block as Stuttgart beat Turkish giants Fenerbahce in five sets. Alexis Hart chipped in two kills as a substitute.

Conegliano, playing its third match in four days, beat VakifBank in four sets to open the quarterfinal series. Kelsey Robinson Cook and Kathryn Plummer had had 12 kills and two blocks each. Ali Frantti had eight kills for VakifBank, while Jordan Thompson added eight. Chiaka Ogbogu had a team-high four blocks and two kills.

Visiting Milano, also playing its third match in four days, beat LKS Lodz in four as Dana Rettke led with nine kills (hitting .438) and seven blocks. Kara Bajema contributed two kills and a block.

CEV Cup

Madeline Haynes and Tia Scambray led all scorers with 23 points each an NUC Viteos is one match away from its first European Cup final by beating Budowlani Lodz in four sets. Haynes had 18 kills, three blocks and two aces, while Scambray had 21 kills and two aces. Tessa Grubbs added 13 kills and two blocks. Jasmine Gross had seven kills, two blocks and two aces. Mac May had eight kills, three aces, and one block for Budowlani Lodz.

In league play, May’s Budowlani Lodz (12-8) was swept by Chemik Police (18-2). She was a substitute and had four kills.

Avery Skinner had 23 kills (.396), an ace and a block as Chieri needed five sets to beat Paris SC in their first semifinal match. Madi Kingdon Rushel added four kills and three blocks. Paris’ Emily Thater had four blocks and three kills.

Challenge Cup

Nantes was swept by Novara in the first leg of the final series. Taylor Mims led Nantes with 12 kills, two blocks and an ace and Jaelyn Keene had five kills and two aces. Newly transferred Russian Marina Markova (who played at Florida) led Novara with 13 kills and four aces.

Italy

Scandicci (17-4) won its third in a row by sweeping Cuneo (5-16) as Lindsey Ruddins had nine kills (.400) and block and  Haleigh Washington had six kills and one block. Madi Kubik had six kills and one ace for Cuneo, while Anna Stevenson-Hall had two kills and a block.

Casalmaggiore’s (7-14) four-match winning streak was snapped by  Roma (10-11) despite 23 kills and two blocks from Simone Lee. Setter…