NCAA volleyball: 39 kills for Juhnke, 42 digs for Bertucci on a night with big numbers

A light schedule was filled with heavy numbers Tuesday in NCAA Division I volleyball.

Start with Elizabeth Juhnke, who had an NCAA season-best 39 kills in a five-set loss at North Dakota State. Juhnke hit .451 after having just seven errors in 71 attacks. More on her and NDSU follow.

NIU’s Francesca Bertucci had 42 digs in a five-set win over Western Michigan.

NJIT’s Courtney Branch had 14 kills in 15 errorless attacks in a win at Manhattan on day when a handful of hitters had no errors on their stat lines. That included Loyola Marymount’s Jacquelyn Moore, who had 16 kills in 18 errorless swings.

Kaitlyn Flynn of Eastern Illinois had 27 kills, an assist, two aces, 16 digs and four blocks, three solo, in a win at Southern Indiana.

The recaps and top performances follow, but first a look at Wednesday’s schedule.

There are 19 matches, three in the Big Ten, as No. 6 Ohio State goes to Michigan, No. 7 Minnesota is home for Northwestern and Iowa is at Indiana.

The three-match SEC slate shows No. 18 Kentucky at Missouri, South Carolina at Georgia and Mississippi State at Auburn, at 12-0 one of four unbeatens left. 

In the Big 12, No. 13 Baylor is at Iowa State, Kansas is at Oklahoma and Kansas State is at Texas Tech.

The ACC’s No. 10 Pittsburgh is at Virginia, while Boston College steps out conference play to entertain Bryant.

Creighton, ranked 22nd, plays a Big East match against visiting Xavier.

Want to watch a match? We have the viewing links on the VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings page.

North Dakota State is 10-5 and 3-0 in the Summit League after its 19-25, 25-22, 25-23, 21-25, 15-11 victory over visiting South Dakota (13-2, 2-1), which saw its 13-match winning streak broken. 

NDSU, which hit .346 as it won its third in a row, got 26 kills from Syra Tanchin, who hit .375 and had three aces, 11 digs and two blocks, one solo. Michelle Glover had 18 kills, hit .577, and had a dig and four blocks, one solo. Ali Hinze had 11 kills, two assists, an ace, two blocks and 12 digs. Kelly Johnson had three kills in seven erroless attempts, 55 assists, an ace and 10 digs. 

Juhnke broked the Summit League record for kills with her 39, one more than the 38 by Laura Miles of Oral Roberts, and five more than the previous South Dakota mark of 34 set in 2011 by Kendall Krittenbrink. The previous NCAA high this season was 35 by Lani Mason of Delaware. Juhnke also had seven digs and three blocks, two solo. Her teammates had a…