The NCAA volleyball pre-conference season comes to a close Sunday and the first round weekends have delivered in a big way.
TV ratiings have been stronger than ever, the regular-season attendance record was broken twice, there have been tremendous performances, and results have been unpredictable on a daily basis.
Saturday was no exception on a day when a ranked Big Ten team lost twice, No. 3 Louisville won in four at No. 9 Stanford, McKenna Melville became the UCF all-time kills leader, and in a battle of previously unbeatens Auburn beat Jacksonville State in five.
Recaps and notable top performances follow, but first a look at Sunday’s schedule.
The showcase match of Sunday is No. 2 Nebraska at No. 13 Kentucky, which certainly can’t be accused of having a weak pre-conference schedule. The Wildcats (5-3) have losses to now No. 19 Marquette, No. 3 Wisconsin and No. 3 Louisville. Nebraska (7-1) is coming off its defeat last Tuesday to No. 9 Stanford.
Wisconsin, coming off its loss to No. 16 Florida on Friday, is home for Rhode Island. Fifth-ranked Ohio State plays at No. 12 Pittsburgh, No. 17 Creighton plays Rice, No. 19 Marquette is home for Illinois State, and No. 20 Oregon is at Miami (FL).
Two New Jersey teams square off when Princeton goes to Rutgers.
Two conferences are already into league play. There are five more matches in the CAA, including unbeaten Towson (11-0, 1-0) home for Hampton, and four in the MAAC, including perennial favorite Fairfield (7-5, 1-0) at Niagara.
Want to watch a match? We have the viewing links on the VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings page.
TOP 25: Louisville (9-1) won 26-24, 27-25, 14-25, 25-13 at Stanford (5-3), capping a tremendously challening pre-conference stretch for both programs. Louisville, which hit .222, got 19 kills from Claire Chaussee, who hit .310 and had four digs. Aiko Jones had 12 kills, hit .375, and had four dig and eight blocks. Cara Cresse had three kills and 10 blocks. Stanford’s Kendall Kipp had 15 kills, an assist, two aces, four blocks and four digs. The Cardinal hit .197 …
Ohio State (4-3) hit .398 and swept Tennessee (6-5) 25-23, 25-23, 25-16 in Pittsburgh. Jenaisya Moore and Emily Londot had 11 kills each …
Minnesota (5-3) hit .364 and beat visiting Washington State (8-3) 25-16, 25-13, 24-26, 25-20. Taylor Landfair had 16 kills and Mckenna Wucherer 15 while hitting .520. Carter Booth had 12 kills with one error in 24 swings. Lauran Jansen had…
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