Let conference play begin.
And if the next three months are as fun and unpredictable as the past four weeks, we are in for a heck of a remainder of the NCAA volleyball season.
Pre-conference play finished with a flourish Sunday as second-ranked Nebraska went to No. 13 Kentucky and thrashed the Wildcats, Rice knocked off No. 17 Creighton in a marathon five-setter, and No. 12 Pittsburgh squashed visiting No. 5 Ohio State.
Good luck to the AVCA Poll voters after a week in which Stanford upset Nebraska, Louisville beat Kentucky, Pepperdine beat Minnesota, Arkansas upset Georgia Tech, Florida knocked off Wisconsin, and well, you know …
Sunday’s recaps and top performances follow, which includes Delaware’s Lani Mason, who had 35 kills in a five-set win over Northeastern.
There are two matches Monday. UTRGV of the WAC, which came out of the pre-conference season 11-3, goes to UTEP of Conference USA, and Mississippi Valley of the SWAC goes to Miles.
While the CAA and Metro Atlantic began conference play this past weekend, a couple of others get underway Tuesday, including Colorado State opening Mountain West play against Wyoming. UC Riverside is at UC Davis to start Big West play, there are four Horizon League matches, and two more in the MAAC.
Want to watch a match? We have the viewing links on the VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings page.
TOP 25: Nebraska (8-1) in essence went on the road for the first time and won 27-25, 25-20, 25-16 at Kentucky (5-4). Whitney Lauenstein led a balanced attack in which seven Huskers have four or more kills. Lauenstein, establishing herself as an early season star, had 11 kills with one error in 27 attacks to hit .370 and aded two aces, three blocks and two digs. Madi Kubik and Lindsay Krause had nine kills. Kaitlyn Hord had five kills and four blocks, one solo, and Bekka Allick had five kills in eight errorless tries, four digs and six blocks. Nebraska hit .302. Kentucky, which hit .141, got nine kills from Reagan Rutherford, who had an assist, an ace, a block and 12 digs. Adanna Rollins and Erin Lamb had eight kills each. Nebraska, which is 6-1 at home, also won in Omaha against Creighton, so technically the Huskers had traveled …
The ACC’s Pittsburgh (9-2) came away with a surprising sweep of Ohio State (4-4) of the Big Ten 25-21, 25-15, 25-22. Courtney…
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