There were no upsets Friday in NCAA Division I volleyball, but a few teams had to sweat out tough victories, including No. 5 Purdue at Illinois and No. 22 Rice at North Texas.
No, 16 Oregon remained the only team unbeaten in Pac-12 play.
In battles of ranked teams, No. 9 Stanford beat No. 17 Washington and No. 8 Wisconsin swept No. 12 Penn State.
The line of the night went to Youngstown State’s Paula Gursching. Her Penguins lost in five to IUPUI in the Horizon League but she had a career-high 31 kills while hitting .364 to go with an assist, an ace, 11 digs and two blocks, one solo.
McKenna Melville and No. 24 UCF were forced to leave home because of Hurricane Ian, but location doesn’t matter to the graduate-student All-American outside, who had 23 kills with no errors in 44 attacks in a sweep of Tulsa at Wichita State.
The recaps and top performances follow, but first a look at Saturday’s key matches.
Sixth-ranked Ohio State plays in one of two Big Ten matches when the Buckeyes go to Indiana, while Michigan is at Northwestern.
All three ranked West Conference teams are in action at No. 4 San Diego goes to Portland, No. 15 BYU is at Gonzaga and No. 20 Pepperdine is at Santa Clara.
In the Big 12, No. 13 Baylor, coming off its loss to Iowa State, is at Kansas and West Virginia is at Oklahoma.
There are five SEC matches, including No. 18 Kentucky home for Alabama and No. 23 Arkansas at Mississippi State.
The Big East’s No. 19 Marquette is home for Providence.
The ACC and Pac-12 are idle.
Want to watch a match? We have the viewing links on the VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings page.
BIG TEN: Eighth-ranked Wisconsin (8-3, 2-1) swept visiting No. 12 Penn State (12-2, 1-2) 25-20, 25-16, 31-29 after the Badgers staved off three match points in the third set. Devyn Robinson had 12 kills with one error in 21 attacks to hit .524 to go with six blocks, and Sarah Franklin had 12 kills, hit .321, and had 12 digs. Kashauna Williams led Penn State with 17 kills as she hit .419 and had three blocks, one solo …
No. 5 Purdue (12-1, 3-0) escaped with a 25-17, 25-17, 23-25, 17-25, 16-14 win at Illinois (7-6, 2-1). Eva Hudson’s spectacular freshman season continued with 24 kills as she hit .380 and had 17 digs and two blocks, one solo. Raina Terry had 24 kills for Illinois and hit .345 to go with an ace, a block and five digs …
Third-ranked Nebraska (11-1, 3-0) swept at Rutgers (7-8, 1-2) as the Huskers hit .405. Whitney…
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