International Volleyball

NCAA volleyball: Xavier stuns Creighton; BYU thumps Baylor; 36 kills for Rivest, Cardona

NCAA volleyball: Xavier stuns Creighton; BYU thumps Baylor; 36 kills for Rivest, Cardona

Loyola’s Karlie McNabb hits against Dayton/Loyola photo

Unranked Xavier beat Creighton for the first time, knocking off the No. 11 Bluejays in five Saturday in the Big East. It was Xavier’s first win over a ranked team since 2007.

In the only matchup between ranked teams, No. 10 BYU blasted visiting No. 18 Baylor in their Big 12 match. 

36! 

— Coastal Carolina’s Jasmine Rivest had 36 kills, 17 digs and three blocks — two solo — in a five-set Sun Belt win at Georgia State. 

— Evansville’s Giulia Cardona had 36 kills, 11 digs, and a block in a four-set Missouri Valley win at Belmont.

The recaps and top performances follow, but first a look at Sunday’s key NCAA Division I women’s volleyball matches.

Saturday was an off day for the ACC, Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC and all four leagues are out in force Sunday.

There are seven ACC matches, including No. 5 Louisville home for Boston College, No. 8 Pittsburgh at North Carolina and No. 13 Georgia Tech home for NC State. GT is 10-1 and NC State is 11-1. 

The Big Ten also has seven matches, including top-ranked Wisconsin home for Indiana, No. 2 Nebraska home for Minnesota, No. 15 Penn State at Northwestern, No. 19 Purdue at Rutgers and No. 21 Ohio State at Iowa.

In the Pac-12 the six-match slate has No. 4 Stanford at Colorado, No. 6 Oregon at UCLA and unranked but unbeaten Arizona State home for No. 7 Washington State.

The SEC also has six matches, with No. 3 Florida home for Georgia, No. 14 Tennessee at No. 22 Kentucky, No. 16 Arkansas home for Texas A&M and No. 24 Auburn home for Ole Miss.

Want to watch? We have the conference-by-conference schedule with viewing links for any match that is being shown in our VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings.

VBM MEDIA POLL: Our inaugural VolleyballMag.com Super 16 Media Poll comes out Monday. 

This will be a first in evaluating and ranking NCAA women’s volleyball. We’ve put together a panel of the top media experts around the country who follow the sport closely and they’re excited about this finally happening. It’s something we’ve kicked around for years, but the time is now.

BIG 12: BYU (13-1, 2-0) cruised to a 25-17, 25-17, 25-15 victory over visiting Baylor (6-5, 0-1) as the Cougars hit .378. Erin Livingston had 13 kills, hit .348 and aded an ace, a block and a dig. Whitney McEwan-Llarenas had seven kills in 13 errorless attacks, an ace and eight blocks. Whitney Bower, who had three kills in six…

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