The last time a team went through the NCAA Division I volleyball season unbeaten was 2009, when Penn State, in the midst of a four-year title run, had back-to-back 38-0 finishes.
The next chance it can happen again is in 2023, because Wednesday night in Ames, Iowa, unranked Iowa State knocked off visiting No. 1 and previously unbeaten Texas.
The 18-25, 27-25, 12-25, 27-25, 15-10 victory was an obvious huge boost for Iowa State, which is No. 48 in the NCAA RPI this week and needs all the good wins it can get to put itself into NCAA Tournament at-large consideration.
Winless no more: Saint Peter’s beat Manhattan to claim a victory after starting 0-23.
Georgia not only won its SEC match at No. 11 Florida, it swept the Gators.
Second-ranked Nebraska swept at No. 12 Purdue, No. 6 Ohio State swept Illinois, No. 9 Minnesota swept at Iowa, No. 14 Baylor beat Texas Tech, Ball State took over sole possession of the MAC West by beating Toledo, and then there was Lily Felts.
Until three matches ago, Felts, the Tennessee grad transfer, had a total of 127 kills for FGCU this season. But in the last three matches, Felts has 66, including a remarkable performance Wednesday in a sweep at Stetson when she had 27 kills with one error in 34 attacks. What’s more, in those three matches, she has made seven errors in 128 attacks.
The recaps and top performances follow, but first a look at Thursday’s schedule, which is relatively light but has some key mid-major battles on tap.
The two East leaders have a big Sun Belt battle when Coastal Carolina goes to James Madison. They are both 7-1, a game up on idle Georgia Southern (4-2). Texas State and South Alabama are both 7-1 in the West and they’re off, too.
WAC-leading UTRGV is at Grand Canyon and second-place Utah Valley is home for Utah Tech as part of a six-match WAC slate.
Big South leader Campbell is home for Charleston Southern and second-place High Point is home for USC Upstate.
Conference-leading San Jose State, 9-0 in the Mountain West, plays at second-place UNLV, which is 7-1. Colorado State, tied with UNLV, is home for Boise State.
Eastern Illinois, a half game back but tied in the loss column for the Ohio Valley lead with idle UT Martin, is at Morehead State.
The two Southland leaders are on the road as HCU goes to Nicholls and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi is at Southeastern Louisiana.
Summit League-leading South Dakota (7-1) is at Denver (6-3), second-place Omaha (7-2) is home for…
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