Tennessee and Florida won in the SEC, Ohio State and Illinois got Big Ten victories, and Cincinnati won in the Big 12 on a relatively quiet Wednesday in NCAA Division I women’s volleyball.
The recaps and top performances follow, but first a look at Thursday’s schedule and that includes Baylor-Texas.
Always the benchmark in the Big 12, the battles between the Bears and Longhorns almost always decide the league. In this case, VBM No. 5 Texas (14-3, 9-0) is the host for back-to-back matches with AVCA No. 20 Baylor (12-7, 6-3) in Austin’s Gregory Gym.
However, in this one year where VBM No. 9 BYU joined the league and before Texas and Oklahoma go to the SEC next year, Baylor has to win both to stay in the race. BYU (18-3) is tied for second with UCF (16-4, 7-2), which lost twice at Baylor last week. BYU goes to Kansas State (11-8, 5-5) and UCF is home for TCU (12-9, 5-5). Also, VBM No. 16 Kansas (14-4, 5-3) is home for West Virginia (9-13, 2-7). The Big 12 has seven teams in the NCAA RPI top 40, including Iowa State at 36 and Houston at 40. TCU, at 54, is up against it.
The lone Big Ten match has AVCA No. 16 Purdue home for Minnesota, which at RPI 48, needs some wins.
The ACC, Pac-12 and SEC are idle and so are the Big East, Conference USA and Atlantic 10, the other conferences with ranked teams in either poll.
In the Big Sky, Sacramento holds a one-game lead over Weber State. Sac State is at Northern Colorado and Weber State is at Eastern Washington.
Utah State puts its two-game Mountain West on the line at Colorado State.
Southland-leading Southeastern Louisiana, a game up in the win column on Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, is home for Nicholls, while TAMUCC is home for Houston Christian.
Stephen F. Austin leads Grand Canyon by a game in the WAC. SFA goes to UTRGV, which is two games off the lead, and GCU is home for Utah Tech.
Pepperdine leads the West Coast Conference by two games over Loyola Marymount and San Diego. Pepperdine is home for Saint Mary’s and LMU is at San Diego. San Diego, which won the WCC last year and went to the national semifinals, has an RPI of 67, so the Toreros need a win.
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.
Both ranked SEC teams in action won. No. 12 Tennessee (17-3, 8-2) stayed a…
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