Volleyball Today: Abercrombie, De La Cruz dominate AU; NCAA, pro updates

With two weeks left in the five-week season, Brittany Abercrombie and Bethania De La Cruz-Mejia are running away from the field in Athletes Unlimited Volleyball. And they’ll be captains again in week four along with Morgan Hentz and Leketor Member-Meneh. A recap of Monday’s action follows.

So does a short report on NCAA Division volleyball, which had five matches Monday, including No. 13 Arizona State sweeping a non-conference match with Grand Canyon.

We’ve got a look at Tuesday’s schedule and the AVCA top 25.

And also in this edition of Volleyball Today we have our weekly update on USA women playing professionally in other countries.

Abercrombie, De La Cruz-Mejia maintain AU Volleyball leads

Brittany Abercrombie leads the standings with 2,914 points after Monday’s conclusion of the third week of play. Bethania De La Cruz-Mejia follows with 2,709, and libero Morgan Hentz vaulted four spots into third and has 2,021. Those four and Leketor Member-Meneh will be next week’s captains for matches Friday, Sunday and Monday.

In the opener Monday in Mesa, Arizona, Team Member-Meneh beat Team (Dani) Drews 76-59. Madi Kingdon Rishel led Member-Meneh with 14 kills, an ace, 15 digs and two solo blocks. Kayla Haneline had nine kills with no errors in 14 attacks, an ace, a dig and seven solo blocks. 

Read the first match recap here.

In the nightcap, a battle between the leaders saw Abercrombie come out ahead 75-72 after the teams tied 70-70. Abercrombie won the first two sets, 25-21, 26-24, but De La Cruz-Mejia won the third 25-19, setting up a first-to-five tiebreaker. Abercrombie led her team with 19 kills, four digs and two solo blocks. Temi Thomas-Ailara had 14 kills, hit .385, and had seven digs and a solo block. De La Cruz led her squad with 19 kills, an assist, an ace, seven digs and a block.

Read the second match recap here.

NCAA volleyball Tuesday

There are 14 Division I matches Tuesday including the only unbeaten team left, South Dakota State. The 18-0 Jackrabbits put their 7-0 Summit League record on the line at home against South Dakota (16-11, 5-2). The team SDSU plays next, Denver (8-90, 3-4), is home for Oral Roberts ((4-16, 2-5). North Dakota State (7-9, 3-4) is at North Dakota (8-10, 1-6) and Kansas City (3-15, 1-6) is at Omaha (8-10, 6-1). 

There is MACtion, where three teams are tied at the top of the standings at 7-2, Central…