International Volleyball

Volleyball Today: Just another NCAA Friday, with array of upsets and reverse sweeps

Volleyball Today: Just another NCAA Friday, with array of upsets and reverse sweeps

Indiana’s Ava Vickers hits against the block of Washington’s Katy Wessels/Stephen Burns photo

Fridays seem never to disappoint in NCAA Division I volleyball for unpredictability and excitement.

And here you go, after a Friday in which most teams were playing their first conference matches of the 2024 season:

Unranked Auburn not only won at VolleyballMag Super 16 Media Poll No. 13 Kentucky, the Tigers pulled off a reverse sweep.

SMU, No. 23 in the AVCA top 25, swept at VBM No. 12 Georgia Tech.

Baylor, No. 19 in the AVCA poll, knocked off VBM No. 14 Arizona State.

UC Irvine improved to 2-43 against Hawai’i by also pulling off a reverse sweep in Honolulu.

Virginia improved to 11-1 with a reverse ACC sweep at Wake Forest.

Syracuse (12-1) took its first loss by getting swept at North Carolina and so did UConn (12-1), which was swept by Marquette.

N.C. Central won a MEAC reverse sweep against visiting Norfolk State.

Line of the night: Tori Hester had 30 kills for Troy in its five-set Sun Belt win over South Alabama. She hit .361 and had an ace, 13 digs and three blocks.

Recaps and top performances follow in this all-NCAA edition of Volleyball Today, but first a look at Saturday’s schedule.

NCAA volleyball Saturday

There are five Big Ten matches, starting with VBM No. Purdue desperately needing a victory at No. 16 Minnesota. Seventh-ranked Wisconsin is at Northwestern, No. 11 Oregon is home for Indiana, Washington entertains Illinois and Iowa goes to Maryland. 

The two Big 12 matches show AVCA No. 17 BYU home for Texas Tech and West Virginia at Iowa State. 

AVCA No. 25 Miami was supposed to play host to No. 18 Florida State in the lone ACC match of the day, but because of the hurricane that one is at noon Eastern Sunday. 

There are no SEC matches on this football Saturday.

The only other ranked team in action is No. 24 Dayton, which plays host to Rhode Island.

Unbeatens watch: In addition to Washington, 12-0 South Dakota State is at Denver. San Jose State (9-0) was scheduled to be home for Boise State, but Boise State has forfeited. 

This is the statement from Boise State Athletics

“Boise State volleyball will not play its scheduled match at San José State on Saturday, Sept. 28. Per Mountain West Conference policy, the Conference will record the match as a forfeit and a loss for Boise State. The Broncos will next compete on Oct. 3 against Air Force.”

No other explanation was given, although news reports and comments on social media

suggest that Boise State won’t…

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