International Volleyball

Volleyball Today: Nebraska tops Minnesota; AVCA POY list pared to 14

Volleyball Today: Nebraska tops Minnesota; AVCA POY list pared to 14

Wisconsin’s Anna Smrek hits past USC’s Adonia Faumuina/Andy J. Gordon photo

Nebraska won for the 22nd time in a row as the No. 2 Huskers beat visiting No. 16 Minnesota in four sets in the Big Ten on Thursday.

There were no upsets and there were four five-set matches and, incredibly, none resulted in reverse sweeps in this season of the reverse sweep.

Line of the day: Red-hot Tori Hester had a season-high 35 kills in Troy’s Sun Belt loss to App State. She hit .291 and had four assists, an ace, nine digs and a block. It’s the third match in a row in which she’s 30 or more kills.

And the AVCA pared its national-player-of-the-year list to 14.

It’s all in this edition of Volleyball Today:

NCAA volleyball Friday

Two SEC teams riding winning streaks square off in the ACC when No. 21 Florida, which has won seven in a row, goes to No. 25 Missouri, which has won nine in a row. No. 13 Texas is at Auburn, Georgia is at Tennessee, Mississippi State goes to Alabama and Arkansas is at Ole Miss.

The only match of the eight in the ACC involving two ranked teams has No. 1 Pittsburgh home for No. 22 Florida State. Third-ranked Louisville is home for Duke, No. 9 SMU is home for Miami, No. 7 Stanford is home for Virginia Tech, No. 16 Georgia Tech is home for Syracuse, Boston College is at Clemson, North Carolina is at Notre Dame and  Virginia is at Cal.

The lone Big 12 match has No. 18 TCU at Kansas State.

Two of the four Big Ten matches involve ranked teams when No. 5 Penn State is home for Illinois and No. 11 Oregon is home for Northwestern. Michigan goes to Michigan State and Maryland is at Ohio State.

Fourth-ranked Creighton has a Big East match home against Seton Hall as the Bluejays go for their 17th victory in a row.

No. 11 Dayton, which has won 19 in a row, has an Atlantic 10 match at Saint Louis.

The CAA logjam, with four teams at 13-3 atop the league, will lose at least one team when Towson is home for Hofstra. Delaware is home for Elon and Charleston is home for Northeastern. And Hampton, which is 0-28 and the only team in the nation without a victory, goes to William & Mary.

The two teams tied for the lead in the Ohio Valley, Lindenwood and Southeast Missouri, got at it again after Lindenwood beat SEMO in four on Friday.

Wisconsin’s Sarah Franklin blasts the shot past USC’s Tyrah Ariail/Jim Wolf photo

NCAA volleyball Thursday

Second-ranked Nebraska built its Big Ten lead over idle Penn State with a 25-12, 22-25, 25-22, 25-19 victory over visiting No. 16…

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