International Volleyball

Volleyball Today: Stanford sweeps Texas; Louisville tops Creighton; other ranked teams win

Volleyball Today: Stanford sweeps Texas; Louisville tops Creighton; other ranked teams win

Washington’s Katy Wessels attacks against UC Davis/Stephen Burns photo

Second-ranked Stanford laid down the hammer Sunday on visiting No. 6 Texas and swept the visiting Longhorns right out of Maples Pavilion.

No. 4 Louisville had to go five to defeat No. 9 Creighton, which lost the first two sets before turning it around.

The other five ranked teams in action Sunday — No. 11 Kansas, No. 16 Tennessee, No. 18 Baylor, No. 20 Miami and No. 21 Florida State — all won.

And Hampton, poor Hampton, was so, so close to breaking a 46-match losing streak.

There are just three Division I matches on the Monday schedule, Tennessee at Wofford, Michigan State at Eastern Michigan and UIC going across town to Chicago State.

We will have a separate story on the second day of the AVP League.

Stanford, Louisville win big battles

Stanford (7-0) was playing at home for the first time with no time to get comfy in Palo Alto. After the 25-16, 25-21, 25-22 victory, the Cardinal were set to fly Monday morning to Nebraska, where they play the No. 5 Huskers on Wednesday. 

So far this season Stanford has beaten (rankings at the time of the matches) No. 18 Minnesota, No. 6 Wisconsin, No. 24 Marquette and now two-time defending NCAA-champion Texas, which bounced the Cardinal from the 2023 NCAA Tournament in the regional final. 

Stanford hit .340 and had five aces and 13 serving errors, while Texas (3-3) hit .125 and had three aces and eight errors.

Elia Rubin led Stanford with 12 kills, hitting .310, and had a block and six digs. For the season, Rubin is averaging 4.23 kills per set and hitting .304.

Jordyn Harvey had 10 kills with two errors in 20 attacks, two blocks and a dig, and Sami Francis, who had five blocks, and Ipar Kurt had seven kills each. Francis had one error in 14 attacks and is hitting .456 for the season. The other middle, Lizzy Andrew, had five kills in eight errorless attacks. Setter Kami Miner had three kills — including the match-ender — in four errorless tries, 35 assists two aces, two blocks and 10 digs.

Madi Skinner led Texas with 12 kills, but hit .129 and had no aces and three errors to go with two blocks and seven digs. In that 2023 regional final, she had 24 kills, hit .383, and had two aces. Ayden Ames had six kills with one error in 10 attacks and five blocks. Their teammates combined for 12 kills and 10 errors … 

Louisville (7-1) battled to a 25-18, 25-20, 10-25, 15-25, 15-8 victory over visiting Creighton (7-2). Charitie Luper had 17 kills — four in…

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