Fifth-ranked Wisconsin survived an incredible second-set Nebraska rally and ended up sweeping the visiting top-ranked Huskers on Wednesday night in a Big Ten match that pitted last year’s NCAA finalists.
Illinois gave itself new life with an upset of visiting No. 11 Penn State.
Florida broke the SEC first-place tie as the No. 14 Gators crushed visiting Auburn, No. 16 Marquette had to rally to win its Big East match at DePaul in five, No. 2 Texas hit .506 and held Texas Tech to a total of 36 points in their Big 12 match, and No. 4 Louisville overwhelmed Notre Dame in the ACC.
Recaps and top performances follow.
There are 33 matches on Thursday’s NCAA Division I schedule, including four in the West Conference, where No. 3 San Diego goes to Portland and No. 17 BYU is home for Gonzaga. Gonzaga last week upset Pepperdine, which knocked the Waves out of the top 25. Pepperdine is home for Santa Clara and San Francisco is at Loyola Marymount, which is alone in second place, two games back of San Diego and a game up on BYU in the win column.
The lone Big Ten match has Maryland at Iowa.
UTRGV holds a one-game lead in the WAC and plays host to Stephen F. Austin, which is two games back in third. Second-place Utah Valley, a game behind UTRGV, is at Tarleton State.
League-leading South Dakota is off, but the four Summit League matches include second-place North Dakota State at Kansas City and third-place Omaha at St. Thomas.
Portland State, alone in first in the Big Sky, is home for Northern Arizona.
Big West-leading Hawai’i is at UC Riverside.
UNLV and San Jose State are tied atop the Mountain West at 9-1. UNLV goes to Boise State, while SJSU is at Air Force. Colorado State, a game back, is home for San Diego State.
Co-Southland leaders HCU and McNeese are both home as HCU plays Northwestern State and McNcNeese plays Nicholls. Three teams are tied for third just a game back and one of them has to fall behind Southeastern Louisiana plays host to New Orleans. The other, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, is home for Texas A&M-Commerce.
Want to watch a match? We have the viewing links on the VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings page.
BIG TEN: Wisconsin’s 25-23, 25-23, 25-18 victory that left the Badgers 16-3 overall and tied with Nebraska (18-2) and Ohio State for the league lead at 10-1. In a fierce defensive battle that saw Wisconsin hit .207 and Nebraska .162, Sarah Franklin had 21 kills for the Badgers. She hit .381 and had a…
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