International Volleyball

Wisconsin wins at Penn St., Texas claims Big 12 title, San Diego wins the WCC

Wisconsin wins at Penn St., Texas claims Big 12 title, San Diego wins the WCC

Third-ranked Wisconsin won at No. 14 Penn State in an epic — that might be redundant when talking about the Big Ten these days — five-set battle. 

Top-ranked Texas fought off No. 15 Baylor to win the Big 12 title and the NCAA Tournament bid that goes with it. 

Second-ranked San Diego did the same in the West Coast Conference when it won at Pepperdine.

No. 16 Marquette not only beat No. 11 Creighton, it swept the visiting Bluejays. The Big East co-champions will likely play against next Saturday for the conference tournament title.

In the SEC, No. 10 Florida swept visiting No. 18 Kentucky to take the SEC lead. They play again Sunday.

There were also seven conference tournament titles — and the NCAA Division I Tournament bids that go with them — claimed on Saturday with 11 more to go Sunday. Read all about them here.

The regular-season recaps and top performances follow, but first a look at Sunday’s schedule:

The battle for the top continues in the Big Ten when No. 5 Ohio State is home for Indiana, No. 6 Nebraska is home for No. 19 Purdue, No. 9 Minnesota goes to Rutgers, Iowa is at Illinois and Michigan State is at Northwestern.

There’s a full slate in the Pac-12, including No. 12 Oregon home for USC, No. 21 Washington ho home for Utah and No. 25 Washington State home for Colorado. Arizona State is at Cal and UCLA is at Oregon State.

In the SEC, where Florida at Kentucky are back at it in Gainesivlle, Mississippi State is at Tennessee, Alabama is at Arkansas and Texas A&M is at Missouri.

There are two ACC matches when Miami goes to Duke and Wake Forest is at Virginia.

Hawai’i can clinch the Big West title and the NCAA bid when it plays host to CSU Bakersfield.

Both ranked American Athletic teams play when No. 23 Houston is home for third-place SMU and No. 24 UCF goes to Temple. Houston has won 18 in a row and holds a one-game lead over UCF. SMU is two games behind UCF, so it still has a chance to finish second.

Want to watch a match? We have the viewing links on the VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings page.

Penn State’s Kashauna Williams hits against Wisconsin/Craig Houtz photo

BIG TEN: Wisconsin (23-3, 17-1) won 25-19, 22-25, 25-23, 18-25, 15-12 at Penn State (22-7, 11-7) and it was every bit as competitive as the scoreline indicates. 

And Wisconsin middle Danielle Hart was remarkable. She had 13 kills with no errors in 20 attacks, four match in a row without an error. Hart also had eight blocks and…

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