Miami stuns GT; K-State beats Iowa St.; Rutgers snaps skid; 31 more kills for Gurshing
Unranked Miami beat visiting No. 10 Georgia Tech in four in the ACC.
Unranked Kansas State won at No. 25 Iowa State in the Big 12.
There’s a three-way atop the Big Ten after Ohio State thumped Northwestern. Also in the B1G, Rutgers snapped its 10-match skid by beating Iowa, its first conference sweep since 2019.
Yale had to rally to beat Penn and stay unbeaten in the Ivy League, but Loyola is no longer unbeaten in the Atlantic 10 after losing to Dayton.
Normally the DI line of the night would go to Miëtte Veldman of James Madison, who had 30 kills in a five-set Sun Belt victory at Marshall. She had three errors in 50 attacks and hit .540 to go with two assists, an ace, 16 digs and two blocks, one solo.
But Youngstown State’s Paula Gursching did it again: The German outside had 31 kills as the Penguins won their fifth in a row, a four-set Horizon League victory at Robert Morris. Gursching had nine errors in 70 attacks to hit .314 and added an assist, two aces, two blocks and 10 digs. Her 31 kills and 70 attacks are both four-set school records.
And we normally don’t include Division II, but Barry College took over first place in the Sunshine State Conference when the Buccaneers beat Tampa in five and Diana Akopova set the school record with 42 kills. Akopova, a sophomore outside hitter from Mozdock, Russia, transferred to Barry when her coach, Leonid Yellin, left upstate New York for the Florida school. Akopova had nine errors in 96 attacks to hit .344.
The recaps and top performances follow, but first a look at the key matches in NCAA Division I volleyball on Saturday.
Second-ranked San Diego has a West Coast Conference match at San Francisco. Also in the WCC, No. 18 BYU is at Santa Clara, Pepperdine is at Pacific, Loyola Marymount is at Saint Mary’s and Gonzaga is at Portland.
Sixth-ranked Ohio State is at Michigan State in the only Big Ten match.
There are three Big 12 matches as No. 11 Baylor plays host to Kansas, TCU goes to Texas Tech and Oklahoma is at West Virginia.
No. 17 Marquette plays a Big East match against Villanova.
The SEC has four matches, including Ole Miss at South Carolina, Mississippi State at Alabama, LSU at Tennessee and Texas A&M at Auburn.
Something has to give in the WAC where the teams tied for first play when UTRGV goes to Utah Valley.
The top two teams in the MAAC square off when first-placce Fairfield goes to Iona.
Among the teams putting their unbeaten conference records on the line are Hofstra (12-0) in the CAA playing host to Northeastern, Wright State (15-0) in the Horizon entertaining Purdue Fort Wayne, Northern Iowa (14-0) in the Missouri Valley at Bradley, and Yale in the Ivy League, which goes to Princeton. Yale is 11-0, while Princeton is 10-1.
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ACC: Miami (15-9, 8-5), sitting at No. 49 in the NCAA RPI, got a much-needed upset of Georgia Tech (17-5, 10-3), which dropped two games back of second-place Louisville. Miami won 18-25, 25-22, 25-22, 25-22 despite hitting .172. Flormarie Heredia Colon led with 18 kills as she hit .343 and had two aces, two digs and two blocks. Angela Grieve had 15 kills but 16 errors and Janice Leao had 13 kills, hit .333 and had five blocks. Georgia Tech’s Julia Bergmann had 16 kills, six aces, four blocks and 10 digs. The Yellow Jackets had won six in a row …
Seventh-ranked Pittsburgh (23-2, 13-0) won its 16th in a row, a sweep at Syracuse (10-13, 6-7). The Panthers hit .312 as Courtney Buzzerio led with 14 kills. She hit .444 after having two errors in 27 attacks go with two aces and three digs …
Louisville (21-2, 12-1) kept pace with a sweep of visiting NC State (12-12, 6-7) …
Boston College (17-10, 5-8) beat visiting Virginia (11-13, 3-10) in five despite 24 kills from Grace Turner, who had an assist, two aces, eight digs and a block … North Carolina (15-9, 7-6) swept at Notre Dame (9-14, 4-9), Virginia Tech (11-14, 4-10) knocked off visiting Duke (13-11, 4-9) in four and Florida State (16-8, 8-5) beat visiting Clemson (12-13, 3-10) in four as the Seminoles hit .359 with four players getting nine or more kills. Khori Louis had 14 kills with two errors in 19 attacks and four blocks, one solo.
BIG TEN: Ohio State (16-5, 12-1) rolled to a 25-22, 25-12, 25-18 win at Northwestern (17-8, 6-7), ending the Wildcats’ four-match winning streak and pulling into a first-place tie with idle Nebraska and Wisconsin. Ohio State hit .316 and got 13 kills from Jenaisya Moore, who had one error in 24 attacks to hit .500 …
No. 9 Minnesota (14-7, 9-4) swept visiting Michigan (14-9, 5-8) as the Gophers hit .310 in the 25-21, 25-20, 25-22 victory. Taylor Landfair had 20 kills with one error in 38 attacks to hit .500 and had an ace, five digs and a block …
No. 14 Purdue (17-6, 8-5) won in four at Michigan State (10-14, 1-12) as Raven Colvin had 16 kills with no errors in 23 attacks in the 18-25, 26-24, 25-17, 25-17 victory. Colvin added an ace, seven digs and four blocks …
Rutgers (8-17, 2-11) got out of the basement as it swept visiting Iowa (7-17, 1-12) 25-14, 25-14, 25-23.
PAC-12: Stanford improved to 17-4, 12-1 in the league as the Cardinal won for the 11th time in a row, a 25-22, 25-15, 22-25, 25-11 sweep of visiting Utah (13-11, 6-7). Kendall Kipp had 21 kills, hit .378 and had an assist, an ace, three blocks and seven digs …
No, 16 Oregon (16-5, 10-3) hit .402 and kept pace and stayed two games back as the Ducks knocked off visiting No. 19 Washington (16-7, 8-5). Oregon swept 25-13, 25-19, 25-18 for its sixth win in a row. Mimi Colyer had 14 kills, hit .310 and had an assist, four digs and two blocks, one solo …
Washington State (17-7, 9-4) hit .327 and swept at Oregon State (7-16, 2-11) and stayed in a tie with USC (17-7, 9-4), which beat visiting Arizona State (13-11, 3-10) in four. Skylar Fields, back from an injury, led USC with 21 kills, an ace, six digs and three blocks, one solo … Colorado (15-7, 7-5) won at Cal (7-16, 0-13) in four … UCLA (12-10, 6-7) hit .328 and beat visiting Arizona (13-11, 3-10) in four as Anna Dodson had 15 kills, hitting .478. elan McCall had 15 kills, two aces, eight digs and a solo block and Charitie Luper had 13 kills, hit .303 and had an ace, five digs and a solo block.
AROUND THE NATION: In the only Big 12 match Kansas State (13-11, 4-7) disappointed the fifth-largest crowd in Iowa State history by upsetting the Cyclones (17-8, 8-3) in four. Four Wildcats had 11 or more kills as their team hit .313. Sydney Bolding had 14 kills, hit .414 and had an assist, an ace, three digs and five blocks. Iowa State, into the rankings just this week, go 15 kills from Eleanor Holthaus, who hit .333 and had an assist, two aces, 19 digs and a solo block. K-State swept Iowa a month earlier …
The lone SEC match saw No. 12 Florida sweep visiting Missouri as the Gators hit .314 to improve to 19-4, 11-2. They’re now alone atop the conference, a half game up in the win column over idle Kentucky. Marina Markova had 16 kills, hit .462 and had a block. Merritt Beason had 13 kills, hit .310 and had three blocks and five digs, and Gabbi Essix had nine kills with one error in 12 attacks and five blocks …
Both ranked Big East teams swept as No. 13 Creighton hit .360 and routed visiting Providence and No. 17 Marquette hit .366 and crushed visiting Georgetown …
Both ranked American Athletic Conference teams won, but while No. 23 Houston swept at Cincinnati to maintain its one-game lead, second-place and No. 25 UCF got 29 kills from McKenna Melville as it had to battle to a four-set win over visiting SMU. Abbie Jackson had 14 kills, three aces, eight digs and a block. Melville had six errors in 55 attacks and hit .418 and added an ace, 11 digs and a solo block … Also in the AAC, Kayley Cassaday had 24 kills with one error in 52 attacks for Tulsa in a four-set win at Temple. She added 10 digs and four blocks, one solo …
Both ranked Conference USA teams won as No. 21 Rice hit .347 and swept visiting North Texas and No. 22 Western Kentucky hit .356 and did the same at Florida Atlantic. Rice’s Satasha Kostelecky had 10 kills with one error in 13 attacks, an assist and three blocks. WKU’s Paige Briggs had 17 kills with no errors in 25 attacks, an assist, two aces, six digs, and two blocks …
First-place Hawai’i ended visting Long Beach State’s nine-match winning streak and second-place UC Santa Barbara stayed a game back as it swept at CSU Bakersfield in the Big West. Cal Poly is tied with Long Beach after sweeping CSUN …
Yale is 19-1, 11-0 in the Ivy League, but had to work hard for its 17th victory in row, 25-20, 20-25, 25-16, 23-25, 15-11 at Penn. Yale had four players with 10 or more kills, 15 by Audrey Leak, who had an assist, three digs and seven blocks, one solo. Princeton (18-3, 10-1) kept pace, setting up their match with Yale on Saturday, but Princeton had to go the distance, too, against visiting Brown 19-25, 25-22, 25-15, 21-25, 18-16. Five Tigers had 11 or more kills, 17 by Lucia Scalamandre, who had no errors in 28 attacks, an ace, six blocks and three digs. Brown’s Sophia Miller had 24 kills, hit .400 and had an assist, an ace, two blocks and nine digs …
OVC leader UT Martin swept visiting Morehead State to keep its one-game lead in the loss column over Tennessee Tech, which won in four at Eastern Illinois, UTM’s Logan Wallick had 17 kills in 32 errorless swings and had three blocks, one solo … Colgate held its one-game lead over idle Army West Point atop the Patriot League with its eighth win in a row, a sweep of visiting Holy Cross. Colgate hit .481 with 44 kills and six errors in 79 attacks … Also in the Patriot, Loyola Maryland lost in four in Lafayette despite getting 25 kills from Lauren Link, who had an assist, an ace, 19 digs and a block …
Texas State broke the tie atop the Sun Belt West with Troy by beating the visitors in four. Jada Gardner had 14 kills and Janell Fitzgerald and Lauren Teske 12 each … James Madison’s lead is now three in the East after winning in five at Marshall as Miëtte Veldman went off for a career-high 30 kills. She had three errors in 50 attacks and hit .540 to go with two assists, an ace, 16 digs and two blocks, one solo. Marshall’s Macy McElhaney had 19 kills, hit .390 and added five assists, an ace and 15 digs … Also in the Sun Belt, Southern Miss won in five at Louisiana-Lafayette as Mia Wesley had 27 kills, hit .328 and had two assists, three aces, even digs and four blocks, one solo …
Ohio is 10-4 and Bowling Green 11-3 atop the MAC East after Ohio got swept at Toledo, which hit .304, and Bowling Green beat visiting Akron in five. Mia Tyler had 15 kills for BGSU, hitting .414. MAC West leader Ball State hit .345 and swept Kent State … MEAC leader Coppin State hit .368 and swept UMES … There was a power outage so the UIC at Murray State match in the Missouri Valley was called off … In Evansville’s Valley win at Missouri State, Alondra Vazquez and Giula Cardona had 19 kills each … NEC leader Sacred Heart swept at Merrimack … Idle Florida A&M (12-0) is still atop the SWAC standings, but Alabama State (13-1) cut the gap by winning in four at Bethune-Cookman … ETSU’s SoCon lead grew to three games with a four-set win over visiting second-place Western Carolina. Lundyn Coffman had eight kills, an assist and nine blocks, one solo …
Dayton dealt Loyola its first Atlantic 10 loss by beating the visiting Ramblers in five. Loyola, which moved to the A10 from the Missouri Valley, started 14-0 in its new conference. Lexie Almodovar had 18 kills, an ace, four blocks and six digs. Davidson is a game back after sweeping George Mason …
Liberty got 19 kills from Kate Phillips, who had two aces, 17 digs and a block, and won in four at North Alabama to keep its one-game ASUN lead over FGCU and Central Arkansas. FGCU hit .362 and swept visiting Eastern Kentucky as Lily Felts had 13 kills, hit .367 and had two aces, four digs and three blocks, one solo. Central Arkansas swept Queens …
Wright State improved to 23-3 and 15-0 in the Horizon League with its 18th win in a row, a sweep of IUPUI … Binghamton won the only America East match by sweeping NJIT. Tsvetelina Illieva had 13 kills with no errors in 25 attacks, two aces and five digs.
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