Volleyball Today: SMU upsets Nebraska; Penn State wins; USA advances in seat count

That’s why we only conduct the media survey after the pre-conference games have concluded.

The AVCA coaches survey is a great way to generate interest, but in the world of NCAA Division I volleyball, where all the top teams play each other from the start, rankings mean little this early in the season.

Namely, on Tuesday, the day after No. 18 Minnesota defeated No. 1 Texas:

— SMU, which narrowly won the poll, not only defeated visiting No. 2 Nebraska, but the Mustangs swept the Huskers right out of a packed Moody Coliseum in Dallas.

— Seventh-ranked Penn State crushed visiting Louisville, the fourth-ranked team.

Third-place Pittsburgh, which could be No. 1 next week, swept Buffalo, and 23rd-place Baylor did the same to Rice.

And our long national nightmare is over: Saint Peters snapped a 38-game losing streak that began in 2022 with a five-set victory in its season opener against NJIT.

We have a gallery of photos from Zach Schuster from Sunday-Monday’s State Farm Women’s Volleyball Showcase in Milwaukee, which featured teams from Texas, Stanford, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Click on any photo to see it full size.

Also in this edition of Volleyball Today, the U.S. women’s national soccer team defeated Italy to advance to the semifinals of the Paralympic Games in Paris.

Wednesday will feature 18 NCAA Division I games, including Stanford, which will finally split from Wisconsin after a week. The Cardinal, which beat Milwaukee last Friday and then Minnesota and Wisconsin, will play No. 24 Marquette. Marquette opened with a win at Eastern Illinois.

Kansas, which remains in 13th place in the rankings, hosts Wichita State. American, one of five teams with a 4-0 record, plays Coppin State. Michigan is home to Eastern Michigan.

Later Wednesday, we’ll have our first weekly Zoom with Emily Ehman of the Big Ten Network and ESPN, who covered both the tournament in Milwaukee and the SMU-Nebraska game. AVCA Executive Director Jaime Gordon will join us to talk about, among other things, how we can shorten college volleyball games.

SMU achieves biggest victory in history

SMU from the ACC went head-to-head with the Huskers and routed visiting Nebraska from the Big Ten 25-23, 25-21, 25-18.

Naya Shime led the Mustangs with nine kills. She had six errors, 10 digs and five blocks, one solo. Maya Tabron had nine kills, added an ace, four digs and two blocks. Natalie Foster had eight kills, hit .462 and had five of her team’s seven aces and two digs. Jamison Wheeler had six kills, two assists, a block and 13 digs. Nnedi Okammor had four kills without errors on 11 attacks and nine blocks, one solo.

Celia Cullen had two kills, 29 assists, a block and five digs as her team hit .242.

SMU opened the season with a five-set loss to Hawaii, where it then beat San Diego in four. The Mustangs finished 26-7 in 2023, 18-1 at American Athletics and beat Texas State in the first round of the NCAA tournament before being swept by Texas. SMU then moved on to the ACC, where coaches picked the Mustangs to finish sixth this season behind Pitt, Stanford, Louisville, Georgia Tech and Florida State.

Nebraska (3-1), which last lost to an unranked nonconference opponent in 2014, hit .171, .070 in the third set. Merritt Beason led the Huskers with nine kills but hit .107. She had a dig and three blocks. Andi Jackson, currently hitting .519 on the season, had eight kills on 12 errorless attempts, an ace and six blocks. Harper Murray had six kills but five errors, along with two digs and two blocks. Lindsay Krause had five kills with one error on 16 attacks, two blocks and two digs.

All over the country

Penn State (3-0) crushed the guests Louisville (2-1) 25-15, 25-19, 25-13 as the Nittany Lions shot .358. Jess Mruzik led the way with 13 kills, hitting .367 with an assist, nine rebounds and three blocks, one solo. Caroline Jurevicious had 11 kills and two blocks, and Camryn Hannah had eight kills with one error on 16 attacks, along with an assist, two aces and three blocks.

Louisville, which opened the season with victories over Wisconsin and Tennessee, hit .091 with 28 kills and 19 errors in 99 attacks. Charitie Luper had eight kills and six rebounds, and Cara Cresse had eight kills, an assist, a rebound and two blocks. PK Kong had four kills on eight errorless attempts and three blocks, one solo. Defending ACC Player of the Year Anna DeBeer continued to struggle offensively. She had two kills but seven errors and is hitting a season-low. DeBeer had a block and eight rebounds…

Saint Peterwho lost their last eight games in 2022 to finish 1-31, and are 0-30 in 2023. On Tuesday, the Peacocks won 25-22, 14-25, 25-20, 27-29, 15-11 in NJIT They won away from home for the first time since 2019.

Maliyah Labrie led the way with 23 kills, an ace, seven rebounds and two blocks. Penelope Rivera Morales had 15 kills, four rebounds and six blocks. Elena Bilhartz, who had one kill and two errors in 16 attacks, had nine blocks, two solo. Lagean Colon had 25 rebounds and two assists.

Saint Peters, which came from 14-8 down in the third set, fell behind 10-6 in the fifth set before winning six straight points.

Saint Peters also had winless seasons in 2011 (0-31), 2016 (0-25) and 2017 (0-30) …

Pitt (3-0) hit .516 in crushing visitors Buffalo (3-1) 25-13, 25-10, 25-15. The Panthers had 40 kills with seven errors on 64 attacks and 10 aces with just six errors. Valeria Vazquez Gomez and Blaire Bayless had seven kills each, and Olivia Babcock had six … Bay (4-0) scored 13 points thanks to Elise McGhee, who had an ace, three rebounds and a solo block in a 25-20, 25-19, 25-23 win Rice … Chestnut reached 4-0 with a victory Fair as the Tigers hit .369. Lauren Dreves had 10 kills with one error in 20 attempts, an assist, an ace, four rebounds and a block… Illinois overcome the visit State of Illinois 25-13, 20-25, 25-18, 25-18. The Illini, who hit .342, got 12 points from Averie Hernandez, who made one error in 37 attacks. She had seven rebounds and four blocks, one solo. Freshman center Ashlyn Philpot had 11 points with one error in 18 attacks and a game-high 10 blocks, two solo, and Raina Terry had 11 points with two errors in 30 attacks, along with four aces, six rebounds and three blocks, one solo. Caitlyn Little had 18 points for Illinois State…

Old Dominion defeat William and Mary in five, but W&M’s Maddie Meyers had 24 kills, three assists, an ace, 15 saves and three blocks… LIU defeat Quinnipiac in five behind 21 deadly attacks by Camelia Melendez, who had two aces, 12 saves and two blocks… Elona defeat Gardner-Webb in five, as Sydney Love had 24 kills and hit .357 and Keira Kasten had 22 kills and hit .450… Stephen F. Austin improved to 4-0 with the victory The highest point as Katherine Hoffman had 16 kills, a .500 shooting percentage, three rebounds and two blocks… Reaghan Thompson had 23 kills in Northwest State five-set victory over Stan Jackson. She had two assists, two aces, 14 saves and three blocks… Louisiana Technological achieved .383 success rate in the series Alcorn State … Northern Colorado won in four state of colorado, which was attended by 4362 viewers, behind 14 kills and three blocks from Maddie Davies and 13 kills from Alayna Tessena.

USA is in the semi-finals

The U.S. team defeated Italy 25-21, 25-23, 25-15 and will face Brazil in the semifinals on Thursday.

Heather Erickson led the way with 15 kills, three blocks and an ace. Lora Webster had four kills, five blocks and an ace. Holloway Bridge had seven kills and a block.

In the other semi-final, China will play Canada.