NCAA volleyball: 27 kills for Cardona; Utah State tops MWC; AVCA; Texas teams are tops

Giula Cardona had 27 kills for Evansville, Utah State took over the Mountain West lead, a Dane did great for Kennesaw State, we have the AVCA poll and POW, and teams from Texas are dominating.

All of that follows, but first a look at Wednesday’s NCAA Division I women’s volleyball schedule that includes two matches in the Big Ten, when AVCA No. 15 Purdue goes to Indiana and AVCA No. 24 Minnesota goes to Michigan. Purdue is 4-2, alone in fourth and two games back of the undefeated 6-0 threesome of Nebraska, Wisconsin and Penn State. Indiana is 3-3 and trying to stay in the mix, while Minnesota (2-4) is tied with Northwestern and Illinois. Michigan is 1-5.

There are three Big 12 matches, including AVCA No. 25 Iowa State at Kansas State. UCF which has won six in a row, is home for West Virginia and TCU goes to Oklahoma. Texas leads the league at 6-0, UCF is 5-0, Iowa State is 4-1 and TCU is 4-1.

The two SEC matches have Georgia at South Carolina and Missouri at Alabama.

The lone ACC match shows Virginia Tech at Wake Forest.

Villanova has a Big East match at Georgetown while Denver plays Omaha in The Summit League. Omaha has won five in a row to improve to 6-10 overall, 5-1 in the conference.

In the MAAC, the three matches include Saint Peters at Marist. Saint Peters is 0-19 and one of three winless teams remaining with 0-15 Le Moyne and 0-10 Hampton. 

Want to watch? We have the conference-by-conference schedule with viewing links for any match that is being shown in our VolleyballMag.com TV & Streaming Listings.

AVCA POLL, POW: The top six — Wisconsin, Nebraska, Stanford, Washington State, Oregon and Louisville — stayed the same this week in the AVCA Division I Women’s Volleyball Poll. The biggest jump was by Arizona State, up four sports to No. 19. Ohio State dropped out but no one entered because there was a tie for 25th last week. Click here to see the complete top 25.

The AVCA national player of the week is Madison Scheer of Auburn. The sophomore outside averaged 4.13 kills/set in a sweep of Florida and five-set SEC win at South Carolina. She hit .472. The last Auburn player to be so honored was Rani Whitson in 1996.

TEXAS, TEXAS, TEXAS: Teams from Texas rule. To wit:

— Texas, No. 6 in the VolleyballMag.com Super 16 Media Poll, tops the Big 12 at 6-0;

— Stephen F. Austin, of Nacogdoches, Texas, is 6-0, the lone team still unbeaten in the WAC;

— Rice, of Houston, is 7-0 and the only team still undefeated in American Athletic Conference play, and SMU, of Dallas, is a game back at 6-1;

— Southeastern Louisiana (7-1) leads the Southland Confernce, but Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (6-1) is a half-game off the lead and tied in the loss column.

MONDAY: Giula Cardona had 27 kills and Melanie Feliciano 20 as Evansville hit .372 and won its Missouri Valley home match over Indiana State in four. Cardona is second with 343 kills 16 behind NCAA leader Kayley Cassaday of Tulsa, and Cardona (5.44) leads Cassaday (5.36) atop the kills-per-set list. Against Indiana State, Cardona, junior from Argentina, hit .396 and had an ace, nine digs and a two blocks. Madisyn Steele had eight kills in 13 errorless attempts and Brooke Springer had seven in eight errorless attacks to go with six blocks, two solo … Utah Valley swept visiting Seattle U in the WAC as the Wolverines hit .378. Tori Ellis had 11 kills, hit .500 and had seven blocks … 

There were six SWAC matches. Alabama State (7-12, 6-0) still leads Jackson State (9-7, 5-0) by a game after the Hornets swept Southern. Jada Rhodes had 14 kills, hit .429, and had two assists, three aces, eight digs and three blocks. Jackson State swept Grambling as Hope Briggs had 10 kills with one error in 17 swings and two blocks, one solo … Also, Alabama A&M swept Alcorn, Florida A&M beat Prairie View in four as Iyonnie Sanford had 16 kills, hitting .343, Arkansas-Pine Bluff swept Mississippi Valley and Kennedy Reed had 18 kills, 16 digs and two blocks when Texas Southern beat Bethune-Cookman in four.

TUESDAY: Utah State (13-5, 6-1) broke a tie at the top of the Mountain West standings with a 25-22, 25-20, 21-25, 25-20 victory at Boise State (9-8, 5-2). Shelby Capllonch had 17 kills, an assist, a block and 10 digs. Tatum Still also had 17 kills, hit .441 and had an assist, three aces, four blocks and a dig. Kelsey Watson had four kills and eight blocks. Paige Bartsch had 18 kills for Boise State to go with two aces, an assist and 12 digs. Annie Kaminski had seven kills and seven blocks, one solo …

Kennesaw State swept visiting first-year ASUN member Queens as Manu Johnsen had 22 kills, the most ever in a three-set KSU match. Johnsen, a sophomore from Denmark, had three errors in 28 attacks to hit .474 and had three aces, a block and six digs. Claire Parsons had nine kills in 16 errorless swings … 

There were two NEC matches as Binghamton won in four at LIU and New Hampshire beat visiting Merrimack in four. Binghamton’s Tsvetelina Ilieva, a senior from Bulgaria, had 18 kills, 14 digs and six block, while four UNH players had 10 or more kills, 14 by Hannah Serbousek, who had an assist, an ace, eight digs and two blocks … 

Morehead State won its Ohio Valley match in four over visiting Tennessee Tech. M.E. Hargan had 14 kills with two errors in 27 attacks to hit .444 and had an ace, seven digs and three blocks, one solo …

High Point of the Big South beat Howard of the MEAC in four. Dylan Maberry had 16 kills, an ace, 14 digs and a block.

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