Nebraska and Creighton put on a fantastic NCAA volleyball show to open the season, with the Huskers winning by five points. The only surprise on Tuesday was SMU’s win over Baylor. Cal’s Maggie Lee, the 2023 Pac-12 (remember, Pac-12?) Freshman of the Year, had 28 kills in a win over Saint Mary’s.

There are some exciting matches on the schedule for Wednesday and MIVA, the men’s volleyball conference, has announced its Hall of Fame inductees.

Three top matches feature on Wednesday’s programme

There are only 11 games on Wednesday’s NCAA Division I schedule, but three are worth watching, starting with new No. 1 Pittsburgh at No. 23. Pitt is just 3-0, with sweeps of Oregon, Long Beach State and Buffalo. USC (3-1) split with Pepperdine to open the season, lost in four games at Creighton, then defeated Kansas State in four. That game is at 6 p.m. Pacific and will mark the Big Ten Network debut of volleyball announcer Paul Sunderland.

Texas (2-2), in sixth place and just losing to Miami, plays host to Houston, 3-1 and always a tough opponent. That game starts at 8 p.m. Central and will be on ESPN2.

No. 13 Florida (5-1) faces No. 15 Georgia Tech (4-1) in advance of Texas-Houston on ESPN2.

Second-place Stanford (5-0) goes to the aforementioned Pepperdine (1-3). The Waves, after losing both to USC, split on Hawai’i. That’s on ESPN+.

Western Michigan vs. Michigan State and Northern Colorado vs. Colorado should be good games, as should Iowa vs. Iowa State. Also on the schedule are Liberty vs. NC State, Binghamton vs. Hofstra, Bryant vs. Holy Cross and Omaha vs. Long Beach State.

Nebraska Holds Off Creighton in Five Games

The Big Ten Network got everything it could want when Nebraska of the Big Ten defeated visiting Creighton of the Big East 25-19, 25-16, 31-33, 16-25, 15-10 in the annual Cornhusker State battle.

The Huskers (6-1), which had five players with nine or more kills, hit .2234 with two aces and nine service errors. Creighton (5-1) hit .209 with four aces and 15 errors.

Norah Sis did nothing to hurt her chances at being named National Player of the Year, as the Creighton outside led with 24 kills, one assist, four blocks and 11 digs. Ava Martin had 17 kills, one assist, one ace, 17 digs and three blocks, one of which was solo.

But in the fifth set, the Bluejays were no match for Nebraska, which took a 5-1 lead and held the lead for the rest of the set. The Huskers hit .444 in the fifth.

Harper Murray led Nebraska with 16 kills, an ace, four blocks and 14 digs. Lindsay Krause had 15 kills, an assist, an ace, five blocks and five digs. Andi Jackson, who hit .379, had eight blocks. Bergen Reilly had a career-high 57 assists, along with three kills in nine clean attempts, three blocks and 13 digs. Lexi Rodriguez had 21 digs and four assists. Creighton libero counterpart Maddy Bilinovic had 19 digs and five assists.

Click here for the Nebraska report and here for the Creighton report.

Around the country in NCAA volleyball

There were six other ranked teams in action and all but number 23 Bay — defeated by SMU — won, although ranked No. 16 Tennessee had to go the distance to beat Western Kentucky.

Ranked second Stanford improved to 5-0 with a 25-22, 25-20, 21-25, 25-15 on UC Santa Barbara while Sami Francis had nine kills without errors in 16 attacks and 10 blocks, one solo …

No. 8 Wisconsin received a big boost from Julia Orzol, back in the front row, in a 25-13, 25-13, 25-14 win over visiting Milwaukeewho scored .049. Orzol had 14 kills with one error in 19 attacks, two aces, four blocks and seven digs …

Tennessee won 25-22, 15-25, 25-12, 23-25, 15-11 at Western Kentucky as Nina Cajic had 17 kills, five blocks and 13 digs and Paityn Chapman had 15 kills, hit .364, and had eight digs and five blocks, one solo. Kaylee Cox led WKU with 18 kills, two aces, 10 digs and two blocks, one solo …

No. 19 Minnesota visit stunned Saint Thomaswho hit .034, 25-20, 25-16, 25-21. Lydia Grote, who had 10 kills, had eight blocks …

No. 21 State of Florida batted .384 and won at North Florida 25-13, 20-25, 25-9, 25-16, while Khouri Louis had 13 kills with one error in 20 swings and four blocks and Audrey Koenig had 12 kills in 21 error-free attacks and three blocks …

Up and down SMUwho surprised the then number 2 last week Nebraskaswept up Bay. Both teams are 5-0 after the 25-21, 25-15, 25-16 score. Naya Shime continued her strong start to the season with 19 kills, a .452 batting average, along with four blocks and six digs. Baylor batted .020 …

The line of the day went to Cal’s Maggie Li, who had 28 kills in the Bears’ 25-13, 23-25, 25-22, 26-28, 15-10 win over Saint Mary. Li hit .328 and had two assists, an ace, a block and 10 digs. Li is averaging 4.59 kills per set in seven matches. Denver transfer Gianna Bartolo had 24 digs and five assists …

Cicily Hildago had 17 kills with one error in 38 attacks for Southeast Louisiana in four-setter victory over South Alabama. She had two aces, nine digs and two blocks … Rutgers swept LIU and Alissa Kinkela had 15 kills, hit .343, and added six digs and four blocks … East Carolina improved to 7-0 with a five-set win over Campbell while Fran McBride had 16 kills, a .448 batting average, and two digs and four blocks… Fataima Ramirez had 23 kills for Alabama A&M in a flash of West Georgia … American improved to 8-1 with a five-set win over Capacitywho got 23 kills from Rya McKinnon. AU’s Zedo Yilmaz, a freshman from outside Istanbul, had 18 kills, four aces, 23 digs and three blocks, one solo …

Defeating my Salukis UT Martin in five, as Evan Krakowski had 17 kills and hit .412 for Southern Illinois to deal with four excavations and eight blocks, two solo … Troy batted .353 in a sweep of State of Alabama … Mercer is 6-1 after a four-set win over State of Kennesaw … Denver to beat Air Force in four and Molly Mirabelli had 12 kills with one error in 18 swings and seven blocks, one solo … Julia Ng had 25 digs and two assists in a four-set win for UC Davis about State of Sacramento … Coppin State had five players with 10 or more kills in a five-set win over Penn …And Hawaii report visit State of Texas in four, with Caylen Alexander having 20 kills, four assists, an ace, 10 digs and four blocks.

MIVA announces fifth Hall of Fame class

The newcomers are Suguru Furuichi, Pete Hanson, Angel Aja, Dave Jandasek and John Loftus of Ohio State; Greg Romano of Ball State and Fred Malcolm and Hector Soto of IPFW, now called Purdue Fort Wayne.

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