There were more than 200 NCAA The women’s matches were scheduled for Friday, which really kicked off the season. Saturday will see another full program.

Notable matches, in no particular order, include:

Kansas vs. Duke
Pittsburgh vs. Long Beach State
San Diego vs SMU
Arizona State vs. Lipscomb
TCU vs. Nebraska
Highlight against BYU
Ohio State vs. Dayton
USC vs Pepperdine
Western Kentucky vs. Kentucky
Missouri vs. Creighton
Florida vs. Northern Colorado

The AVP Chicago Open enters the second day of the three-day tournament on the shores of Lake Michigan. We have photos of Mark Rigney, Will Chu, Rick Atwood and Stephen Burns.

Friday’s NCAA Volleyball

It is impossible to keep track of such a large field of participants, but here is an overview of some important results and top performances.

There were no major surprises, but there were certainly a number of results that caught our attention, starting with the ACC.

Placed fourth Pittsburgh came out of the blocks strongly and won 25-12, 27-25, 25-23 at no. 10 Oregon of the Big Ten … UCLA of the Big Ten — add to that the fact that it’s going to sound weird until probably midseason or so — that received votes in the AVCA preseason poll, started with a five-set win over No. 14 Georgia technology. Kiki Horne, a 6-foot-1 freshman from Raleigh, North Carolina, had 12 kills in the 25-20, 11-25, 10-25, 25-19, 16-14 victory … Hawaii of the Big West, who also received a number of AVCA votes, held a visit to SMUanother team that had a lot of AVCA. UH, which couldn’t have started worse, was led by junior outside Caylen Alexander who had 28 kills in the 7-25, 25-23, 24-26, 25-21, 15-13 win. She had an ace, a block and 11 digs … Stanford achieved a 25-20, 27-25, 25-17 victory in the Horizon League Milwaukee …And Awake Forest was finished off at home, wiped out by Hofstra from the CAA, the Pride’s first win over an ACC school since 2016… Syracuse, who won 0-6 in 2023 NJIT and then hit Lafayette in four…

The Big Ten went 12-5 on Friday, including No. 8 Purdue win a tough four-setter against the visiting team Kansas Statea team that is not yet ranked but will be. Chloe Chicoine had 17 kills and Eva Hudson 16 for the Boilermakers, while Aliyah Carter had 21 kills for K-State, along with 13 digs and a block.. No. 7 Penn State won in four at no. 15 Tennessee while Camryn Hannah and Jess Mruzik each had 19 kills. Hannah hit .452 and had five digs and two solo blocks, while Mruzik hit .390 and had six digs and a block … Illinois swept Cincinnati and Raina Terry had 13 kills, hit .310, and had two assists, seven digs and two blocks … Indiana hit .420 in a sweep of State of Kennesaw … No. 2 Nebraska batted .427 in a sweep of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi including Lindsay Krause who had 13 kills with two errors in 23 attacks… Speaking of Nebraska, transfer Ally Batenhorst had 11 kills for No. 21 USC in a flash of Gingerbread to deal with a bait, two blocks and four digs…

In the Big 12, Houston to beat Omaha in five and libero Kate Georgiades had 25 digs … Kendal Murphy started Baylors season in a big way. She had 11 kills without errors in 19 swings, along with six digs and a block in a sweep of Christian from Abilene. The sophomore winger had 42 total kills in 2023. Baylor then swept Tulsa while Murphy had 13 kills with one error in 31 attacks, 10 digs and four blocks… BYE batted .390 in a sweep of Southeast Louisiana and then hit a stunning .488 in a sweep of fair. Claire Little had 16 kills without errors in 21 attacks …

In the SEC, LSU had to make a reverse sweep at home against New Hampshire to open the season. Sophomore outside Jurnee Robinson had 25 kills, one assist, four aces, 13 digs and three blocks, including one solo. Then the Tigers defeated Maryland in four, while Robinson added 28 more kills, had a .435 batting average and had two assists, two aces, three blocks and 12 digs … Arkansas passed by Saint Mary in five. Romani Thurman, a sophomore transfer from North Carolina who is from Little Rock, had 19 kills, hit .341 and had 14 digs and three blocks … Georgia to beat UC Santa Barbara in five, as the No. 25 Bulldogs racked up 23 kills from Texas A&M transfer Bianna Muoneke, who hit .438 … Kennedy Martin picked up where she left off last season and had 25 kills in Florida’s four-set victory over State of Colorado. She hit .568 and had five digs and seven blocks, two solo … Alabama went 2-0 and in a victory over The Citadel Sophie Agee had 20 kills, one assist, two aces, eight digs and three blocks, one of which was solo. Earlier in a four-set victory over Grambling she had 22 kills, two assists, one ace, three digs and three blocks…

A little bit of this and that: Lip comb swept California Baptists In a match we previewed last week because of the long-standing friendship between Lipscomb coach Brandon Rosenthal and CBU’s Branden Higa, Lipscomb’s Courtney Jones had 20 kills, hit .340 and had an ace, a block and two digs … Houston Christian lost in five to State of Texasbut HCU’s Audrey Pearce had 17 kills with one error in 27 attacks, along with two digs and three blocks, one of which was solo. HCU later lost to Ricewith four players with 11 or more kills, 15 of which were by Lademi Ogunlana, who hit .520 … Stony stream reports Delaware State in five, while Leoni Kunz and Kali Moore each had 20 kills… The same happened in Quinnipiacs victory in five sets over Rhode Island as both Elena Giacomini and Ginevra Giovagnoni had 20 kills each… UT Arlington Fifth-year senior outside Brianna Ford had 18 kills and hit .429 in a sweep of Murray stands and added an assist, two aces, seven digs and a block… Creighton batted .385 in a sweep of NC stands …

Follow @VBMagazine on Twitter (X) to stay up to date with the results in near real time, as our own Ed Strong follows every match and provides incredible insight.

AVP Chicago

The AVP Chicago Open kicked off on Friday, which basically went into overdrive.

Four women’s pairs won both matches and will face each other on Saturday: Top-seeded Taryn Kloth and Kristin Nuss will play fifth-seeded Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft, while second-seeded Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes will face third-seeded Brandie Wilkerson and Melissa Humana-Paredes.

Cannon and Kraft defeated fourth-seeded Julia Scolies and Betsi Flint in the second round 23-25, 21-18, 15-11. Flint-Scoles await the winner of the early match between Madelyne Anderson and Marine Kinna vs. Kim Hildreth and Teegan Van Gunst.

In the men’s event, top seeds Theo Brunner and Trevor Crabb will play fourth seeds Chase Budinger and Miles Evans. Second seeds Andy Benesh and Miles Partain will play sixth seeds Phil Dalhausser and Avery Drost.

Dalhausser and Drost defeated Wyatt Harrison and Brian Miller in the second round after 14th-seeded Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander defeated them 17-21, 22-20, 18-16. Crabb-Sander stayed alive with a 21-18, 19-21, 15-12 victory over Alison Cerutti and Evan Cory and will play 11th-seeded Hagen Smith and Logan Webber on Saturday.

Click here for the results and schedule: https://avp.com/brackets/