In this Volleyball today:

— Wisconsin finds itself in a spot the program hasn’t seen in 31 years, as Texas and Stanford claimed victories in the State Farm Volleyball Showcase here in Milwaukee;

—It was another busy schedule in NCAA volleyball on Sunday;

— Olympians won the women’s and men’s titles respectively at the AVP Chicago Open;

— And the U.S. team served France figuratively off the field during the Paralympic Games in Paris.

NCAA volleyball returns on Monday with six games after a very busy opening weekend.

At the Fiserve Forum, an hour’s drive from the Wisconsin campus, Stanford plays the Badgers at 4 p.m. (Central on Fox) and Texas plays Minnesota at 6:30 p.m. (FS1).

There are four other NCAA women’s games on Monday: McNeese vs. Southern in a clash of Louisiana schools, Coastal Carolina vs. Georgia Tech, Texas A&M vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, and UC Davis continues its Indiana trip by playing at Indiana.

Texas Overpowers Wisconsin

The last time we saw Texas, the team won the national championship. But gone are superstar Asjia O’Neal and regular right winger Molly Phillips.

But don’t cry for the Longhorns.

Consider that in their 30-28, 23-25, 25-15, 25-11 rout of Wisconsin on Sunday, sophomore middle Marianna Singletary had nine kills, hit .438 and had eight blocks, two of them solo. And Kentucky transfer right side Reagan Rutherford had 14 kills, hit .367 and had six digs and two blocks.

Add in the nation’s best outside player Madi Skinner (15 kills, six digs and a block) and a new setter in Baylor transfer Averi Carlson to complement Ella Swindle and, well, Texas is OK. Oh yeah, outside Jenna Wenaas led with 18 kills, 10 digs and two blocks, one of which was a solo.

“We have a lot more options. Both setters are really good, both bring good things to our team,” UT coach Jerritt Elliott said. “Molly was such a good player for us and was so respected and made play after play, but we needed to get into the system more with her. I think we can change it up a little bit and get longer balls to Reagan and have a little more firepower there.

“Our middle ones are young, but they’re going to get better at it.”

Junior libero Emma Halter, who played so well for Texas in the final period last year, had 28 digs and five assists.

Wisconsin, which opened the season with a four-set loss to Louisville on Tuesday, is 0-2 for the first time since 1993.

Sarah Franklin, last year’s Big Ten Player of the Year, had 25 kills, two assists, an ace, nine digs and two blocks. She took 69 of her team’s 163 swings. Devyn Robinson, who had four blocks, one solo, and Anna Smrek each had seven kills.

Texas hit .265 with five total errors in the third and fourth sets and had seven aces with eight service errors. Wisconsin hit .153 — the Badgers hit .179 against Louisville — and had two aces and 10 errors.

“They had a very impressive defensive performance,” Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield said.

Stanford Outlasts Minnesota

Fifth-ranked Stanford, which opened its season Friday with a win over nearby Milwaukee, was able to get the better of setter Kami Miner, winning 26-28, 25-23, 16-25, 25-13, 15-13 over No. 18 Minnesota.

Elia Rubin led with 19 kills, one assist, two aces, three blocks and 13 digs. Sami Francis had 14 kills, hit .393 and had three blocks. Two newcomers to the lineup were key, as sophomore outside Jordyn Harvey had a career-high 12 kills, one assist and a career-high seven aces, one block and five digs, and freshman middle Lizzy Andrew had eight kills, hit .429 and had an assist, a block and a dig.

Miner had three kills, 47 assists and 17 digs. Her team hit .222 and had 12 aces and 12 service errors. Libero Elena Oglivie had 16 digs and six assists. Stanford is still without highly touted freshman wideout Julia Blyashov, who is out with an undisclosed injury.

Minnesota, which lost its season opener despite a .302 batting average, had nine aces and 23 errors. Junior McKenna Wucherer led with 14 kills, two assists, two aces, 10 digs and six blocks, solo. Julia Hanson had 14 kills, one assist, one ace, two blocks and six digs. Lydia Grote added 11 kills, batted .321 and had an ace, two blocks and four digs. Calissa Minatee had four kills and a career-high seven blocks, two of which were solo.

Melani Shaffmaster, the setter who has slowed in recent years with a bad knee and a troublesome brace, is brace-free and moving better than ever. The fifth-year player had four kills in five clear attempts, 40 assists, three aces, two blocks and eight digs.

NCAA volleyball across the country

Notable results and performances from Sunday:

The day line goes to Jill Pressly of DePaulwho had a career-high 29 kills, with a .333 batting average, with three aces and 10 digs in a five-set win over Bradley. The 5-foot-11 outside hitter is a fifth-year senior from Plano, Texas … Kudos also to Amaris Smith of CSUN. She had 29 kills Saturday in a win over San Diego State and then had 27 more Sunday in a four-set loss to Idaho State, along with 10 digs and three blocks … In Oregons sweep of Long Beach State, Colby Neal had 13 kills in 14 flawless swings, two digs and seven blocks.

Ranked sixth Louisville hit .371 and swept No. 15 Tennessee while Sofia Maldonado Diaz had 11 kills and hit .429 and Charitie Luper had 10 kills with one error in 19 attacks to hit .474, along with an ace, 12 digs and a block …

No. 20 State of Florida beat no. 25 Georgia in four. Audrey Koenig led FSU with 15 kills, an ace, eight digs and three blocks … In South Carolina four-set victory over DukeRiley Whitesides had 23 kills, 11 digs and a block…

Bay swept Campbell and Allie Sczech had 12 kills with one error in 25 swings and two blocks … Colorado batted .375 in his sweep of Rutgers including Ana Burilovic with 13 kills, a .458 batting average, with nine digs and a block … Kansas batted .474 in a sweep of Colgate. Ayah Elnady had 12 kills with one error in 24 attacks … State of Arizona batted .479 in a sweep of California Baptists …Eleven Wildcats had kills as Kentucky batted .369 in a sweep of Morehead State …

Purdue batted .450 in a sweep of UC Davis while Raven Colvin had 12 kills with one error in 15 swings and four blocks, one solo, and Eva Hudson had 15 kills, hit .433, and had nine digs and a block … Oregon batted .375 in a sweep of State of Long Beach and, as mentioned above, Colby Neal had 13 kills in 14 swings with no errors. Noemie Glover had seven kills with one error in 14 swings and three blocks … Florida batted .361 in a sweep of State of Michigan … Georgia technology hit .367 and got 23 kills from Larissa Mendes, who hit .500, in a four-set win over NM state … Towson improved to 4-0 and hit .367 in a sweep of Morgan State while Victoria Barrett had 14 kills, a .417 batting average, seven digs and five blocks, one of which was solo…

Southern Illinois to beat Oral Roberts in five and Annabelle Sulish had 19 kills, hit .485, and had an ace, 10 digs and three blocks … State of San Diego batted .366 in a sweep of Seattle U. Talea Mitchell had 16 kills without errors on 23 attacks and six blocks, one solo … UNLV batted .438 in a sweep of Peaceful including Alondra Alarcon who had 10 kills with one error in 15 attacks… State of Fresno to beat Great Gap in five. Fresno’s Ella Rud had 23 kills, an ace, 13 digs and four blocks, and GCU’s Tatum Parrott had 21 kills, an assist, two aces, 15 digs and three blocks.

AVP Chicago Open

The women’s final was a repeat of the outcome of the round of 16 at the Paris Olympics last month, when Canada’s Brandie Wilkerson and Melissa Humana-Paredes defeated Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss 21-17, 17-21, 15-13. At the Olympics, the score was 21-19, 21-18.

Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes, who defeated Toni Rodriguez and Geena Urango 21-16, 21-14 in the semifinals, took home $15,000, while TKN earned $10,000. Kloth and Nuss knocked out fellow Olympians Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes in the semifinals 15-21, 21-18, 15-13.

The Canadians won all but one of their five matches, all in three sets. That included an earlier 17-21, 21-17, 15-7 victory over Rodriguez-Urango and a 23-21, 13-21, 15-8 victory over Cheng-Hughes.

U.S. men’s Olympians Andy Benesh and Miles Partain, who reached the quarterfinals of the Olympics, defeated Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander 21-15, 21-15 for the men’s title. In the semifinals, they defeated Tim Bomgren and Troy Field 29-27, 21-15. The Taylors advanced with a 21-15, 12-21, 15-7 victory over Olympians Chase Budinger and Miles Evans.

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

US wins Paralympic sitting volleyball

The U.S. women had a whopping 28 aces Sunday in their 25-5, 25-1, 25-5 victory over France. The Americans are 1-1 and will end pool play Tuesday against Italy (1-1). The winner advances to the semifinals.

Click here for more information from USA Volleyball.