No. 1 Southern California 3, Oregon State 0
CORVALLIS, Ore. -- Behind 16 points from sophomore outside hitter Samantha Bricio, the top-ranked USC women’s volleyball team (15-1, 5-0 Pac-12) took out Oregon State (9-7, 0-5) in three sets (25-11, 25-15, 25-15) at Gill Coliseum. The Women of Troy won their season-high ninth consecutive match and are off to their best start since the 2006 squad went 17-1 to open the season.
Bricio scored 10 of her points on kills (1e, 21att) as she posted a .429 hitting percentage. She also had six service aces and served long strings of rallies to help keep the Beavers off-balance. It is the third time in her career that she has had six aces or more in a single match. It is also the seventh time this season that she has had at least three in a match. Bricio’s 43 aces this season ties her freshman total and also ties for the seventh most in a single season in USC history.
The Trojans also had seven kills from senior middle blocker Alexis Olgard (2e, 15att, .333) who added four blocks. Freshman outside hitter Ebony Nwanebu put up seven kills (3e, 14att, .286) and three blocks and junior middle blocker Hannah Schraer had six kills (1e, 10att, .500) to go with a match-high six blocks. Junior outside hitter Emily Young added four kills (0e, 11att, .364) and three blocks for USC.
No. 2 Florida 3, Kentucky 0
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- No. 2 Florida used four double-digit kill outputs to sweep the No. 15 Kentucky 3-0 (25-20, 25-20, 25-20) on Friday night at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center.
Freshman right-side hitter Alex Holston tied a career-high 13 kills to lead the Gators and a match-high .667 hitting percentage. Sophomore outside hitter Gabby Mallette added 12 kills and senior middle blocker Chloe Mann and sophomore outside hitter Živa Recek each tallied 11.
No. 8 Stanford 3, Utah 0
STANFORD, Calif. -- Eighth-ranked Stanford swept Utah 25-17, 25-18, 25-18 on Friday, at Maples Pavilion in Stanford, Calif. The Cardinal moves to 11-3 on the season and 4-1 in the Pac-12, while the Utes move to13-4 overall and 2-3 in the conference.
Stanford hit .327 as a team, while holding Utah to a .149 clip. The Cardinal also posted eight blocks in the match to just five by the Utes. With the win, Stanford improved to 7-1 all-time against Utah, including a 4-0 mark in Pac-12 play.
Senior middle blocker Carly Wopat led the team with 10 kills on 17 attempts with just one error to hit .529 in the match. Wopat also registered five blocks and two digs. Sophomore outside hitter Jordan Burgess finished with nine kills and 12 digs, while sophomore Brittany Howard added nine kills, six digs and four blocks.
UC Santa Barbara 3, No. 5 Hawaii 2
HONOLULU -- Emily Hartong led a comeback with a match-high 20 kills, but couldn't rally No. 5 Hawaii past UC Santa Barbara in a 25-21, 25-20, 21-25, 22-25, 15-12 shocker on Friday night at the Stan Sheriff Center.
The loss snaps a 77-conference match winning streak dating back to the 2008 season as a member of the Western Athletic Conference.
The 'Bows fall to 15-2 overall and 4-1 in the Big West Conference while UCSB improves to 8-8 and 3-1 in league play.
Katey Thompson had 19 kills and 11 blocks to lead the Gauchos who used a 5-1 run in the fifth set to steal the win. Ali Spindt had 12 kills and 17 digs, and Leah Sully had a match-high 22 digs.
No. 6 Washington 3, Arizona 1
SEATTLE -- In front of a season-high 4,589 fans, Washington earned a hard-fought four set win against Arizona tonight. In their Pac-12 home opener, the Huskies (12-1, 4-1 Pac-12) used a nice night from their outside hitters and also served up 10 aces en route to a 25-10, 25-20, 21-25, 25-20 victory.
Junior Krista Vansant had 14 kills and a .287 attack percentage to go with 11 digs, a couple aces and four blocks. Kaleigh Nelson hit well, posting a .320 mark with nine kills, and Kylin Muñoz added eight kills on a .250 attack percentage.
The Huskies had 10 aces, led by four from Cassie Strickland, while Arizona had just three. Arizona (12-5, 2-3 Pac-12) was led by 13 kills from Madi Kingdon but had its two-match conference win streak snapped. Washington has won ten consecutive matches against Arizona in Seattle.
No. 7 Michigan State 3, Iowa 0
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Michigan State extended its winning streak to 14 matches with a 3-0 victory against Iowa on Friday night at Jenison Field House. MSU, ranked seventh in this weeks coaches' poll, extended its winning streak to eight consecutive against the Hawkeyes, while improving to 16-1 overall and a conference-best 5-0 in Big Ten play. Iowa falls to 9-8 overall and 0-5 in the Big Ten.
MSU was led by Lauren Wicinski, who hit .579 (12-1-19), had a pair of service aces, four digs and three blocks. Freshmen Allyssah Fitterer and Chloe Reinig each had seven kills and two blocks; Alexis Mathews contributed five kills and four blocks while hitting .444.
MSU limited the Hawkeyes to hitting just .162 in the match, hitting .493 as a team. MSU had a 78% sideout percentage in the match, while out-blocking Iowa 14-3. MSU recorded 20 digs as a team, while limiting Iowa - the top team in the Big Ten in digs per set - to 19 in the match.
No. 9 Nebraska 3, No. 17 Michigan 2
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Nebraska (12-2, 5-0) defeated the No. 17 Michigan (11-5, 1-4) 3-2 (25-13, 28-26, 10-25, 20-25, 15-8) on Friday night at Cliff Keen Arena. The Huskers overcame a comeback effort by the Wolverines after leading the match 2-0.
Kelsey Robinson led Nebraska on the night with a double-double, notching 23 kills and a match-high 17 digs. Kadie Rolfzen posted 13 kills, while Meghan Haggerty had nine. Mary Pollmiller dished out 46 assists on the night, while Cecilia Hall recorded nine blocks.
Nebraska hit .238 for the match, while Michigan hit .203. The Huskers posted a season-high 18 blocks, while UM had 12. The Wolverines out-dug the Huskers 55-50.
Duke 3, No. 10 North Carolina 0
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Duke stunned Carolina on Friday night, handing the Tar Heels their first loss of the season with a 3-0 sweep (22-25, 22-25, 19-25) in front of a record crowd of 5,322.
The Tar Heels fell to 15-1 and 4-1 in conference play while committing 28 errors, twice as many as Duke's 14, and hitting just .093 as a team to the Blue Devils' .206.
Jovana Bjelica had a strong night despite the loss, tallying 10 kills and two blocks, while Lauren Adkins hit a solid .471 with nine kills and two blocks for UNC.
"I thought Duke played a really good match tonight, and I was really disappointed with the way we played and the number of unforced errors we committed," head coach Joe Sagula said. "I think this will be a wakeup call for this team. It can be hard to get the message across that we need to improve while the team is winning, so I think we've gotten their attention now. I give Duke all the credit tonight, but every set was close, and I didn't feel like we were ever out of the game."
