Nebraska and Creighton put on a fabulous show to start the NCAA volleyball season: The Huskers won five games, the only upset on Tuesday was SMU’s win over Baylor, and Cal’s Maggie Lee, the 2023 Pac-12 Freshman of the Year (remember the Pac-12?), had 28 kills in a win over Saint Mary’s.

There are some big and exciting games taking place on Wednesday and MIVA, the men’s volleyball league, has announced its Hall of Fame class.

Three top games are scheduled for Wednesday

There are only 11 NCAA Division I games scheduled Wednesday, but three of them are worth watching, starting with new No. 1 Pittsburgh at No. 23. Pitt has just a 3-0 record, with wins over Oregon, Long Beach State and Buffalo. USC (3-1) tied Pepperdine to open the season, lost to Creighton in four games and then beat Kansas State in four games. That game is at 6 p.m. Pacific Time and marks the debut of volleyball commentator idol Paul Sunderland on the Big Ten Network.

Sixth-ranked Texas (2-2) just lost to Miami and now plays Houston (3-1), always a tough opponent. The game starts at 8 p.m. Central Time and will be broadcast on ESPN2.

No. 13 Florida (5-1) is at No. 15 Georgia Tech (4-1) and heads to Texas-Houston on ESPN2.

Second-place Stanford (5-0) goes to the aforementioned Pepperdine (1-3). The Waves lost the two games against USC and split in Hawai’i. This game is on ESPN+.

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

Nebraska holds Creighton in five

The Big Ten Network got everything it could ask for when Nebraska of the Big Ten defeated visiting Creighton of the Big East by scores of 25-19, 25-16, 31-33, 16-25 and 15-10 in the big annual battle of the Cornhusker State teams.

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

Norah Sis did nothing to jeopardize her chances of winning National Player of the Year as Creighton led the way 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 solo.

But in the fifth set, the Bluejays were no match for Nebraska. The team built a 5-1 lead and remained in control for the rest of the match. The Huskers achieved a batting average of .444 in the fifth set.

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 to go along with three kills in nine clean attempts, three blocks and 13 digs. Lexi Rodriguez had 21 digs and four assists. Creighton’s libero counterpart Maddy Bilinovic had 19 digs and five assists.

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

Across the country in NCAA volleyball

There were six other high-ranking teams in action and all except No. 23 Baylor — beaten by SMU — won, although No. 16 Tennessee had to hold out until the end to win Western Kentucky.

Second place Stanford improved to 5-0 with a 25-22, 25-20, 21-25, 25-15 at UC Santa Barbara because Sami Francis scored nine kills without errors in 16 attacks and 10 blocks, one of them alone …

No. 8 Wisconsin got a big boost from Julia Orzol, again in the front row, in a 25-13, 25-13, 25-14 victory over the guests Milwaukeewho hit .049. Orzol had 14 kills with one error on 19 attacks, two aces, four blocks and seven digs…

Tennessee won 25-22, 15-25, 25-12, 23-25, 15-11 at Western Kentucky 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 beats up visitors St. Thomaswho hit .034, 25-20, 25-16, 25-21. Lydia Grote, who had 10 kills, had eight blocks …

No. 21 State of Florida hit .384 and won at North Florida 25-13, 20-25, 25-9, 25-16, with Khouri Louis having 13 kills with one error on 20 swings and four blocks and Audrey Koenig having 12 kills on 21 errorless attacks and three blocks…

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

The line of the day was Cals Maggie Li, who had 28 kills in the Bears’ 25-13, 23-25, 25-22, 26-28, 15-10 win over Holy Mary. Li hit .328 and had two assists, an ace, a block and 10 digs. Li averaged 4.59 kills per set in seven games. 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 a four-set 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 victory over Campbell Fran McBride had 16 kills, hit .448 and had two digs and four blocks … Fataima Ramirez had 23 kills for Alabama A&M in one go Western Georgia … American improved to 8-1 with a five-set victory over Howardwho got 23 kills from Rya McKinnon. AU’s Zedo Yilmaz, a newcomer from Istanbul, had 18 kills, four aces, 23 digs and three blocks, one solo …

My Salukis beat UT Martin in five, when Evan Krakowski had 17 kills and hit .412 for Southern Illinois plus four digs and eight blocks, two solos … Troy reached .353 in a sweep of State of Alabama … Mercer is 6-1 after a four-set victory over Kennesaw State … Denver hit 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 University of California above Sacramento State … Coppin State had five players with 10 or more kills in a five-set victory over Penn … And Hawaii beat visit State of Texas in four, when Caylen Alexander had 20 kills, four assists, one ace, 10 digs and four blocks.

MIVA announces fifth Hall of Fame class

Newly inducted were Suguru Furuichi, Pete Hanson, Angel Aja, Dave Jandasek and John Loftus from Ohio State, Greg Romano from Ball State and Fred Malcolm and Hector Soto from IPFW (now Purdue Fort Wayne).

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