FloVolleyball's Weekly NCAA Notebook: 9 Unbeaten's Remain

As you line up the schedule of matches you’d like to watch this weekend, allow us to bring you the highlights of the past seven days.

Sep 19, 2019 by Megan Kaplon

FloVolleyball's Weekly NCAA Notebook: 9 Unbeaten's Remain

With the preseason schedule still rolling like a freight train and teams sometimes playing multiple matches in a day, it’s tough to keep up with all the happenings in NCAA women’s volleyball.

As you line up the schedule of matches you’d like to watch this weekend, allow us to bring you the highlights of the past seven days.

Stanford’s Ups & Downs

At the Big Ten/Pac-12 Challenge in State College last weekend, reigning national champ Stanford lost its first match in more than a year, falling in four to Minnesota. (If you missed it, even though you know the outcome, the match is totally worth a watch, and FloPro subscribers can view it here.)

So naturally in Monday’s new AVCA top 25 poll, the Cardinal fell, just one spot to No. 2, while Nebraska rose to No. 1, making Wednesday’s rematch of the 2018 national championship match between Stanford and Nebraska all that much more intriguing.

With 19 kills and four aces from two-time national player of the year Kathryn Plummer, Stanford came out on top of that contest in the Devaney Center in front of a new school-record crowd of 8,632.

For their upset of Stanford, the Gophers rose just one spot to No. 7. That might seem unfair, but keep in mind Minnesota’s 2019 record also features losses to Florida State and Texas.

All of this leaves us very unsure who will be next week’s No.1.

It Won’t Be Texas...

Until Wednesday night, Texas, with its sole loss coming at the hands of Stanford in five sets, could have been a contender for the top spot in the poll.

That is until they lost a five-setter to Rice, which had never before beaten a top-10 ranked opponent and had not once in 36 meetings beaten Texas. Junior outside hitter Nicole Lennon put away 23 kills, her third match in a row with more than 20. With 13 digs, she also recorded her sixth double-double of the season.

Texas led 11-9 in the fifth and finished the match hitting .248 to Rice’s .174, but two kills from Lennon completed the upset for Rice 15-13, elevating the Owls to a 10-1 overall record.

9 Undefeated Teams Remain

With Stanford handing Nebraska (7-1) its first loss of the season, only nine teams around the country remain undefeated.

After going 11-18 in 2018, Robert Morris of the Northeast Conference is off to a 10-0 start, the best in program history. The Colonials even celebrated their first defeat of rival Duquesne since 2007.

Pittsburgh has put together its own 10-0 leap off the starting blocks, climbing from No. 12 in the preseason poll to No. 6 this week.

The Pac-12’s Cal is 8-0 to start the season for the first time since 2011. Redshirt senior Savannah Rennie appears to have provided the spark for the No. 24 Bears, as the middle blocker has returned to the court completely healthy for the first time since being diagnosed her freshman year with a rare liver disease that required a transplant, which then led to non-Hodgkin post-transplant lymphoma. If you haven’t heard it yet, her story is nothing less than incredible, and a new article out yesterday in the San Francisco Chronicle tells it well.

No. 13 Hawaii has hosted three preseason tournaments and swept them all, toppling San Diego, Washington, and UCLA, just to name a few. The win over UCLA marked the Wahine’s first defeat of the Bruins since 2013, and the largest crowd (8,657) since that same year.

No. 17 Missouri has dropped just four sets in eight matches for its best start to the season since 2015.

A four-set victory over Wisconsin, then ranked No. 4, on Sept. 6 marked the highest-ranked road win for No. 5 Baylor, which has now improved its undefeated streak to seven in a row.

Three undefeated teams will go head to head this weekend, as Missouri and Hawaii travel to Waco for the Baylor Classic.

Temple (9-0), Coastal Carolina (9-0), and Memphis (9-0) are also undefeated.

Gotta Give Indiana Credit

With so many big Wednesday night matches, last weekend’s results seem super far away at this point, but we’d be remiss not to include Indiana’s big upset of then No. 15 Kentucky from Saturday.

The victory was Indiana’s first over Kentucky since 1996 and first against a top-25 team since it defeated then-No. 14 Michigan on Halloween last year.

“It means we’ve got a high-end in us, so we can play with some pretty good teams,” Indiana head coach Steve Aird said to IndyStar. “I don’t think that we’ve arrived. I don’t think that we’re a top 25 team. I think we’re working toward that.”

Indiana received votes in Monday’s national poll and Kentucky fell one spot to No. 16. Expect further descent from the Wildcats, however, as they lost again on Wednesday night, this time to No. 21 Purdue in five sets.

Upcoming NCAA Volleyball Matches Live on FloVolleyball:

Thursday, Sept. 19

Miami (OH) vs. Ohio State 6 PM ET

Oregon vs St. John’s 7 PM ET

Clemson vs. Minnesota 8 PM ET

Friday, Sept. 20

Illinois State vs. Ohio State 10 AM ET

Texas A&M Corpus Christi vs. Purdue 10:30 AM ET

Lipscomb vs. Iowa 12 PM ET

Oregon vs. Duke 1 PM ET

Sacramento State vs. New Mexico State 2:30 PM ET

Clemson vs. Oral Roberts 6 PM ET