Iowa State’s time in the AVCA top 25 will likely be short lived, because the No. 23 Cyclones were upended Thursdsay night by red-hot UC Santa Barbara, which beat a ranked team for the first time in seven years.
Among the other winners Thursday were No. 6 Texas, which beat No. 19 Ohio State; No. 7 Oregon, which won in five at No. 8 Pittsburgh; No. 9 Minnesota; No. 15 Tennessee; No. 17 Purdue; No. 22 Houston; and No. 24 Auburn.
Line of the night: Washington freshman outside Kierstyn Barton had a total of 39 kills in the Huskies’ first eight matches. In a five-set win at Cal Poly, Barton, who didn’t start, had 26 kills as Washington rallied from being down 10-7 in the fifth and won its eighth in a row after losing its season opener.
Thursday’s results and top performances follow, and so does another note about how well NCAA Division I women’s volleyball is doing on TV, but first a look at Friday’s schedule.
There are 11 matches in the Big Ten alone as most teams wrap up the pre-conference season. Among them, No. 13 Penn State plays UMBC and Purdue plays host to USC, where Illinois — which lost to USC in five — plays UCF. In the battle of New Jersey, Rutgers plays…
