Volleyball today: Huskers sweep Wisconsin; Miami and Mizzou cause surprises; Athletes unlimited

What a Friday in NCAA Division I volleyball:

– No. 2 Nebraska not only won at Wisconsin for the first time since 2013, the Huskers also defeated the No. 7 Badgers;

– Unranked Miami, which upset then-No. 1 seed earlier this season. No. 1 Texas trailed 24-22 in the fourth set, came back to win the set 31-29 and then upset No. 6 Stanford by winning the fifth set 16-14;

– Unranked Missouri won five games at No. 7 Texas and is tied with the Longhorns and Kentucky atop the SEC at 7-2;

— On a day when most games were played in three sets, there were of course setbacks. Youngstown State pulled it off against visiting Oakland in the Horizon League, Central Michigan pulled it off in Ohio in the MAC and Evansville pulled it off against visiting Illinois State in the Missouri Valley.

Lines of the Day: Speaking of Evansville, NCAA kills leader Giulia Cardona, the Argentine senior hitting outside for the Purple Aces, had 34 kills, hitting .453 and two aces, three blocks and eight digs. Cardona, who has had 30 or more kills six times this season, has 518 kills, well ahead of Hawaii's Caylen Alexander (437 kills), who had 19 kills in a win over UC Santa Barbara on Friday.

UC Riverside won its Big West match in five games at Long Beach State as Trinity Sheridan tallied 31 kills, hit .324 and had 10 digs and three blocks, one solo.

James Madison lost in five games to Sun Belt-leading South Alabama, but Bre Reid had 28 kills, an ace, 13 digs and two blocks.

Baylor's Elise McGhee had 24 kills – eight kills per set – in a Big 12 sweep over Colorado, hitting .475 and adding eight digs and two blocks.

Duke's Mailinh Godschall had 37 digs and three assists in a five-set ACC loss to Georgia Tech.

And Jayln Stout, the 5-foot-10 setter for Coastal Carolina, had 15 kills with one error in 34 attacks, 19 assists, an ace, 18 digs and a block in the Chanticleers' four-set Sun Belt win over Georgia Southern .

Athletes Unlimited entered its final weekend of its season. The details follow in this issue of Volleyball Today:

NCAA Volleyball Saturday

There is an ACC game in which No. 4 Louisville goes against Notre Dame, a team it beat last Wednesday.

In the Big 12, No. 8 Kansas is home to West Virginia. No. 13 Arizona State goes to No. 22 Utah, No. 23 BYU is home to Arizona and UCF goes to Texas Tech.

No. 12 Oregon is home to UCLA in the Big Ten, which also has No. 10 Purdue at Rutgers and Indiana at Maryland.

No. 15 Dayton looks for its 16th straight seed as the Flyers go to George Mason in the Atlantic 10.

The Southland comes to a showdown when Southeastern Louisiana, which has won 19 straight, hosts second-place Stephen F. Austin, which is one game behind the Lions.

The only undefeated team, 21-0 South Dakota State, plays in Kansas City in the Summit League.

And Hampton, 0-25, will try again in a CAA game at the College of Charleston. The Pirates were defeated in Charleston on Friday when they hit .050.

The best of NCAA volleyball Friday

The showcase match was Nebraska 25-21, 25-22, 25-19 win Wisconsinwho hit .094. Read the Nebraska recap here and the Wisconsin recap here.

Everything else went as expected in the Big Ten as a No. 3 seed Penn State better than a visit Iowa in four, No. 10 Purdue attacked MarylandNo. 14 Minnesota attacked Michigan State, Illinois won in four games Northwest And Indiana did the same Rutgers …

Miami is 15-7 and 6-5 and difficult to determine. The Hurricanes, who as mentioned beat Texas, have losses to Ohio State, Wright State and Virginia. But it wasn't hard to pick out Puerto Rican star Grace Lopez, who had 27 kills, hit .407 and had one assist, 13 digs and four blocks, one solo, against him Stanford. Also in the ACC, No. 1 Pittsburgh hit .393 and kept sweeping VirginiaNo. 11 SMU attacked Virginia TechNo. 16 Georgia Tech got 27 kills from Tamara Otene while it took five to win dukeNo. 23 State of Florida swept to visit Cal, No. 25 North Carolina better than a visit Clemson in four, Boston College attacked Wachwald And NC State swept to visit Syracuse …

In the Big 12, No. 18 TCU had to go five to beat the visit Iowa State as Jalyn Gibson had 26 kills, No. 17 Baylor swept Colorado behind Elise McGhee's 24 kills and Houston better than a visit Cincinnati in four, as Kate Georgiades had 31 digs, seven assists and an ace…

In the SEC Missouri won its seventh straight and improved to 16-5, 7-2 in the SEC while also dropping the two-time NCAA champion Texas to 12-5, 7-2 in his first season in the conference. Read the Missouri summary here and the Texas summary here.

Also in the SEC, No. 16 Kentucky attacked South Carolina, Tennessee won in four games Georgia And Texas A&M better than a visit Alabama in four…

Fifth place Creighton won its 13th straight and improved to 20-2, 11-0 in the Big East as it defeated the visitors St. John'swhich reached .051 while Marquette Did the same thing with the visit Villanova to stay one game behind the Bluejays… Central Michigan And Bowling Green are atop the MAC by two games after CMU won in a reverse sweep Ohio and BGSU won in four games Miami. Also in MAC, Kent State was swept past Akronbut Mackenzie McGuire of the Golden Flashes had 19 kills… Five of the six Missouri Valley matches were sweeps, except Evansville Comeback over State of Illinois. UNI improved to 17-7, 12-0, with a sweep at Murray State …

Second place Princeton closed the gap to a game of Yale by defeating the Bulldogs on their home court in four games, while Kamryn Chaney had 25 kills without an error in 42 attacks, hitting .532 and adding two assists, two aces, 13 digs and a block…

Austin Peaywhich fired its coach last week, was close to handing interim coach Connor Crawford a win, but the Govs fell to 1-22, 0-11 in the ASUN with their 21st straight loss, 25-19, 25 -19, 19-25, 20-25, 17-15 to visit Eastern Kentucky …There was a surprise in the Great West when UC San Diego hit first place UC Davis in five, but the Mustangs still hold a one-game lead over Idle Cal Poly. Jade Light had 24 kills for UC Davis, along with two assists, two aces, 13 digs and a solo block… Western Kentucky improved to 20-6, 13-0 in Conference USA, with a series of road games NM State for his 16th win in a row… Horizon leader Wright State improved to 20-4, 12-1 as the Raiders hit .371 in a sweep of Robert Morris … In Youngstown State HL reverse sweep from OaklandNyla Setla had 25 digs, seven assists and one ace… Howard is 17-5, 0-0 in the MEAC after the sweep State of Delaware …

Southeast Missouri hit Tennessee Tech in five to assume sole ownership of First in the Ohio Valley. Nina Schuberth had 27 digs, seven assists and two aces. Little Rock hit Western Illinois in five in the OVC and Andrea Roman had 32 digs and six assists…leading SoCon Mercer swept Chattanooga to improve to 19-4, 9-1 as All-Name Team Skyler Bumpers had 15 kills, hit .462 and had five digs and three blocks

Rishel consolidates 3rd place in Athletes Unlimited

It's still a race between first-place finisher Brittany Abercrombie (3,984 points) and Bethania De La Cruz-Mejias (3,607) for victory in the Athletes Unlimited season, but Madi Kingdon Rishel (3,068) has made it a three-player Races made with two games remaining in the five week season.

On Friday, Team Kingdon defeated Rishel De La Cruz 77-66 in the first game before Team Abercrombie defeated Team (Dani) Drews 75-64.

Kingdon Rishel won 27-25, 25-23, 25-18 and led with 21 kills, hitting .422 and eight digs and a solo block.

Read the summary of the first game here.

In the second match, Abercrombie won 25-22, 25-19, 25-23 behind 18 kills from Temi Thomas-Ailara, who hit .548 and had an assist, an ace, 12 digs and a solo block. Abercrombie had 13 kills, one assist, 13 digs and a solo block.

Read the summary here.

There are two nights left in the AU season with the action continuing on Sunday and Monday in Mesa, Arizona.