Big Ten Weekly Volleyball Central Sept. 17-23

Big Ten Weekly Volleyball Central Sept. 17-23

• Six Big Ten volleyball programs were among this week’s AVCA/TARAFLEX Top 25, announced on Monday: #1 Nebraska, #7 Wisconsin, #11 Purdue, #12 Minnesota, #13 Penn State and #19 USC. Indiana, Oregon and UCLA received votes in this week’s poll.
• Twelve Division I teams remain unbeaten with the Big Ten accounting for three of those teams: Nebraska (9-0), Indiana (8-0) and Michigan State (7-0)
• In addition to being named Big Ten Player of the Week, Wisconsin’s Mimi Colyer was named the AVCA National Player of the Week on Tuesday. Colyer tallied 19 kills vs. No. 21 Georgia Tech and finished with a season-high .600 hitting percentage against Milwaukee, concluding the two matches with a combined three errors to lead Wisconsin to a pair of sweeps. Colyer is just the second player in Division I women’s volleyball to earn AVCA Division I Player of the Week honors with two different schools.
• Purdue’s Ryan McAleer and Wisconsin’s Charlie Fuerbringer and Colyer were selected to Michella Chester’s Starting Rotation for Week 3. The trio of selections also earned Big Ten weekly honors.
• The official attendance for the Nebraska/Creighton match at CHI Health Center Omaha on Tuesday night was 17,675, an NCAA record for an indoor regular-season match. Tuesday’s match was the 11th-largest crowd regardless of timing and location, and the Huskers have been a part of 13 of the 14 most attended matches.
• RV Indiana is off to its first 8-0 start of a season since 2017. Since 2000, it’s just the fourth time that the Hoosiers have won the first eight games of a campaign. Indiana has won 24 of the last 25 sets played and conclude its non-conference slate at RV Western Kentucky on Friday (ESPN+) and vs. Bradley on Saturday at the Alyssa Cavanaugh Classic in Bowling Green, Ky.
• 11 Purdue has won five consecutive matches, including two top-15 victories in the stretch. Purdue recently swept No. 10 SMU, marking the 11th consecutive year the Boilermakers have earned a top-10 win.
• 13 Penn State hosts No. 5 Pittsburgh on Wednesday at Rec Hall. It’s Penn State’s sixth nationally-ranked opponent in the first eight matches of the season.
• Michigan State is off to its best start since the 2012 season, following victories over Western Michigan (3-1), Kennesaw State (3-1) and Appalachian State (3-2) last week. The Spartans’ 7-0 start matches the best start in program history for a head coach in their first season at Michigan State, with head coach Kristen Kelsay matching Annelies Knoppers’ 7-0 start during the 1974 season.
• Big Ten Conference play begins on Wednesday, Sept. 24, with a pair of matches as Nebraska hosts Michigan and Indiana visits Northwestern. Each school will play a 20-match Big Ten schedule, meeting three member institutions both home and away, and playing the 14 remaining schools once.