Big Ten Weekly Volleyball Central – Oct. 1-7
• The Big Ten Conference and Big Ten Network (BTN) announced a newly created In-Season Volleyball Challenge. Partnering with Discover®, the official credit card of the Big Ten Conference, the inaugural Discover In-Season Volleyball Challenge will debut during the 2025 regular season conference schedule, starting Oct. 1, encompassing all 18 Big Ten Volleyball programs. Select conference matches played during the month of October will count toward the Discover In-Season Volleyball Challenge. Each team will play five designated challenge matches throughout the month, with the winner determined by the highest win total across the five games. Designated matches for the challenge will be noted on the adjacent schedule.
• The Big Ten | Discover Volleyball Challenge begins this week with Michigan hosting Minnesota on Wednesday, followed by Wisconsin vs. Illinois and UCLA vs. Purdue as part of a BTN doubleheader on Thursday. Penn State hosts Nebraska on Friday for an 8 p.m. ET start on FOX. Results and standings from the Big Ten | Discover Volleyball Challenge can be found at bigten.org/discovervbc.
• Seven Big Ten volleyball programs were among this week’s AVCA/TARAFLEX Top 25, announced on Monday: #1 Nebraska, #7 Wisconsin, #10 Minnesota, #13 Purdue, #16 Penn State, #17 USC and #24 UCLA. Indiana and Illinois are receiving votes in this week’s poll.
• Four Big Ten program’s are among the top-5 nationally in hitting percentage: Wisconsin (2nd, .330), Indiana (3rd, .321), Nebraska (4th, .317) and Minnesota (5th, .312). Nebraska’s Rebekah Allick is fourth nationally with a .463 hitting percentage.
• Illinois is receiving votes in this week’s AVCA poll after starting conference play 2-0 for the first time since 2022. The Illini beat Oregon and #10 Purdue, earning their first victory over a top-10 opponent since 2021. It was also Illinois’ highest-ranked Big Ten win since 2021.
• Indiana is off to its first 2-0 start in Big Ten play since 2003. The Hoosiers head to #17 USC and #24 UCLA this weekend, looking for their eighth all-time road victory over a ranked opponent.
• In Nebraska’s conference opener against Michigan, Bergen Reilly tallied 28 assists, passing her head coach, Dani Busboom Kelly, for fifth on Nebraska’s career assists list in the rally scoring era (2,950). The junior setter is currently 20th nationally among active Division I players with 2,979 assists.
• Penn State’s Kennedy Martin tallied a career-high 34 kills against UCLA on Sunday, the most in the nation in a four-set match this season. Only two other players in the country have reached 34 kills in a single match this season, both of which were five-set matches. Martin currently ranks first in the Big Ten and second nationally in both points/set (5.97) and kills/set (5.23)
• UCLA re-enters this week’s AVCA poll after receiving votes in the last two polls. The Bruins began conference play 2-0, which included a win at No. 15 Penn State.
• Wisconsin head coach Kelly Sheffield earned his 600th career win on Sunday with a 3-0 win at Iowa. Seven of Wisconsin’s nine wins this season have come in straight sets.