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Challenge Week Takeaways: Minnesota Hit Better, Lost
No. 17 Florida beat No. 11 Minnesota in Madison, South Carolina came back from two sets down in Ann Arbor, and Tennessee's sweep of Illinois drew 8,212, a program record set four days after the last one.
Nine matches opened the first Allstate Big Ten/SEC Volleyball Challenge Week on Tuesday, in six buildings across five states, and the Big Ten won five of them.
Only two of the nine put ranked teams against each other, and the lower-ranked side won both. Purdue beat No. 12 Texas A&M in straight sets in West Lafayette, and No. 17 Florida beat No. 11 Minnesota 3-1 (27-25, 24-26, 25-23, 25-21) in Madison.
Florida and Minnesota played at the Wisconsin Field House, which was a host site rather than either team's home. Three of the four sets there finished two points apart.
Florida Hit Worse Than Minnesota and Won
Minnesota hit .274. Florida hit .245. Florida won.
Selena Leban carried the away side. The third-year outside hitter finished with 20 kills, four aces, eight digs and two blocks, and Kamryn Chaney supplied the run of kills that ended the fourth set.
Mckenna Wucherer matched her career high with 21 kills for Minnesota and dug ten balls. Stella Swenson set 41 assists and Jordan Taylor put up seven block assists.
In his athletic department's report of the match, Florida head coach Ryan Theis said the following about how the fourth set ended.
"I was out of challenges, but there was a touch call that I think fired her up because she got hosed on that call and then she scored the next seven points. Maybe she got fired up, mad at not getting a break, and then decided to take over. It was one of the most impressive endings to a match I've ever seen."
Minnesota out-hit a ranked opponent by 29 points of hitting percentage and lost, which is the sort of night that gets waved off in September and counted in December.
Florida is 2-0 and Minnesota is 1-2.
South Carolina Came Back From Two Down
South Carolina lost the first two sets at Crisler Center and then took three straight, 25-18, 27-25 and 17-15, in front of 1,505 people. It is the Gamecocks' best start since 2022 and the best under Sarah Rumely Noble.
Michigan hit .219 as a side and .737 from one wing, where Jenna Hanes took 19 swings and made no errors at all. South Carolina blocked eighteen balls, its most since 2024, and won the last three sets.
A team that gets a .737 night out of an outside hitter and still loses has been beaten at the net rather than at the pins.
Oregon Lost the First Set and Won Three
Missouri took the opener off No. 25 Oregon 25-16 in Columbia and then lost three in a row, 25-16, 25-20 and 25-19, in front of 3,343 people. Valentina Vaulet reached her 1,000th career kill during it and Oregon hit .339.
No. 21 Indiana beat Georgia 3-1 at Mackey Arena, the second match Purdue's building hosted on Tuesday. Ella Boersema hit .667 and Sara Snowbarger reached double figures in kills, each for the first time in her career.
Georgia's Bianna Muoneke had 22 kills in defeat. Michigan State swept LSU at Crisler Center and Vanderbilt swept Maryland in Nashville, and Maryland did not serve a single ace all night.
LSU's Jurnee Robinson was named the AVCA national player of the week on Tuesday and then hit 15 kills that night as Michigan State swept her side in three. The Spartans have opened 3-0 in consecutive seasons for the first time since 2012.
A Record Crowd and a 25-Year Drought
No. 22 Tennessee swept Illinois 25-19, 25-17, 25-11 in Knoxville in front of 8,212, a program record. The old one was 7,924, set four days earlier against Colgate. Tennessee hit .422 and is 4-0.
Rutgers swept Arkansas 25-19, 25-20, 25-16 in Nashville, in front of 296 people, for its first win over an SEC opponent since 31 August 2001, when it beat Ole Miss.
Eight thousand two hundred and twelve people watched one match on Tuesday and 296 watched another, on the same night, in the same event, between teams from the same two conferences.
Each conference beat exactly one ranked opponent, Purdue over Texas A&M and Florida over Minnesota. The Big Ten's 5-4 lead is one extra win over a team nobody had ranked at all.
