In this Volleyball today:

– Wisconsin is in a position the program hasn’t experienced in 31 years, as Texas and Stanford earned victories at the State Farm Volleyball Showcase here in Milwaukee;

— There was plenty of action in NCAA volleyball on Sunday;

– Olympians won the respective women’s and men’s titles at the AVP Chicago Open;

– And the seated USA team served France symbolically off the field at the Paralympics in Paris.

After an incredibly busy opening weekend, NCAA volleyball returns on Monday with six games.

At Fiserve Forum, an hour from the Wisconsin campus, Stanford will play the Badgers at 4 p.m. Central Time on Fox and Texas will play Minnesota at 6:30 p.m. on FS1.

Four more women’s NCAA games are scheduled for Monday: McNeese vs. Southern in a matchup of Louisiana schools, Coastal Carolina vs. Georgia Tech, Texas A&M vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and UC Davis continues its trip to Indiana with a game at Indiana.

Texas overwhelms Wisconsin

The last time we saw Texas, they won the national championship, but the team isn’t missing superstar center Asjia O’Neal or standout right guard Molly Phillips.

But don’t cry for the Longhorns.

Consider that sophomore midfielder Marianna Singletary had nine kills, a .438 hit average and eight blocks, including two solo, in a 30-28, 23-25, 25-15 and 25-11 win over Wisconsin on Sunday. And that Kentucky transfer right wing Reagan Rutherford had 14 kills, a .367 hit average and six digs and two blocks.

Add in the nation’s best player, Madi Skinner (15 kills, six digs and one block), and new setter Averi Carlson, who transferred from Baylor, to complement Ella Swindle, and Texas is OK. Oh yeah, Jenna Wenaas led the way with 18 kills, 10 digs and two blocks, one of them solo.

“We have a lot more options. Both setters are really good, both bring something good to our team,” UT coach Jerritt Elliott said. Molly was such a good player for us and was so well respected and made play after play, but we needed to be more in the system with her. I think we can change it up a little bit and give Reagan longer balls and have a little more firepower over there.

“Our midfielders are still young, but they are getting better at it.”

Junior libero Emma Halter, who was so good for Texas down the stretch last year, had 28 digs and five assists.

Wisconsin, which opened its season last Tuesday with a four-set loss to Louisville, is 0-2 for the first time since 1993.

Sarah Franklin, last year’s Big Ten player, had 25 kills, two assists, one ace, nine digs and two blocks. She accounted for 69 of her team’s 163 shots. Devyn Robinson, who had four blocks, one solo, and Anna Smrek each had seven kills.

Texas hit .265 with a total of five hitting errors in the third and fourth sets and had seven aces against eight service errors. Wisconsin hit .153 — the Badgers hit .179 against Louisville — and had two aces and 10 errors.

“That was a very impressive defensive effort from them,” Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield said.

Stanford outlasts Minnesota

Fifth-seeded Stanford, which opened its season with a sweep of nearby Milwaukee on Friday, got setter Kami Miner back and earned a 26-28, 25-23, 16-25, 25-13 and 15-13 victory over 18th-seeded Minnesota.

Elia Rubin led with 19 kills, one assist, two aces, three blocks and 13 digs. Sami Francis had 14 kills, hit .393 and had three blocks. Two freshmen in the lineup were crucial: Sophomore Jordyn Harvey had a career-high 12 kills, one assist and a career-high seven aces, one block and five digs, and first-year Lizzy Andrew had eight kills, hit .429 and had one assist, one block and one dig.

Miner had three kills, 47 assists and 17 digs. Her team hit .222 and had 12 aces and 12 service errors. Libero Elena Oglivie had 16 digs and six assists. Stanford continues to be without highly touted freshman Julia Blyashov, who is out with an unspecified injury.

Minnesota, which lost its season opener despite a .302 batting average, had nine aces and 23 errors. Junior McKenna Wucherer led with 14 kills, two assists, two aces, 10 digs and six blocks, alone. Julia Hanson had 14 kills, one assist, one ace, two blocks and six digs. Lydia Grote added 11 kills, had a .321 batting average and one ace, two blocks and four digs. Calissa Minatee had four kills and a career-high seven blocks, two of them alone.

Melani Shaffmaster, who has been slowed by a bad knee and a bothersome brace in recent years, is off the brace and moving better than ever. The fifth-grader had four kills in five clean attempts, 40 assists, three aces, two blocks and eight digs.

NCAA volleyball across the country

Notable results and performances from Sunday:

The day line goes to Jill Pressly of DePaulwho set a career-high with 29 kills and hit .333 with three aces and 10 digs in a five-set win over Bradley. The 5-foot-11 outside hitter is a fifth-grader from Plano, Texas … Props also to Amaris Smith of CSUN. She had 29 kills in a win over San Diego State on Saturday and then 27 more in a four-set loss to Idaho State on Sunday, along with 10 digs and three blocks … In Oregon’s Swing of Long Beach State, Colby Neal had 13 kills on 14 flawless swings, two digs and seven blocks.

6th place Louisville hit .371 and swept No. 15 Tennessee Sofia Maldonado Diaz had 11 kills and hit .429 and Charitie Luper had 10 kills with one error in 19 attacks and hit .474, plus an ace, 12 digs and a block …

No. 20 State of Florida Hit No. 25 Georgia in four. Audrey Koenig led FSU with 15 kills, one ace, eight digs and three blocks … In South Carolina’s Victory in four sets over dukeRiley Whitesides had 23 kills, 11 digs and one block …

Baylor swept Campbell and Allie Sczech had 12 kills with one error in 25 swings and two blocks … Colorado reached .375 in his sweep of Rutgers This included 13 kills by Ana Burilovic, a hitting average of .458, as well as nine digs and a block… Kansas reached .474 in a sweep of Colgate. Ayah Elnady had 12 kills with one error in 24 attacks … State of Arizona reached .479 in a sweep of California Baptists … Eleven Wildcats had kills as Kentucky reached .369 in a sweep of State of Morehead …

Purdue reached .450 in a sweep of University of California Raven Colvin had 12 kills with one error on 15 swings and four blocks, one of them solo, and Eva Hudson had 15 kills, a .433 batting average and nine digs and one block… Oregon reached .375 in a sweep of State of Long Beach and as mentioned above, Colby Neal had 13 kills on 14 shots with no errors. Noemie Glover had seven kills with one error on 14 shots and three blocks… Florida reached .361 in a sweep of State of Michigan … Georgia Tech Institute hit .367 and got 23 kills from Larissa Mendes, who hit .500, in a four-set victory over NM-State … Towson improved to 4-0 and hit .367 in a sweep of Morgan State Victoria Barrett had 14 kills, hit .417 and had seven digs and five blocks, one of them solo …

Southern Illinois hit Oral Roberts in five and Annabelle Sulish had 19 kills, hit .485 and had an ace, 10 digs and three blocks … State of San Diego reached .366 in a sweep of Seattle University. Talea Mitchell had 16 kills without errors on 23 attacks and six blocks, one of them alone … UNLV reached .438 in a sweep of Pacific including Alondra Alarcon, who scored 10 kills with one error in 15 attacks … State of Fresno hit Grand Canyon in five. Fresno’s Ella Rud had 23 kills, one ace, 13 digs and four blocks, and GCU’s Tatum Parrott had 21 kills, one assist, two aces, 15 digs and three blocks.

AVP Chicago Open

The women’s final repeated the result of the round of 16 at the Olympic Games in Paris last month, when Canadians Brandie Wilkerson and Melissa Humana-Paredes defeated Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss 21-17, 17-21 and 15-13. At the Olympic Games, the score was 21-19 and 21-18.

Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes, who defeated Toni Rodriguez and Geena Urango 21-16, 21-14 in the semifinals, took home $15,000, while TKN won $10,000. Kloth and Nuss beat fellow Olympians Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes 15-21, 21-18, 15-13 in the semifinals.

The Canadians won all five matches, all but one in three sets. This included an earlier 17-21, 21-17, 15-7 victory over Rodriguez-Urango and a 23-21, 13-21, 15-8 victory over Cheng-Hughes.

U.S. Olympians Andy Benesh and Miles Partain, who made it to the Olympic quarterfinals, defeated Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander 21-15, 21-15 to win the men’s title. In the semifinals, they beat Tim Bomgren and Troy Field 29-27, 21-15. The Taylors advanced with a 21-15, 12-21, 15-7 victory over Olympians Chase Budinger and Miles Evans.

Click here to see the full results: https://avp.com/brackets/

USA wins sitting volleyball at Paralympics

The US women hit a whopping 28 aces in their 25-5, 25-1, 25-5 victory over France on Sunday. The Americans are 1-1 and will finish the group stage on Tuesday against Italy (1-1). The winner will advance to the semifinals.

Click here to learn more from USA Volleyball.