Pregame books
Cover, contents, an executive summary of ranked storylines with on-air lines, then game information, the model's forecast, tale of the tape, schedules, statistics, player logs, careers, rosters, the series and program history. Every summary figure is checked against its page or the query that produced it.
Thu Oct. 22
No. 25 Colorado at No. 11 BYU
Colorado's big block meets a BYU offense that has won 12 straightFri Oct. 23
No. 10 Oregon at No. 16 Penn State
Oregon's close-set habit meets Kennedy Martin in Rec HallFri Oct. 23
No. 21 Washington at No. 6 Wisconsin
Washington's defense gets its toughest test in a young Wisconsin's gymFri Oct. 23
No. 17 Kansas at No. 13 TCU
Kansas owns the early sets; TCU owns the late onesFri Oct. 23
No. 20 Minnesota at No. 12 Purdue
Minnesota's serve and first-set starts meet Purdue at home in a coin flipSat Oct. 24
No. 8 Arizona State at No. 11 BYU
BYU's 12-match run meets the team that has beaten it five straight timesSun Oct. 25
No. 19 Texas A&M at No. 4 Kentucky
The national final rematch finds the champion at 11-8 and Kentucky unbeaten at homeSun Oct. 25
No. 22 Vanderbilt at No. 9 Tennessee
Vanderbilt's serve tests the nation's best pass in KnoxvilleSun Oct. 25
No. 16 Penn State at No. 18 Indiana
Kennedy Martin and Penn State test an Indiana defense that won the last meetingSun Oct. 25
No. 15 Stanford at No. 23 North Carolina
Neither team has beaten a ranked opponent since August, and one of them willSun Oct. 25
No. 17 Kansas at No. 24 Baylor
Kansas's serve and a freshman star meet a Baylor team that has found its attackSun Oct. 25
No. 21 Washington at No. 20 Minnesota
Washington's rebuilt defense meets the coach who built its last great teams
Graphics
1080 x 1350, rendered at 2160 x 2700. Free to post with credit to MESH Volleyball.
This week's poll with each team's movement.
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Kills per set against hitting percentage for every qualified attacker.
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Evollve ratings, 2019-2026, with this season's teams marked NOW.
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Actual win % against what each team's points predict.
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AVCA rank against MESH model rank for the Top 25.
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Every D-I team by side-out % and point-scoring %, opponent-adjusted.
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Top three in six individual categories.
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Nebraska and the longest active winning streaks in Division I.
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Every ranked-vs-ranked match this weekend, with times and networks.
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Nebraska is 19-0, the only unbeaten team in Division I.
Texas has seven losses. It has not had more in a full season since 2003. AVCA No. 14 Texas (9-7) lost 3-2 at home to Florida on Sunday, its first home loss since the 2025 NCAA tournament. Before this season, Texas had never had more than four losses through Oct. 20 in any season since 2011 (four in 2011 and 2018). Its seven losses already match its full-season totals of 2006 and 2024, and the last Texas team with more was 2003 (15-14). Texas has also been swept four times; in every full season from 2011 through 2025 it was swept at most twice. It is 221-20 at home since 2011. Texas plays at South Carolina on Sunday.
Three straight defending champions have fallen to 15th or lower. Before 2024 it had happened once since 1982. Texas A&M, the 2025 national champion, is AVCA No. 19 at 11-8, twice as many losses as in its 29-4 title season. The two defending champions before it also slid: Texas reached AVCA No. 15 in 2024 and Penn State fell to AVCA No. 25 in 2025. Before 2024, the only defending champion since 1982 to drop to 15th or lower the next season was 1990 Long Beach State (15th), not counting the COVID-disrupted 2020 polls. A&M lost 3-1 at home to Florida on Friday and is 2-6 against ranked teams.
Sunday in Lexington is a rematch of the 2025 national final. AVCA No. 4 Kentucky (15-3) hosts AVCA No. 19 Texas A&M (11-8) on Sunday. The last time they met, A&M swept top-seeded Kentucky 3-0 in the national final in Kansas City on Dec. 21, 2025. Kentucky had won the regular-season meeting 3-1 in College Station. Kentucky setter Kassie O'Brien leads D-I with 11.80 assists per set.
Two AVCA No. 5 teams lost to unranked opponents five days apart. Only twice this season has a top-five team lost to an unranked opponent, and both came in the last 11 days: Vanderbilt beat AVCA No. 5 Florida on Oct. 11, and on Oct. 16 Miami (8-9) came back from two sets down to beat AVCA No. 5 SMU 3-2 in Dallas, taking the fourth set 33-31. Miami freshman Ruth Martinez had 29 kills, tied for the most by any D-I player against a ranked opponent this season. SMU fell to AVCA No. 7.
Nebraska's opponents are hitting .104. Nebraska (19-0) has held opponents to a .104 hitting percentage, the lowest against any D-I team (next: Lehigh, .132). It has won 57 of 61 sets; Purdue took the second set on Saturday, the fourth set Nebraska has lost all season. Nebraska is 8-0 against ranked teams with a 24-2 set record. A year ago Nebraska also started 19-0, but had lost six sets. It has won 49 straight regular-season matches (all 30 in 2025 plus 19 this year). UCLA and USC visit Lincoln this weekend.
Nebraska has topped 24 of the last 25 AVCA polls. Nebraska was AVCA No. 1 in every 2025 poll from the preseason through Week 14, finished third in the final poll after its only loss, and has been AVCA No. 1 in all nine 2026 polls. It received all 63 first-place votes for the second straight week. It is one of 15 teams since 1982 to be AVCA No. 1 in every poll from the preseason through Week 8, and the fifth Nebraska team (2005, 2006, 2007, 2025, 2026). Thursday's visitor, UCLA, is tied for the most points among unranked teams (118) after beating Penn State 3-2.
Preseason AVCA No. 25 Oregon is in the top 10. Every preseason AVCA No. 25 to get there by Week 8 did it in the last five seasons. Oregon started the season AVCA No. 25 and has climbed in seven straight polls to AVCA No. 10, its first top-10 ranking since the 2024 final poll. It has won seven straight and is 16-2. Since 1982, four preseason AVCA No. 25 teams have been in the top 10 by Week 8, all since 2022: San Diego (2022), Arkansas (2023), TCU (2025) and Oregon. Oregon plays at AVCA No. 16 Penn State on Friday; Penn State won 3-1 in Eugene last season.
BYU is ranked its highest since 2023 and hosts two ranked teams. AVCA No. 11 BYU (15-1) has won 12 straight since its only loss, to Pittsburgh on Sept. 4, and its ranking is its best since Week 9 of 2023. It hosts AVCA No. 25 Colorado on Thursday and AVCA No. 8 Arizona State on Saturday. Arizona State won both meetings last season and is 7-1 against ranked teams this year; on Sunday it came back from two sets down to win at Kansas. BYU is fourth in D-I in hitting (.310) and MESH's team rating has it sixth.
Vanderbilt's second-ever ranking takes it to Knoxville. Vanderbilt (15-2) moved up to AVCA No. 22 in its second appearance in an AVCA poll; it is not in any of the 1982-2025 polls. It went 9-18 last season. On Sunday it plays at AVCA No. 9 Tennessee, which swept Vanderbilt in Nashville last season. The two rank fifth and sixth in D-I in hitting percentage (Vanderbilt .303, Tennessee .297). Tennessee has won five straight and is 7-1 at home; Vanderbilt has won six straight. MESH's team rating has Vanderbilt 14th.
Kelli Jo Burgess is blocking at a rate one D-I player topped over a full season from 2021 to 2025. BYU middle Kelli Jo Burgess, a transfer from Oklahoma, leads D-I with 1.87 blocks per set (101 in 54 sets). Among D-I players with 80 or more sets from 2021 to 2025, only Boston College's Julia Haggerty averaged more (1.91 in 2024). Burgess averaged 1.27 at Oklahoma last season. BYU hosts Colorado and Arizona State this week.
Five of Kansas's 2025 players are on Top 25 teams. Kansas plays one of them Friday. Five players from Kansas's 2025 roster are now on ranked teams: Selena Leban (AVCA No. 5 Florida), Ellie Moore (AVCA No. 7 SMU), Aurora Papac (AVCA No. 8 Arizona State), Raegan Burns (AVCA No. 9 Tennessee) and Molly McCarthy (AVCA No. 13 TCU). No other 2025 roster has more than three players on current Top 25 teams. AVCA No. 17 Kansas lost 3-2 to Arizona State on Sunday and plays at TCU on Friday and at AVCA No. 24 Baylor on Sunday.
Olivia Babcock leads D-I in kills and points per set, and her kill rate has risen every year. Pitt's Olivia Babcock leads D-I with 5.29 kills per set and 6.21 points per set. Her kill rate has gone up every season: 3.62 in 2023, 4.72 in 2024, 5.17 in 2025. Among D-I players with 80 or more sets from 2021 to 2025, four had a higher points-per-set season, led by Miami's Flormarie Heredia Colon (7.17 in 2025). AVCA No. 2 Pittsburgh (17-1) plays at Georgia Tech and Clemson.
Using this material. Graphics, notes and books are free to quote, post and broadcast with credit to MESH Volleyball. Per-set leaders need 75% of team sets (hitting: 5 attempts per team set); these are MESH's rankings, and the NCAA's official minimums can differ.