How about Minnesota?

The Gophers, ranked 18th in the AVCA preseason poll and the same spot in the new poll released Monday after opening Sunday with a five-set loss to Stanford, defeated No. 1 Texas on Monday in Milwaukee.

Fifth-place Stanford won again and is 3-0 now that it is based in Milwaukee. The Cardinal play at Marquette on Wednesday.

But speaking of Wisconsin, the Badgers, now ranked No. 6, lost their third straight fourth-set match to open the season and are 0-3 for the first time since 1990. And speaking of tough, Wisconsin lost despite a .341 batting average.

Selena Gomez surprised a volleyball team in Telluride, Colorado, Madi Skinner told us about her travels since Texas won the NCAA title last December, and we get a quick look at the Power 4 conferences after weekend one.

There are 18 NCAA volleyball games on Tuesday, including No. 4 Louisville vs. No. 7 Penn State. Louisville is 2-0 after beating Wisconsin and then Tennessee. Penn State is also 2-0 after beating Tennessee and then Temple.

Second-place Nebraska travels to Dallas to play SMU. Among the other games, No. 3 Pittsburgh hosts Buffalo, No. 23 Baylor visits Rice and Illinois hosts Illinois State.

Saint Peter’s, which has gone 1-31 in its final eight games of the 2022 season and finished 0-30 last year, opens at NJIT.

Also the AVCA Division I Poll came out Monday. Click here to watch it. We won’t be running our VolleyballMag media poll until pre-conference play concludes later this month.

State Farm Women’s College Volleyball Showcase

The two-day high-level tournament at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, hosted by Intersport and Fox, was a great way to end the first week of the season.

Especially for Minnesota, which went 17-13 in 2023 under first-year coach Keegan Cook. Taylor Landfair, who led the team in kills, then transferred to Nebraska, where she has five kills in three games.

On Sunday, the Gophers lost to Stanford 26-28, 25-23, 16-25, 25-13 and, after a 13-13 tie, 15-13.

When it came to a fifth game against Texas on Monday, Minnesota left no doubt and won 22-25, 25-19, 25-20, 13-25, 15-7.

“Transitions are hard, for coaches but especially for athletes. I think this is a really great moment for these guys that they stuck with us,” Cook said. “They had opportunities to go somewhere else and play somewhere else and they stuck together.

“You coach a lot of games to have moments like this for these kids. I’m happy for them.”

Julia Hanson had a stellar match with 19 kills, an ace, three blocks and 13 digs. McKenna Wucherer had 12 kills, two assists, two aces, four blocks and nine digs. Lydia Grote had nine kills, an assist, three blocks and eight digs. And Calissa Minatee — deadly on the slide — had a career-high nine kills with one error on 14 attacks, a dig and six blocks.

Melani Shaffmaster had another great match, as the setter had six kills, a .400 batting average, 44 assists, four aces, three blocks and 17 digs. Libero Zeynep Palabiyik had 22 digs and six assists.

Minnesota, beating a top team for the first time since beating Stanford in 2019, hit .211 with seven aces and 14 service errors.

Two-time NCAA champion Texas, which opened Sunday with a four-set win over Wisconsin, hit .183 with four aces and eight errors. Madi Skinner led with 19 kills, hit .164 and had two blocks and 12 digs. Jenna Wenaas, one of the players who transferred from Minnesota and was a key part of Texas’ NCAA title run last year, had 13 kills, an assist, an ace, two blocks and 19 digs. Ayden Ames had seven kills in 18 error-free attempts, two assists, an ace, seven blocks and three digs. Reagan Rutherford had seven kills and hit .357, along with an assist and two blocks. Libero Emma Halter had 21 digs and three assists, along with two aces.

Minnesota travels to Texas this week for a Friday game against Baylor and a Saturday showdown with TCU. Texas hosts Indiana on Thursday and Miami on Saturday.

Wisconsin will also be in Waco, Texas, playing TCU on Friday and Baylor on Saturday. The Badgers have a lot to think about after their 26-24, 18-25, 25-22, 25-22 loss to Stanford, which hit .316 with 10 aces.

Elia Rubin continued her strong start to the season, this time with 20 kills and a .349 batting average, to go with an assist, three aces and 15 digs. Ipar Kurt, who got the start at the other outside position, had 16 kills, a .324 batting average and an ace and two digs. Sami Francis had eight kills with one error in 15 attacks, an assist and a block, and Jordyn Harvey had seven kills, four aces — three in a row in the fourth set — and a dig. Setter Kami Miner had three kills in six clears, 47 assists, an ace, a block and 12 digs. Libero Elena Oglivie had 14 digs and five assists.

Sarah Franklin led Wisconsin with 18 kills, a .304 batting average, and had three assists, a block and 11 digs. Devyn Robinson had 10 kills without errors in 23 attacks, three aces, three blocks and four digs. CC Crawford, making her first start, had eight kills without errors in 19 attacks, along with an assist, four digs and four blocks. Setter Charlie Feurbringer had her best game with five kills in six clean attempts, 39 assists, an ace, a block and six digs.

Anna Smrek, the 2.05-meter-tall right winger who has had her ups and downs, did not play.

Around the country

Also on Labor Day, #18 Georgia technology swept Coast Carolinawho hit .055. Biana Bertolinio led Georgia Tech with 10 kills, an ace, 11 digs and a block … Texas A&M swept Texas A&M-Corpus Christi as Logan Lednicky, who had five blocks, and Morgan Perkins each had 12 kills. Perkins had one error in 20 attacks, an ace, a dig and a block … Indiana fought for a 25-16, 31-33, 25-16, 27-25 victory over visiting UC Davis behind 16 kills from Candela Alonso-Corcelles, who had an assist, three aces, nine digs and two blocks, one solo … McNeese to beat Southern in four, as McKenzie Moore had 13 kills and Kimaya Webb and Kayla Wilson each had 11. Webb hit .444 and had an ace, three digs and five blocks, one of which was solo.

Madi Skinner, world traveler

How fun was it to be Madi Skinner?

She started at Kentucky and won the NCAA title with her sister Avery in the spring of 2021. Then the now senior outside hitter moved on to Texas, which has won back-to-back NCAA titles. She was the MVP in Tampa in December. And then think about where she’s been.

A few days after the NCAA season ended, we interviewed her while she was visiting her sister in Chieri, Italy, where Avery plays pro. Madi was the VolleyballMag National Player of the Year.

We saw her in Paris, where we saw Avery at the Olympics, and agreed that when we were in Milwaukee we would write up all her travels.

She was ready.

“I even have a list of them,” she said, because Texas Sports Information Director Kevin Rodriguez asked for it.

“This doesn’t include trips to see my boyfriend, because no one cares about that as much as I do,” said Skinner, who had 137,000 Instagram followers, so maybe he did. Still, …

“Italy, New York City, Brazil, I was in LA for a while, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy, LA, San Francisco, NYC, Washington, DC, Paris, France, Austin, and here we are.”

These of course included the international trip to Texas, her time at the USA gym in Anaheim and a visit to the White House.

“I’ve been everywhere, but it’s been really, really fun,” Skinner said.

First week conference records

The SEC got through the first week at 30-11. Alabama, Florida, Arkansas and Auburn all went 3-0. The only team without a win was Tennessee, which opened with losses to Penn State and Louisville.

The Big Ten also had four teams go 3-0, Indiana, Michigan, Nebraska and Purdue. Only 0-3 Wisconsin is winless. Overall, the B1G is a combined 31-11.

The ACC, however, had eight teams that started 3-0, Boston College, Cal, Florida State, Miami, North Carolina, Stanford, Syracuse and Virginia. The ACC went a combined 40-10 last week. No team went without a win.

And the Big 12 has six teams that are 3-0, Arizona, Arizona State, Baylor, BYU, Kansas and Utah. No team is without a win and the Big 12 is a combined 33-8.

Selena Gomez watches Telluride HS play volleyball

Selena Gomez was in the Colorado beach town. The kids on the Telluride team put up a sign asking her to come to a game. The Today show has the story with some video.

There was also a story in Billboard.