SPORTS

OU women's volleyball: Sooners hire Aaron Mansfield as head coach

Oklahoman

OU hires Aaron Mansfield to lead volleyball program

OU athletic director Joe Castiglione announced Aaron Mansfield as OU's new head volleyball coach on Thursday.

Mansfield takes over the Sooners program after serving the past six seasons as head coach at Loyola Marymount, leading the Lions to a 94-68 (.580) record and taking them to a pair of NCAA Tournaments. He also served as an assistant coach for the LMU women’s beach volleyball program from 2017-19.

Mansfield, who is from Sunnyvale, Calif., played collegiately for the Gauchos and was a four-year starter and three-year team captain. He was named to the All-MPSF (Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) Team all four years and in 2005 earned All-America honors as a libero. He graduated from UCSB in 2005 with a degree in cultural anthropology and as the school’s all-time digs leader (1,000).

After graduating from UCSB, Mansfield took volunteer assistant position with UCSB women’s program for one season before joining the men’s staff.

Extra points

COLLEGE BASKETBALL: Madi Williams had a double-double, Taylor Robertson added 18 points on six 3-pointers, and No. 23 Oklahoma defeated Florida 95-79 in the women's game of the Jumpman Invitational on Wednesday night. Robertson made 6-of-7 3-pointers and matched her own Big 12 record of 53 consecutive games with a 3-pointer. It marked the 14th time during the current streak that she has made at least five 3-pointers. Williams had 22 points and 11 rebounds for the Sooners (10-1), who have won seven in a row. Skylar Vann had 15 points and Nevaeh Tot scored 12.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL: Austin Reed passed for four touchdowns and a New Orleans Bowl-record 497 yards, leading Western Kentucky to a 44-23 win over South Alabama on Wednesday. It was another memorable season-ending performance for Reed. He set Division II title game records in 2019 with 523 yards and six TDs passing in West Florida’s 48-40 victory over Minnesota State in 2019. Reed’ bowl total gave him 4,744 yards and 40 touchdowns passing this season — leading the nation in both categories. 

MEDIA: The NFL announced a multiyear agreement with Google for “NFL Sunday Ticket.” The package of out-of-market Sunday afternoon games will be distributed on YouTube TV and YouTube Primetime Channels. The NFL was seeking $2.5 billion per season for the package, which has been on DirecTV since 1994. The satellite provider has paid $1.5 billion per year on an eight-year contract that expires at the end of this season. Besides Amazon, Apple and ESPN also expressed interest in “NFL Sunday Ticket.”

OBITUARY: Running back Ronnie Hillman, who was part of the Denver Broncos team that won Super Bowl 50, has died. He was 31. Hillman’s family posted on his Instagram account Wednesday that he was diagnosed with a rare form of kidney cancer called renal medullary carcinoma and was under hospice care. 

—Staff and wire reports