Breaking down the 64-team field at this year's NCAA volleyball tournament
The GIST: Don’t blink because 64 squads will begin their single-elimination national tournament run tomorrow or Friday, and by late Saturday night, only 16 will remain in the natty hunt. Keep those eyes on that December 17th prize…
The quadrant queens: The teams most likely to see Santa stuff their stockings with confetti? The aforementioned Nebraska and fellow No. 1–seed Wisconsin Badgers — the only squad to defeat the Huskers all year. Badger blip aside, Nebraska’s 28-win season snapped Wisconsin’s Big Ten title streak — and rewrote sports history.
- The remaining No. 1 seeds? ACC co-champ Pitt and dynasty Stanford. Each could conquer the bracket, but with Player of the Year candidate Kendall Kipp repping the Cardinal, Stanford’s poised to add a 10th national trophy to their case.
Other teams to watch: Both defending national champ No. 2 Texas and the team they took down to secure that title, No. 2 Louisville, are top potential hardware-hoisters. But don’t sleep on the chaos-makers of No. 5 Dayton or the other ACC co-champ No. 6 Florida State, who rallied from a rough start to win all but two matches since mid-September.
- As for A-10 champ Dayton, their 31-dub year included 23 (!!!) sweeps and just two losses — both to higher-ranked teams. Plus, they’ve only dropped four sets since September 8th. A second natty with a non–Power Five contender? LFG.
Key first-round matchups: Of tomorrow’s 16 matches, three are loaded with upset potential: No. 7 James Madison vs. Baylor at 4:30 p.m. ET, Miami vs. No. 8 Northern Iowa at 6 p.m. ET, and No. 7 Iowa State vs. Hawaii at 7 p.m. ET. Stack your screens.
