Pitt, Nebraska, Penn State and Louisville will receive No. 1 seeds in the NCAA volleyball tournament

Look for our Zoom later Sunday evening with, among others, NCAA Division I Committee Chair Danielle Josette of Marquette; Nebraska coach John Cook, his Huskers played 17 of the 64 teams in the field; Stanford junior outside Elia Rubin, Pitt junior middle Bre Kelley; Penn State coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley; and Minnesota coach Keegan Cook, whose Gophers played 13 of the teams in the series.

Two teams each from the ACC and the Big Ten secured the coveted top four spots in the 2024 NCAA Tournament.

ACC co-champion Pittsburgh (No. 1 overall, 29-1), Big Ten co-champion Nebraska (29-2), Big Ten co-champion Penn State (29-2) and Louisville, runner-up ACC (25-5). ), are the No. 1 seeds.

The No. 2 seed went to Stanford (25-4), which shared second place with Louisville in the ACC and is in the Louisville Region; SMU (24-7), which finished fourth in the ACC, two games behind Stanford, and is in the Pitt Region; Big East champion Creighton (29-2), which has won 22 in a row and plays in the Penn State Regional; and Wisconsin (23-6), which finished third in the Big Ten and is in the Nebraska region.

The tournament begins on Thursday with first round games also on Friday.

Every first round game will be broadcast on ESPN+. ESPN will also continue its fantastic all-round show The Fifth Set with Sam Gore as full-time host. The show airs on ESPN+ beginning at 4 p.m. Eastern Thursday and switches to ESPNU at 7 p.m. Paul Sunderland and Jennifer Hoffman will join Gore and if the referee calls for a substitution, Nicole Branagh and Anne Marie Anderson will take their places.

Pittsburgh, which won the ACC, opens with Morehead State of the OVC. Morehead was the No. 4 seed in the Ohio Valley Conference Championship and lost the title game, but advanced because Lindenwood is ineligible for the tournament because it is in transition from Division II. The winner of Pitt-Morehead State plays the winner of UTEP-Oklahoma.

Nebraska plays SWAC champion Florida A&M, with the winner receiving the winner of Miami, an overall ACC champion, and Summit at-large South Dakota State.

Penn State plays MEAC champion Delaware State. The winner will play the winner of Ivy League champion Yale and North Carolina, an at-large ACC contender.

Louisville, which suffered two straight losses to Pitt and Stanford at the end of the regular season, plays NEC winner Chicago State and the winner will face Missouri Valley Conference champion Northern Iowa, which has won 20 straight against Illinois earned an at-large from the Big Ten.

Of the so-called on-the-bubble teams, Washington and Illinois from the Big Ten got in, as did Ole Miss from the SEC. Arizona of the Big 12. Rice of the American Athletic and Wright State of the Horizon League are not.

According to the ESPN selection show, the final four players were NC State, South Dakota State, UTEP and Washington and the final four players were Arizona, Pepperdine, Rice and San Diego.

Breakdown of the conference

The following leagues have more than one team:

ACC (9): Pitt, Stanford, Louisville, SMU, North Carolina, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami, NC State

Big Ten (9): Nebraska, Penn State, Wisconsin, Purdue, Oregon, USC, Minnesota, Illinois, Washington

SEC (9): Kentucky, Texas, Florida, Missouri, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Ole Miss, South Carolina

Big 12 (6): Arizona State, Kansas, Utah, Baylor, TCU, BYU

Only four conferences outside of the big four ACC, Big 12, Big Ten and SEC had more than one team participating, and only one team at a time.

Atlantic 10: Loyola Chicago, Dayton

Large East: Creighton, Marquette

Conference USA: Western Kentucky, UTEP

Summit League: South Dakota, State of South Dakota

Remarkable

— Streaking: Western Kentucky, which plays Minnesota in the Pitt Region, has won the nation’s best 24 straight times.

— Lone Star State: There are eight Texas teams in the series, three Texas teams in Austin alone, including the Longhorns, who play Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, with the winner receiving the winner of UT Arlington, which has won 20 in a row, against the USC of the Big Ten. Other Texas teams in the field include SMU, Sun Belt champion Texas State, SEC general Texas A&M and Big 12 teams Baylor and TCU.

— 2022 USA Volleyball U21: Every single player on the Pan Am Cup-winning team coached by Pitt’s Dan Fisher is in the tournament: Lexi Rodriguez, Rebekah Allick and Merritt Beason of Nebraska; Purdue’s Chloe Chicoine and Raven Colvin; Pitt’s Rachel Fairbanks and Bre Kelley; Elijah Rubin of Stanford; Mckenna Usurer of Minnesota; Creighton’s Norah Sis; Alexis Stucky of Florida; and Devin Kahahawai from Texas.

— Sisters: We may miss some at first glance, but Texas A&M-Corpus Christi features freshman Virginia Van Der Werff. The College of Charleston has one of her older sisters, junior Olivia Mae Van Der Werff, and Utah has fifth-grader Amelia Van Der Werff. They all played at Lansing High School in Kansas. There will also be two Klikas in the NCAA Tournament, Pitt’s Emily and Wofford’s Laney; and two Reillys in Bergen and Raegen, Illinois, Nebraska; two Shaffmasters, Melani of Minnesota and Mabrey of North Carolina; two Petersons, Jadyn of Northern Iowa and Payton of Louisville; and two Starcks, both at Penn State, freshman Izzy and senior Anjelina.

Story

Texas defeated Nebraska in 2023, giving the Longhorns back-to-back titles. Texas defeated Wisconsin in the semifinals by four wins. Pittsburgh was defeated by Nebraska as the Panthers appeared in their third straight national semifinal appearance.

Only 12 programs have won since the NCAA began holding women’s volleyball championships in 1981: Stanford (9 times), Penn State (7), Nebraska (5), UCLA (4), Hawai’i (3), Long Beach State (3). ), USC (3), Texas (4), Pacific (2), Kentucky (1), Wisconsin (1) and Washington (1).

Kentucky of the SEC became the only team outside the Big Ten or Pac-12 to win the crown since Texas of the Big 12 won in 2012 when the Wildcats won in the spring of 2021.

The NCAA Committee

The 10-member committee.

The chair is Danielle Josettethe Executive Associate Director of Athletics Marquette University. Josetti, who graduated from Creighton and earned a master’s degree from Marquette, was a standout softball player in junior college.

The two East members are Christian Bray, Senior Women’s Administrator at Harvard and Kathy LitzauSWA/Senior Associate AD in Wisconsin.

The southern representatives are Joeleen AkinSWA at Georgia Tech, and Natasha Oakes, SWA/Deputy AD at West Virginia.

The Southeast members are Cari RosiekSWA Associate AD at Coastal Carolina, and Jennifer SaxonSWA/Executive Associate AD in Mississippi.

The West members are Stacy KosciakSWA/Deputy AD at Bowling Green, and Laura AlexanderSWA/Senior Associate AD at San Jose State.

The two Midwest members are Josetti And Julie Manning, SWA/Deputy AD in Minnesota.