The Upsets Only 16 teams remain in the NCAA volleyball tournament. The process to arrive at this moment was filled with very exciting volleyball and wonderful competition. The first round was the most exciting in years, with eight upset wins of unseeded teams ousting a nationally seeded opponent, while an additional eight matches went all […]
The Upsets
Only 16 teams remain in the NCAA volleyball tournament. The process to arrive at this moment was filled with very exciting volleyball and wonderful competition. The first round was the most exciting in years, with eight upset wins of unseeded teams ousting a nationally seeded opponent, while an additional eight matches went all the distance in a forced fifth set. This is twice as many as the 2024 tournament, when only four matches went to five sets.
The eighth seeded teams had a challenging first round. UCLA went to five sets with Georgia Tech, won the fifth and moved on. San Diego went to five sets with Kansas State, lost the fifth set and went home. Xavier lost in three sets to Michigan and Penn State won in four sets over South Florida.
The seven seeds in the tournament had an even worse time, all four of the seven seeds were defeated by an unseeded team in the first round. Those seventh seeds were Tennessee, South Dakota State, Rice and Western Kentucky. Tennessee lost to Utah State in five sets. This was Nebraska transfer Hayden Kubik’s senior season, a tough way to go out.
The former Husker outside hitter finished her college career as an offensive and defensive leader for Tennessee. This loss is even tougher for the Lady Volunteers to take, given that they also lost in five sets in the first round in 2024, that time to Georgia Tech.
The rest of the seven seed results were: South Dakota lost in four sets to Arizona. Rice met Florida in the first round and lost in three. Western Kentucky faced a very underestimated Marquette team (they looked like a 4 or 5 seed to me) and the Hill Toppers lost in three sets.
That is six first round upsets, the last two belong to a six seed and a five seed. Sixth seeded UTEP lost to North Carolina and Fifth seeded BYU lost to Cal Poly in five sets. Oh, Cal Poly! That segways right into the second round where Cal Poly produced their second upset again in five sets over #4 USC. Cal Poly, out of the Big West conference, is into the sweet 16 as the only unseeded team remaining. What a fun team to watch!
The next biggest upset was that of #5 UTEP by North Carolina. If you were watching scores or matches from the ACC this season you were not too surprised that UNC had upset potential in them. During the season they beat Florida, Georgia Tech and SMU. This was a talented team that seemed to have something to prove. I suppose they did that by winning in the first round. They met Wisconsin in the second round and lost 3-0. I’ll keep my eye on UNC next season.
Best matches of the first two rounds
Louisville 3 vs Marquette 2 – This one went five and it was great volleyball to the very end. Louisville took the fifth set with a 15-12 score. The Marquette setter is a freshman and a native of Louisville and she was excellent in this match. One of the outside hitters for Louisville is Payton Peterson. She was announced to the volleyball world last season when she subbed in for the injured Anna DeBeer in late in the match against Pitt in the National Semi Finals. Peterson was great.
The storylines for this match kept building as Marquette kept coming after the 2024 National Runner up team. Marquette gave Louisville everything they had but stars like Chloe Chicoine, Nayelis Cabello and Cara Cresse were just too good on this night. Louisville advances to face Texas A&M.
Creighton 3 vs UNI 1 – UNI went five sets in the 2024 tournament with the team we just talked about, Louisville. They are coached by Bobbi Peterson, the mom to above mentioned Payton Peterson. UNI is a well-coached team who matched up well with Louisville and Creighton because they pass and serve with the best of them. Teams that don’t have a ton of height pass accurately and play fast to gain the advantage. This was a strength against strength sort of match.
Ultimately Ava Martin of Creighton alongside Jaya Johnson and Kiara Reinhardt prevailed and won this match in four sets. They seemed to get better as the match went on which could mean good things in the next round. If Creighton is able to learn and adjust as they play, they can find success. They meet Arizona State in the next round.
What was your favorite match in the first two rounds?
Breakdown of teams remaining by conference:
Big West: started with 1, has 1 remaining
Big East: started with 3, has 1 remaining
B12: started with 10, has 2 remaining
SEC: started with 6, has 3 remaining
ACC: started with 7, has 4 remaining
Big Ten: started with 9, has 5 remaining
NCAA Tournament Regional Matches
December 11th (# are seeds in the last AVCA Coach’s Poll)
#11 Creighton vs #8 Arizona State 12 pm CT
Cal Poly vs #2 Kentucky 2:30 pm CT
#17 Minnesota vs #4 Pitt 6 pm CT
#12 Purdue vs #7 SMU 8:30 pm CT
December 12th
#15 Indiana vs #3 Texas 11 am CT
#10 Wisconsin vs #5 Stanford 1:30 pm CT
#6 Texas A&M vs #9 Louisville 6 pm CT
#16 Kansas vs #1 Nebraska 8:30 CT or 30 minutes after previous match
23 women head coaches in the 2025 NCAA Tournament are former players
Dani Busboom Kelly Coaches Nebraska, played @ Nebraska
Katie Schumacher Cawley Coaches Penn state @ Penn State
Sam Erger Coaches SMU, played @ Bowling Green
Eve Rackham Watt Coaches Tennessee, played @ UNC
Christy Johnson-Lynch Coaches Iowa state, played @ Nebraska
Heather Olmstead Coaches BYU, played @ Utah State
Lauren Ramatowski Coaches Tulsa, played @ Kansas State
Amanda Berkley Coaches Loyola Chicago, played @ Wisconsin
Lyndsey Oates Coaches Northern Colorado, played @ LSU
Caroline Walters Coaches Cal Poly, played @ Santa Clara
Sabrina King Coaches Princeton, played @ Princeton
Nancy Somera Coaches Fairfield, played @ USC
Bobbi Peterson Coaches UNI, played @ UNI
Lynze Roos Coaches Wofford, played @ Butler
Debbie Humphreys Coaches Stephen F Austin, played @ Texas Tech
Jennifer Petrie Coaches San Diego, played @ William and Mary
Genny Volpe Coaches Rice, played @ Texas A and M
Christy Pfeffenberger Coaches Xavier, played @ Dayton
Erin Virtue Coaches Michigan, played @ Illinois
Jolene Shepardson Coaches USF, played @ USF
Charita Stubbs Coaches Arizona, played @ Arizona
Beth Launiere Coaches Utah, played @ Aquinas
Michelle Collier Coaches Georgia Tech, played @ USF
Come back to Cornnation.com tomorrow for a complete and detailed look at Nebraska’s next match versus Kansas.
Category: General Sports
