There were only three NCAA Division I volleyball matches Tuesday, but all three had major storylines.
Third-seeded South Dakota, which lost to South Dakota State in both of their Summit League regular season meetings, knocked off the top-seeded Jackrabbits in five sets to claim its fifth NCAA Tournament bid in seven years. South Dakota State, No. 30 in the unofficial RPI, will get an at-large bid.
In the Missouri Valley, top-seeded Northern Iowa won the first two sets, lost the third to third-seeded UIC and then trailed 23-15 in the fourth before coming away with a 25-22, 25-20, 16-25, 272-5 victory. UNI, which has won 20 matches in a row, is back in the NCAA tourney for the 20th time and third consecutive year.
And in the Ohio Valley, fourth-seeded Morehead State is headed to the NCAA Tournament despite getting swept by second-seeded Lindenwood. That’s because Lindenwood, in its second year in Division I, is not eligible for NCAA play.
Wednesday’s schedule includes the start of four tournaments, the Big East, Big Sky, Big West and Mountain West.
The matches of the day are in the ACC, where No. 1 Pittsburgh goes No. 3 Louisville in what has become one of greatest rivalries in the college game, No. 6 Stanford is at No. 19 Georgia Tech and No. 9 SMU is at No. 21 Florida State.
There’s another coaching opening, this one in the WAC.
It’s all in this NCAA edition of Volleyball Today.
Last season, Pittsburgh, en route to its third NCAA national semifinal in a row, pulled a reverse sweep over Louisville in the regular season and then did it again in the regional final. In their earlier regular-season meeting, at Pitt on October 25, Pitt won in five again, 25-21, 26-28, 25-17, 22-25, 15-12.
Pitt (27-1, 17-1), which has won 12 matches in a row, and Louisville (25-3, 17-1), which has won nine in a row, are tied for first in the ACC. Stanford (23-4, 15-3), which has won seven in a row, and SMU (23-6, 15-3), which has won eight in a row, are tied for third.
Also in the ACC, in addition to the previously mentioned matches of No. 6 Stanford at No. 19 Georgia Tech and No. 9 SMU at No. 21 Florida State, No. 25 North Carolina is home for Virginia, Cal is at Syracuse, Clemson is at Boston College, Miami is at NC State,
Wake Forest is at Duke and Notre Dame is at Virginia Tech.
There are eight matches in the Big Ten, highlighted by No. 10 Purdue at No. 14 Oregon. Fourth-ranked Penn State is at Rutgers, No. 6 Wisconsin is home for Ohio State, AVCA No. 15 Minnesota is at Illinois, No. 20 USC goes to Washington, Northwestern is at Michigan State, Michigan is at Indiana and Iowa is at UCLA.
Tenth-ranked Kansas home for BYU in the Big 12, which also shows No. 15 Utah at Iowa State, AVCA No. 16 Baylor at Cincinnati, No. 22 TCU at West Virginia, Kansas State at Colorado, UCF at Arizona and Houston at Texas Tech.
In the SEC, No. 13 Kentucky is at No. 24 Missouri, No. 12 Texas is home for Tennessee, No. 16 Florida is at South Carolina, Mississippi State is at Georgia, Oklahoma is at Arkansas and LSU is at Alabama.
The Big East tourney begins with No. 4 DePaul vs. fifth-seeded St. John’s and third-seeded UConn vs. No. 6 Villanova. The semifinals are Friday when top-seeded Creighton and No. 2 Marquette await.
In the Big Sky, top-seeded Northern Colorado plays No. 8 Montana State, second-seeded Idaho State plays No. 7 Northern Arizona, host No. 3 Sacramento State faces No. 6 Portland State and No. 4 Weber State plays fifth-seeded Eastern Washington.
The Big West at UC Irvine has fourth-seeded Long Beach State vs. No. 5 UC San Diego and third-seeded UC Davis vs. No. 5 UCI. Top-seeded Cal Poly and second-seeded Hawai’i await in Friday’s semifinals.
And in the Mountain West, fourth-seeded Fresno State plays fifth-seeded San Diego State for the right to play top-seeded Colorado State, and third-seeded Utah State plays sixth-seeded Boise State for the right to play second-seeded San Jose State. But both Utah State and Boise State forfeited their matches to San Jose State this season, which creates a dilemma for the winner. If you don’t know the story, click here for The Associated Press article about the judge’s ruling in favor of SJSU and the Mountain West.
South Dakota (21-9) came away with a 20-25, 25-18, 25-19, 16-25, 15-10 victory over South Dakota State (27-2) in The Summit League Championship in Kansas City.
Click here for the South Dakota recap and here for the South Dakota State recap.
Northern Iowa (25-7) staged an improbable fourth-set comeback against UIC (23-10) to win the Missouri Valley Conference title. UNI swept both their regular-season meetings.
Click here for the UNI recap, and here for the UIC story.
And Lindenwood (23-10) won the Ohio Valley Conference final with a 25-16, 25-18, 25-15 victory over Morehead State (18-14) at Southeast Missouri State. Morehead swept both their regular-season meetings, in back-to-back matches four weeks ago at Morehead.
Click here for the Lindenwood recap and here for the Morehead account.
The Riverside school announced that Branden Higa is out after 12 years. CBU got off to an 0-12 (0-2 in the WAC) start this season before eventually finishing 8-22, 7-9 in the conference.
The fifth-seeded Lancers won their first WAC Tournament match ever, ousting No. 4 Utah Tech, before losing to top-seeded UT Arlington in five sets in the semifinals.
Higa, who took the program from Division II to DI in 2018, had an overall record of 212-144.
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