Women's Volleyball Seeks Fifth Straight Championship, Enters NCAA Tournament At No. 8

by Jeff Junstrom on Nov 28, 2011 3:02 PM EST in Volleyball

Last night was Selection Sunday for the NCAA Women's Volleyball Championship tournament, which will culminate with the Final Four in San Antone (last time I went through I took three broads home), and the ladies of Penn State are sitting in a nice position with a regional No. 2 seed.

Slightly different from the men's basketball version, only the top 16 teams in the country are ranked, as opposed to the 16 teams within each region being assigned a seed. Penn State enters the tournament as the eighth-ranked team in the country, and will face off against Big South champion Liberty on Friday night at 7:00 pm at Rec Hall. Should the Lions win that match, they will face the winner of the Delaware/American matchup on Saturday at 7:30 pm at Rec Hall.

Despite a strong 2011, the ladies did not take home the Big Ten crown this year for the first time since 2002. New kid on the block Nebraska won their first Big Ten conference crownin just their first year, not unexpected given Nebraska's strong volleyball background. In all, the Big Ten placed eight teams in the Championship tournament, cementing their place as the SEC football of women's volleyball.

Penn State's road to their fifth consecutive national championship will be tough, but manageable. With two home matches against lesser competition, you can pretty much pencil the Nittany Lions into the Sweet 16 and a trip to Lexington on December 9. Their opponents in the third and fourth rounds, should they make it that far, would most likely be UCLA and Texas, respectively. From there, Purdue and Iowa State are the highest seeds in the "bottom left" bracket and thus most likely to make the trip to San Antonio on December 15. The national championship match will take place on December 17, and will air live on ESPN2.

For coverage throughout the tournament, follow DigNittanyVolleyball as well as checking back here.

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FIVE STRAIGHT

It will be really tough for the ladies to get there. But they have the players to make a deep run, just don’t play well at times. But Russ excells in the post season, he scouts the hell out of all teams and is ready for anything they throw at PSU. Just need the ladies to step it up and play real good and hopefully add to our dynasty.

Fight on State!!

by AriesGD on Nov 28, 2011 3:07 PM EST reply actions

The first two shouldn't be a problem

and PSU will have a clearly better team in the third game, probably UCLA. After that, they’re all winnable and losable for this team.

Texas is the biggest hurdle between PSU and the National Championship game, and a very young PSU team took Texas to 5 sets, outscored them 103-98, and lost 3-2 back on Sept 10 in California.

GO IOWA AWESOME, now and forever, until PSU sees them in basketball and wrestling
Beat Wisconsin

by ckmneon on Nov 28, 2011 3:27 PM EST reply actions

I actually really like Penn State’s draw in the tournament. Considering the year they had they got a really manageable to trip to at least the final. UCLA will be tough, but beatable. In fact I think UCLA is the toughest team between Penn State and the NCAA finals. Penn State and Texas played way back in September with Penn State losing 3 – 2 but with the improvements made since then I think that is a very winnable match. Also worth considering Texas has a very dangerous michigan st team in their region. MSU has been somewhat hot down the stretch including a win over Illinois, if they’re on they very well could upset Texas.

If they make the final four there is a good chance they get Purdue a team they’ve already beaten twice this year 3 1. Looking at the brackets it’s just a reaffirmed what most have known all year, there is no dominant number 1 this year. Pretty much any team from 1 – 10 has a decent chance of winning the whole thing. The key for Penn State will be playing consistent volleyball for 4 straight matches away from Rec Hall( assuming they get past the regional). That’s something they haven’t really done this year. If they can do that they have a good chance at #5. My prediction sadly is that their inconsistent play costs them a five set heartbreaker somewhere along the line likely against UCLA.

by psuwresfan on Nov 28, 2011 4:22 PM EST reply actions

Agree

The only teams seeded above them in their half of the bracket are a Purdue team PSU has beaten twice and a Texas team PSU lost to 3-2 but outscored. I’m not guaranteeing anything beyond the sweet 16 with this team, but PSU could very easily be considered the favorite to make it to the National Championship Game.

GO IOWA AWESOME, now and forever, until PSU sees them in basketball and wrestling
Beat Wisconsin

by ckmneon on Nov 28, 2011 5:02 PM EST up reply actions

Location is favorable

First two matches in Rec Hall again will certainly help. I’m glad they won’t face Texas in Texas or UCLA and any other West Coast team in California. Whether neutral site fans will root for opponents is possible what with the recent anti-PSU mindset across the land but it doesn’t look like opponents will have a homecourt advantage. With that plus, I’m still encouraged with their chances.

Stop blaming Joe -- media mobs!
Nominate - Elect Franco Harris to BOT (and vote out incumbents)

by OlderBudweiser on Nov 28, 2011 5:32 PM EST reply actions