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Penn State, Texas advance to NCAA volleyball title game (USA Today)
Texas moved one step away from the second volleyball championship in school history, sweeping Minnesota 25-19, 25-20, 25-15 in Thursday night's national semifinal. The Longhorns will face Penn State in the final.
W. Volleyball. Hana Cutura Named Honda Sports Award Nominee (CalBears.com)
California volleyball senior outside hitter Hana Cutura was selected as a nominee for the 2009-10 Honda Sports Award, earlier this week. Cutura is the first Golden Bear volleyball player to be nominated for the prestigious award in its 34-year history. The Zagreb, Croatia native is also Cal's first Pac-10 Volleyball Player of the Year and became Cal's first three-time AVCA All-American with her ...
College Volleyball: Texas, Penn State to play for championship (Omaha World-Herald)
Texas moved one step closer to the second NCAA Division I volleyball championship in school history, sweeping Minnesota 25-19, 25-20, 25-15 in Thursday night's first national semifinal.
Penn St. will play for 3rd volleyball title in row (AP via Yahoo! Sports)
Penn State players jogged back to the bench down one set, their record winning streak in doubt, their run at an unprecedented third straight NCAA volleyball title in question. They huddled amid a silenced arena. "We just kind of talked about having each other's backs," middle blocker Arielle Wilson said, "and about playing to our potential." They quickly showed it.
Penn St. will play for 3rd volleyball title in row (AP via Yahoo! News)
Penn State players jogged back to the bench down one set, their record winning streak in doubt, their run at an unprecedented third straight NCAA volleyball title in question.
Canastota wins volleyball showdown (The Oneida Daily Dispatch)
CANASTOTA — When Sauquoit Valley and Canastota get together in girls volleyball, fans are usually treated to a good match.
Penn State to face UT for national volleyball title (Sports Illustrated)
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Penn State is one win away from setting another volleyball record, earning the chance for a third straight national title by beating Hawaii 23-25, 25-18, 25-15, 25-18 Thursday night.
Penn State to play Texas in NCAA volleyball championship match (ESPN)
Texas moved one step away from the second volleyball championship in school history, sweeping Minnesota 25-19, 25-20, 25-15 in Thursday night's national semifinal.
Volleyball Commentary
NCAA Coaches Poll Week 14 The last Coaches Poll of the regular season is in the books. The only change tot the top tier is that Washington lost its #4 spot after losing to #18 Oregon in five over the weekend. Stanford is the official Pac-10 champ and moves into fourth place while the Huskies settle for sixth. Iowa State grabbed the #5 spot. The only other noteworthy movement was Michigan's four-spot drop after losing two matches in three sets over the weekend. The first loss was to #1 Penn State (expected) and the second to unranked Ohio State (unexpected) to put the Wolverines at #16. NCAA Coaches Poll Week 14 originally appeared on About.com Volleyball on Monday, November 30th, 2009 at 22:55:13.
Life as the Favorite On Monday, the NCAA will announce the 2009 tournament seeds, brackets will get filled up and fates will be revealed. One team's path to the national title will take shape. At this point there are favorites, challengers and long shots and everyone has their gaze locked upon the target on the #1 team's back. They all want to be the one to take down Goliath and none of them have anything to lose. Life as the favorite can be very beneficial; you get the best seed, the easiest first round match-up, the most TV time and you carry with you the intimidation factor that can break an opponent before you even play the game. But it can also be a team's undoing. That target on your back gets bigger and bigger as you rack up the wins. Read more... Life as the Favorite originally appeared on About.com Volleyball on Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 at 09:23:59.
Final Four Revealed The women's Final Four teams are now set and the field looks about as expected. Penn State, Hawaii and Texas will be joined this weekend in Tampa by the one slight surprise of the Regionals, Minnesota. #11 seed Minnesota took out #3 seed Florida State fairly easily in Minneapolis, but I doubt they will be able to take Texas in the semi-finals. Texas looked sharp and determined after a shaky first set against Nebraska in Omaha. Penn State continued to roll over everyone in their path so far, but I think Hawaii could give them a run for their money in the semi-final. They Rainbow Wahine are not as big as Penn State though and that will hurt them unless they can keep Penn State off balance. How Hawaii ended up as the #12 seed in this tournament is still beyond me. More than anything, I want to see some good matches and am hoping no team is able to cruise to the championship. I'd love to see a team challenge the Nittany Lions on their way to their place in history and I think if anyone can, it will be Texas. I pick Penn State and Texas for the finals and that has the potential to be a great match. You can catch the semifinals on Thursday, December 17th at 7 and 9 PM Eastern. The finals air Saturday the 19th at 8 PM Eastern. Both matches will be broadcast on ESPN2. Final Four Revealed originally appeared on About.com Volleyball on Monday, December 14th, 2009 at 23:36:29.
NCAA Coaches Poll Week 13 As expected the Coaches Poll stayed pretty static this week. The top six remain unchanged from last week as most of the top teams were not challenged by the weekend's competition. Of interest though - Penn State dropped game one to Purdue this week with a score of 31-29. The Nittany Lions ended up winning in four, but the loss breaks their nine-match streak of bagels. Purdue is not a team they want to be dropping games to this close to the playoffs. UCLA's hot streak is officially over. They lost to #18 Oregon to fall two spots to #9. It has been a very topsy turvy season for the Bruins. We'll see if they can find some consistency once the playoffs begin. Two more weeks until the first round of the NCAA tournament. Most of the top teams will not be challenged this weekend, but #6 Stanford will take on #11 Cal and that is always an unpredictable match-up. NCAA Coaches Poll Week 13 originally appeared on About.com Volleyball on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 at 14:07:51.
A California-less Final Four This weekend's Final Four is getting the most attention because it could be the first time one school has won three straight national championships. But it will also go down as the first time ever that not one single team from the state of California will compete for the title. The fact that there are no Cali teams in this Final Four could mean that the NCAA has finally achieved its goal of parity. The level of volleyball around the country has risen significantly and this year's championship will mark the fifth straight year without a California champ. Could it be that volleyball is no longer dominated by the west coast? I find this quite shocking in a year in which the Pac-10 had a particularly strong season with eight teams in the top 25 most of the year, all of which made the playoffs. Let me just throw some stats at you to back my point. Pac-10 conference teams have appeared in all but two Final Fours and been the national champs in 13 of them. California teams have won 18 of the 28 championships. This year, most of the Pac-10 teams made unexpected early exits from the tournament. In the two years that Pac-10 teams did not appear in the Final Four (1998 & 1993), California still had a representative in Long Beach State. Not so this year, as the 49ers lost in the first round. Hawaii is the lone west coast representative and they are not favored to win. A significant development, indeed. A California-less Final Four originally appeared on About.com Volleyball on Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 at 09:21:34.
Sweet Sixteen Only 16 teams remain in the tournament and this weekend brings the Regional Semis and Finals. We are getting ever closer to the Final Four in Tampa. Most of the favorites are still alive, but we are about to see them put to the test. This weekend Penn State will face Florida and most likely Cal. The undefeated Nittany Lions should be able to contain both squads to head to the Final Four. In the Stanford Regional, Hawaii will face Illinois and Stanford takes on Michigan. If all goes as expected we'll see a Stanford - Hawaii re-match. Hawaii won the only time these two met this season, but that was way back in August. The Minneapolis Regional has some surprises in it. Florida State will take on Kentucky. This Kentucky squad took out Michigan State and Oregon to get to this point, so we'll see if they have what it takes to give third seed Florida State a run for its money. The 11 seed, Minnesota, will take on Colorado State who beat Washington fairly easily to get to the semis. The Iowa State - Nebraska semi should be a good match up in the Omaha Regional. But Texas should be able to get past Texas A&M to play the winner. My prediction for the Final Four -- Penn State, Hawaii, Florida State and Texas. Sweet Sixteen originally appeared on About.com Volleyball on Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 at 09:19:43.
It's Tournament Time! The tournament officially begins on Thursday, Dec. 3rd. It's win or go home time, folks. The NCAA bracket is out and the teams are set for the playoffs. Three of the top four seeds make perfect sense - Penn State at #1, Texas at #2 and Stanford at #4. The #3 seed turned out to be Florida State while Hawaii was saddled with a #12 seed. Penn State should not be tested by any of the teams in the Gainesville Regional if they play like they have been all season. That is as it should be for the #1 seed and the #1 ranked squad. The other Regionals should be more hotly contested. Now, I won't pretend to understand all that goes into seeding. There are complicated mathematical equations that lead to the final numbers, and the RPI, a calculation based on the winning percentages of each team, each of that team's opponents and each of the opponents of that team's opponents. In other words, it has to do with strength of schedule. And I believe that is where Hawaii may have been lacking. In the RPI, Hawaii (ranked #3 nationally on the AVCA poll all season) actually ranked 22nd on the RPI, which likely hurt their seeding. So should Hawaii have gotten a higher seed? Probably. But that's how the ball bounces. Tough news for Stanford, who will have to beat Hawaii or Illinois (both talented teams) to get to the Final Four, though they will be able to do so with the home court advantage. The Cardinal edged Washington out in the last weekend of the regular season to win the Pac-10 and get the higher #4 seed. But it is Washington that will have the smoother road to the Final Four. It's Tournament Time! originally appeared on About.com Volleyball on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 at 22:23:28.
Pac-10 Flame-Out Pac-10 teams spent the majority of the regular season as the top conference in the nation. But you wouldn't know it by the showing they've had thus far in the tournament. With eight teams ranked in the top 25 nationally all year long and four in the top 10, I expected the tournament to be a Pac-10 Fest. Some of the losses in the first and second rounds were expected. Others, not so much. Two of the biggest upsets were UCLA's loss to Baylor and Washington's loss to Colorado State. UCLA is young and has been up and down all season. But I was surprised they weren't able to put together a more competitive playoff run. More disappointing was Washington's performance. Their #6 seed took them to the Minneapolis Regional with no Penn States, Hawaiis or Texases to deal with. They would however have needed to get past Iowa State and Florida. Both doable if they were playing up to their potential. Turns out, they never made it that far. The Huskies, who were ranked fourth in the nation until the last week of the regular season, lost in the second round to Colorado State in four sets. Their regular season ended on a sour note with an unexpected loss and it seems they were never able to get back on track. Cal and Stanford will carry the torch for the Pac-10 for this Friday's coming Regional semi-final matches, but both have difficult roads to the Final Four with Stanford needing to get past Hawaii and Cal needing to take down the mighty Penn State to get a ticket to Tampa. No easy feats to say the least. Pac-10 Flame-Out originally appeared on About.com Volleyball on Monday, December 7th, 2009 at 23:51:41.
But it was not to be. Of the eight qualifying teams, only two remain - Stanford and Cal.
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