NCAA Women
December 7, 2023
Will there be a new champion for the third time in four years?
History indicates otherwise as the NCAA Division I women’s volleyball tournament heads into Thursday’s round of 16.
Just 12 programs have won the national championship since 1981, the year the NCAA conducted its first tournament. USC won that first title, the same year Texas won the last AIAW national championship.
Since then, USC won two more, in 2002 and 2003, and Texas has won the NCAA title three times, in 1988, 2012 and last year.
When Kentucky won in 2020 (spring 2021), the Wildcats became the first first-time champion since Washington in 2005. Wisconsin became a first-time winner in 2021.
Thursday’s round of 16
Here is Thursday’s schedule, in chronological order, with all times Eastern:
No. 5 Louisville (26-4) vs. No. 12 Creighton (29-4), noon, ESPN2
No. 1 Nebraska (30-1) vs. Georgia Tech (24-6), 2 p.m., ESPN2
No. 4 Pittsburgh (27-4) vs. No. 13 Washington State (26-7), 2:30 p.m., ESPNU
No. 8 Kentucky (21-7) vs. No. 9 Arkansas (27-5), 4:30 p.m., ESPNU
No. 3 Wisconsin (28-3) vs. Penn State (23-8), 7 p.m., ESPN2
No. 7 Texas (24-4) vs. No. 10 Tennessee (26-4), 9 p.m., ESPN2
No. 6 Oregon (28-5) vs. No. 11 Purdue (23-8), 9:30 p.m., ESPNU
No. 2 Stanford (28-3) vs. Arizona State (28-6), 11:30 p.m., ESPNU
Women coaches
Six of the final 16 teams are coached by women, but in at least one regional only one of three can emerge. At Pittsburgh, Louisville (Dani Busboom Kelly) plays Creighton (Kirsten Bernthal Booth) and Washington State (Jen Greeny) plays Pitt.
At Nebraska, Georgia Tech’s Michelle Collier is the lone women coach as her team plays the Huskers and Kentucky plays Arkansas.
It’s the same at Wisconsin, where Katie Schumacher Cawley’s Penn State team plays the Badgers and Oregon plays Purdue.
And at Stanford, Eve Rackham Watt and Tennessee play Texas and Stanford plays Arizona State.
No women has coached an NCAA winner.
Texas-Arlington broke throughto the…
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