No upsets, but plenty of drama as NCAA volleyball tourney gets down to eight

After all the twists and turns through eight NCAA Tournament matches Thursday, in the end there were no upsets, the seven top RPI teams are in the remaining eight, and once again, there will be no outliers in the final four.

The closest thing to it is Oregon, the No. 3 seed from the Louisville region, which went down 2-1, fought off four match points in the fourth, and then ousted second-seeded Nebraska 25-14, 24-26, 22-25, 32-30, 15-11. And Oregon is No. 11 in the RPI. 

From the “Out of the mouths of babes” department:

“It’s exciting,” said Oregon freshman Mimi Colyer, who led the Ducks with 26 kills. “Obviously I’m new here, and we don’t see a lot of stuff like that in high school and club.”

Uh, no.

But, yes, Wisconsin squandered a 2-0 lead and had to beat Penn State in five; Stanford rallied from a 21-13 first-set deficit before sweeping Houston, the last upstart in the field; and San Diego continued to justify its battle cry of “Why not us?”

Nebraska is out. Hugh McCutcheon is done.

So, on Saturday, these are the matchups with berths in the national semifinals on the line:

At Louisville
Oregon vs. Louisville, 4 p.m., ESPNU
At Texas
Ohio State vs. Texas, 6 p.m., ESPNU
At Wisconsin
Pittsburgh vs. Wisconsin, 8 p.m., ESPNU
At Stanford
San Diego  vs. Stanford, 10 p.m., ESPNU

We’ve got all eight recaps, a coaching note and the NIVC update.

RPI don’t lie

After Thursday, the updated RPI reflects the regional finalists in a kind of eerie way.

1. Texas
2. Louisville
3. Pittsburgh
4. Wisconsin
5. Stanford
6. Ohio State
7. San Diego
8. Kentucky
9. Minnesota
10. Nebraska
11. Oregon

The top seven and Oregon are in the final eight and Kentucky, Minnesota and Nebraska all lost on Thursday.

By conference, the final eight has two teams from the Big Ten (Wisconsin, Ohio State), two from the Pac-12 (Stanford, Oregon), two from the ACC (Louisville, Pitt), one from the Big 12 (Texas) and one from the West Coast Conference (San Diego).

The tournament started with seven teams from the SEC, six each from the B1G and Pac-12, five from the ACC, five from the Big 12, and two each from the American Athletic, Big East, Conference USA and Mountain West.

Oregon overcomes Nebraska

Oregon of the Pac-12 (26-6), which has won 16 in a row, is back in the round of eight for the first time since 2018. Now the Ducks will try to get back to the NCAA semifinals for the first time since they lost to Texas in 2012 national-championship match. 

Mimi Colyer led Oregon with 26…