Re-ranking the 16 remaining NCAA women’s volleyball tournament teams for regionals

After a thrilling second round of regional play, I re-ranked the remaining 16 teams left standing in the 2024 NCAA women’s volleyball tournament.

I took each team’s original seeding given by the committee and adjusted it based on tournament play only. 

Here’s my 2024 regionals re-rank list, along with their original bracket seeding:

1. Pitt (No. 1 seed)
2. Nebraska (No. 1)
3. Penn State (No. 1)
4. Stanford (No. 2)
5. Creighton (No. 2)
6. Louisville (No. 1)
7. Texas (No. 3)
8. Wisconsin (No. 2)
9. Kentucky (No. 3)
10. Purdue (No. 4)
11. Missouri (No. 7)
12. Texas A&M (No. 6)
13. Oregon (No. 4)
14. Florida (No. 6)
15. Dayton (No. 5)
16. Marquette (No. 5)

Starting at the top, there is no movement with Pitt, Nebraska, and Penn State. Pitt and Nebraska dominated through the first two rounds, two sweeps apiece. Listen to this number: the Huskers held their first two opponents to a .010 hitting percentage. PSU dropped one set to North Carolina in the second round. 

2024 TOURNAMENT COVERAGE: See the bracket, schedule and scores through the second round

I moved up 2-seeds Stanford and Creighton since they swept their first two opponents. Stanford was only above Creighton because it had to face a seeded opponent in Loyola Marymount (CA) in the second round and hit an NCAA-best .467 through the first two matches. Creighton also impressed me though, handling Ole Miss in a sweep. They beat the Rebels 25-7 in the third set. 

Louisville, the last of the 1-seeds, drops to No. 6 overall in my re-rank after a highly contested second-round matchup with UNI. That match almost went the other way before Louisville finally got two in a row to win the fifth set, 22-20. I am not going to drop the Cardinals down further than here, though, since the team still held opponents to a .082 clip and battled back in it. And honestly, I think this test will make them stronger. The Cardinals had an unmatched will to win, and UNI was plenty talented. 

At No. 7, I moved two-time defending champ Texas up since I was so unbelievably impressed by the Longhorns’ performance. They swept what everyone thought would be a tough challenge in Southern Cal. I am unsurprised that Madi Skinner is back to postseason Madi Skinner form with 23 kills and hitting .347 vs. USC.

Then I have Wisconsin, which handled a tough second-round matchup against Georgia Tech in four…