International Volleyball

SD, UNC, Creighton win tourneys; Pitt, Florida, UK claim shares; bracket announcement awaits

SD, UNC, Creighton win tourneys; Pitt, Florida, UK claim shares; bracket announcement awaits

And now we wait.

The Division I women’s volleyball NCAA Tournament field will be announced Sunday night, at 7:30 Eastern on ESPNU, a 64-team bracket with two sets of seedings invaluable to the particpants.

Who are the top four, the teams that, if they win the first two rounds, get to be regional hosts? 

And who makes up the remaining 12, because the top 16 get to be hosts for the first two rounds.

Three tournament titles, and the automatic bids that go with them, were captured Saturday when No. 15 Creighton beat No. 14 Marquette 16-25, 25-20, 25-18, 31-33, 15-12 in the Big East Championship, South Dakota won The Summit League and Northern Colorado won the Big Sky.

In the Big Ten, third-ranked Wisconsin, which claimed the title the night before by winning at Nebraska, won in four at No. 8 Ohio State, which ended the regular season on a four-match losing streak. Visiting No. 9 Minnesota sent No. 5 Nebraska into the postseason on a two-match skid after sweeping the Huskers, who have lost three of five.

No. 13 Georgia Tech bolstered its slim case to be a host by sweeping Florida State in the ACC, where No. 7 Pittsburgh won to claim a share of the title with idle No. 4 Louisville.

In the SEC, both No. 12 Florida and No. 16 Kentucky won and shared that conference’s crown.

The only other ranked team in action, No. 17 Baylor, swept Kansas State.

Later Sunday we will have a conference-by-conference list of who stands where heading into the selection show. 

After the show ends, VolleyballMag.com’s Lee Feinswog and Emily Ehman of the Big Ten Network and ESPN will interview NCAA committee chair Pauline Thiros, top coaches and some key players by Zoom and will have that video posted here as soon as possible Sunday night.

BIG TEN: Wisconsin (25-3, 19-1) ended up winning the conference by three games over Nebraska with its 25-22, 25-17, 19-25, 27-25 victory at Ohio State (19-9, 15-5). Wisconsin, the defending national champion, has won 18 in a row. The Badgers hit .226 and got 12 kills, 13 digs, an assist and a block from Sarah Franklin, and 11 kills from Anna Smrek, who hit .360 and had eight blocks, three solo. Caroline Crawford had five kills in 10 errorless attacks, two asssits, two aces, three digs and seven blocks, two solo. Ohio State hit .136 and got 20 kills from Emily Londot, who had an assist, four aces, a block and 17 digs. Rylee Rader had 15 kills, three aces, two blocks and three digs … 

Minnesota (20-8, 15-5) won…

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