Northern Colorado, which won the Big Sky regular-season by three games, has had a tough go of it in the conference tournament.
A day after pulling off a reverse sweep over eighth-seeded Montana State, the Bears had to go five again on Thanksgiving to beat fourth-seeded Weber State. Northern Colorado, with an RPI of 66, plays third-seeded Sacramento State (RPI 112) on Friday for the Big Sky’s automatic NCAA bid. Sacramento State knocked out second-seeded Idaho State.
Those were the only two matches Thursday as we head into a busy Friday with a lot on the line for a lot of teams, not the least of which is in the Big Ten where No. 1 Nebraska goes to No. 4 Penn State.
There’s another Beach Pro Tour Challenge going on, this one in Nuvali, Philippines, and a handful of American pairs are in the mix.
It’s all in this edition of Volleyball Today:
NCAA volleyball Friday
The match of the day has No. 1 Nebraska (28-1, 18-0) at No. 4 Penn State (28-2, 18-1) at 5 p.m. Eastern on the Big Ten Network. It will decide the Big Ten title since it’s the only time these powers play this regular season. Even with a loss, Nebraska is all but assured of being the No. 1 or 2 team in the NCAA Tournament. Penn State likely needs a victory to become a top-four seed.
Also in the Big Ten, Purdue is at Washington, Oregon is at UCLA, Ohio State is at AVCA No. 15 Minnesota, No. 20 USC is home for Iowa, Illinois is at Indiana, Northwestern is at Michigan and Maryland is at Rutgers. There are two Big Ten matches Saturday when Nebraska goes to Maryland and Michigan State is at Wisconsin.
The ACC wraps up its regular season with a flourish as Louisville tries to bounce back at Stanford, which has positioned itself to claim a top-four seed with a victory. Pittsburgh, also all but assured a top-four seed, is home for Georgia Tech, No. 9 SMU is home for NC State, Boston College goes to Virginia and Notre Dame is at Cal.
The Big 12 has six matches, including No. 8 Arizona State home for UCF, Kansas trying to bounce back at Iowa State, Baylor at West Virginia, No. 22 TCU at Cincinnati, BYU at Kansas State and Arizona at Texas Tech. The only Saturday match has Colorado at Houston.
The only SEC match Friday has LSU at Alabama. There are four matches Saturday, No. 12 Texas home for Ole Miss, No. 16 Florida at Georgia, No. 24 Missouri home for Auburn and Texas A&M at South Carolina.
The Big East…
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