San Diego coach Jen Petrie asked simply, “Why not us?”
Why not, indeed.
Here are some things to consider about the second-ranked Toreros, who finished the regular season 27-1 and are riding a 24-match winning streak, the nation’s longest:
In the pre-conference season, they beat No. 7 Pittsburgh, which has only lost three times; swept Hawai’i, which will likely win the Big West this weekend; swept No. 8 Ohio State, the third-place team in the Big Ten; beat SMU, the third-place team in the American Athletic; beat the Pac-12’s Utah in five; swept the Pac-12’s UCLA; and lost just once, at No. 4 Louisville in four sets on September 2.
That’s it.
One loss. To a team that will be an NCAA Tournament top-four seed.
San Diego went 18-0 in the West Coast Conference, which included two victories each over No. 18 BYU, an NCAA tournament at-large lock; once-ranked Pepperdine, which was ranked early; and Loyola Marymount. Both might get bids.
But San Diego, while ranked No. 2 in the AVCA Poll, had an NCAA RPI heading into Saturday of No. 8. And the WCC is not the Big Ten, ACC or Pac-12.
Well, Breana Edwards, the graduate-student right side who transferred from Indiana for her fifth year and is having the season of her life, offered this:
“I know we’re solid in every position. We’ve been pushed in the preseason. Every fifth set we’ve gone to we’ve won. There’s not a doubt in my mind that we have what it takes.
“I mean, I played in the Big Ten and I don’t see why we’re any different than any team in the Big Ten. We have the power, we have the ball control and Gabby Blossom puts up amazing balls. She came from the Big Ten. And this conference presents its own challenges in a different way.”
There are observers who agree and certainly plenty who don’t.
A top-four seed?
What else can or could San Diego have done?
As Emily Ehman of the Big Ten Network and ESPN said in our weekly Zoom last Monday, assuming San Diego is not a top-four seed, “It sends a message to not only San Diego, but it sends a message to any non-Power 5 team that there is nothing that they can do unless they schedule as tough as San Diego did and go undefeated to allow you to get a top-four seed.”
The NCAA bracket that will be announced Sunday night has 64 teams. The top 16 play the first and second rounds at home. But the top four seeds, if they win their first…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Volleyballmag.com…