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Three months to the day after it began, the NCAA Division I volleyball season comes to a close on Saturday.
With one match to spare, third-ranked Wisconsin won at No. 5 Nebraska and captured its fourth Big Ten title in a row.
Hawai’i beat UC Santa Barbara in five won clinched the Big West crown with a match remaining.
No. 22 Houston lost in five at No. 23 UCF, but won the tiebreaker in the American Athletic Conference after those teams split this season.
Utah State, the No. 4 seed, won the Mountain West tournament title.
One conference race has come down to the last day. In the SEC, No. 12 Florida and No. 16 Kentucky are tied for the lead. Florida is at Ole Miss and Kentucky is home for South Carolina.
Three more conference tournament titles will be claimed:
— No. 14 Marquette plays No. 15 Creighton for the Big East title,
— South Dakota plays Omaha for The Summit League crown,
— Northern Colorado plays Portland State in the Big Sky.
Every other one of the 32 Division I conference automatic bids have been decided, but there are plenty of regular-season matches Saturday with NCAA implications. Among them:
In the Big Ten, Wisconsin — which played late Friday and then had to travel after — wraps up at No. 8 Ohio State, hoping to secure a top-four NCAA seed with a victory against the reeling Buckeyes, who have lost three in a row. Nebraska is home for No. 9 Minnesota.
In the ACC Florida State is at No. 13 Georgia Tech.
The Big 12 includes No. 17 Baylor home for Kansas State and TCU at Oklahoma.
And in the SEC, in addition to Florida and Kentucky, Georgia is back at LSU, which might to win after getting swept Friday, squandering a 20-12 third-set lead; Arkansas plays a seeding match at Auburn, which might need a win to get in; and Missouri goes to Mississippi State.
On Sunday, everyone rests, except for the volleyball committee. That group will work well into Sunday filling out the 64-team bracket with some serious seeding and who’s-in and who’s-out challenges ahead.
The NCAA aanouncement show is at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Sunday on ESPNU. After it 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 video Zoom and will have it posted before 11 p.m.
BIG TEN: Wisconsin (24-3, 18-1) left no doubt about who the best team in the conference is with a 25-21, 21-25, 25-21, 25-19 victory at Nebraska (24-5, 16-4). The Badgers, who won their 17th in a row, can do no worse than win the league by a full game.
Devyn Robinson led Wisconsin with 16 kills, hit .323 and had three blocks and a dig. Sarah Franklin had 12 kills, an assist, a solo block and eight digs. Anna Smrek had 11 kills with one error in 25 attacks and hit .400 and had five blocks and two digs. Danielle Hart, who did not have an error in her previous four matches, still hit .385 after having eight kills with three errors in 13 attacks. She added four blocks and a dig. We featured Hart last week.
Julia Orzol had eight kills, an assist, eight digs and two blocks, one solo. Setters Izzy Ashburn and MJ Hammill combined for 46 assists and 24 digs. Their team hit .235.
Nebraska, which hit .200, got 13 kills from Kaitlyn Hord, who had one error in 24 attacks and hit .500 to go with four blocks. Lindsay Krause had 12 kills with two errors in 27 attacks and hit .370 to go with an ace, a block and a dig. Ally Batenhorst had 10 kills, an assist, five blocks and nine digs. Nebraska played with defensive-specialist Kenzie Knuckles, who hurt her knee in practice and is out for the season. She was fourth on the team in digs and third in aces …
Minnesota (19-8, 14-5) swept at reeling Ohio State (19-0, 15-4) as Taylor Landfair had 25 kills and hit .360 after having four errors in 60 attacks to go with an assist, nine digs and four blocks …
No. 11 Penn State (24-7, 13-7) beat visiting No. 19 Purdue (20-10, 11-9) in five as five players had nine or more kills, 14 each by Katie Clark, who had six blocks, and Zoe Weatherington. Eva Hudson had 17 kills for Purdue to go with two assists, 14 digs and three blocks, one solo …
Maryland (16-16, 7-13) won in five at Indiana (16-16, 9-11), Northwestern (18-14, 7-13) snapped its seven-match skid with a sweep of visiting Illinois (15-15, 10-10), and Michigan (17-13, 8-12) swept visiting Rutgers (8-24, 2-18).
PAC-12: No. 6 Stanford (24-4, 19-1), which had already clinched the league title, hit .363 and swept visiting Cal (7-23, 0-2), which fought to the end of a tough season. Kendall Kipp had 15 kills, hit .407 and had three blocks, one solo. McKenna Vicini had seven kills with one error in 12 attacks and 11 blocks, one solo …
No. 10 Oregon (232-5, 17-3) hit .410 and swept visiting Oregon State for their 13th win in a row. Brooke Nuneviller had 11 kills in 18 errorless attacks, two aces and seven digs, and Mimi Colyer had 11 kills, hit .329, and added an assist, two aces, a block and two digs …
No. 25 Washington State (22-9, 14-6) swept visiting No. 24 Washington (20-10, 12-8). WSU, which hit .343, got 15 kills from Laura Jansen, 14 from Pia Timmer and 12 from Katy Ryan, who had six blocks …
Colorado (20-10, 12-8) beat visiting Utah (15-16, 8-12) in four for its fourth win in five matches. Maya Tabron had 14 kills, an ace, three blocks and 12 digs. Madelyn Robinson ended her season with 24 kills for Utah …
USC (21-10, 13-7) beat visiting UCLA (16-13, 10-10) in four and likely put an end to the Bruins’ season. Skylar Fields had 23 kills for USC and added an assist, an ace, 10 digs and five blocks, one solo.
SEC: Florida (22-5, 14-3) hit .404 and swept at Ole Miss (11-16, 7-10) and Kentucky (19-7, 14-3) swept South Carolina (13-14, 7-10) as they remained tied for the lead. Florida’s Sofia Victoria had 13 kills, hitting .432 … Arkansas (19-8, 10-7) swept at Auburn (21-7, 10-7) … Georgia (21-7, 12-5) swept at LSU (15-12, 9-8), but the Bulldogs trailed 20-12 in the third before staging quite a rally before winning 25-21, 27-25, 31-29. Kacie Evans finished with 16 kills, 13 digs and three blocks … Tennessee (17-13, 11-7) swept at Alabama (10-20, 4-14) and Mississippi State (14-13, 7-10) beat visiting Missouri (9-18, 2-15) in four.
MOUNTAIN WEST: Utah State (22-10) is in the NCAA tourney for the first time since 2010 after the Aggies knocked off San Jose State 21-9) in four. Tatum Stall had 17 kills and hit .342 in the 24-26, 25-14, 25-17, 25-19 victory to go with two blocks and nine digs. Adna Mehmedovic added 13 kills, hit .348, and had two blocks and four digs.
AROUND THE NATION: Hawai’i (21-6, 18-1) won in five at UC Santa Barbara (20-10, 16-4) and won the Big West title and its automatic bid. Amber Igiede had 18 kills, hit .417, and had two assists, an ace, three digs and five blocks. Riley Wagoner also had 18 kills, hit .333 and had two blocks and 17 digs …
The loser was assured of a bid, but American Athletic pride was on the line when UCF (27-1, 19-1) avenged its only loss by beating visiting Houston (28-3, 19-1). McKenna Melville led UCF with 29 kills, a block and 11 digs. Claudia Dillon had 18 kills with one error in 23 attacks, an assist, three blocks and two digs. Houston, which had won 20 in a row, including a four-set victory over UCF in early October, got 18 kills from Abbie Jackson, who had an ace, two blocks and 15 digs …
The rubber match in the Big East is in the tourney final after Marquette (27-2) swept UConn and Creighton (26-4) swept Xavier. Marquette hit .352 and got 13 kills from Aubrey Hamilton, who hit .333 and had an assist, an ace, six digs and five blocks, two solo. Creighton hit .388 and was led by Norah Sis, who had 17 kills, hit .333 and had nine digs …
The Big Sky final will pit Northern Colorado (21-8), which got past Sacramento State in five, and Portland State (18-11), which beat Montana State in four. UNC swept both meetings with Portland State …
The Summit League final features South Dakota (28-2), which swept Denver, and Omaha (20-9), which beat North Dakota State in four. In the regular season, South Dakota beat Omaha twice, the first time in five and then in four …
In the Big 12, Texas Tech swept visiting Kansas, which is sure to get an at-large bid, behind five aces, 12 digs and two assists from KJ Adams. Kansas hit .038 …In the ACC, Notre Dame won in four at Virginia Tech and Wake Forest beat visiting Clemson in four.
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