Nebraska Volleyball named No. 2 overall seed in NCAA Tournament
Nebraska Volleyball is the No. 2 seed in the NCAA College Volleyball Tournament. The NCAA Selection Committee announced the 2024 Tournament Bracket on Sunday, Dec. 1 on ESPN.
The Huskers will face Florida A&M (27-6), the Southwestern Athletic Conference champions, in the first round of the tournament on Friday, Dec. 6 at 7:00 p.m. CT at the Bob Devaney Sports Center.
South Dakota State (27-2) and No. 8 Miami (21-10) battle at 4:30 p.m. on Dec. 6 at Devaney. The winner of both matches will play for a chance to advance to the regional semifinals. If Nebraska wins both matches, the regional semifinals will be at Devaney from Dec. 12-15.
Tickets for the first two rounds go on sale on Huskers.com at 7:30 p.m. CT on Dec. 1.
The Huskers are the 2024 Big Ten Co-Champions after finishing the conference 19-1. They enter the tournament 29-2. They fell to SMU on Sep. 3 and Penn State on Nov. 29. Nebraska has defeated 15 teams in the NCAA Tournament and lost to two top 10 seeds. NU took down two top 16 seeds.
Pitt is the No. 1 overall seed while Penn State and Louisville are ranked third and fourth overall. Creighton and Stanford were considered for the No. 4 seed.
Three Takes: No. 2 Nebraska Volleyball claims Big Ten Title with win over Maryland
The top seeds in Nebraska’s regional are Wisconsin, Arizona State, Baylor, Dayton, Texas A&M, Georgia Tech and Miami in that order. The Huskers and Badgers might face each other for the third time this season. NU has swept Wisconsin twice in 2024.
Penn State, who is the Big Ten Co-Champions with Nebraska, is ranked third overall. Seven total Big Ten teams made the NCAA Tournament including five top 16 seeds. No. 4 Oregon, No. 4 Purdue, No. 6 Minnesota, No. 6 USC, Illinois and Washington were also selected for the NCAA Tournament.
Here is the NCAA Tournament Top 16:
1. Pitt
2. Nebraska
3. Penn State
4. Louisville
5. Stanford
6. Creighton
7. Wisconsin
8. SMU
9. Kentucky
10. Arizona State
11. Texas
12. Kansas
13. Purdue
14. Utah
15. Baylor
16. Oregon
Nebraska is 8-2 against the bolded teams in the top 16.
Huskers enter tournament extremely confident
Nebraska Volleyball won the Big Ten Title in the most difficult season of the conference yet. The conference added four new teams, which meant more travel, more difficult opponents, and a change to Nebraska’s beloved routine. They handled it exceptionally well.
The Huskers faced nine non-conference teams that made the NCAA Tournament.
“We had a very tough non-conference,” Husker Head Coach John Cook said. “We have the most wins against top 10 teams but we want to challenge this team. That’s why I told them, I want them to feel confident that they’ve had a great season, and mentally prepare them for the tournament. It’s not easy to win these Big Ten Titles.”
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Senior captains Merritt Beason and Lexi Rodriguez both said winning the Big Ten Title was a confidence boost for this team.
Winning the Big Ten is more difficult than winning the National Championship, Cook says year after year. This team has won the conference title in back-to-back seasons. They are prepared to make a deep run into the NCAA Tournament and potentially return to the Final Four, which is in Louisville, Ky.
Cook said the 2024 squad has gone through many challenges starting in January, some public and some not. They have worked through the struggles and built a strong team bond. They have been battle-tested on and off the court and are ready for another challenge.
“We’re significantly better in every statistical category than last year,” Cook said. “We lost fewer games this year in the Big Ten than we did last year. So I was trying to point out that we’re a better team than we were last year and we had a great shot at it last year.
“I want them to believe, and I want them to realize last year was kind of this magical ride, and this year has been – there’s been a lot of things that have challenged us, and they’ve worked through it.”
Nebraska approaches each season in three parts – non-conference, Big Ten and postseason. After a great non-conference and Big Ten season, they are ready for the postseason.
“It’s the race to the end,” Rodriguez said. “I think it’s kind of that switch of, like, OK, everything we’ve done, we just have to find a way to do it for three more weeks and find a way to consistently be good over the last games that we have left. So a little bit of a mind switch, but I think overall, just trying to stay in routine, stay with the same mindset of like, “OK, we’ve been doing this. We have the confidence and we can get the job done.”
