Previewing Big Ten teams in the NCAA Women's Volleyball Tournament

With a dramatic regular season in the books, the journey continues into the NCAA Women’s Volleyball Tournament for five of the Big Ten’s best squads.

Are all roads to Tampa leading to another Nebraska-Wisconsin collision course? Can Penn State and Purdue turn hot finishes to the season into a deep postseason run? Or can an unranked Minnesota team play spoiler and make some noise in its quadrant of the bracket?

Let’s dive in.

With a final record of 28-1, the Nebraska Cornhuskers enter the tournament as the No. 1 overall seed and will kick off their run toward a sixth national championship with first-round action against LIU before facing off against the winner of No. 8 Missouri and Delaware.

The Cornhuskers have heavy SEC flavor in their quadrant of the bracket, as Kentucky, Arkansas and Florida are the remaining top four seeds – in that order – that will have hosting rights for the first two rounds of the tournament.

Obviously, it’s hard to find weaknesses on this Nebraska roster. A balanced team is led by a two-headed hitting monster of Merritt Beason and Harper Murray. And Bergen Reilly has been feeding her hitters all season long, as she leads the Big Ten in assists per set with 10.74.

But only one team has found the winning formula toward defeating the Cornhuskers this year. That of course would be fellow No. 1 seed Wisconsin, who ended the Huskers’ perfect regular season two games shy of the finish line on Nov. 24.

Wisconsin starts its postseason journey against Jackson State. Assuming a win there, the Badgers would go on to play the winner of No. 8 UNI and Miami.

But after that, Anna Smrek, Sarah Franklin and company could find themselves running into one of their Big Ten rivals. No. 3 seed Purdue and No. 5 seed Penn State are also in the “Wisconsin” quadrant of the bracket, and if both the Badgers and Nittany Lions were to win their way through the first two rounds, a third-round rematch from a season ago would be looming.

And remember, the Nittany Lions upended Wisconsin in four sets back on Nov. 11, a win that may have taken Wisconsin out of a No. 1 seed had it not been for the team’s triumph over Nebraska.

Despite winning six straight to end the season, the Nittany Lions found themselves narrowly on the outside looking in when it came to having hosting rights for the tournament. Penn State starts play in Kansas where they match up with Yale in the first round before likely seeing the No. 4 seed Jayhawks in the second, barring an upset by Omaha.

The last team to beat Penn State was the Boilermakers, and Purdue’s season sweep of the Nittany Lions likely went a long way toward playoff volleyball taking place in West Lafayette as opposed to State College.

As a No. 3 seed riding the momentum of seven straight wins, Purdue starts off hosting Fairfield before taking on the winner of No. 6 Marquette and Eastern Illinois. Assuming the Boilermakers win out and the higher seeds take care of business, a showdown against No. 2 seed Oregon would be awaiting Purdue in the third round.

The lone unranked Big Ten team in the tournament is the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Despite a 16-12 overall record, Minnesota beat out Indiana for fifth in the Big Ten standings with a 12-win conference campaign, which was good enough for them to get an at-large bid.

Minnesota is in the “Pitt” quadrant of the bracket and starts off play on Creighton’s home hardwood against No. 6 seed Utah State. If the Golden Gophers can pull off a first-round upset, they’d be going against either No. 3 seed Creighton or Colgate in the second round.

The tournament begins Thursday, Nov 30 and will continue this weekend through the end of second-round play on Saturday. Nov. 2.

Kasey Kreider is a third-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email kmk6865@psu.edu.