Sep 24, TBD
Wellesley College[ vs Salve Regina
Sep 24, TBD
Clark (MA) vs WPI
Sep 24, TBD
United States Coas vs M.I.T.
Sep 24, TBD
Smith College vs Mount Holyoke Coll
Sep 24, TBD
Emerson College vs Babson College
Sep 24, TBD
Springfield vs Wheaton
Sep 28, TBD
Smith College vs Clark (MA)
Sep 28, TBD
Babson College vs United States Coas
Sep 28, TBD
M.I.T. vs Springfield
Sep 28, TBD
Emerson College vs WPI
Sep 28, TBD
Wellesley College[ vs Wheaton
Sep 28, TBD
Mount Holyoke Coll vs Salve Regina
Oct 1, TBD
Mount Holyoke Coll vs Emerson College
Oct 1, TBD
Springfield vs Clark (MA)
Oct 1, TBD
Salve Regina vs M.I.T.
2017 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball National Championship

NCAA Volleyball Tournament Field Narrowed To 16

NCAA Volleyball Tournament Field Narrowed To 16

With five of the 16 seeded teams not making the second weekend, the third night of the NCAA tournament was full of excitement.

Dec 4, 2017 by Megan Kaplon
NCAA Volleyball Tournament Field Narrowed To 16

The second round of the 2017 NCAA Division I women’s volleyball tournament wrapped up on Saturday night, and with five of the 16 seeded teams not making the second weekend, it was full of excitement. 

Here are the key bullet points.

1. As noted, five seeded teams were knocked out.

No. 8 Washington was the highest seeded team to fall on Saturday night. Illinois, fresh off of taking out Hawaii in the first round, once again put on a blocking clinic as they came back back from down 1-2 to win in five, out-blocking Washington 13 to nine along the way.

Three Illini posted double-digit kills — Jacqueline Quade (17), Megan Cooney (13), and Beth Prince (12) — as they earned the program its 17th trip to the Sweet 16 in head coach Chris Tamas’ first season in Champaign. 



It was Michigan State that sent No. 9 Creighton packing with a 3-1 victory. Senior Autumn Bailey matched a season-high mark with 18 kills to go with 11 digs and two blocks, while Holly Tolliver also recorded a double-double with 13 kills and 11 digs. 



No. 12 Baylor lost to Colorado 25-12, 25-22, 25-20. Katie Staiger, who last year became Baylor’s first All-American after leading the nation in attack attempts and this year ranked second on the team with 357 kills, missed almost a month of the season with an injury and never seemed to return to 100 percent. 

In the Bears’ first-round match versus Miami of Ohio, Staiger didn’t start and had only one kill and one error on nine total attempts for a .000 hitting percentage. In the loss to Colorado, she only played one set, once again hitting .000 with one kills and one error on three attempts.

Alexa Smith led Colorado with 14 kills and only one error to hit .394. Yossiana Pressley led Baylor with 14 kills of her own, but as a team, Colorado out-hit Baylor .320 to .161.



Wisconsin got the best of No. 14 Iowa State 25-22, 25-20, 25-23, thanks to double-digit kills from a pair of freshman, Dana Rettke and Grace Loberg. Senior Kelli Bates led the team to its fifth consecutive round of 16 with 17 digs and nine kills.



Missouri scored its second big upset in a row, sending No. 16 seed Wichita State packing. Inside the Shockers' own gym, Mizzou used a slight offensive advantage (.246 to .215 and  69 kills to 51 kills) to secure the 25-23, 25-22, 21-25, 26-24 victory and advance to its second consecutive round of 16.



2. Kentucky barely escaped upset in the second round.

Western Kentucky hit .347 in the process of jumping out to a 2-0 lead over No. 4-seeded Kentucky in the two teams’ second-round matchup. But in the third, the Wildcats held the Hilltoppers to a .088 hitting percentage in the third and Kentucky got back into the groove, hitting .308 to win the third set. The Wildcats then held the lead for most of the fourth and fifth sets, ultimately winning 16-25, 22-25, 25-19, 25-21, 15-12.



3. Penn State dropped a set for the second night in a row.

A night after losing its first set in an NCAA tournament first-round match since 1989, Penn State once again dropped the second set of its match, this time at the hands of the Pittsburgh Panthers. 

Penn State rallied to win in four sets (25-20, 23-25, 25-22, 25-19), out-hitting the Panthers .312 to .240 and and out-blocking them 17 to five.



The loss marked the second consecutive year that Pittsburgh has been knocked out of the second round of the NCAA tournament by Penn State.

4. It seems the Big Ten deserved a few more seeds.

Three of the five teams that pulled off upsets of seeded teams to advance to the Sweet 16 are Big Ten teams. Out of the 16 teams seeded, only three hailed from the Big Ten, but six of the conference’s member schools have advanced to the regional rounds. Enough said.

5. Penn State is the only seeded team remaining in its regional.

Penn State will face Missouri in its regional semifinal match on Friday, and on the opposite side of the State College regional bracket will be Michigan State vs. Illinois. 

Michigan State and Illinois played once in the regular season, with the Spartans hosting and taking a straight-set victory.

Penn State played both Michigan State and Illinois twice in Big Ten conference play, sweeping Illinois both at home and on the road and winning in four versus Michigan State in both meetings.



Meanwhile, all four seeded teams (No. 7 Minnesota, No. 10 USC, No. 15 UCLA, and No. 2 Florida) advanced to the Sweet 16 in the Gainesville regional, three each from the Lexington regional (No. 13 BYU, No. 4 Kentucky, and No. 5 Nebraska) and the Palo Alto regional (No. 3 Stanford, No. 11 Utah, and No. 6 Texas). 





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