Am stationed at Norfolk and i have no access to to viewing any of the playoffs.

Any updates?

Nebraska? Stanford? USC? WAshington? Texas? Penn State?

Updates would be appreciated.


btw, Hooyah Navy! Kicked the army yesterday!

You can get updates at www.ncaasports.com

The major upset of the weekend was Stanford getting knocked out. Texas also lost, but to your Hawaii squad. The two were both rated in the top 10 in the last poll of the season, so what they were doing playing in the second round -- who knows? The volleyball selection committee has always made some questionable calls.

Ohio U also pulled off a nice win over bigger cousin Ohio State. OU had lost only twice all season, but were not given a seeding by the committee. Oops.

Play continues next weekend in Omaha, Palo Alto, State College, and College Station.

Yeah, there were some seeding oddities (having Florida as a #8 seed strikes me as being a little low), but overall, you really can't complain, as 13 of the 16 seeded teams are in the Final 16 (Pepperdine, Santa Clara, and Ohio being the only unseeded teams to make it through). Some great matches next weekend, too. The Nebraska-UCLA match should be a good one, and I'm also looking forward to Penn State-Tennessee.

Some other things I saw -- 3 of the final 16 are from the Big 10 (Purdue, Wisconsin, and Penn State); 3 from the Pac 10 (Washington, UCLA, and Arizona); 2 from the West Coast Conference (Santa Clara and Pepperdine); 2 from the SEC (Florida and Tennessee); 2 from the Big 12 (Missouri and Nebraska); 2 from the Big East (Louisville and Notre Dame); and 1 each from the WAC (Hawaii) and the MAC (Ohio U). Nice geographic diversity among the Final 16.

Any television coverage for the regional playoffs?

I don't see anyone beating PSU right now -- they only lost to Stanford in their opening match and then to Nebraska way back in September. In the meantime they've lost only three games total -- amazing.

I haven't seen any listings -- I checked the Comcast SportsNet and Fox Sports website (they showed some matches earlier this season) -- but no dice.

Early scores are coming in. Missouri's already eliminated Hawaii in four games. Tennessee and Penn State have split their first two games. And Florida swept past Louisville.

If you're looking for coverage, there are a bunch of webcasts being offered, depending on the team who's hosting. Stanford, who's hosting one of the regionals, is showing the games from their venue (even though Stanford was knocked out last weekend). Just go to the NCAA website and they'll direct you.

Oh man, Tennesse just ousted Penn State and Wisconsin marched past Notre Dame.

A couple of real surprises. Hawaii getting bounced by Mizzou. Mizzou has a nice season, but Hawaii is always the favorite in that matchup.

A dominant Penn State team was playing at home tonight and got taken out by Tennessee. That is a real surprise. PSU was one of the favorites to challenge Nebraska.

It looks like two of the top teams the whole season will battle it out down the stretch. Nebraska and Washington had great seasons and are on oppositve sides of the draw.

Ohio showed it belonged. After the good upset of Ohio State, they took Arizona (the 4 seed) to the wire. The 15-12 final game was tight.

Tomorrow has a couple of interesting matchups. Nebraska gets an interesting matchup with a capable Florida squad. However, Nebraska is playing close to home and has looked dominant all year.

The other interesting matchup is Washington and Wisconsin in Texas. Both are playing on a neutral floor. I would expect the Huskies to come through, but the Big Ten has had a lot of representation in Final fours the past 10 years. Wisconsin could be the squad this year.

The Elite 8 are now set. All games to be played on Saturday:

From State College, PA: #10 Missouri vs. #15 Tennessee. Tennessee upsets #2 seed Penn State on their home floor in four games to advance, and Missouri knocks out perennial power and #7 seed Hawaii, also in four games.

From College Station, TX: #3 Washington vs. #11 Wisconsin. Washington sweeps #14 Purdue, while Wisconsin advances with a tough five game win over #6 Notre Dame.

From Omaha, NE: #1 Nebraska vs. #8 Florida. Probably the match of the round. Nebraska swept #16 UCLA, while Florida swept #9 Louisville. These two seem to get here every year. NCAA attendance records were set in the two matches tonight in Omaha (there were over 14,000 there tonight), and they're expected to be broken in Saturday's match.

From Palo Alto, CA: #4 Arizona vs. unseeded Santa Clara. Arizona had to come from behind to beat unseeded Ohio in five tough games, while Santa Clara swept unseeded conference foe Pepperdine.

Winners advance to next week's final four in San Antonio.

Okay, we have a Final Four, to be played in San Antonio next weekend:

(1) Nebraska vs. (unseeded) Santa Clara
(3) Washington vs. (15) Tennessee

game times to be announced.

Nebraska swept Florida tonight in Omaha in front of a crowd of over 15,000, breaking records set last night, also in Omaha. Washington swept past Wisconsin, and is back in the Final Four for the second consecutive year. Both Nebraska and Washington have yet to drop a game in the tournament, and have to be viewed as the favorites to reach the title game.

Santa Clara won a five game match over Arizona, winning 17-15 in the fifth game. The Broncos, though unseeded, truly earned their spot in the Final Four, having taken out both the fourth seed (Arizona) and the fifth seed and defending champion (Stanford). And not only did they take out Stanford, but they did it AT Stanford.

Tennessee also had a tough route. They won a five setter over defending runner up Minnesota last weekend, and then had to go to Penn State, which was ranked #2 in the nation, and over the course of the season had lost a total of twelve games. The Vols won in four over the Lady Lions, and tonight took out Missouri in four games.

As I said, Washington and Nebraska will clearly be favored to get to the title game, though looking at the path Tennessee and Santa Clara took to get to the Final Four, I wouldn't count either one of them out.

Nebraska and Washington were tops of the charts all season long. Washington had a late season loss to UCLA in LA and that put Penn State a spot ahead of them in the tourney seedings. So, Washington really was on top of the rankings all year. (One loss in the PAC-10 for the year is truly amazing. They swept USC, Arizona, Cal, and Stanford on the season.)

Nebraska has been quite dominant as well. They also have one late season loss to Texas in Austin. The Big 12 is another power conference int he v-ball world, so Nebraska had to march through the likes of Texas, Missouri, and Texas A&M. They have some excellent wins over non-conf opponents as well -- including Minnesota (2x), Hawaii (2x), Stanford, Ohio State, and Penn State. (They tore up the Big 10 this season.)

I think the title game should be these two teams. There could be a surprise, but they have looked so sharp all the way through. Santa Clara and Tennessee are at the big dance for the first time, and have to be running out of gas after the incredible runs they have had. Not to say there couldn't be one more weekend of magic.

I hope the Huskies can win the National Title. I think the last time UW won a championship as far as team was the 91 Rose Bowl Team. I could be wrong though.

Okay, the rankings don't lie -- third ranked Washington and top ranked Nebraska each swept their respective matches pretty handily and are both on their way to the final. In spite of the Huskies being ranked third, I think that these are truly the top two teams in the NCAA in DI. Should be a great match.

National Championship Game: 6 p.m. EST (3 p.m. in Seattle), Saturday, ESPN2.

The UW Huskies' Volleyball team made the front page of the P-I, with a teaser photo, for the first time in recorded history! And, they dominate page 1 of the sports section!

Normally, I never root for the Huskies, but in this match, I'm rooting for the Huskies to bring home the title.

UW came out with their game plan and game faces and it was not really even close. Nebraska had small leads a few times, but they were never in control at any point in the match. Pavan played a really poor match and looked a bit too casual at times for a national championship.

UW showed why they went most of the season without losing. Makes you wonder how well UCLA played that night to pull out the match.

Just goes to show that precision and thoughtfulness can still win out over raw power on some courts.

The thing that shocked me most as I watched this match was that Washington CLEARLY got into Nebraska's heads. If you look at the teams, physically, they have NO, NO, NO weaknesses. They can both dig the meanest of shots, they both serve well, they both block well, and they both have great hitters.

The mental game was going to determine this game, and here, Washington was the clear winner. Nebraska committed NINE service errors. That's a mental breakdown, folks. Against a good team, you'll pay for nine service errors (which, let's face it, accounted for 10% of Washington's points last night). Against an outstanding team, like Washington, it's suicide. Congratulations to the Huskies, who truly earned their first volleyball National Championship.

They really got after Pavan, serving practically every ball at her. Unfortunately, I don't get to watch a lot of volleyball, only the national semis and finals, and occasionally an SEC or ACC match on Fox Sports South, so I hadn't seen these teams play. I was pulling for Nebraska, but...

I don't know why Nebraska didn't make an adjustment with Pavan on the serve receive? How horrible for her to be as good as she is and just come out flat. You knew Nebraska was in trouble when they took a TO after the first two points.

UW just dominated, from one end to the other. I'm such a volleyball geek...I DVR-ed the match and will watch it again this week.

Serve receive and defense seemed to tell the story. I am not as concerned with service errors, because those can at times be balanced out by service winners/aces. I was more concerned with the hitting errors, which I felt were caused by both poor serve receive (mostly by Pavan) and the relentless defense of UW. Candace Lee was amazing at times and their setter was a true warrior. Insofar as the quality of the volleyball that was played, it was an awesome final.