The Huskers landed the number eight seed (essentially a number two in the basketball tournament) in the NCAA Volleyball Tournament. The Huskers will face Fairfield in the first round.
Joining us in the region is Texas, the tournament number one seed, who beat us in five sets in Austin earlier this year.
The Huskers are in the bottom half of the Lincoln Region, and should have a fairly clear path to the regional final. To me, the scariest team is last year’s national runner-up, Oregon.
Texas should have a fairly smooth road to Lincoln, however the potential Texas-Texas A&M second round match is intriguing.
It may be surprising that Illinois (16-14) is the 13 seed, and Purdue (20-11) is not seeded. This tournament is seeded as a whole, and not by region. However, Champaign being a host site is the reason for the discrepancy.
The SEC and B1G have eight teams apiece in the tournament, trumped by the Pac-12 with nine teams.
While Maria Taylor picked a chalk final four (#1 Texas, #2 Penn State, #3 Washington, and #4 Missouri), she did acknowledge Nebraska as the sleeper, and the distinct home court advantage of Devaney, combined with Robo’s ability, as factors.
This should be an incredibly exciting tournament. I expect Nebraska to be playing on the 14th for a trip to Seattle.
Go Big Red!