Over the weekend, the NCAA Division I committee that selects the participants of the NCAA women’s volleyball tournament released their first top 10, revealing how they’d seed teams if the tournament were to start now. Below is how they ranked everyone.
#1. Texas (10-0)
#2. Louisville (12-1)
#3. San Diego (13-1)
#4. Nebraska (11-1)
#5. Pittsburgh (13-2)
#6. Ohio State (7-5)
#7. Oregon (9-2)
#8. Stanford (7-4).
#9. Purdue (12-1)
#10. Minnesota (6-5)
Stanford has played a really tough schedule this season, which is why they are ranked as high as they are despite four losses to Texas, Penn State, Oregon, and Louisville. As you can tell, the only school they lost to who is not in the top 10 is Penn State, who is a top 15 team. And then the loss at Oregon came with Sami Francis sidelined, who is now back. Stanford intentionally played as hard of a schedule as they could in the non-conference portion of the season and it looks like that decision is paying off for them as the NCAA tournament committee is rewarding them with a good seed early on.
The significance of being a top 10 seed is that means a team is comfortably positioned to have home court advantage through the first two rounds as the top 16 seeds get to host in those rounds. The top four seeds get home court advantage all the way through the final four should they get that far. The second and final reveal before the official tournament bracket gets released will be on October 30th.
Stanford will return to action on Friday when they take on the Colorado Buffaloes on the road. That match will begin at 6:00 PM PT and will be the first of four straight matches away from Maples Pavilion.
Note: The rankings came out prior to Stanford’s match on Sunday against Washington State, so Stanford is now 8-4 overall.
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