SD, UNC, Creighton win tourneys; Pitt, Florida, UK claim shares; bracket announcement awaits

And now we wait.

The Division I women’s volleyball NCAA Tournament field will be announced Sunday night, at 7:30 Eastern on ESPNU, a 64-team bracket with two sets of seedings invaluable to the particpants.

Who are the top four, the teams that, if they win the first two rounds, get to be regional hosts? 

And who makes up the remaining 12, because the top 16 get to be hosts for the first two rounds.

Three tournament titles, and the automatic bids that go with them, were captured Saturday when No. 15 Creighton beat No. 14 Marquette 16-25, 25-20, 25-18, 31-33, 15-12 in the Big East Championship, South Dakota won The Summit League and Northern Colorado won the Big Sky.

In the Big Ten, third-ranked Wisconsin, which claimed the title the night before by winning at Nebraska, won in four at No. 8 Ohio State, which ended the regular season on a four-match losing streak. Visiting No. 9 Minnesota sent No. 5 Nebraska into the postseason on a two-match skid after sweeping the Huskers, who have lost three of five.

No. 13 Georgia Tech bolstered its slim case to be a host by sweeping Florida State in the ACC, where No. 7 Pittsburgh won to claim a share of the title with idle No. 4 Louisville.

In the SEC, both No. 12 Florida and No. 16 Kentucky won and shared that conference’s crown.

The only other ranked team in action, No. 17 Baylor, swept Kansas State.

Later Sunday we will have a conference-by-conference list of who stands where heading into the selection show. 

After the show ends, VolleyballMag.com’s Lee Feinswog and Emily Ehman of the Big Ten Network and ESPN will interview NCAA committee chair Pauline Thiros, top coaches and some key players by Zoom and will have that video posted here as soon as possible Sunday night.

BIG TEN: Wisconsin (25-3, 19-1) ended up winning the conference by three games over Nebraska with its 25-22, 25-17, 19-25, 27-25 victory at Ohio State (19-9, 15-5). Wisconsin, the defending national champion, has won 18 in a row. The Badgers hit .226 and got 12 kills, 13 digs, an assist and a block from Sarah Franklin, and 11 kills from Anna Smrek, who hit .360 and had eight blocks, three solo. Caroline Crawford had five kills in 10 errorless attacks, two asssits, two aces, three digs and seven blocks, two solo. Ohio State hit .136 and got 20 kills from Emily Londot, who had an assist, four aces, a block and 17 digs. Rylee Rader had 15 kills, three aces, two blocks and three digs … 

Minnesota (20-8, 15-5) won 25-22, 25-23, 25-22 at Nebraska (24-5, 16-4) for its first sweep in Lincoln since 1980. Taylor Landfair had 15 kills, two assists, five blocks and six digs. Carter Booh had seven kills in 11 errorless attacks and eight blocks, two solo. Whitney Lauenstein and Lindsay Krause had 11 kills each for Nebraska, which hit .153 … 

Iowa (10-21, 4-16) ended in a tie with Michigan State (13-18, 4-16) by beating the Spartans 25-22, 16-25, 17-25, 25-23, 15-9 as they finished two games up on last-place Rutgers. 

ACC: Pittsburgh (27-3, 17-1) swept visiting Boston College 19-13, 7-11) to claim a share of the ACC title with idle Louisville. Pitt hit .306 in the 25-11, 25-14, 29-27 victory. Valeria Vazquez Gomez had 11 kills with one error in 23 attacks, two aces and five digs. Pitt has an NCAA RPI of No. 3 …

Georgia Tech (20-7, 13-5) swept visiting Florida State (19-10, 11-7). Both teams will get bids. GT’s Julia Bergmann had 15 kills — seven in the third set — in the 25-19, 25-14, 25-22 victory. Bergmann added an ace, 10 digs and two blocks. Erin Moss had 14 kills, hit .524 and had six blocks, one solo … 

NC State (16-13, 10-8) won in four at Syracuse (11-17, 7-11) as Martyna Leoniak had 16 kills, hit .500 and had four aces, three blocks and three digs … North Carolina (17-12, 9-9) swept visiting Virginia (12-17, 4-14).

SEC: Florida (23-5, 15-3) got out of Ole Miss (11-17, 7-11) with a 25-23, 25-16, 19-25, 21-25, 15-11 victory to share the conference title with Kentucky. But Florida won the automatic bid by tiebreaker. Florida hit .322 as four players had 12 or more kills. Marina Markova had 18, hit .302 and had two digs and three blocks, one solo …

Kentucky (20-7, 15-3) swept visiting South Carolina (13-15, 7-11) as the Wildcats hit .366 in the 25-21, 29-27, 25-16 victory. Azhani Tealer had 16 kills, hit .520 and had two blocks …

Arkansas (20-8, 11-7) swept at Auburn (21-8, 10-8), putting the Tigers’ at-large chances in jeopardy. The same thing happened at LSU (15-13, 9-9), where third-place Georgia (22-7, 13-5) swept the Tigers for the second straight day. LSU’s RPI is 47 and Auburn’s 50 … also Mississippi State (15-13, 8-10) swept visiting Missouri (9-19, 2-16).

BIG EAST: Creighton (27-4) and Marquette (27-3) could both be top-16 hosts after Creighton won the latest epic battle between them, this time in the tournament final 16-25, 25-20, 25-18, 31-33, 15-12. 

Norah Sis, last year’s VolleyballMag.com national freshman of the year, had 23 kills, an assist, two blocks and 14 digs. Ava Martin had 22 kills, hit .333 and had four digs. Kiana Schmitt had 11 kills, four digs and 10 blocks, one solo. Kendra Wait had three kills in 11 errorless tries, 60 assists, two aces, seven blocks and 20 digs. Her team hit .278. Allison Whitten had 21 digs, four assists and an ace. 

Marquette got 25 kllls from Aubrey Hamilton, who added an assist, two aces, a block and 15 digs. Carsen Murray had 15 kills with one error in 22 attacks to hit .636 and had four blocks. Yadhira Anchante had four kills in 12 errorless tries, 57 assists, two aces, a block and 25 digs. Marquette hit .267. Carly Skrabeck had 19 digs and six assists.

BIG SKY: Northern Colorado (22-8) had to rally to win its 14th match in a row, beating Portland State (18-12) in five for the conference title. UNC, which won the Big Sky for the seventh time, won 23-25, 25-23, 25-27, 25-15, 15-6 as the Bears hit .317. Makenzie Harris had 21 kills, hit .383 and had three blocks and 14 digs. Kailey Jo Ince had 18 kills, two assists, two aces, four blocks and seven digs. Cece Huhn had 11 kills, hit .318 and had two ace, six digs and seven blocks, one solo. Maddie Davies had nine kills in 20 errorless attacks, an assist, two digs and five blocks. Portland State’s Makayla Lewis had 24 kills, hit .319 and had 10 digs. Ashleigh Barto had 12 kills, hit .429 and had a dig and five blocks, one solo.

SUMMIT: South Dakota (29-3) won the title for the third time in a row with its 25-20, 25-14, 30-28 victory over Omaha (20-10). Kylen Sealock had 14 kills and hit .345 to go with an assist and three digs. Elizabeth Juhnke had 11 kills, an assist, two solo blocks and 15 digs. 

AROUND THE NATION: Hawai’i had already clinched the Big West title, but that didn’t keep Amber Igiede from still wreaking havoc on the league. The Rainbow Wahine won in four at CSUN as Igiede had 19 kills with two errors in 28 attacks to hit .607 and she had four aces and six blocks, two solo … Also in the Big West, Cal Poly beat UC San Diego in four and Long Beach State swept UC Riverside … 

In the last Pac-12 match of the year, Arizona (16-15, 6-14) pulled off a reverse sweep at Arizona State (13-19, 7-13). Sofia Maldonado Diaz had 20 kills in the 23-25, 23-25, 25-23, 25-19, 15-11 victory to go with an assist, four aces, five blocks and 11 digs. ASU’s Marta Levinska had 25 kills, hit .389 and had three assists, five blocks and 11 digs … 

And the Big 12 season ended with second-place Baylor (23-6, 12-4) sweeping Kansas State (15-14, 6-10)  and surprising third-place TCU (16-10, 11-5) doing the same at Oklahoma (15-13, 5-11). TCU’s late-season surge left the Horned Frogs with an RPI of 39 and a sure at-large bid. TCU, which has won five in a row, won eight of its last 10 matches and will be back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2016.

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