NCAA Women
August 25, 2024
The Casablanca lead never gets old.
As Captain Louis Renault (Claude Rains) said in the movie Casablanca after Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) shot the bad guy, “Major Strasser has been shot. Round up the usual suspects.”
And here we go again in NCAA Division I women’s volleyball.
Round up the usual suspects.
To wit, the AVCA preseason poll, the only one where most of the coaches devote a lot of thought and time to, because they’re not in season, came out last week. Don’t get us started on the poll as the season progresses…
Anyway, look at the top 10. Except for Purdue and Oregon, every team has either won an NCAA title or been to the final four the past 10 years. And Oregon went in 2012 and Purdue knocks on the door ever year.
The NCAA season begins Tuesday in Louisville, site of the NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship in late December.
First up in the Yum! Center in the AVCA First Serve Showcase is Kentucky, which won it all in spring 2021, versus Nebraska, which, in the last seven years has one title (2017) and three other appearances in the championship match.
Then host Louisville, which lost to ACC rival Pitt in a reverse sweep in the regional…
