The ACC saved its wildest for last, ensuring that the NCAA Division I volleyball regular season would end with a bang.
And did it ever.
To wit:
Unranked NC State all but assured itself an at-large NCAA tourney bid with a five-set, reverse-sweep upset at No. 9 SMU;
No. 6 Stanford knocked off visiting No. 3 Louisville;
Top-ranked Pittsburgh, which has won 14 in a row, came pretty close to entering the tournament with a loss before the Panthers got past No. 19 Georgia Tech in five, 17-15 in the fifth.
There was more.
In the SEC, Georgia upset No. 16 Florida in four, sending the Gators into the tournament on a two-match losing skid and all but ensuring they will not get a top-16 seed;
No. 13 Texas had to go five to hold off visiting Ole Miss, also winning 17-15 in the fifth after trailing 13-7.
Three more NCAA bids were claimed when No. 5 Creighton won the Big East, Hawai’i won the Big West and Colorado State won the Mountain West tournaments.
This, of course, is the day we’ve all been waiting for. No, not a Sunday with no matches, but the 6 p.m. Eastern NCAA Tournament selection show on ESPN.
We will have a story posted here ASAP and then soon after, we’ll post our annual Zoom with ESPN and Big Ten Network…
