NCAA Volleyball Tournament starts today: A mini-preview of all nine Big Ten teams in the dance

After months of grueling Big Ten play, it is time to dance in the NCAA Tournament for nine volleyball teams this season.

Although undefeated and No. 1 seeded Nebraska ended up running away with the conference title this season, the top half of the Big Ten battled in the league in ways, with many hoping they can make a deep run in this year’s edition of the tournament.

Ahead of the start of the action Thursday, we’ll take a look at how each Big Ten got to the tournament and what they might need to get a deep run.

No. 4 Seed Indiana Hoosiers 23-7 overall, 14-6 Big Ten

The Hoosiers put together one of their best years in recent history, ranking in the Top 25 for much of the season after an eight-game winning streak to start the season.

Indiana was led by freshman setter Teodora Krickovic, who was named to the All-Big Ten First Team. The first-year Serbian was aided by three Hoosiers who hit for over 3 kills per set — generally a good number for attackers — in Spanish outside hitter Candela Alonso-Corcelles, fellow freshman outside hitter Jaidyn Jager and senior opposite Avry Tatum.

Alongside that attack, the Hoosiers were the best serving team in the Big Ten, posting an ace-error ratio of 0.83 on the season, and Krickovic led the team with the most aces per set. To be a huge danger in the tournament, they’ll hope their serving pressure can continue to rattle opponents and let Krickovic cook with the offense.

In conference play, the Hoosiers had impressive back-to-back wins against USC and UCLA out in Los Angeles and swept Penn State in Happy Valley in early November, but Hoosier fans might be feeling miffed they lost both contests to in-state rival Purdue.

As a four-seed, Indiana gets to host the first two rounds in Bloomington in the Tournament. They’ll first play the Toledo Rockets from the MAC Thursday night. Winner of that match takes on the winner of the Colorado Buffaloes and the American Eagles (what, the apparel brand?) in the second round.

Michigan Wolverines 21-10 overall, 11-9 Big Ten

The Wolverines were a slightly controversial addition to the NCAA Tournament, but they’ll be dancing for the first time since 2021.

Michigan had an up-and-down time in conference play as evidence by their record and ending the season with two losses at home against UCLA and USC, but they recorded a 3-1 win against Minnesota and a 3-2 win against Penn State.

The Wolverines were led by All Big Ten First Team outside hitter Allison Jacobs. The former UCLA player led the Wolverines with 3.93 kills per set and had the fourth most total kills in the league. The other big star for Michigan was senior middle blocker Serena Nyambio, who had 1.27 blocks per set.

The Wolverines will be underdogs in Pittsburgh, where they will play the Xavier Musketeers Friday afternoon. If they win that matchup, they’ll face the No.1 seed Pitt Panthers. Many fans feel that the Wolverines snuck in, but if they want to win a game this tournament, fans will want to hope Jacobs can continue her electric offense.

No. 4 Minnesota Golden Gophers 22-9 overall, 12-8 Big Ten

The Gophers have been a story throughout the season, but not for the reason fans might want.

Minnesota has been plagued by injuries with three would-be-stars — junior middle blocker Calissa Minatee, sophomore outside hitter Alex Acevedo and sophomore libero Zeynep Palabiyik — going down with season ending injuries. Despite those, they were able to get some key wins including a sweep of Penn State and a 3-1 win late over Purdue to showcase their quality. They did lose both games to the mighty Wisconsin Badgers, including a 3-0 sweep in Minneapolis to end their season — full disclosure, I am a proud Wisconsin alum. Sorry not sorry.

Rivalry trash talk aside, Julia Hanson is a menace from the outside hitter spot. The homegrown senior was a unanimous All Big Ten First Teamer and she played great in big matchups, posting double digit kills in 15 conference games. Freshman libero McKenna Garr, another Minnesota-native, also impressed filling in for Palabiyik. Two other freshmen — Stella Swenson and Carly Gilk — also filled in well with injuries to get All Freshman team noms.

The Gophers will get to host the first two rounds in Minneapolis, first playing the Fairfield Stags on Friday night. The winner will play the winner of Iowa State and St. Thomas in the next round.

No. 1 Nebraska Cornhuskers 30-0 overall, 20-0 Big Ten

Stop me if you’ve heard this before. Nebraska volleyball is really good.

Every Big Ten Network analyst’s favorite team earned their stripes, going undefeated against a conference and non-conference gauntlet. The Huskers, under first year coach and famous alumna Dani Busboom Kelly, are loaded — it brings me no joy to say — and are the national title favorite.

Harper Murray, Andi Jackson, Bergen Reilly and Bekah Allick were All Big Ten First Teamers. And somehow their new libero and defensive specialists — Laney Choboy and Maisie Boesiger — somehow treat the floor like it has a forcefield for the other team. Do I say this as a Wisconsin fan? Yes. Is it accurate? Also yes.

No offense to the other teams in Nebraska’s quadrant, but the Huskers are looking for the Final Four in Kansas City. They share the quadrant with No. 2 Louisville — Busboom Kelly’s former squad. Past that, the tests they would likely face lie in the other number one seeds — Texas, Kentucky and the Pittsburgh Panthers.

This is their most loaded team in a while, which is saying something for Nebraska standards. I would expect them to win a title considering they went a very, very, very long time without dropping a set. But that kind of pressure has not helped the Huskers in the past. It’s all up to them whether they can handle the expectation of the state — which I’m sure you heard has the highest outdoor volleyball attendance in history.

No. 8 Penn State Nittany Lions 18-12 overall, 12-8 Big Ten

The Nittany Lions won an emotional national title last year as their head coach, Katie Schumacher-Cawley, coached the team while battling cancer as PSU won their first national title since 2014.

This has been a weird defense, to say the least.

Star Setter Izzy Starck took a leave from the team early in the season, and recently announced an intent to transfer. The Nittany Lions — with a gauntlet non-confernece schedule — then started the year at 4-4, losing to four ranked squads including Pitt and Kentucky.

Although they swept the Wisconsin Badgers in Happy Valley early in the season, the Nittany Lions picked up surprising losses to Washington and Michigan in conference play.

Still, PSU has star opposite Kennedy Martin, and the former Florida player might win national player of the year as she put up an insane 5.42 kills per set.

The hot-and-cold season didn’t help Penn State when it comes to seeding, settling at the No. 8 line and likely needing to play No. 1 Texas in the second round if they advance — first round matchup will be against the USF Bulls Friday evening.

*Stephen A. Smith voice* HOWEVAH — Kennedy Martin is an absolute force and could help will the Nittany Lions to more. If she gets hot against Texas, she can make things interesting, and potentially cause a monumental upset, but that relies on a team in an up-and-down season staying up and beating the USF Bulls.

No. 3 Purdue Boilermakers 24-6 overall 15-5 Big Ten

The Boilermakers had a few impressive non-con wins — over Tennessee, SMU and Kansas — that helped their resume and helped them build momentum ahead of a year with some change.

Last year’s key attackers Eva Hudson and Chloe Chicoine transferred to Kentucky and Louisville respectively, but Purdue kept its high level in the Big Ten going, finishing third in the conference behind Wisconsin.

This year, Purdue’s key player was Kenna Wollard, and the junior outside hitter stepped up in the vacuum to hit 4.38 kills per set to earn All-Big Ten First Team honors. She was often assisted by junior setter Taylor Anderson and aided by sophomore opposite Grace Heaney, with both those players earning first team noms as well.

Blocking is often one of Purdue’s strong suits, and that was the case again this year as the Boilermakers tallied the third most blocks and most solo blocks in the conference. Junior middle blocker Dior Charles led the team with 1.13 blocks per set, but Heaney was a key for them as well.

The Boilermakers are in the same quadrant as Pitt, and will be hoping to get past the first two rounds to get to that second weekend. If their blocking threat can continue to be active, and Wollard continues her outstanding season, Purdue can be a tough out and make a run.

No. 8 UCLA Bruins 18-12 overall, 12-8 Big Ten

The Bruins’ season started slow, but they were led by three key stars to help them to the dance.

UCLA started 1-3 with losses to Pepperdine and two in a row to TCU, but were able to improve to get some key wins over ranked conference foes — including Penn State, Minnesota and cross-town foe USC — to help them into the tournament.

The Bruins had three All Big Ten First Team players, including their kills leader outside hitter Cheridyn Leverette, solid middle blocker Marianna Singletary and sophomore libero Lola Schumacher — a transfer from Wisconsin.

The Bruins also weren’t at full power the whole season, as graduate transfer middle blocker Phekran Kong had an extended injury layoff. Now healthy, UCLA has posted a 9-3 record on the season when Kong, who played in three straight Final Fours at Louisville, started.

The Bruins will first have to defeat a pesky Georgia Tech in the opening round. If they win that, they will likely take on the Kentucky Wildcats. UCLA fans will hope that a healthy Kong and the impressive performances of Leverette, Singletary and Schumacher can help swing a huge upset to get an extended run.

No. 4 USC Trojans 24-6 overall, 15-5 Big Ten

The Women of Troy pulled off some impressive wins on the season — including a 3-0 sweep of the Creighton Bluejays in non-con and a 3-1 win over Wisconsin in Madison — but also had some tough conference losses early on.

That stretch included four losses in six against Penn State, Indiana, Purdue and UCLA near the start of Big Ten play, but the Trojans righted the ship and ended the season after that stretch with just one loss to Nebraska.

An impressive block was a key to that change. The block dominated Wisconsin in that win in October that seemed to spark that run, but equally impressive was London Wijay, an outside hitter who had 24 kills on the way to All-Big Ten First Team honors. USC’s offense is guided by freshman setter Reese Messer, who also earned the First Team nod.

USC led the conference in blocks, with freshman opposite Abigail Mullen, middle blocker Mia Tvrdy and middle blocker Leah Ford helping make up that wall that was often by committee for the Trojans.

USC will first host Princeton Thursday night, and the winner plays the victor between BYU and Cal Poly. The Trojans were swept by BYU early in the season in non-conference play, but if the block can come alive, USC could potentially make a deep run.

No. 3 Wisconsin Badgers 24-4 overall, 17-3 Big Ten

Let me try to not be a crazy homer here, but somehow the Badgers seem correctly ranked and also underseeded.

I do have perfectly good reasons for this observation! Don’t worry. All three of Wisconsin’s conference losses — a sweep at Happy Valley to PSU, the aforementioned loss to USC and getting swept in Madison by Nebraska — came without the work of star sophomore setter Charlie Fuerbringer, who was injured during a win against Michigan and missed nine matches.

Although true freshman Addy Horner — who is the rare “setter/right side” according to Wisconsin’s roster — played admirably during that run, Fuerbringer was named to the All Big Ten First Team for a reason. The offense looks much smoother when she played. That was clear with the offensive output of fellow All Big Ten-er middle blocker Carter Booth, who hit for over .500 in the final seven matches where Fuerbringer returned and is always a force on the block.

Meanwhile, senior transfer outside hitter Mimi Colyer filled in the “Sarah-Franklin-I’m-incredible at-volleyball” role incredibly well. The transfer from Oregon was a unanimous All Conference nom and had 5.32 kills per set for the Badgers on the season and has been a presence in all six rotations.

The issue for the Badgers is who can join Colyer on the offense? Booth has stepped up with Fuerbringer back — and, to be fair, has hit over 2.02 kills per set on the season alongside 1.24 blocks per set — but opposite Grace Egan and outside hitter Una Vajagic have been solid pieces at times for UW. They’ll need to continue that output for any hope of a deep run — especially in a rare year in recent times where Wisconsin is not hosting the first two rounds.

The Badgers share a quadrant with former tournament nemeses — Stanford, who beat them in the 2019 NCAA Championship and Texas, who beat them in the 2023 Final Four — but would face Stanford first if they get past their first round matchup against Eastern Illinois and the victor between UTEP and North Carolina.