NCAA volleyball season begins Tuesday: Round up the usual suspects

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 final a year ago after making it to the 2022 title match, plays Wisconsin, the 2021 champion. 

Both matches will be on ESPN2.

It’s a big-time way to begin the college volleyball season.

2024: A brave new world

This is the first season with the Big 4 instead of the Power 5 (ah, the Pac-12, rest in peace). 

Remember when it was stunning for a conference to get eight teams in the NCAA Tournament? Don’t be surprised to see 12 or more get in from the Big Ten. The ACC has eight or nine written all over it. And look for the SEC and Big 12 to get seven each, give or take. That’s more than half the field of 64. 

In the new conference alignment, there are 31 conferences. That means 27 other conferences get an automatic bid, with perhaps three or four of those getting an additional at-large or two (hello Big East, Sun Belt, Big West, WCC). 

Changing landscape? 

Just consider where the former Pac-12 teams are now. Stanford and Cal are in the ACC. The A, by the way, stands for Atlantic. Washington State and Oregon State are, at least for now, in the WCC. The Big 12 got Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah and, of course, UCLA, USC, Washington and Oregon are in the Big Ten.

Two-time defending-champion Texas and Oklahoma are in the SEC.

The numbers seem so out of whack with what we’re used to. 

The ACC has 18 volleyball teams, the Big 12 has 15, the Big Ten has 18 and the SEC has 15 and next year finally adds Vanderbilt. Yes, coach Anders Nelson and staff still have one more year to build the inaugural program. 

This will also be a college season leading into not only one pro league, but two. The Pro Volleyball Federation starts its second season in January, while LOVB has its inaugural campaign. And once again Athletes Unlimited will be back at it in the fall. 

NCAA volleyball TV time

Thank you, women’s hoops, and, more specifically Caitlin Clark, since volleyball is reaping the benefit. 

A regular-season match on ABC! Finally.

Starting with the AVCA First Serve Showcase right through the NCAA title tilt on Sunday, December 22, ESPN will show the most matches ever. According to its news release, more than 2,600 matches will be shown on its platforms this fall, 2,450 on ESPN+

Click here for the news release and a listing of all the matches on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, the ACC Network, and the SEC Network. Most of the televised Big 12 matches are on ESPN+.

The Big Ten Network, Fox, FS1, NBC and Peacock will combine to show 83 B1G matches this season. That includes the incredible gathering September 1-2 in Milwaukee, the College Volleyball Showcase at Fiserv Forum, when Wisconsin plays Texas on Fox, Stanford plays Minnesota on FS1, and the next day Wisconsin plays Stanford on Fox and Texas plays Minnesota on FS1.

The first full weekend

So after the early start in Louisville, things begin in earnest on Friday with 218 — 218! matches. The first four weekends before the start of conference plays is simply nuts to follow.

Here are a few of the intriguing matches Friday: No. 7 Penn State at No. 15 Tennessee, No. 4 Pittsburgh at No. 10 Oregon, UCLA at No. 14 Georgia Tech, Kansas State at No. 8 Purdue, No. 21 USC at Pepperdine and No. 5 Stanford at Milwaukee, because, well, it’s Stanford at Milwaukee, which is pretty cool.

There are a zillion more matches on Saturday, including Northern Iowa vs. Ohio State and then Dayton vs. the Buckeyes at No. 22 Dayton, Illinois at Bowling Green, TCU at Nebraska, USC back at Pepperdine, Western Kentucky at Kentucky, No. 17 Arizona State at Lipscomb, SMU at Hawai’i and Pitt vs. Long Beach State at Oregon.

Sunday features the showcase early tournament of the pre-conference season, with Stanford vs. Minnesota and Texas vs. Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Also Sunday, SMU vs. San Diego in Hawai’i, Tennessee at Louisville, UCLA vs. Coastal Carolina at GT, Long Beach State at Oregon and No. 25 Georgia vs. No. 20 Florida State.

Kentucky was supposed to open with Northern Kentucky, but instead, because of the first tourney, plays Nebraska. For that matter, before starting the SEC the Wildcats will play Western Kentucky, Penn State, James Madison, Ball State, Purdue or Houston, Louisville and Stanford. Big high-fives to coach Craig Skinner.

And let us say this: The coaches of the top teams in college volleyball deserve serious high fives for annually playing each other in the preseason. The best play the best, consequences be damned, and our sport is better for it.

Ehman’s B1G 20

Speaking of the Big Ten Network and ESPN, our friend Emily Ehman, who has become a volleyball industry within herself, ranked the top 20 returning players in the Big Ten. Through Saturday she had Nos. 20-6:

20. Rebekah Allick, Nebraska
19. Mia Tuaniga, USC
18. Anna Dodson, UCLA
17. Ramsey Gary, Indiana
16. Raven Colvin, Purdue
15. Mimi Colyer, Oregon
14. Chloe Chicoine, Purdue
13. Camryn Haworth, Indiana
12. Taylor Landfair, Nebraska
11. Raina Terry, Illinois
10. Harper Murray, Nebraska
 9. Bergen Reilly, Nebraska
 8. Anna Smrek, Wisconsin
 7. Eva Hudson, Purdue
 6. Emily Londot, Ohio State.

We’re gonna go out on a limb through simple process of elimination and guess that the final five are Nebraska’s Merritt Beason and Lexi Rodriguez, Wisconsin’s Sarah Franklin and Carter Booth and Penn State’s Jess Mruzik.

Follow Emily on Twitter and Instagram at @emilyehman not only to see the final five, but for all things volleyball all the time.

Roomies: Lipscomb vs. California Baptist

Lipscomb, the perennial ASUN contender, is home in Nashville the first weekend to California Baptist, No. 17 Arizona State and Butler.

The Lippy-CBU matchup is really special for the coaches, Lipscomb’s Brandon Rosenthal and CBU’s Branden Higa. 

Rosenthal, who has taken the Bisons to eight NCAA Tournaments in his first 22 years, and Higa, who has been at CBU of the WAC since 2012 and guided the program in 2018 into Division I, were college roomates at Pepperdine. 

The two native Californians have been best friends for 30 years.

They had their own radio show in college — a midnight-to-2 a.m. gig called B&B and the Pimp Crew — were in each other’s weddings, they talk pretty much every day and, now, for the first time, are going to coach against each other.

Higa played at Pepperdine for three seasons, while Rosenthal played club volleyball. Rosenthal, who became one of the youngest Division I coaches when he took over at Lipscomb in 2003 at age 25, brought Higa on as an assistant his second year. 

“I couldn’t pay him but flew him out for a week at a time to work with us,” Rosenthal said.

“And we’re finally getting to play a match,” Higa said. “To compete against your best friend is pretty cool. It will be a great moment for us.”

Lippy is this year’s ASUN preseason pick to win the league, just ahead of Florida Gulf Coast.

Get them on your radar

Start with the Sun Belt Conference. The best libero you haven’t seen is 5-foot-5 Louisiana-Lafayette’s Mio Yamamoto. The senior from Chigasaki, Japan, is the real deal. The Ragin’ Cajuns sparkplug was the 2023 Sun Belt libero of the year … 

The best setter you haven’t seen is Ryann Torres of Texas State. We wrote about her last year and then she had a concussion between the time the story came out and her next match. But she bounced back strong and the 5-10 product of Buda, Texas, is a big reason why Texas State is picked to win the SBC West. And then there’s Coastal Carolina’s Jalyn Stout, a sophomore from Gainesville, Florida, who is generously listed at 5-10. The 2023 SBC freshman of the year is a remarkable leaper with an absolutely vicious arm … 

In 2022, Purdue’s Eva Hudson was the Big Ten freshman of the year, but ran out of gas towards the end of the season. Last year, she led the B1G in kills with 560, 14 more than Ohio State’s Emily Londot. But it says here the 6-1 product of Fort Wayne, Indiana, is actually underrated and is going to take it to another level this season … 

Utah had a rough go of it last year, finishing 11-19 overall and 6-14 in the Pac-12, but a move to the Big 12 is just what coach Beth Launiere needs as she begins her 35th year in Salt Lake City. Look for senior outside Lauren Jardine and sophomre outside Kamryn Gibadio to have break-out seasons … 

If we were having a player draft and I had the No. 1 pick, I’d take Stanford senior Kami Miner because she’s a setter, but it would be hard to pass on Texas senior superstar outside Madi Skinner. Look for them to be USA teammates in Los Angeles in 2028 … 

Death, taxes and Western Kentucky being great: Coach Travis Hudson just gets it done year after year, and this happens to be year No. 30 for a guy who has taken his program to five NCAA Tournaments in a row and nine of the last 10 and 16 overall. Senior outside Kaylee Cox, who was an all-Conference USA player last season after transferring from Missouri, is the league preseason player of the year. By the way, her mom, Brenda, played basketball at SMU and all three of her sisters are/were hoopsters, including Lauren, who won a national title at Baylor …  

Never sleep on coach Don Metil’s Towson, the three-time CAA champion … We have a big feature coming later in the week on Creighton, but let me just this about the most under-recognized great player in college volleyball: Norah Sis! … Keep an eye on Boise senior right side Paige Bartsch, who led the Mountain West in kills and aces last season. Her twin sister Dani plays basketball at Montana … 

All-Name contenders, both on the all-WCC preseason team: Maui Robins, the junior outside for Portland, and Nemo Beach, the sophomore outside for San Diego, who was the league freshman of the year in 2023 …

There were, as there are every year, a ton of transfers. The last team to win it all without a transfer from Kentucky in spring 2021 and the odds are it never happens again. Michella Chester of NCAA.com broke it down with the top 11 transfers, three of whom went to Texas and two who went to Nebraska.

For reference on any or all of the above, click here for the 2023 VolleyballMag.com All-American teams story.

My teams …

I always root for my alma mater, Southern Illinois. The Salukis have made strides under coach Ed Allen — now ranked No. 6 among active NCAA Division I head coaches with 705 career victories — and are picked to finish fifth in the Missouri Valley Conference … And I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Stony Brook in the town where I grew up on Long Island. The Seawolves and eighth-year coach Kristin Belzung start their third season in the CAA …

For the past 39 years, I lived in Baton Rouge, so the hometown team was LSU, which is starting its 50th year of volleyball. That includes trips to the 1990 and 1991 NCAA national semifinals. The program has a new website, lsusports.net/vb50/, that features historic photos and some cool videos …

But now I live 12 miles north of Boston and I have all sorts of new hometown teams to follow, like Boston College, Harvard, and, about 17 miles up the road, Merrimack. Wouldn’t you know it, but BC is making a trip to LSU in September. BC, of course, is in the ACC, and league home matches include Pitt and SMU in early October, Florida State and Miami later in the month, and Notre Dame and Louisville in November.

Anyway, Merrimack, coached by Ray Lewis, is located in North Andover and has moved from the NEC to the Metro Atlantic. I look forward to seeing them play and dare I say, “Go Warriors.”