On Sunday, the NCAA announced the field for their 2015 women’s volleyball championships. The field of 64 included 32 automatic berths for conference championships and an equal number of at-large slots.
The Big 10 has bragging rights for the most number of teams (10) followed by 7 PAC-12 teams and 5 Big 12 teams. The top seeds were: No. 1 University of Southern California, No. 2 University of Minnesota, No. 3 University of Texas, and No. 4 University of Nebraska.
The announcement of the field took an unexpected turn for Colorado Buffs fans. The hometown team finished fifth in the PAC-12 with an 11-9 conference record and a 19-13 overall record. Despite their showing, the Lady Buffs were not invited to attend the Big Dance – yet invitations were extended to the 6th place Ducks (10-10 in conference and 16-13 overall), 7th place Wildcats (9-11 in conference and 19-13 overall) and 8th Sun Devils (8-12 in conference and 19-12 overall).
Here’s the way the conference season unfolded for CU:
• On a positive note, the Buffs swept Arizona, California, and Oregon State.
• The Buffs split matches with Arizona State, Oregon, Stanford, and Utah.
• The Buffs lost one match to Washington and defeated Washington State in one match.
• The Buffs were swept by USC and UCLA
The Buffs played 6 matches with a score of 3-2.
• They defeated Arizona State, Oregon, Oregon State, and Washington State.
• They lost to Oregon and USC.
In pre-conference play, the Buffs were 8-4. They were swept by Penn State (8th at the end of the season) and Illinois (21st at the end of the season). They dropped a 3-1 match at home to San Diego, who received votes in the final rankings. The Buffs other loss came at the hands of Rice, 3-1.
On a positive note, the Buffs had a 3-2 win over Florida State (ranked 19th at the end of the season). The other wins were against teams they shouldn’t have been playing:
• Oklahoma 12-16
• Sam Houston State, 14-18
• Louisiana-Lafayette, 6-23
• Montana State, 3-21
• Weber State, 6-22
• George Mason, 10-19
• Air Force, 12-21.
Combined these 7 teams were 63-140; they won 31.0% of their matches.
The Buffs had “good wins” against Stanford and FSU and at the end of the season they received votes for the top 25. A strong case can be made that the Lady Buffs were a legitimate top 32 team, i.e. they should have been invited to the Big Dance.
A strong case can be made that the Lady Buffs were a legitimate top 32 team, i.e. they should have been in the Big Dance.
If you consider the non-conference “bad losses” to Rice and San Diego and the conference losses to Oregon, Utah, and Arizona State, a strong case can be made that the Lady Buffs should stay at home.
The moral of the story is that competition against good teams and consistency matter!
