Selection Sunday

And don't forget the ECC Championship!

The Wildcats earned their first NEC Championship and set a program record with 20 wins. (Daemen Athletics)

That was fun! First of all, congrats to all of the newly crowned conference champions! Special shoutout to Daemen since the NEC does not currently receive an automatic qualification (AQ). I will write more about this later, but it looks like the NEC was provisionally approved for an AQ starting next season (2024-2025). This still has to be approved by the NCAA Division I Board of Directors Finance Committee, so I won’t get excited yet.

We still have one match left before the National Tournament starts on April 30th. The inaugural ECC Championship will take place today. St. Thomas Aquinas has a slight edge over Dominican, but this looks to be the closest championship match this year. If you have the chance and want to get some volleyball in before the selection show, you can watch this match for free!

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Bracketology

We know six of the eight teams and we can safely infer the two at-large bids. So, I feel pretty good that we know the eight teams for this year’s National Tournament. When it comes to seeding, I think we know a lot, but there is still some wiggle room. But there is not a lot of wiggle room.

Here is what I think the tournament is going to look like.

I keep looking over these numbers and I would honestly be surprised if it wasn’t this. If I had to pick something, maybe the selection committee goes with Ohio State over Penn State at the #5 seed. Anything outside of that just seems like a stretch to me. This isn’t part of the criteria, but this seeding also separates teams in the same conference.

Overall, I don’t expect a lot of drama with this year’s selection. This is a pretty good lineup of teams. Is it the strongest 8 teams in the country? No. But it isn’t designed to do that. I do think we need a bigger tournament, but that conversation is for another day. This season, we get to celebrate the largest tournament ever at 8. All that is left is the long-awaited seeding.

We will find out today Sunday, April 21st, at 10 am HST/1 PM PDT/4 PM EDT. You can watch the selection show live at NCAA.com.

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Match Recaps

Big West Championship

🏆#1 Long Beach (67%) def. #2 UC Irvine (33%)
3-1 (25-23, 21-25, 25-16, 25-15)

ConfCarolinas Championship

🏆#1 Belmont Abbey (64%) def. #2 North Greenville (36%)
3-1 (25-21, 25-20, 21-25, 25-17)

EIVA Championship

🏆#1 Penn State (84%) def. #2 George Mason (16%)
3-1 (24-26, 25-20, 25-22, 25-16)

MIVA Championship

🏆#3 Ohio State (64%) def. #4 Lindenwood (36%)
3-1 (20-25, 25-17, 25-18, 25-16)

MPSF Championship

🏆#2 Grand Canyon (26%) def. #1 UCLA (74%)
3-2 (25-16, 24-26, 25-17, 19-25, 15-10)

NEC Championship

🏆#2 Daemen (27%) def. #1 Saint Francis (73%)
3-1 (25-23, 25-21, 22-25, 25-20)

ECC Semifinals

#1 St. Thomas Aquinas (86%) def. #4 American International (14%)
3-1 (29-31, 25-18, 28-26, 30-28)

#3 Dominican (58%) def. #2 Roberts Wesleyan (42%)
3-0 (25-11, 25-20, 25-17)

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Match Projections

ECC Championship

#1 St. Thomas Aquinas (58%) vs #3 Dominican (42%)