The volleyball world may have been focused on the NCAA’s official bracket reveal, but there was an absolute barn-burner of a match for the ECC title. St. Thomas Aquinas capped off their first-ever season, with a championship. It was a five-set battle that included a set four that went to 34-32. In the end, the 25 kills from Kyran Versteegen, the tournament Most Outstanding Player, were enough to power the Spartans to victory.
National Tournament Bracket
No real surprises with the bracket. In fact, it matches my projection seed-for-seed. In spite of their MPSF finals loss, UCLA had a strong enough resume to get the overall #1 seed. They are the country’s leader in both KPI and RPI, with some room to spare. Here is the top 10 in RPI coming into the selection.
In terms of RPI, UCLA had a decent cushion.
Even in terms of VBelo UCLA is the top in the land. To be clear, VBelo has no bearing on the committee’s selection. This is just to show a comparison of how things stacked up when it came time to seed the tournament.
When looking at all three of these lists, it is clear that Hawaii was the first team out of the tournament. The impact of losing Spyros Chakas to a season-ending injury in the Outrigger Invitational cannot be overstated. He was a clear candidate for national player of the year and a senior leader for the Hawaii squad. The Rainbow Warriors are the only team to be ranked #1 by the AVCA coaches poll this season not to make the tournament.1 The four others (UCLA, Long Beach, Grand Canyon, & Ohio State) are all in.
Looking at the numbers, I think the committee did what they needed to, in terms of using the tools and metrics they have been given. The fact that teams as good as Hawaii, BYU, Ball State, Lindenwood, & Princeton (to name just a few) is more a condemnation of the tournament format than the committee. It is a shame we can’t have more teams in the tournament. But we will keep pushing for it and supporting the sport to help grow the tournament and the game. Progress is slow but it is moving in the right direction.
Now that the bracket is officially official, what do you think? Did anything surprise you? How many teams do you want to see in future tournaments? Should we start a campaign to get VBelo added to the selection criteria? (The answer is absolutely not.)
Let me know what you think!
Match Recaps
ECC Championship
🏆#1 St. Thomas Aquinas (58%) def. #3 Dominican (42%)
3-2 (25-18, 25-23, 26-28, 32-34, 15-8)
Match Projections
No matches until April 30th (National Quarterfinals)
They are also the only team to be ranked in the top three at any point this season not to make the tournament, in case you were wondering. Stanford was ranked fourth for one week and they also did not make the tournament.