5 Thoughts after Volleyball Selection Sunday

For the third year in a row, Pitt gets home cooking all the way through the Elite Eight.

The NCAA Volleyball Selection Committee announced the 2025 Tournament bracket on Sunday, and the four #1 seeds played out as expected:

1. Nebraska
2. Kentucky
3. Texas
4. Pitt

You can view the whole bracket here and purchase tickets for the first two rounds here.

There was no surprise in that Top 4 – just relief for Pitt – which is probably why ESPN was fine in revealing it right away in its telecast. But there were other surprises and noteworthy bits from Selection Sunday, so let's hop to it.

Pitt Got Off Pretty Easy

Look, no team has a complete cakewalk path – it's the NCAA Tournament. But the Panthers did get drawn into one of the easiest paths they've ever had as a #1 seed.

That's not just my opinion, it's shared by Pitt assistant coach Kamalani Akeo.

"So I'm going to be completely honest here: this is one of probably the lighter brackets that we've seen, at least for us," Akeo told Abby Schnable of the Post-Gazette. "In the past four years, we've been matched up with Penn State, BYU, USC, so not seeing one of those teams that have arguably some of the best players in the country in our bracket, at least for this first weekend, is huge for us."

Who am I to argue? The RPI and Evollve ratings disagree on their potential second-round matchup Michigan (#45 in RPI, #27 in Evollve) and Xavier (#22 in RPI, #72 in Evollve), but neither one seems too difficult a task.

In the Sweet 16? Minnesota and Iowa State can ball, but outside of Minnesota's Julia Hanson there isn't a lot to scare you. (Though if you like defense, keep an eye on ISU’s libero Rachel Van Gorp — one of the nation’s best.)

If there's anything to fear, it's a 3rd go-around with SMU in the Elite Eight. I think the old adage has truth: it's hard to beat a good team three times. The numbers in March Madness have shown the effect, and I watched it myself as last year's Pitt team disintegrated in the Final Four in its third date with Louisville. Speaking of SMU...

I didn't expect the committee to line up Pitt with SMU

Didn’t expect it! Again, neither did Coach Akeo.

"We were betting on Stanford or Arizona State," Akeo said. "And I think it was Dalia [Vírlan] maybe threw in 'what if it's SMU?' like right before they announced it, and then it was. Yeah, we were surprised."

If you're a Pitt superfan, I would encourage you to watch the full interview, as Coach Akeo is more candid than we usually see from Pitt's top brass:

Granting that SMU was also lined up to play Pitt in the Regional Final last year before the Mustangs were upset at home by Missouri, I think SMU will be – as the tournament cliché goes – a tough out. The Ponies gave Pitt some fits down in Dallas, and any offense led by setter Averi Carlson with Malaya Jones and Jadyn Livings on the pins should frighten you.

SMU also has some victories over top-tier opponents, which was the biggest factor that gave them the nod over Arizona State as #5 overall.

"SMU has six Top 25 wins. They have three Top 10 wins over Stanford, Louisville and Texas A&M," said NCAA Volleyball Committee Chair Jennifer Saxon. "And when you're comparing specifically to [Arizona State], both of course we think are really really good teams, ASU ultimately did not have any Top 10 wins. So when you're looking at that portion of the bracket, ultimately that contributed to where the positioning happened."

The volleyball world at-large may discount SMU as nouveau riche and untested, but the Mustangs finished 2nd in the nation in sideout rate, winning 67.1% of their serve-receive points. They can come into Pittsburgh and win.

Pitt will be fully healthy soon

One final note from Schnable's interview with Coach Akeo: the injured Dagmar Mourits is currently playing back row for Pitt in practice, but no timeline was given for her return to game action… I guess candor only goes so far.

When Mourits does get back in all six rotations, Pitt will finally be at full strength barring any other injuries (knock on the closest piece of wood you've got).

The Panthers have now been without Mourits for seven weeks, and while their passing prowess has taken a hit in her absence, they have notched a 13-1 record without her and opened up more playing time for Oregon transfer Sophia Gregoire, who has shown a sharp swing on the pin, and freshman Marina Pezelj, who had her best defensive night against Louisville with 12 digs and absolutely nothing else noteworthy at all that I can possibly think of.

The "depth pieces" on Pitt's roster have now been battle-tested, which is perfect for a long December in which you never know who will need to step up in any given match.

Round 2 will be goooood watchin'

First-round upsets notwithstanding, we are in for some fun possibilities in the Round of 32:

• Kansas vs. Miami (7 PM Eastern on Friday)
• Arizona State vs. Tennessee (8 PM on Friday)
• USC vs. BYU (10 PM on Friday)
• Texas vs. Penn State (7:30 PM on Saturday)
• Texas A&M vs. TCU (8 PM on Saturday)

I've written previously in this space that the volleyball fan is better served by ESPN airing its 'The 5th Set' whip-around show on linear TV over any individual match, but man alive would Bristol like to be showing Texas-Penn State on an actual network for the potential ratings – two blue bloods in Round Two would be good living for any TV network.

But let this be your reminder that you'll need ESPN+ to watch these matches (or Pitt's first two matches, for that matter) in full.

You should put in for a half-day next Thursday

While we know Pitt will host (as long as it keeps winning) through the first four rounds, we don't know for certain when their Sweet 16 and Elite 8 matches would be. But we can make some educated guesses:

• Bristol is going to want ratings-grabber Nebraska in the ABC timeslot on Sunday, Dec. 14
• Texas or Kentucky is a bigger TV draw than Pitt, so one of them would likely be lined up for primetime matches

That leads me to the conclusion that, much like last season, Pitt is likely to play in the Sweet 16 on Thursday, December 11 at 3:30 PM and (if they advance) in the Elite 8 on Saturday, December 13 at 5:00 PM – both on ESPN2.

I wish it weren't this way! Last year, only 5,279 fans showed up to the Pete for the Thursday afternoon slate to see Pitt hold off feisty Oregon in five sets (compared to 9,525 two days later against Kentucky). But themsssss the breaks when ESPN holds the power for when you get on national TV.

If Pitt takes care of business at home, they'll be on a collision course with undefeated Nebraska in the Final Four. More to talk about there if we get to it. For now: Just win, baby.