NCAA | Tournament Day 2: Louisville loses, Pac-12/Big Ten roll

Arizona State loses; disastrous day for West Coast Conference

The Big Ten is smilin’. The West Coast Conference, not so much.

The Big Ten sent seven teams to the tournament, and all of them are still dancing. Four are still alive in the West Lafayette Regional, where we’d consider three of the four (Penn St, Minnesota and Ohio St) favorites to advance to the Sweet 16, where Nebraska and Michigan have already landed.

Washington's Amanda Gill tips on a slide attack
in a victory against Central Arkansas
-Seattle Times photo by Mark Harrison

Michigan, by the way, defeated tenth-seeded Louisville, marking the first time a seeded team has lost this tournament. Volleyblog Seattle has been saying for weeks that Louisville is overrated. It only adds fire to arguments by Hawai’i fans that the Rainbow Wahine should have been one of the 16 seeds.

The Pac-12 also qualified seven, but Cal lost to North Carolina Thursday, and Arizona State was surprised by Oklahoma last night, losing the 5^th set 13-15. USC is already through to the Sweet 16; Stanford, Washington, UCLA and Oregon—all playing at home—would like to follow.

The big loser was the West Coast Conference, where five of six teams all lost in the first two rounds. San Diego—which should have been seeded—dropped a heartbreaker to Michigan State, in what might have been the toughest first-round matchup of the tournament. Santa Clara was embarrassed by Hawai’i, Loyola Marymount was shut out by Western Kentucky, disappointing Pepperdine lost in five to Dayton, and St. Mary’s lost a second-round match to USC, after nearly winning the first set. Only 12^th-seeded BYU remains from the battered WCC.

See also: Huskies advance to face Hawaii (Terry Wood)

TODAY’S LINEUP (all times Pacific):

WEST LAFAYETTE REGIONAL			AUSTIN REGIONAL
University Park			Austin
4:30PM	Bowling Green @ (1) Penn St		WINNER	(3) Texas
Lexington			Gainesville
4PM	Ohio St @ (16) Kentucky		4:30PM	Col. Charleston @ (14) Florida
Tallahassee			Lawrence
1:30PM	Purdue @ (9) Florida St		4:30PM	Wichita St @ (11) Kansas
Minneapolis			Los Angeles
4PM	Creighton@ (8) Minnesota		WINNER	(6) USC
OMAHA REGIONAL			BERKELEY REGIONAL
Eugene			Los Angeles
8PM	Dayton @ (5) Oregon		7PM	Michigan St @ (7) UCLA
Provo			Louisville
6PM	Oklahoma @ (12) BYU		WINNER	Michigan
Seattle			Ames
7PM	Hawai’i @ (13) Washington		WINNER	(15) Iowa St
Lincoln			Palo Alto
WINNER	(4) Nebraska		7PM	Western Ky @ (2) Stanford