NCAA | Volleyball fans ask: who ended your season?

A guide to who your favorite team might not want to play in the tournament

• NCAA Tournament Selection | December 1 | 6:30PM | ESPNU

If you follow volleyball, you might know Stanford’s recent woes at the hands of Michigan. In three of the past four seasons, the Wolverines have ended the Cardinal season in the NCAA Tournament.

Across the bay, Cal fans have their own nemesis—with another in the offing. Four seasons in a row, the Bears lost to Penn State, twice in the Final Four. The past two years, they’ve been knocked out by North Carolina.

In the 2012 NCAA Tournament, Oregon's season was ended by Texas
-Volleyblog Seattle photo by Leslie Hamann

We decided to take the National Champions over the past dozen years and listed who ended each of their seasons in the years they didn’t hoist the trophy. We also added three other successful programs, Cal, Hawai’i and Minnesota.

Notice how often these teams lose to the other nine. Of the 105 losses listed, 67 are at the hands of each other … almost 64%:

	Texas	UCLA	Penn St	Nebraska	Washington
2012	Natl. Champs	Michigan St	Oregon	Oregon	Nebraska
2011	UCLA	Natl. Champs	UCLA	Kansas St	Minnesota
2010	Penn St	Texas	Natl. Champs	Washington	California
2009	Penn St	Baylor	Natl. Champs	Texas	Colorado St
2008	Stanford	Texas	Natl. Champs	Penn St	Nebraska
2007	USC	Stanford	Natl. Champs	California	BYU
2006	Stanford	Nebraska	Washington	Natl. Champs	Stanford
2005	Hawai’i	Nebraska	Tennessee	Washington	Natl. Champs
2004	Stanford	Washington	UCLA	USC	Stanford
2003	DNQ	USC	Florida	UCLA	Minnesota
2002	Arizona	Pepperdine	Temple	Hawai’i	Hawai’i
2001	Texas A&M	L Beach St	UCLA	Stanford	DNQ
	Stanford	USC	California	Hawai’i	Minnesota
2012	Michigan	Texas	No Carolina	Washington	Penn St
2011	Michigan	Illinois	No Carolina	USC	Iowa St
2010	USC	California	Penn St	Washington	California
2009	Michigan	Hawai’i	Penn St	Penn St	Texas
2008	Penn St	Hawai’i	Penn St	Stanford	Iowa St
2007	Penn St	Stanford	Penn St	Middle Tenn.	Sac. St
2006	Nebraska	Hawai’i	Stanford	UCLA	Nebraska
2005	Santa Clara	Pepperdine	Wisconsin	Missouri	Tennessee
2004	Natl. Champs	Minnesota	St. Mary’s	Wisconsin	Stanford
2003	Washington	Natl. Champs	Ga Tech	Florida	USC
2002	USC	Natl. Champs	UCSB	Stanford	Arizona
2001	Natl. Champs	Arizona	DNQ	UCLA	No. Iowa

And so, for our selected ten—over the randomly selected 12 years—the team that ended the other teams’ dream most often? That would be the Cardinal.

Stanford	12
Penn St	11
Washington	7
UCLA	7
USC	7
Hawai’i	6
Nebraska	6
Texas	5
California	4
Minnesota	2