College | Where will Washington volleyball land in the NCAA Tournament?

Our best guesses and a Huskies injury update

• #5 Washington def. Washington State 3-0 (25-20, 25-18, 26-24)
• NCAA Selection Show | Sun, Nov 30 | 5:30PM | ESPNU

TOYING WITH THE TOP SEEDS

Where will Tia Scambray (20), Lianna Sybeldon and their Washington
teammates be dancing in the 2014 Tournament?
-Volleyblog Seattle photo by Leslie Hamann

The regular season has now ended, with #6 SEC Champ Florida (25-3) defeating #3 Big-12 Champ Texas (23-2) 3-2, #4 Penn State (30-3) sweeping #10 Nebraska (20-9) 3-0, and #7 ACC Champ North Carolina (26-2) beating Wake Forest 3-0.

Sunday afternoon, the NCAA Selection Committee will announce the 64 teams in the 2014 D1 Tournament. 32 conference winners are already in; 32 others will be selected and seeded. The top 16 will each host the first two rounds; winners of the second round will head to one of the four Regionals, hosted this year by Washington, Minnesota, Iowa State and Louisville.

Washington will be a top 16 seed, and will be placed in the Seattle Regional. There are several ways the committee could go, but if they ask Volleyblog Seattle (they won’t), this would be our choice for the top 16 and the regionals we’d send them:

Washington Regional

1. Washington
2. Florida State
3. Colorado State
4. BYU

Minnesota Regional

1. Wisconsin
2. North Carolina
3. Illinois
4. UCLA

Iowa State Regional

1. Stanford
2. Texas
3. Nebraska
4. Iowa State

Louisville Regional

1. Florida
2. Penn State
3. Arizona
4. Kentucky

THE PAC-12 TEN?

You may have noticed that Oregon did not make our top 16, not after back-to-back losses this week to Utah and Oregon State.

Clearly, however, the Ducks will join Washington, Stanford, Arizona, UCLA and Colorado in the tournament, with a strong probability that Utah and Arizona State will be there too. Both Oregon State and USC are on the bubble—a huge boost to the formerly-hapless Beavers and a big letdown for the perennial powerhouse Trojans. Our guess is that at least one of those two schools will be disappointed Sunday night, though we can’t be sure which one.

HUSKIES INJURY UPDATE

Washington's Cassie Strickland and Katy Beals
-Volleyblog Seattle photo by Leslie Hamann

Washington Coach Jim McLaughlin tells Volleyblog Seattle that junior setter Katy Beals had an MRI today on her knee, with no word yet on her postseason availability. Beals was injured late in Friday’s 3-0 win over Washington State when she had to abruptly change positions as a ball hit the rafters of the WSU gym. Beals was replaced in the Huskies’ 6-2 (two-setter) offense by redshirt freshman Jade Finau.

McLaughlin also reported that freshman hitter Crissy Jones is still day-to-day after injuring her ankle during warmups for the November 23 win over Arizona. Freshman Courtney Schwan has replaced Jones in the lineup.

NORTHWEST MEDIA COVERAGE

Volleyblog Seattle’s Thanksgiving inbox has been stuffed with comments about the failure of most Northwest media to pay much attention to Washington’s epic 3-1 Wednesday night win over previously undefeated Stanford, before a record crowd of 8,646. Feel free to read the post and add your own comments. You can also post comments at the Volleyblog Seattle Facebook page, where you can encourage your volleyball-loving friends to like that page to ensure getting notice of future Volleyblog Seattle posts.