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BYU women’s volleyball earns No. 11 NCAA Tournament seed

By Darnell Dickson - | Nov 28, 2021

The BYU women's volleyball team celebrates their Fall 2021 NCAA Tournament selection as the No. 11 seed on Sunday, Nov. 28, 2021. (BYU Courtesy Photo)

Out of all the teams in eligible for the NCAA women’s volleyball tournament, BYU might have been the most difficult for the tourney committee to figure out.

The No. 4 ranked Cougars are 28-1 overall and finished the West Coast Conference season undefeated at 18-0. Yet BYU is just No. 17 in the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI). In addition, the NCAA favors regional matchups over true seeding.

So this is what they came up with: The Cougars are the No. 11 seed in the NCAA Tournament and will host the first two rounds at the Smith Fieldhouse in Provo. BYU will face off against Mountain West Conference champion Boise State (24-10) in the opening round and a victory would result in a rematch against either Western Athletic Conference champion Utah Valley (16-12) or the University of Utah (21-8), ranked No. 17 in the latest AVCA polls.

The Cougars swept Utah and Utah Valley Sept. 16 and 18, respectively. The Utes knocked BYU out of the NCAA Tournament in 2019 with a sweep in the second round at the Smith Fieldhouse.

Utah Valley was the No. 7 seed in the WAC Tournament but defeated New Mexico State, Stephen F. Austin and Grand Canyon to send Sam Atoa and the Wolverines to their second straight NCAA Tournament.

The first round will be played on Friday and the second round on Saturday. Utah Valley-Utah will meet at 4 p.m. and BYU-Boise State will play at 7 p.m.

This is the Cougars tenth consecutive NCAA Tournament berth and the eighth time in the past ten seasons the program has been one of the Top 16 seeds.

The 2020 fall season has been a dominating performance by BYU. The Cougars have won 20 consecutive matches and of its 28 wins, 22 have been by sweep. BYU finished tied with Texas for second in the country in team hitting percentage at .339. Western Kentucky was first at .342. The Cougars were also No. 2 in opponent hitting percentage (.118) just behind Creighton at .117.

The top four seeds are undefeated Louisville (28-0) from the Atlantic Coast Conference, Texas (24-1) from the Big 12, Pitt (26-3) from the Big East – the Cougars’ only loss – and Wisconsin (25-3) from the Big Ten.

The WCC sent three teams to the NCAA Tournament with BYU, Pepperdine (22-5) and San Diego (20-7) earning bids. The Waves will open in Los Angeles against Central Florida and the Toreros begin against Rice in Austin, Texas.

In the spring season (the 2020 campaign was postponed due to COVID-19) BYU (16-1, 15-1 WCC) earned the No. 16 seed, knocking off UCLA 3-1 in the second round before falling to No. 1 seed Wisconsin 3-0 in the Sweet 16.

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