Cougars tabbed as a No. 5 seed, heading to Purdue for NCAA first round
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- The BYU women’s volleyball team reacts to learning their NCAA Tournament seed on Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024.
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- The BYU women’s volleyball team poses for a photo after learning their NCAA Tournament seeding on Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024.
The BYU women’s volleyball team qualifying for the NCAA Tournament has become an annual event.
Going on the road to start the tournament, however, is a bit more rare.
The Cougars earned their 13th consecutive trip to the tournament on Sunday, a No. 5 seed heading to West Lafayette, Indiana, and opening with Loyola Chicago in a first-round matchup.
Out of the past 12 NCAA Tournaments, BYU has hosted the first two rounds seven times.
Going on the road has been pretty good for the Cougars: In 2014, they won the first two rounds in Tucson, Ariz., on their way to the NCAA Championship match in Oklahoma City, where they were national runner-up.
“We’re super excited to be heading into the NCAA Tournament,” BYU head coach Heather Olmstead said. “We’re grateful to be playing Loyola Chicago, I think they’re a great team. We’re going to dive into them later today, but as a group we’re really happy with the body of work that we put together this whole season. We’ve battled and we’ve gotten better, and that’s what we’re going to continue to focus on this week so we can play our best volleyball in the tournament.”
BYU finished 19-9 overall and 12-6 in Big 12 play, ending the regular season on a three-match win streak that included a 3-1 upset at No. 13 Arizona State.
No. 4 seed Purdue (25-6) is hosting the first two rounds in West Lafayette. In 2021, BYU lost a heartbreaking 3-2 decision to the Boilermakers in the Sweet 16. Two current Cougars (Alyssa Erickson and Elyse Stowell) were freshmen on that team.
Loyola Chicago (21-11) upset top seed Dayton 3-0 in the Atlantic 10 Tournament to earn the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA’s. The Ramblers are making their seventh NCAA appearance, the last coming in 2022.
The Big 12 is well represented in this year’s NCAA Tournament. League champion Arizona State (29-2) and runner-up Kansas (24-4) are both No. 3 seeds and will host the first two rounds in Tempe and Lawrence, respectively. Utah (24-5) and Baylor (22-7) are No. 4 seeds and also host. No. 5 seed TCU (21-7) is the sixth team from the Big 12 and travels to Eugene, Ore., to take on Hawaii in the first round.
The top four seeds in the tournament are Pitt (29-2 and No. 1 overall), Nebraska (29-2), Penn State (29-2) and Louisville (25-5).
Teams winning both matches this weekend will move onto regional play from Dec. 12-15. Regional winners will advance to the national semifinals, slated for Dec. 19 on ESPN, with the championship match set for Dec. 22 on ABC.
