Nebraska earns top seed in NCAA women’s volleyball tournament

Undefeated Nebraska earned the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA women’s volleyball tournament bracket released Sunday.

The five-time national champion Huskers (30-0) have dominated this season, losing only seven sets. They lead Division I in hitting percentage at .352.

Dani Busboom Kelly, who won NCAA titles as both a Nebraska player and assistant, took over at her alma mater this season after longtime Huskers coach John Cook retired. Busboom Kelly led Louisville to the NCAA finals in 2024, where the Cardinals lost to Penn State.

The other No. 1 seeds are Kentucky, Texas and Pitt. The Wildcats have won one NCAA title, and the Longhorns have won four. The Panthers reached the Final Four in the last four seasons but lost in the semifinals each time.

Pitt and Stanford are tied at 18–2 in the ACC, and the Cardinal won 3–2 in their head-to-head matchup at Stanford on November 14. But the Panthers’ overall work earned them the final No. 1 seed, while nine-time NCAA champion Stanford is the No. 2 seed in the Texas region.

SEC regular season and tournament champion Kentucky defeated Texas 3–2 in the conference tournament final. If they advance that far, they will face each other in the national semi-finals.

Reigning national champion Penn State, the only school to have appeared in every NCAA Tournament since the event’s inception in 1981, is the No. 8 seed in the quarterfinals over Texas. St. Thomas (Minnesota) and Toledo are both participating in the tournament for the first time.

The Big 12 leads all leagues with 10 teams in the field, the Big Ten has nine, the ACC has seven and the SEC has five.

Preliminary round matches will be held at campus sites from December 4 to 6. The regional tournaments, scheduled for December 11–14, will be hosted by the four highest seeds still standing in each quarter of the bracket.

For the third time in tournament history, the Final Four is at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri. It was here that Penn State won the championship in 2010 and Nebraska won its most recent title in 2017.

The national semifinals are December 18 (ESPN), and the championship match is December 21 (ABC).