Pittsburgh and Nebraska seemed to be in a collision course for the National Championship when they went to the Final Four of Women's Volleyball of the NCAA last December.
But when the weekend ended, Penn State had defeated Louisville for the eighth title of the program of the program. Katie Schumacher-Cawley became the first chief coach to win the championship since the tournament began in 1981 and was about to take place a great change of coach.
As we go to the 2025 season, these four schools are at the top of the pre -season survey of Avca division I: the huskers lead the way with 40 votes of the first place, followed by the Nittany Lions (21), the Panthers and the cardinals. The past Texas national champion, Stanford, Kentucky and Wisconsin complete the first eight.
Those are the family names that we hope to compete for the 2025 championship, which will be decided from December 18 to 21 in Kansas City. But now the former Louisville coach, Dani Busboom Kelly, leads Nebraska, replacing the legend of the retired program John Cook. Dan Meske, who had been a associate coach of the cardinals, took over in Louisville.
Busboom Kelly is a native of Nebraska who previously won NCAA championships as a player and assistant coach with the Huskers, so it always seemed a matter of time before returning. She built the Louisville program in a national power, and together with the Pittsburgh coach, Dan Fisher, helped raise the ACC to elite status.
But the Panthers and the Cardinals still look for their first NCAA title. Could this be the year for either? Will Nebraska win his sixth championship? Or could Penn State repeat and tie the nine -titles record of Stanford's NCAA?
More than 2,600 games will be shown on ESPN platforms this season, which will culminate with each NCAA tournament match. The national semifinals will be in ESPN and, for the third consecutive season, the final will be in ABC. Here is a manual to prepare for the 2025 season.
How soon are the powers?
Immediately. One of the best things in university volleyball are the best programs almost always faced in the game without a conference. The first Avca show at the Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska, runs from Friday to Sunday. Start with Pittsburgh vs. Nebraska at 7 pm et Friday. Sunday's games – Florida vs. Pittsburgh (1 pm et) and Nebraska vs. Stanford (3:30) – Air in ESPN.
The Broadway Block inaugural party will be on August 31 at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. It has Nebraska vs. Kentucky (Noon et, ABC), Tennessee vs. Purdue (3 pm et, ESPN2) and Vanderbilt vs. Illinois (6 pm et, Sec Network). Vanderbilt has returned volleyball as a university sport after briefly sponsoring it in 1979-80. The sister of the WNBA star, Kelsey Plum, Lauren Plum, is an assistant coach of the new commoders program.
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Identify transfers that will have an impact on sec
Missy Whittemore and Leah Edmonds of Sec Network identify the transfers that will probably have an impact on the SEC and describe the strengths that make them unstoppable on the court.
What highlighted the transfer portal for this season?
As with any other sport, transfers are an important part of volleyball. The external batter Torrey Stafford who goes to Texas from Pitt was one of the largest movements. The Panthers still have the national player of Avca Olivia Babcock (5.94 points per set) back of team 33-2 last season. But Stafford, who averaged 4.24 points per set in 2024, is a great collection for the always stacked Longhorns.
Kentucky added fire power with the external batter Eva Hudson, who led the Big Ten in murder by Set last season in 4.81. Nebraska, which is also a magnet for transfers, added the opposite batter Allie Sczech of Baylor.
How different will Nebraska be under a new leadership?
Being realistic, not much. Busboom Kelly played and trained with Cook for a long time before taking care of the Louisville program, so this is a transition as perfect as Nebraska could have expected.
The exterior batter Harper Murray is back to Nebraska; He led the huskers in points per set (4.01 last season). Andi Jackson and Rebekah Allick make a formidable central blocker in Tandem, and Bergen Reilly, the Big Ten Setter of the Year in the last two seasons, returns to the field marshal The Huskers.
It is true that following someone as successful as the cook, the chief coach of four of the titles of the NCAA of the Huskers and the architect of a perennial championship contender, is not easy.
Busboom Kelly has its own personality and training style; She is not a cook clone. But in terms of the high quality of the product placed on the floor for some of the most ardent volleyball fans of the nation, she knows the expectations better than anyone.
Last year, Nebraska entered the national semifinals about to win their sixth title, and the Huskers took a 2-0 advantage in Penn State. But in a last nightmare game for Cook, the Nittany Lions won in an inverse scan, then beat a Louisville team that had lost the anna star should be for an ankle injury in their semifinal. Despite that disappointment, Cook praised Busboom Kelly and Schumacher-Cawley, whose teams gathered in the final, for their high profile training papers in sport.
Any possibility of a champion for the first time of the NCAA this season?
Four of the programs in the Top 10 of Pre -season Avca – Pittsburgh, Louisville, No. 9 Texas A&M and No. 10 SMU, have never won the NCAA title. Panthers have been in national semifinals in the last four consecutive years, but have not advanced to the final. Directed by Babcock, they are still the best bet among teams looking for their first national championship.
But watch No. 16 Florida too. Mary Wise, who had led the Gators since 1991 and did the NCAA tournament every year, withdrew from training and is now part of the ESPN transmission team. She guided Florida to Final Four eight times. Ryan Theis has taken care of the program and will pursue the goal of winning an NCAA title.
What is the most important news outside the court?
The pro volleyball federation has renamed the major league volleyball, or MLV, which will provide a place to play for some of the best university players when they become professionals.
The PVF began in 2024 and has played two seasons. But the popular Omaha Supernovas franchise in Nebraska had conflicts with the PVF management and intended to start its own league called MLV. Instead, there was a kind of fusion and PVF became MLV.
MLV is scheduled to start its 2026 season in January with teams in Atlanta, Columbus, Ohio; Dallas, Grand Rapids, Michigan; Indianapolis, Omaha, Orlando and San Diego. Two more teams, in Washington DC and Sacramento, California, are scheduled to join in 2027.
While Cook retired as a huskers coach, he is still occupied with volleyball: he was recently announced as co -owner and general manager of the Supernovas.
