The NCAA women's volleyball final four will feature the top four finishers, as Nebraska and Penn State won their regional finals on Sunday, joining Pitt and Louisville, who advanced on Saturday.
The national semifinals are Thursday in Louisville, with the home Cardinals facing the Panthers at 6:30 p.m. ET, followed by the Huskers against the Nittany Lions. Both games are on ESPN. The national championship game will be Sunday, December 22 at 3 pm ET on ABC.
Both semifinals face conference foes. ACC rivals Louisville and Pitt are each seeking their first national volleyball championship. It's much different on the other side of the bracket: Big Ten rivals Penn State (seven) and Nebraska (five) have 12 NCAA titles and nine runner-up finishes between them.
During the regular season, No. 1 seed Pitt beat Louisville in both of their matchups, and Penn State beat Nebraska in their meeting.
The Huskers, now in their 18th NCAA Final Four, easily advanced Sunday, sweeping Wisconsin 26-24, 25-17, 25-21. Taylor Landfair, a senior playing her first season at Nebraska after transferring from Minnesota, led the Huskers with 11 kills. Nebraska also swept the Badgers in both Big Ten regular-season meetings this year.
Penn State is reaching its 14th NCAA Final Four, but it had a tougher time Sunday. The Nittany Lions were pushed to five sets by No. 2 seed Creighton, which was trying to reach its first final four and set up a semifinal between Nebraska schools. But the Nittany Lions, with the advantage of playing the regional on their home court like the other No. 1 seeds, took the fifth set 15-7. Jess Mruzik led Penn State with 20 kills.
No female coach has ever won the NCAA Division I volleyball championship, which was first contested in 1981. But there is a chance it could happen this year, as two women: Louisville's Dani Busboom Kelly and Katie Schumacher -Cawley of Penn State. They are among the four finalists.
The only coach among the final four to have won a title before is Nebraska's John Cook, who holds four of the Huskers' titles. All of Penn State's championships were under the direction of Russ Rose, who retired after the 2021 season.
