NCAA Bracket: Printable
NCAA Bracket: Interactive

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LINCOLN — For most college women, the prospect of a trip to Hawaii at the start of a Midwestern winter would elicit ear-to-ear grins.

But when the Nebraska volleyball team heard the news as the NCAA tournament brackets were unveiled Sunday, the reaction was decidedly subdued.

The Big Ten champion Huskers were awarded the tournament’s No. 2 overall seed but found themselves placed in the Honolulu Regional, which features the top three teams in last week’s coaches poll as well as No. 10 California, No. 18 Pepperdine, and No. 13 Oregon.

Nebraska (24-4) will host first and second-round matches at the NU Coliseum on Thursday and Friday. The Huskers open the tournament with Jackson State (26-9).

On paper, the Honolulu Regional appears to be the most stacked of the four brackets by a wide margin, boasting the champions of the country’s top two volleyball conferences. No. 1 Southern California, the Pac-12 champ, or No. 3 Hawaii, the regional’s host team, loom as No. 2 NU’s potential opponent in a regional final for the right to advance to the Final Four in San Antonio.

“I really don’t know what to think,” Nebraska coach John Cook said. “You’ve got to be prepared to play whoever. Nothing really surprises me anymore in this NCAA committee bracket — how they map this stuff out.

“I think this is going to be a pre-Final Four in Hawaii. But you have to beat the best if you want to get to San Antonio, and that’s what we’ll have to do.”

Jackson State, NU’s first-round opponent, captured its first Southwestern Athletic Conference title this season and will carry a 25-match winning streak into Thursday’s contest.

If the Huskers get past Jackson State, they will face a familiar foe in the second round in either Kansas State or Wichita State. NU played the Wildcats regularly as a member of the Big 12 and beat the Shockers in five sets during a spring exhibition in Grand Island on April 9.

“It will certainly help our preparation,” Cook said. “We don’t have to wait until the tapes get here and all that stuff. We played K-State in the spring as well and played them twice last year, so we know them very well.”

The team gathered in the club level of Memorial Stadium on Sunday to watch the ESPN selection show. The Honolulu Regional was the final bracket to be announced, and several Huskers expressed disbelief when hit with the realization that they, along with a cluster of the country’s top teams, had yet to be named.

“Are you kidding me?” junior Paige Hubl wondered aloud when it became clear Nebraska, along with Cal, USC, and Hawaii, would be headed west.

But senior Brooke Delano said Nebraska would have to prove itself against the nation’s best in any regional, and a tough road to the Final Four provided no excuses.

“No matter what team you play is going to show up and give you their best matches,” Delano said. “We’ve got to be ready. I believe in this team, and we’ll be ready.”

A pair of Big 12 teams earned the top seeds in two other regionals. Texas was named the tournament’s overall top seed and placed in the Lexington (Ky.) Regional along with notable contenders UCLA and four-time defending national champion Penn State.

Iowa State, coached by Millard North graduate and former Husker assistant Christy Johnson-Lynch, was named the top seed in the Minneapolis Regional and the tournament’s No. 4 overall seed. The Cyclones face a possible Sweet 16 meeting with either host Minnesota or Washington, with Purdue waiting on the other side of the bracket.

The final top seed went to Illinois, the top-ranked team in the NCAA RPI. The Illini will headline the Gainesville (Fla.) Regional with No. 6 Stanford, SEC champion Tennessee and Missouri Valley champion Northern Iowa as contenders, along with host Florida.

The Big Ten led all conferences with eight teams receiving bids, followed by seven from the Pac-12 and Big 12. Michigan and Michigan State could face second-round matchups with Stanford and Texas, respectively. Ohio State joins the Illini and Wolverines in the Gainesville Regional.

As for the Huskers, there isn’t a lot of time to rediscover the mojo that led them to the top of the polls after October wins against Penn State and Illinois. Nebraska enters the tournament admittedly not playing its best volleyball, exhibited by a disappointing loss at Northwestern — the Big Ten’s 10th-place team — to close the regular season Saturday night.

And the NCAA selection committee didn’t exactly put the Huskers on the path of least resistance to the Final Four.

“We all talked as a team after the match for a long time and we got some stuff figured out,” Delano said. “Right away, we’re going to start working 20 times harder in practice and holding people more accountable and going all out for each other.”

Notes: Tickets for the first and second rounds in Lincoln will go on sale Monday morning at 8 on Huskers.com, in person at the NU ticket office or by phone at 800-8-BIGRED.

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