Keegan Cook’s Gophers volleyball team will watch the NCAA tournament selection show anxiously Sunday, but for a different reason this year.
Will Maturi Pavilion get to host the Gophers and the first two rounds of the NCAAs for the first time since 2022?
There’s no doubt the No. 15 Gophers (20-10, 13-7 Big Ten) will find out at 5 p.m. Sunday (ESPN) that they’re in the field of 64. They’ve won three straight, including Friday’s four-set win over Ohio State at home, which was fueled by standout junior Julia Hanson’s 23 kills.
The Gophers will receive their 10th consecutive NCAA tourney berth and 24th in the past 25 years, but they are a bubble team as a host.
The NCAA tournament’s top 16 seeds open with home matches in the first and second rounds Thursday through Saturday. Cook’s team was ranked as high as 14th in the American Volleyball Coaches Association poll in early November before suffering three consecutive losses, including against Oregon and Washington at home.
The latest metrics say the Gophers were No. 28 in the RPI rankings as of Nov. 24 and No. 16 in the NCAA tournament selection committee’s in-season ranking on Oct. 20.
The Gophers’ three-match win streak to finish the Big Ten season included home victories over Ohio State and Iowa and a road win at Illinois, which is hoping to get an NCAA bid.