2023 NCAA Tournament Bracket | Schedule | Standings | Pac-12 Statistics | NCAA Statistics | Pac-12 Record Book

The Pac-12 women's volleyball regular season is in the books and five league squads will see their seasons continue this week with the start of the 2023 NCAA Tournament. 

Back-to-back Pac-12 Champion Stanford finished its conference slate at 19-1 and earned a top-four national seed for a second straight year, checking in as the No. 2 overall seed in the postseason tournament. League runner-up Oregon earned the No. 2 seed in the Wisconsin portion of the bracket, while Washington State is the No. 4 seed and USC is the No. 8 seed in the Pittsburgh Region. Arizona State, making its first appearance after a seven-year absence, is the No. 5 seed in Stanford's region. 

The Cardinal, Ducks and Cougars will all host first-and-second round matches at their home sites with the Trojans traveling to Pittsburgh for their opening-round match and the Sun Devils heading north to Provo, Utah to begin their tournament run. 

The postseason kicks off with first-round matches on Thursday, Nov. 30 and will feature first and second-round matches on Friday, Dec. 1 followed by the remainder of the second-round matches on Saturday, Dec. 2. All matches will be available to watch on ESPN+.   

POSTSEASON BOUND

• No. 2 Stanford (26-3, 19-1) is gearing up for its 42nd all-time tournament appearance and sixth under head coach Kevin Hambly, but is looking for its first trip to the Final Four since winning two straight NCAA titles in 2018 and 2019. The Cardinal boast the Pac-12 Player of the Year (Kendall Kipp), Setter of the Year (Kami Miner) and Libero of the Year (Elena Oglivie), while all seven starters earned All-Pac-12 honors. This experienced group came up short a year ago in the Elite Eight and has its sights set on a 19th appearance in the national title match. The Cardinal will host Mountain West Tournament Champion Fresno State (19-13) on Friday at 7 p.m. PT at Maples Pavilion. No. 8 seed Houston (18-9) and UC Santa Barbara (27-4) will face off in the other first round match earlier Friday. 
• No. 6 Oregon (26-5, 16-4), hosting on opening weekend for a second consecutive year, earned one of four No. 2 seeds after finishing second in the Pac-12 for the third time in the last four seasons. The Ducks, who reached the Elite Eight a year ago, will compete in the tournament for the 20th time in program history and for the 13th time in the last 14 years. Oregon will be the lone Pac-12 team to open the tournament on Thursday as the Ducks take on Southeastern Louisiana (28-4) at 7 p.m. at Matthew Knight Arena. With a win, the Ducks will face the winner of No. 7 seed Iowa State (20-9) or Hawaii (23-8), who they swept in Honolulu on the first weekend of the season.
• No. 10 Washington State (24-7, 14-6) will be making a program-record eighth straight NCAA postseason appearance and will host a NCAA match at Bohler Gym for the first time since 2018. The Cougars finished tied for third in the Pac-12 standings and won 14 league matches for a second straight year, matching their best total under head coach Jen Greeny. WSU begins its 18th postseason appearance against Grand Canyon (23-7) on Friday at 7 p.m. PT with West Coast Conference Champion Pepperdine (19-8) and No. 5 seed Dayton (31-2) going head-to-head in the first match of the day in Pullman. 
• No. 18 Arizona State (26-6, 14-6) returns to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2015 after a historic regular season under first-year head coach J.J. Van Niel, who earned Pac-12 Coach of the Year honors this week. The Sun Devils' 26 wins were third-most in program history while their 14 conference wins and 19 sweeps were both program records. ASU finished tied for third in the Pac-12 standings, its highest finish since 1993, and earned a No. 5 seed in its 20th NCAA Tournament appearance all-time. The Sun Devils will meet Georgia (19-11) in their first-round match on Friday at 3:30 p.m. PT in Provo and if they can advance will face either BYU (24-6) or Weber State (21-9) in Saturday's second round. If ASU can find a way into the Sweet 16, the Sun Devils would be on a crash course with Stanford and would take some confidence into that match as the only Pac-12 team to beat the Cardinal in 2023. 
• No. 25 USC (18-12, 12-8) turned in a strong showing during league competition and played its way into the NCAA Tournament for a second straight year and the 39th time in program history. The Trojans finished fifth in the standings and boasted wins over AVCA Top-25 foes Washington State and Arizona State, earning the No. 8 seed in the Pittsburgh Region. USC will open the tournament against UMBC (17-7) on Friday at 1 p.m. PT with the winner facing either Coppin St. (27-4) or the the No. 4 overall national seed Pittsburgh in the second round on Saturday. 

UPCOMING SCHEDULE - NCAA TOURNAMENT FIRST AND SECOND ROUNDS (Full Schedule)

FINAL WEEK REWIND

• Stanford, Oregon and Washington State all finished strong with 2-0 records on the final week of Pac-12 play. Stanford swept Utah and California, Oregon took down No. 24 USC 3-1 and swept rival Oregon State, while WSU edged No. 18 Arizona State in a five-set thriller before completing its first season sweep over rival Washington since 2018. UCLA also finished its season strong with a pair of five-set wins over Oregon State and No. 24 USC. Bruin senior Iman Ndiaye earned her first career Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week honor after tallying 44 kills across the two matches and Oregon senior Kara McGhee was tabbed Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week with 13 total blocks in the two wins.
• Four squads went 1-1 with the Sun Devils bouncing back from their loss at WSU to sweep Arizona, Washington also winning against Arizona 3-1 before dropping the season finale to the Cougars, Utah falling to Stanford followed by a five-set win over Colorado and the Buffs beating California 3-1 in Berkeley before its season-ending loss to rival Utah. Buff freshman Lily Dwinell earned her first Pac-12 Freshman of the Week award with 22 kills on .364 hitting in the two contests.
• Arizona, California, Oregon State and USC all went 0-2 on the final weekend, but the Trojans were missing All-American Skylar Fields for two of their final three matches. California, meanwhile, ended the year with its first winning season since 2019 at 16-15 and Oregon State recorded its most conference wins (6) since winning 11 in 2017.

2023 ALL-PAC-12 AWARDS 

• The 2023 All-Pac-12 postseason honors were announced this week at the conclusion of the regular season and three of the five individual award winners were repeat honorees - Stanford's Kendall Kipp was again selected as the Pac-12 Player of the Year, while Cardinal setter Kami Miner was named the Pac-12 Setter of the Year for a second straight year and Stanford libero Elena Oglivie picked up her second consecutive Pac-12 Libero of the Year honor.
• California's Maggie Li became just the third Bear all-time to be named the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year and the first since 1990 after a stellar collegiate debut season that saw her win six Pac-12 Freshman of the Week awards, tied for second-most in conference history.
• In just his first season as a head coach, Arizona State's J.J. Van Niel was named the Pac-12 Coach of the Year, the first honor by a Sun Devil head coach since 1992. Van Niel, who is only the third league coach all-time to win the award in his debut season, led the Sun Devils to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2015.
• 12 of the 18 All-Pac-12 honorees were repeat selections from a year ago with Washington State's Magda Jehlarova becoming the first in conference history to earn the award five times during a career. Her teammate - Pia Timmer - along with Oregon's Hannah Pukis and Stanford's Caitie Baird are now three of just 28 women's volleyball student-athletes in Pac-12 history who are four-time honorees. 

FINAL RPI - REGULAR SEASON 

• In the ninth and final RPI update of the 2023 regular season on Nov. 26, three Pac-12 teams rank in the top 15 and four are in the top 25.
• Stanford stayed at No. 2, while Oregon checks in at No. 8, Washington State at no. 13 and Arizona State at No. 23. 
• USC, which made a 21-spot rise five weeks ago is at No. 33. 
• To end their seasons, UCLA was at No. 55, Washington finished at No. 70, California at No. 78, Utah at No. 116, Oregon at No. 151 and Arizona at No. 158.

AVCA TOP 25 

• The Pac-12 ended the regular season with four straight weeks of five squads appearing in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Coaches Top 25 poll with Stanford at No. 2, Oregon at No. 6, Washington State at No. 10, Arizona State at No. 18 and USC at No. 25. All five will represent the conference in the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
• The five total in the top 25 is tied for the most with the Big 12. Earlier this season, the Pac-12 saw a two-week run of three in the top five, but that came to an end on Oct. 16, but was the only conference this season to have 3 in the top five at any point.
• Stanford is one of three teams, joining No. 1 and unbeaten Nebraska and No. 5 Wisconsin, who has spent the entirety of the season - from pre-season through week 14 - in the top five. Oregon has joined Stanford in the top 10 all season long as well. Washington State spent weeks three through 12 in the top 10, while Arizona State has been in the top 25 for 10 weeks after entering the poll for the first time since 2018. The Trojans are in the poll for their fourth week after being ranked in the initial preseason poll. 
• WSU's three-week stint in the top five earlier this season was its longest in program history, while the No. 4 ranking was also its highest, besting the previous high of No. 5 back in October of 1995. The week-three jump from No. 11 to No. 7 was the Cougars' first time in the top 10 since 2016.   

GAMECHANGER/AVCA DIVISION I NATIONAL PLAYER OF THE WEEK

• After not seeing any national weekly honors through the first two months of the season, the Pac-12 earned the Gamechanger/AVCA Division I National Player of the Week honor in back-to-back weeks with Arizona State senior and three-time Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week this season Marta Levinska earning the conference's first American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Division I National Player of the Week award of the season on Oct. 31 followed by USC All-American senior Skylar Fields, also a three-time Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week in 2023, earning her third career national weekly honor on Nov. 7.
• The two honorees this season match the total from last fall, while Fields picks up the award in two consecutive years.
• Levinska was the fifth Sun Devil in program history to earn the honor and Fields collected the 13th national weekly honor in Trojan history.

AMONG THE NCAA LEADERS (Team)

• At the conclusion of the regular season, four Pac-12 teams rank in the top 20 in hitting percentage. Stanford leads the country (.312), followed by Arizona State in 9th (.289), Washington State in 10th (.286) and Oregon in 16th (.281).
• Two teams are in the top 20 in kills per set, with Stanford 5th in the NCAA (14.41) and Oregon at 16th (13.96). 
• Oregon is the league's top-ranked blocks per set squad in 9th (2.76), with Stanford the next best at 12th (2.71). 
• Arizona State is third in the country with 2.05 aces per set, followed by Stanford in 12th at 1.96 per set. 
• Stanford ranks third in the NCAA in assists per set (13.57) followed by Oregon in 16th (13.01). 
• Defensively, Oregon ranks 10th in opponent hitting percentage at .156.

AMONG THE NCAA LEADERS (Individual)

• Two rank in the top-10 in assists per set - Stanford's Kami Miner is 3rd (11.71) and Oregon's Hannah Pukis is ninth (10.95).
• USC's Skylar Fields is 6th in the country in attacks per set (12.58).
• Washington State's Magda Jehlarova is 14th (1.37) in blocks per set with Stanford's McKenna Vicini in 16th (1.36) and Oregon's Karson Bacon in 18th (1.35).  
• Oregon's Kara McGhee in 8th in hitting percentage (.422), followed by WSU's Jehlarova in 11th (.416). 
• USC's Fields owns the Pac-12's top kills per set average at 5.19, which ranks 2nd in the country and Arizona State's Marta Levinska is 8th (4.68).
• USC's Fields also has the conference's top points per set mark at 5.60, which is third in the nation, while ASU's Levinska is 8th at 5.36 and Stanford's Kendall Kipp ranks 17th at 5.08. 

BY THE NUMBERS

• Stanford (26-3) is one of just 6 teams in the country to have three or fewer losses at the end of the regular season. Stanford, Oregon and Arizona State's 26 wins are tied for 16th-most among all teams. Top-ranked Nebraska was 27-0 before dropping its first match of the year to Wisconsin last week so no unbeatens remain going into the postseason.
• Stanford, who played six ranked teams out of nine non-conference games, owned the seventh-toughest schedule in the country. Washington State was the next highest with the 15th-toughest schedule, while Oregon had the 21st-toughest.
• Washington State fifth year senior Magda Jehlarova officially became the NCAA all-time blocks leader in the rally scoring era (since 2001) last week and has 753 total and is the just eighth player int he NCAA to reach the 700 mark since 2001. In September, Jehlarova officially became Washington State's all-time blocks leader, breaking the old mark of 615 set by former Cougar Carrie Couturier from 1988-91. Jehlarova currently sits in second place in Pac-12 history (includes pre rally scoring era) and needs just 4 more to break the conference's all-time career record for blocks, currently held by UCLA's Marissa Hatchett, who played for the Bruins from 1989-92. 
• On Oct. 2, Jehlarova earned her second Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week award of the season and the 10th of her career, giving her 11 combined defensive and offensive weekly awards to set a new conference record for most career weekly honors, surpassing former Washington standout Krista Vansant (2011-14). 
• USC's Skyar Fields is the current NCAA active career leader for kills with 2,110 after surpassing the 2,000 career kills mark against Arizona State on Nov. 5.
• Oregon's Hannah Pukis sits atop the active career list for total assists with 5,232 while Stanford's Kami Miner is currently fifth in the NCAA with an 11.52 career assists per set mark.
• Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, Cal's Maggie Li, who earned her sixth Pac-12 Freshman of the Week honor on Nov. 20, became the first freshman in Pac-12 history to start the season with three consecutive Pac-12 freshman weekly nods. She is also the first ever Bear to earn a weekly award in three consecutive weeks. She finished her first season as the Pac-12's top freshman in kills, kills per set, points and points per set, ranking among the conference's top-five overall players in all of those categories.

NON-CONFERENCE WRAP

• Pac-12 programs closed non-conference play at 96-31 (.756), the best mark among all leagues in 2023 (ACC .741, SEC .731; Big 12 .707; Big 10 .671), and a marked improvement over the last two seasons - 84-37 (.694) in 2022 and 78-36 (.684) in 2021.
• The Pac-12 went 11-8 overall against opponents ranked in the Top-25 of the AVCA Poll, with its top-three ranked teams - Stanford, Oregon and Washington State, going 10-4 against ranked foes. The four losses all came against top-10 opponents, while eight of the 10 wins came on the road or at neutral sites.
• USC added a ranked win on the road, taking down No. 17 Purdue on the final weekend of non-conference play.

HISTORICALLY SPEAKING

• Pac-12 institutions have won 17 of the 42 all-time NCAA championships in women’s volleyball, four more than the next closest conference (Big Ten), and four of the past 12.
• The Conference has had at least five teams earn NCAA Tournament bids in 24 consecutive seasons and eight postseason berths in five of the past 10 tournaments.
• Four different Pac-12 teams have won at least one NCAA title (UCLA, USC, Stanford, Washington), double any other conference. The Big Ten (Nebraska, Penn State) and Big West (Hawaii, Long Beach State) are the only other leagues with multiple NCAA champions.
• Seven different Pac-12 programs have made NCAA semifinal appearances since 2001 and 14 of the past 22 NCAA championship matches have included at least one Pac-12 program.
• At least one Pac-12 team has played in 27 of the 42 NCAA title matches all-time, the most of any league. At least one Big Ten team has been in 22 NCAA finals all-time and a Big West team has played in the title match nine times.
• Five NCAA title matches have been between two Pac-12 teams (2002, 1994, 1992, 1984, 1981). The only other conference to have an all-conference NCAA title match is the Big Ten, which has done so three times (2021, 2013, 2000).
• A Pac-12 team has been one of the final four teams in all but six years of the NCAA tournament.
• Since 2010, the Pac-12 has the second-most NCAA Tournament berths of any league with 94.
• The Pac-12 has had 10 or more first, second and third-team All-America selections in 13 of the last 18 seasons. Thirteen former Pac-12 players have earned first, second or third-team All-America honors four times, while 30 players have earned All-America honors three times, with Magda Jehlarova (Washington State) garnering her third nod last season.
• Since 1990, Pac-12 players garnered AVCA Player of the Year honors 15 times, including the seven of the last 12  - California’s Carli Lloyd (2010), USC’s Alex Jupiter (2011), Oregon’s Alaina Bergsma (2012), Washington’s Krista Vansant (2013), USC’s Samantha Bricio (2015) and Stanford’s Kathryn Plummer (2017 and 2018). Overall, the Pac-12 has produced 16 student-athletes that have won AVCA Player of the Year, the most of any league. Thirteen Big Ten student-athletes have earned the honor, along with 10 from the Big West and one each from the Big 12 and WCC.
• The Honda Sports Award for volleyball has been bestowed upon a Pac-12 athlete 21 times in its 47 years of existence, including eight of the past 12. The Big Ten has had 11 student-athletes earn the honor, the Big West seven, the SEC two and the Big 12, WCC, A-10 and MWC each one.

FINAL CONFERENCE STANDINGS (Expanded Standings) 

2023 PAC-12 WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL WEEKLY AWARDS