NCAA Regionals -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

NCAA Regionals Teams

Paulie is out this morning as his eyes are recovering from an eye doctor appointment yesterday. It was so bad I flipped him the bird and he thought it was Louie flying around. Okay, so that last part may or may not be true.

With the NCAA Volleyball Regionals just one day away we take a look at the four teams in the Louisville, KY region and how they got here.

1-seed Louisville

Photo courtesy of Louisville Athletics

This is the easy one. We all know how great of a season it was for Louisville and we gave plenty of coverage throughout the season. A 28-0 regular season record was truly remarkable. It featured seven wins over ranked opponents and another ACC title. The Cards continue their best season in program history, now 30-0, as they have reached the Sweet Sixteen for the seventh time in program history, including three straight years.

The Cards hosted UIC in the first round of the tournament and easily won 3-0 (25-11, 25-20, 25-11). They then took on Ball State in the second round. Ball State was a little bid formidable of an opponent, but Louisville still walked away with a 3-0 sweep (29-27, 25-11, 25-19).

8-seed Georgia Tech

Photo courtesy of Georgia Tech Athletics

The second ACC team in this region is Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets were one of the favorites in the ACC behind Louisville and Pitt. A 25-5 overall record and 14-4 conference record was plenty reason to keep them in the Top 25 all year. They were surprised by falling to fourth in the ACC when Miami tied Pitt for second. A ranked UCLA team got the best of Georgia Tech early in the year with their other four losses coming in conference play to Louisville (twice), Pittsburgh, and Notre Dame.

Georgia Tech was one of the 32 at-large bids. They met with the Citadel (a military school in Charleston, S.C.) in the opening round and got the 3-0 win (25-21, 25-15, 25-16). They then met up with a tough team from Conference USA in Western Kentucky. Once again, they got the 3-0 sweep (25-21, 25-18, 25-23).

9-seed Ohio State

Photo courtesy of Ohio State Athletics

The Big Ten has six teams still dancing in the NCAA Tournament and Ohio State is one of them. The Buckeyes went 25-5 in the regular season and their 15-5 conference mark was good enough to place them in a three-way tie for third place in the Big Ten. They don't have a bad loss as all of their losses came against ranked opponents (Purdue, Penn State, Wisconsin, and Minnesota twice). They have ranked wins over Washington, Purdue, Nebraska, Illinois, and Penn State.

Ohio State opened the tournament against Howard and disposed of them quickly 3-0 (25-12, 25-7, 25-10). The second round was a bit more challenging as Ohio State squared off against Tennessee. They would go onto in 3-1 (25-18, 14-25, 25-21, 25-21).

16-seed Florida

Photo courtesy of Florida Athletics

The final SEC team standing after just two rounds- the SEC had five teams in the tournament- is Florida. The Gators finished the regular season 20-8 and third in the SEC with a 14-4 conference mark. Most of their losses weren't bad losses as they have fallen to Stanford, Florida State, Baylor (twice), Mississippi State, LSU, and Kentucky (twice). Their two ranked wins are against Minnesota and Tennessee.

The Gators opened the tournament against Florida A&M and easily won 3-0 (25-11, 25-14, 25-8). They squared off against a tough Miami team and handled them with ease 3-0 (25-15, 25-20, 25-16).

As of 10:30 last night, there were 67 tickets in the lower bowl remaining. The upper bowl already had several hundreds of seats taken, but there's still plenty of seats available for the upper bowl at Freedom Hall.

Tickets are reasonable at $40.00 per ticket and free for students. With a few thousand seats already filled, Louisville Volleyball is hoping for a record crowd tomorrow at 1:00. Have you gotten off work yet? Jeff will be in the stands and I hear he may paint up like Gary Redbird does. I'll be somewhere in the arena taking pictures.

Happy Wednesday and Go Cards!

Jared