NCAA volleyball takes over Kansas City this weekend. Who is in it?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kansas City hosts Final Four featuring Pittsburgh, Texas A&M, Kentucky and Wisconsin.
- TV viewership surged; regional finals set record averages, per ESPN data.
- Four teams bring 13 All-Americans; narratives center on Babcock, Lednicky, Booth, Colyer.
Volleyball fans from around the country are descending to Kansas City this week for the pinnacle of the college sport: the NCAA Division I women’s Final Four.
The highly competitive tournament has reached its final stage with No. 1-seed favorite Pittsburgh facing 3-seed upstart Texas A&M in the first semifinal on Thursday at 5:30 p.m at T-Mobile Center. No. 1-seed Kentucky will face 3-seed Wisconsin at around 8 p.m. on Thursday.
The national championship game is Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Central.
The Final Four is back in Kansas City for the first time since 2017, just its second appearance as a host site. The Final Four also coincides with the American Volleyball Coaches Association Convention which is being conducted at the KC Convention Center, a yearly tradition to bring the volleyball community together simultaneously.
More than 100 coaches and fans sat in arena seats watching open practices of the teams, each with their own stars. Kansas City is highly regarded as a hotbed for volleyball as well, with coaches and players routinely visiting the city for club tournaments, like the annual Triple Crown National Invitational Tournament.
“There are just not too many cities that are better to go in if you’re part of this convention,” Wisconsin head coach Kelly Sheffield said. “Go have some barbecue and a beer. ... Love coming to this place. And I never sleep well at night after eating here. This is a great city. They really, really support and get behind our sport.”
“It’s massive. It’s one of the epicenters of volleyball in the country, and we’ve spent a lot of time recruiting here,” Kentucky head coach Craig Skinner said. “We were reminiscing with these guys on the way over in the bus about the tournaments they played in the Triple Crown, the convention center.”
Skinner noted Bishop Miege alumna Shelby Workman and Blue Valley West alumna Madison Lilley as proof of his claims. Lilley was a four-time All-American for the Wildcats, leading them to their first national title in the spring 2021 season, and was an assistant on Skinner’s staff.
“You’ve got to give a lot of credit to the club coaches and high school coaches in the area, because they have done a heck of a job of selling the sport and making it a big deal in this area,” Skinner said.
Kansas City has the perfect timing of hosting the tournament, which is one of the most watched in its history.
Texas A&M’s regional final, where it beat traditional powerhouse Nebraska in five sets, peaked at 1.6 million viewers and averaged 1.2 million, the most in tournament history, according to ESPN. The four regional finals drew an average of 753,000 viewers, the most on record.
Nebraska’s regional semifinal against Kansas was the most watched regional semi in history with 718,000 people locked into the game, according to ESPN.
“The viewership numbers, consistently year after year, have just increased 10-fold. There’s never been a dip in the year,” ESPN host and sideline reporter Madison Fitzpatrick said. “The viewership and the buy-in has just skyrocketed above that, and it continues to rise. It’s amazing. ... We have more matches on TV, which help, and then we’re covering the stars, and people love the stars.”
The semifinals will have 13 All-Americans across the four teams.
“I think last week set the tone for how exciting this is going to be,” ESPN play-by-play commentator Courtney Lyle said. Lyle was the commentator in Texas A&M’s regional final. “Seeing Texas A&M do that, I think it got people even more excited to come to Kansas City, because I feel like it’s wide open.”
The commentators added that matches being played on national television — on ABC — also adds to the immense growth.
“There’s no clear favorite, and that’s the first time I’ve said that in five years,” ESPN commentator and beach volleyball Olympian Holly McPeak said. “But I think it’s great, I think for incredible teams that are peaking at the right moment. I just can’t even wait to see what happens Thursday.”
Players to know at NCAA volleyball Final Four
Texas A&M
The Aggies are currently having the best season in program history with their first ever tournament semifinal appearance with four All-Americans in tow. They are led by the attacking duo of Logan Lednicky and Kyndal Stowers, two of the most compelling players in the tournament who were both named second team All-Americans.
Lednicky is a fourth generation Aggie, leading the team in kills as a multiple-time first-team all-Southeastern Conference selection. Lednicky and Pittsburgh’s Olivia Babcock were two of the youngest players on Team USA this past summer.
Stowers may have the most inspirational story in the tournament as she has resurged in College Station from injury. A top-20 recruit coming into her freshman year at Baylor in 2023, Stowers had her season cut short after multiple concussions forced her into medical retirement.
Stowers cut that retirement short after taking a year off from school and volleyball, joining Texas A&M for this season where she has been the catalyst for a historic season. She’s coming off a career-high 25 kills against Nebraska.
Also, 6-foot-2 middle blocker Ifenna Cos-Okpalla, a first-team All-American, leads the nation with 190 total blocks (21 solo) and leads her team with 1.70 blocks per set. She had a season-high 13 blocks against Tennessee on Nov. 2.
Pittsburgh
The Panthers are led by the most notable player in the tournament in 6-4 right side hitter Olivia Babcock.
The back-to-back ACC Player of the Year has been the talk of the volleyball world coming into the Final Four and is anticipated to be named AVCA National Player of the Year for a second straight season this weekend. Babcock has set career highs in kills per set (5.11) and digs per set (2.11) this season and set a program record with 45 kills against North Carolina on Nov. 2.
Pittsburgh has also been the team that has gotten close to a national championship but never won. This is the program’s fifth straight Final Four appearance under 13-year head coach Dan Fisher; they’ll be aiming for the school’s first national title appearance once again.
Kentucky
Veteran head coach Craig Skinner has led the Wildcats to their first Final Four appearance since winning the program’s first national championship in the spring 2021 season.
Their first-team All-America attacking duo of Eva Hudson and Brooklyn DeLeye along with All-Americans in freshman setter Kassie O’Brien and junior libero Molly Tuozzo have catapulted them back to where they once were.
O’Brien was named AVCA National Freshman of the Year.
Hudson, a senior who transferred from Purdue, is the SEC Player of the Year, averaging a .317 kill percentage with 4.54 kills per set and 504 total kills on the year.
DeLeye, a Topeka native and Washburn Rural alumna, is KC’s closest connection to a player in the Final Four. The 2024 SEC Player of the Year has tallied over 564.5 points this season, averaging 4.69 kills per set (11th in the country) and leading the Wildcats with 521 kills.
“It’s just surreal,” DeLeye said on Wednesday. “It’s just like some place that I go to very often, even growing up. So it’s just really cool to be back and super excited for this opportunity.”
Wisconsin
While every team has its own storylines, Wisconsin may be coming into the semifinals with one of the most culturally significant moments of the tournament.
After the Badgers upset 1-seed Texas in four sets in Austin, senior 6-7 middle blocker Carter Booth made a declaration that resonated with sports fans everywhere.
“I refuse to (freaking) lose,” Booth said on ESPN’s broadcast right after the game.
The rallying cry has been printed and sold on T-shirts for Wisconsin fans with Booth donating $6,000 from the sales to nonprofit Good Sports, which supplies underprivileged kids with sports equipment, Sheffield said.
Booth, a third-team All-American and the daughter of Denver Nuggets general manager Calvin Booth, leads the team in blocks (123) and blocks per set (1.17).
The Badgers are also back in the Final Four for the fifth time in seven years, winning the tournament in 2021 and losing in the national championship to Stanford in 2019 under veteran coach Sheffield.
Next to Booth is 6-3 outside hitter Mimi Colyer, who had 20 or more kills in nine matches this season. The first-team All-American averaged 5.39 kills per set and 5.97 points per set.
