Women's Watch: Northwestern volleyball team hoping for NCAA tournament berth
By the end of the season next month, the Northwestern volleyball team will likely be ranked No. 1 in the country.
And the Wildcats wouldn't even have to win the national championship to do it.
Northwestern could win college volleyball's strength of schedule rankings. The Wildcats are playing a brutal schedule this year, currently the fourth-toughest in America.
It will only get tougher as Northwestern finishes out the regular season against one brutally tough Big Ten team after another.
The Big Ten, which has slowly but surely become the most elite college volleyball conference in the country, is loaded like never before this season, and Northwestern, which also scheduled aggressively in the non-conference season, is right there in the thick of the most competitive teams.
Northwestern (12-9) is one of only two teams this season to upend two-time defending national champion Penn State (19-2).
"We're trying to beat the very best," Northwestern coach Keylor Chan said. "We played a lot of tough non-conference matches, but the Big Ten is a really big piece of it. It's the juggernaut of women's volleyball.
"Right now, 10 of the top 30 teams in the country are from the Big Ten, and I think there are easily five teams from the Big Ten that have a legitimate shot of winning the national title. Usually, I would say that about two or three Big Ten teams, which is really good. This year, it's legitimately more."
Chan believes that Penn State, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska and Ohio State are all championship-caliber teams while Purdue, Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern and Illinois have the capability of reaching that level at any time.
The Pac-12 used to be the gold standard of college women's volleyball, but it appears that the Big Ten has not only caught up, but has surpassed that conference in terms of depth of quality teams.
"Somewhere in the mid- to late-90s, most schools in the Big Ten decided to get really serious about women's volleyball, putting money into facilities and coaching," Chan said. "And it's pretty much that you've had to ante up or get mowed over. I know it's forced every school to invest more and every coach to get better."
Most of the better Big Ten volleyball teams draw huge crowds to their home matches, some more than 10,000. Nebraska, a long-time perennial power in volleyball, goes a step further than that.
"They sell box suites for their volleyball games," said Northwestern sophomore setter Taylor Tashima, a product of New Trier. "I don't think I've seen a better place for volleyball. The arena at Nebraska is unheard of. I've never heard of another team that has a facility where box suites are sold out for the entire season. They're really into volleyball there, just an appreciation for volleyball. I also like Penn State a lot for their big crowds, and Purdue's fans are right on top of you."
Playing against elite teams game in and game out was a big factor in Tashima's decision to sign with Northwestern, which is seeking its first NCAA tournament appearance since 2010.
"It's a hard conference, because I truly believe that every single team in the Big Ten should be in the (NCAA) tournament," Tashima said. "There are so many teams in the Big Ten that have so much power.
"Every match is tough, but I wouldn't want it any other way. It's fun to win, but it's more fun to work hard against a good team and win. That's why I didn't want to go to any other conference than the Big Ten."
pbabcock@dailyherald.com
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