Tennessee lowest ranked team to make final four???

[kolohekeiki]

I don't know if this was already brought up previously, but is Tennessee the lowest ranked team ever to make the final four?

[IdahoBoy]

I'm sure they are.

My guess is that it will show in the first match, as well.

[DiggUH]

That's an interesting question. I personally can't thnk of a lower ranked team ever having made it, but then, these days I just have a hard time thinking at all

[GatorVball]

So far, yep. SCU could be the first unseeded team to make it. Minnesota in 2003, the 13th seed, was the previous low. Stanford, seeded 11th, is the lowest to win it all, which they did last year.

[beachman]

So how much of an impact on these upsets is rallye scoring?

[GatorVball]

I think rally scoring plays a big part in the parity we're seeing. I remember listening to Mary's show 2 weeks ago and she was saying that if they had had rally scoring back in 1992, Florida would've won the first 2 games off UCLA instead of being swept at the Final 4. That was a match that just wouldn't end, they went something like 30 minutes in one game without scoring a point, just sideout for sideout.

But what ultimately has played the biggest part, is the wealth of talent that is spread across this country. We're seeing it in other sports, like women's soccer and softball, where UNC and the west coast teams, are no longer dominating like they once did. In volleyball, the west coast teams are still good, but the rest of the country is catching up and more and more great players are choosing to stay close to home or go to areas of the country they never would've dreamed of going, 5-10 years ago.

[silversurfer]

The only team I can think of that might have been a lower seed was UT-Arlington. Surely they were pretty darn low.

[kolohekeiki]

silversurfer said:

The only team I can think of that might have been a lower seed was UT-Arlington. Surely they were pretty darn low.

when did they make the final four?

[DiggUH]

kolohekeiki said:

silversurfer said:

The only team I can think of that might have been a lower seed was UT-Arlington. Surely they were pretty darn low.

when did they make the final four?

Wasn't that in 1989 when the FF was held in Hawaii at the Blaisdell Center? I think that was the first year that LBSU began it's string of knocking Hawaii out of the regionals and made the Beach the team that Hawaii fans loved to hate. I can't recall if Texas Arlington was even ranked or not.