28 Teams, Including 6 from Big Ten, Still Undefeated After 2 Weekends

There are still 28 undefeated teams remaining in NCAA Division I volleyball after the first two weekends of non-conference play. That’s about the same as the 29 that escaped from the first 2 weeks unscathed last season and the 27 who did so the season before. Out of 313 Division I schools that sponsor women’s volleyball, less than 9% have survived to this point without a loss.

Week 3 is usually a huge separator, as history indicates that this group is usually slashed to 11-or-fewer next weekend as teams ramp up the level of competition they face with conference season drawing nearer.

Further showing how difficult this is to pull off, even when teams largely control their out-of-conference opponents, only 8 teams that escaped 2 weekends unscathed this year also did so last year:

• BYU
• Purdue
• Illinois
• Penn State
• Minnesota
• Wisconsin
• UCLA
• Yale

Only 4 of those have done so for 3-straight years:

• BYU
• Wisconsin
• UCLA
• Yale

And none have done so for 4-straight seasons.

Note: Yale usually starts their season a week later than most of the country, so while they’ve survived everyone else’s 2 weekends, they’ve only survived 1 weekend of their own play all 3 years.

BYU’s 3rd-straight season has been its most impressive of that streak. While they played in tournaments hosted #11 Ohio State and #21 Ohio State in 2016 and 2017, respectively, nowhere in that run did they face an opponent as lauded as then-#1 Stanford (Link Here) in the first 2 weeks, though this year’s schedule did follow a similar pattern of 1 top 25 team, mixed with a few schools with name recognition, but not necessarily elite teams. BYU will play USC, Syracuse, and Marquette next weekend at the Marquette Invitational. Syracuse is also undefeated (at 2-0), meaning that one of the two programs will exit the list after that match.

Wisconsin also climbed to a 3rd-straight undefeated opening the hard way, via knocking off #2 Texas at home in Madison.

The Big Ten is responsible for 6 of the undefeated teams remaining, while the ACC has 5. The Pac-12 and SEC have 3 each, while the WCC and Ivy League join them in the multiple category with 2 each.