Day 3 of the NCAA Tournament did not disappoint. With 14 tickets to be punched for the Sweet 16, the day brought five upsets and three matches that went down to the wire.
Six matches were over in sweeps, although two of those saw the host team fall. Colorado knocked off No. 12 seed Baylor, while Wisconsin took out No. 14 Iowa State. Alexa Smith notched 14 kills for the Buffs, while Frankie Shebby added an 11-kill, 14-dig double-double and Naghede Abu put up eight stuffs. For the Badgers, it was freshman Dana Rettke who did the damage with 15 kills, while hitting at a .520 clip.
No. 3 Stanford, No. 5 Nebraska, No. 6 Texas and No. 13 BYU finished in short nights to move on.
No. 1 Penn State, No. 7 Minnesota and No. 15 UCLA outlasted their foes in four sets at home. No. 9 Creighton and No. 16 Wichita State weren’t so lucky, falling at the hands of Michigan State and Missouri respectively.
No. 4 Kentucky escaped after falling behind 0-2, closing out a five-set win and earning the right to host the regional round with three straight victories (25-19, 25-21, 15-12). The win denied instate foe Western Kentucky its first Sweet 16 berth. Alyssa Cavanaugh downed a match-high 23 kills for WKU, but Leah Edmond countered with 22 for UK and Kaz Brown added nine stuffs.
Also surviving and advancing was No. 10 USC, which edged past San Diego in five after falling behind 2-1 as the Toreros took sets 2 and 3 26-24, 26-24. The Trojans came through with wins of 25-22 and 15-11 to move on. Khalia Lanier was key in the victory with a match-high 23 kills, while Jordan Dunn notched 10 blocks.
The final match of the night also was a barnburner. Illinois took the first set 25-22. No. 8 seed Washington won the next two 25-17, 25-20. The Illini responded rallied from down 13-10 to take Set 4 25-17 then jumped ahead 8-3 in Set 5 en route to the win. Jacqueline Quade led the way for Illinois with 17 kills, while the team registered 13 blocks, including eight by Ali Bastianelli.
The Big Ten cemented its spot as the top conference of the year, putting six teams through to the NCAA second weekend. They will be joined by five Pac-12 squads, three from the SEC, one from the Big 12 and one from the West Coast Conference.
The full bracket is here.
NCAA Second Round, Dec. 2, 2017
| Winner | Loser | Result |
| #1 Penn State | Pittsburgh | 3-1 (25-20, 23-25, 25-22, 25-19) |
| #3 Stanford | Colorado State | 3-0 (25-14, 25-15, 25-9) |
| #4 Kentucky | Western Kentucky | 3-2 (16-25, 22-25, 25-19, 25-21, 15-12) |
| #5 Nebraska | Washington State | 3-0 (25-13, 25-13, 25-18) |
| #6 Texas | NC State | 3-0 (25-18, 25-15, 25-21) |
| #7 Minnesota | Northern Iowa | 3-1 (25-18, 20-25, 25-19, 25-17) |
| Illinois | #8 Washington | 3-2 (25-22, 17-25, 20-25, 25-17, 15-9) |
| Michigan State | #9 Creighton | 3-1 (25-23, 19-25, 25-20, 25-16) |
| #10 USC | San Diego | 3-2 (25-22, 24-26, 24-26, 25-22, 15-11) |
| Colorado | #12 Baylor | 3-0 (25-12, 25-22, 25-20) |
| #13 BYU | Oregon | 3-0 (25-20, 25-21, 25-19) |
| Wisconsin | #14 Iowa State | 3-0 (25-22, 25-20, 25-23) |
| #15 UCLA | Cal Poly | 3-1 (26-28, 25-19, 25-16, 25-18) |
| Missouri | #16 Wichita State | 3-1 (25-23, 25-22, 21-25, 26-24) |
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