Before ESPN volleyball analyst Holly McPeak conquered the pro beach circuit, she was an Olympic bronze medalist and a collegiate star at Cal and UCLA. She was the setter for the Bruins, keying their 1990 NCAA championship team. McPeak, who is sharing her expert thoughts on the NCAA tournament with espnW's Pat Borzi, looks at the tournament's progress and ahead to the national semifinals.
espnW: What does it say about parity nationwide that we've got a No. 9 seed, UCLA, and a No. 12 seed, Florida State, in the national semifinals?
McPeak: It's a combination of things. Seeding the NCAA tournament accordingly to RPI solely is not going to work, because as you see, none of the top seeds came out of that end of the semifinals. Possibly an RPI, plus the coaches' poll, or some other kind of criteria, is going to have to happen. UCLA, USC and Illinois all held the No. 1 spot at one point this season in the coaches' poll. All three of those teams had spots where they looked like the best team, according to the coaches. The team that surprised us all was Florida State.