The 2012 NCAA Division I women's volleyball tournament started on November 29, 2012, and ended on December 15 at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky with Texas winning the national championship. The NCAA selection show was televised on Sunday, November 25, 2012.

With its appearance in the Final Four, Michigan became the second unseeded team to make it that far since seeding began in 1997 (and in 2000 in its current method).

Texas won their second NCAA volleyball championship in school history, defeating first-time finalist Oregon (winner over Penn State in its semi-final) in a three-set final match sweep.

Qualifying teams The champions of the NCAA's 31 conferences qualify automatically. Twenty-two conferences hold tournaments, while the other nine award their automatic bid on the basis of being the league's regular-season champion. Those that do not hold tournaments are the Atlantic Coast, Big 12, Big West, Big Ten, Ivy League, Mountain West, Pac-12, Southeastern and West Coast Conferences. The other 33 bids are apportioned on an at-large basis. Only the top 16 teams overall are seeded.

Records Purdue RegionalSeedSchoolConference Berth TypeRPIRecord Binghamton America East Automatic25013-17 Bowling Green Mid-American Automatic5321-10 Colorado State Mountain West Automatic3421-7 Creighton Missouri Valley Automatic2628-3 East Tennessee State Atlantic Sun Automatic13423-129 Florida State Atlantic Coast Automatic827-3 Hofstra Colonial Automatic15221-1316 Kentucky Southeastern At-Large1920-10 Liberty Big South Automatic12425-7 Marquette Big East At-Large3327-68 Minnesota Big Ten At-Large924-7 Notre Dame Big East At-Large3820-9 Ohio State Big Ten At-Large2522-101 Penn State Big Ten Automatic229-2 Purdue Big Ten At-Large2921-10 Yale Ivy League Automatic6618-5 Nebraska RegionalSeedSchoolConference Berth TypeRPIRecord Arizona State Pac-12 At-Large4220-1312 BYU West Coast Automatic1126-3 Central Arkansas Southland Automatic4930-4 Dayton Atlantic 10 Automatic2026-4 Hawaii Big West Automatic1726-2 Kansas State Big 12 At-Large2321-8 Maryland-Eastern Shore Mid-Eastern Athletic Automatic15828-54 Nebraska Big Ten At-Large523-6 New Mexico State Western Athletic Automatic9122-10 Northern Colorado Big Sky Automatic6524-10 Northern Iowa Missouri Valley At-Large4424-9 Oklahoma Big 12 At-Large2721-105 Oregon Pac-12 At-Large1025-4 Pepperdine West Coast At-Large3520-11 Santa Clara West Coast At-Large4520-1113 Washington Pac-12 At-Large1623-6 Texas RegionalSeedSchoolConference Berth TypeRPIRecord Arkansas Southeastern At-Large3022-9 Cleveland State Horizon Automatic7123-6 Colgate Patriot Automatic17617-13 College of Charleston Southern Automatic4826-7 Fairfield Metro Atlantic Automatic14522-814 Florida Southeastern Automatic1225-411 Kansas Big 12 At-Large725-6 Miami (FL) Atlantic Coast At-Large2225-5 NC State Atlantic Coast At-Large4322-9 San Diego State Mountain West At-Large4123-7 St. Mary's West Coast At-Large3217-103 Texas Big 12 Automatic323-4 Texas A&M Southeastern At-Large1524-5 Tulsa Conference USA Automatic4726-96 USC Pac-12 At-Large1327-5 Wichita State Missouri Valley At-Large4022-9 California RegionalSeedSchoolConference Berth TypeRPIRecord Belmont Ohio Valley Automatic16718-16 California Pac-12 At-Large3915-1515 Iowa State Big 12 At-Large1820-7 IPFW Summit Automatic5725-6 Jackson State Southwestern Athletic Automatic25224-11 LIU-Brooklyn Northeast Automatic12725-710 Louisville Big East Automatic429-3 Loyola Marymount West Coast At-Large4618-12 Michigan Big Ten At-Large3123-11 Michigan State Big Ten At-Large3623-9 North Carolina Atlantic Coast At-Large1425-5 San Diego West Coast At-Large2421-62 Stanford Pac-12 Automatic127-3 Tennessee Southeastern At-Large2122-77 UCLA Pac-12 At-Large622-7 Western Kentucky Sun Belt Automatic2832-3

All together, the Big Ten and Pac-12 got six at-large bids in addition to their automatic, the West Coast Conference got five, the Big 12 and the Southeastern four, the Atlantic Coast three, the Big East and Missouri Valley two, and the Mountain West received one at-large bid. The other 22 conferences only got their automatic qualifiers in.

Bracket The first two rounds were held on campus sites (the home court of the seeded team). Regional semifinals and finals were held at pre-determined sites. In 2012, those sites were hosted by Purdue, Nebraska, Texas, and California, all of whom made the tournament. Unlike the NCAA basketball tournament, where teams cannot be placed into regionals that they host, the selectors in the volleyball tournament were required to place qualifying teams in their 'home' regionals, in order to reduce travel costs.

Purdue Regional

Nebraska Regional

Texas Regional

California Regional

Final Four

Final Four All-Tournament Team: Bailey Webster - Texas (Most Outstanding Player) Hannah Allison - Texas Hayley Eckerman - Texas Sha'Dare McNeal - Texas Alaina Bergsma - Oregon Liz Brenner - Oregon Lexi Erwin - Michigan

Record by conference Conference# of BidsRecordWin %R32S16E8F4CMNC Big Ten 7 19–7* 7 6 4 2 Pac-12 7 14–7 5 4 3 1 1 Big 12 5 10–4 4 2 1 1 1 1 Southeastern 5 5–5 3 2 West Coast 6 3–6 2 1 Missouri Valley 3 4–3 3 1 Atlantic Coast 4 2–4 2 Atlantic 10 1 1–1 1 Big East 3 1–3 1 Big West 1 1–1 1 Mid-American 1 1–1 1 Southern 1 1–1 1 Sun Belt 1 1–1 1 Mountain West 2 0–2 Other 17 0–17

* Three of the Big Ten's losses were to fellow Big Ten schools (so they are also counted as wins).

The columns R32, S16, E8, F4, CM, and NC respectively stand for the Round of 32, Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, Final Four, Championship Match, and National Champion.

The America East, Atlantic Sun, Big Sky, Big South, Colonial Athletic, Conference USA, Horizon League, Ivy League, Metro Atlantic, Mid-Eastern Athletic, Northeast, Ohio Valley, Patriot League, Southland, Southwestern Athletic, Summit League, and Western Athletic Conferences all qualified one team which lost in the first round.

NCAA tournament record There is one tournament record broken in 2012 that still stands today: Services aces, tournament (individual record) – Micha Hancock, Penn State – 22 aces (10 vs. Binghamton, 5 vs. Bowling Green, 2 vs. Kentucky, 5 vs. Minnesota.)

References