AVCA Showcase

The AVCA Showcase, established by the American Volleyball Coaches Association, is an annual NCAA volleyball tournament that is held at the start of each fall season. In the old format, four teams, usually ranked in the top 15, compete for the showcase title. In the new format, it was changed to a conference challenge.

The tournament was founded in 1995, and ten times, the showcase champion has made the NCAA Women's Volleyball Championship final four, with the team winning the national championship twice.

Prior to 2005, it was called the "State Farm/NACWAA Classic". At the start of 2008, Runza Restaurants started sponsoring, thus the name becoming "Runza/AVCA Showcase".

History

As of 2007, the showcase champion went on to the NCAA Final Four 10 times out of 13. The only time the winner failed to advance to the Final Four was Colorado State in 2000, Texas in 2006 and Nebraska in 2007. However, only twice has the showcase champion won the NCAA Championship: Long Beach State in 1998 and Southern California in 2003. Ironically, those two schools both had undefeated records en route to the NCAA title. The only other school to go undefeated in the NCAA era (since 1981) was Nebraska in 2000.

The following table lists the past winners, runners-up, city the tournament is hosted in, and the Most Valuable Player.

Old format

Prior to 2008, the showcase was done with four teams, with the winners of the first match playing for the championship and the losers playing for third place in the consolation match.

Year Winner Score Runner-up City Tournament MVP
1995 Stanford 3–1
8–15, 15–11, 15–13, 17–15
Nebraska Lincoln, Nebraska N/A
1996 Hawaiʻi 3–0 Nebraska Normal, Illinois Anjelica Ljungquist,
Hawaii
1997 Penn State 3–0
15–8, 15–13, 15–9
Stanford Stanford, California Bonnie Bremner,
Penn State
1998 Long Beach State 3–2
15–7, 10–15, 15–1, 9–15, 15–12
Southern California Albuquerque, New Mexico Misty May,
Long Beach State
1999 Pacific 3–2
9–15, 16–14, 15–10, 9–15, 15–10
Florida Lincoln, Nebraska Elsa Stegemann,
Pacific
2000 Colorado State 3–2
15–8, 8–15, 15–12, 11–15, 17–15
UCLA Gainesville, Florida Courtney Cox,
Colorado State
2001 Nebraska 3–1
30–21, 32–30, 27–30, 30–24
Pacific Stockton, California Nancy Metcalf,
Nebraska
2002 Stanford 3–1
30–21, 24–30, 30–27, 30–21
Minnesota Minneapolis, Minnesota Logan Tom,
Stanford
2003 Southern California 3–0
30–22, 30–26, 31–29
Hawaiʻi Honolulu, Hawaii April Ross,
Southern California
2004 Southern California 3–2
25–30, 32–30, 26–30, 30–28, 15–12
Minnesota Fort Collins, Colorado Bibiana Candelas,
Southern California
2005 Nebraska 3–0
30–23, 31–29, 33–31
Stanford Omaha, Nebraska Christina Houghtelling,
Nebraska
2006 Texas 3–2
30–23, 24–30, 30–27, 28–30, 15–13
Washington Madison, Wisconsin Michelle Moriarty,
Texas
2007 Nebraska 3–1
30–23, 22–30, 30–18, 30–21
UCLA Omaha, Nebraska Sarah Pavan,
Nebraska

New format

In 2008, the AVCA announced that the showcase would take on a new format. Instead of four teams competing in a tradition 1st–4th place tournament, it would be two teams from an athletic conference taking on two teams from another athletic conference. The two teams from the same conference do not play each other. The tournament will be held in Omaha, Nebraska at the Qwest Center through 2010.

Year Conferences National rank/teams/record Records for tournament City All-Tournament Team
2008 Big 12
Pac-10
#7 Nebraska (2–0)
#3 Texas (1–1)
#2 Stanford (1–1)
#4 Southern California (0–2)
v. Stanford: W 3–0; v. Southern California W 3–1
v. Southern California W 3–0; v. Stanford L 2–3
v. Nebraska L 0–3; v. Texas W 3–2
v. Texas L 0–3; v. Nebraska L 1–3
Omaha, Nebraska
Qwest Center
Jordan Larson (Neb.)
Sydney Anderson (Neb.)
Kayla Banwarth (Neb.)
Destinee Hooker (Tex.)
Ashley Engle (Tex.)
Cynthia Barboza (Stan.)
Cassidy Lichtman (Stan.)
Alex Jupiter (USC)
2009 Big Ten
Big 12
#11 Minnesota (1–1)
#16 Michigan (2–0)
#3 Nebraska (1–1)
#22 Kansas State (0–2)

v. Kansas State W 3–2; v. Nebraska L 2–3
v. Nebraska W 3–0; v. Kansas State W 3–1
v. Michigan: L 0–3; v. Minnesota W 3–2
v. Minnesota L 2–3; v. Michigan L 1–3
Omaha, Nebraska
Qwest Center
Alex Hunt (Mich.)
Juliana Paz (Mich.)
Lexi Zimmerman (Mich.)
Taylor Carico (Minn.)
Lauren Gibbemeyer (Minn.)
Sydney Anderson (Neb.)
Brooke Delano (Neb)
Kelsey Chipman (KSU)

Other teams

The following is a list of teams that participated, but never won or finished as runners-up in the tournament.

Year(s) participated and finish Team
1997: 3rd Brigham Young
1995: 4th Cal State Northridge
2004: 4th Georgia Tech
1996: 4th Illinois State
2003: 4th; 2009: 4th Kansas State
1998: 4th New Mexico
2002: 3rd Northern Iowa
2006: 4th Ohio
2002: 4th Pepperdine
2007: 4th Tennessee
1997: 4th Texas A&M
2007: 4th Utah
1998: 3rd; 2001: 3rd; 2006: 3rd Wisconsin
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