The NCAA women’s volleyball bracket selection committee to release first Top-16 list on Sunday

The GIST: Now past the season’s halfway point, teams are planning their postseason pushes — and so is the national tournament selection committee, which will drop the ultimate vibe check with its first 2024 Top-16 reveal on Sunday.

Why it matters: A Top-16 shoutout doesn’t guarantee a natty bid — lots can change before the full 64-team bracket release on December 1st. But it does carry more weight than the American Volleyball Coaches Association’s (AVCA) weekly Top-25 poll.

• Unlike the AVCA’s compilation of coaches’ personal rankings, a Top-16 nod comes from the postseason’s decision-makers based on a host of crucial categories — marking teams as serious threats for the title.

What to watch: The committee will drop their list during the weekend’s biggest match: Sunday’s 3 p.m. ET showdown between No. 1 Pitt and No. 5 Stanford, where the country’s two best setters, Stanford’s Kami Miner and Pitt’s Rachel Fairbanks, will go head-to-head to earn an edge in the cutthroat ACC. Best of all, the battle snagged a prime broadcast slot on ESPN. Can’t freakin’ wait.