Volleyball’s jam-packed seasons came to a dramatic end as two Southern California powerhouses took some serious hardware back home to LA.

Five of the eight beach volleyball conferences, including the CUSA and OVC, will dig into their tourneys this week, delivering some early sand and sun before final exams.

Men’s volleyball’s unconventional conferences are all hosting their tourneys this week, with champs to crown and automatic natty bids to bestow on Saturday.

Spring break is still weeks away, but the NCAA is bringing the sand and sun early with this weekend’s beach volleyball season start.

To cap off their one-loss season, the Longhorns brought brooms to Omaha, NE, Saturday night, bagging their third-ever natty (and first since 2012) by sweeping fellow No. 1 seed Louisville Cardinals 25–22, 25–14, 26–24 in front of a sold-out crowd.

Despite the Toreros’ impressive first-set win, Texas quickly rallied to take the next three, booking their ninth program ticket to the national final.

After Saturday’s wild women’s volleyball quarter-finals sent home the last two remaining hopes for both the Pac-12 and the powerhouse Big Ten, Thursday’s semis are officially set.

We were expecting some big-time Round of 16 drama, and yesterday’s action did not disappoint. While all four No. 1 squads booked quarter-final slots, yesterday saw two Big Ten teams suffer upsets.

Regionals, which include tomorrow’s round of 16 followed by Saturday’s quarter-finals, are hosted by the remaining top-seeded teams in each of the bracket’s quadrants.

Of the 340 Division I women’s volleyball programs, only 64 remain in the natty hunt.

The 64-team Division I women’s volleyball bracket will drop on November 27th, with 32 teams automatically qualifying by winning their respective conferences and the rest chosen by committee.

For NCAA fall sports, it’s already the most wonderful time of the year. Unwrap these early playoff snapshots and prepare to celebrate…confetti showers are right around the corner.