About two months ago, after Penn State lost a set to Iowa (after having won 141 consecutive regular season sets starting in 2007), I compiled the table below (without the 2009 Elite Eight teams, obviously), to provide some context. How many sets did Final Four teams typically lose? The table answers that question (results include NCAA Tournament results), and not surprisingly, the answer overwhelmingly is “not very many.”

One thing stands out: Perfection is very hard to achieve. Only three NCAA Champions (in this admittedly limited sample) have dropped fewer than 10 sets in their Championship season (Penn State with a 114-2 record in 2008, Long Beach State at 108-8 in 1998, and USC at 105-8 in 2003). The most lost sets by a Final Four team? A tie between Minnesota in 2003 (85-49) and Tennessee in 2005 (70-49).

Which brings us to this season’s Elite Eight. Were Michigan, Minnesota, and California (Penn State’s opponent in this afternoon’s Regional Final) — make it to the Final Four, each of them would rank among the top six teams for most losses in a season (and that’s before taking the results of today’s matches into account). Nebraska would rank 12th and Florida State would be tied for 13th or 14th (depending on whether Nebraska beats Texas). An historical oddity: Oddly, if Minnesota’s team makes it this year, Minnesota will have two other teams in the top ten for most sets lost (this year’s team ranks #5, with 37 sets lost, and the 2004 team ranks 9th, with 34 sets lost).

There are many possible explainations for the potentially higher-than-typical number of sets dropped by this year’s Elite Eight teams compared to previous years — most obviously, this is the Elite Eight, not the Final Four. We lean towards another reason: parity. There’s alot of talk that talent is more widely distributed now among more NCAA Women’s Volleyball programs than ever before, and that these talented athletes now benefit from better coaching. If so, then it makes sense that top teams would drop more sets throughout the season.

Regardless of the reasons, here’s the table. A quick note: it’s a sortable table, meaning you can click on the buttons at the top of each column and resort that column (for example, list wins in descending or ascending order). Finally, we know this table is predictive of nothing, we simply were curious. And though we’ve tried to be careful, there may be errors. If you find any, please let us know.

Year	Team	Conference	NCAA Finish	Wins (Matches)	Losses (Matches)	Wins (Sets)	Losses (Sets)
2009	Penn State	Big 10	First	38	0	114	8
2009	Texas	Big 12	Second	29	2	91	13
2009	Hawaii	WAC	Semi-finals	32	3	100	17
2009	Minnesota	Big 10	Semi-finals	28	9	88	41
2008	Penn State	Big Ten	First	38	0	114	2
2008	Stanford	Pac 10	Second	31	4	95	23
1998	Penn State	Big Ten	Second	34	1	104	6
1999	Penn State	Big Ten	First	36	1	110	15
2007	Penn State	Big Ten	First	34	2	104	18
2000	USC	Pac 10	Semi-finals	29	3	87	20
2002	USC	Pac 10	First	31	1	95	12
2003	USC	Pac 10	First	35	0	105	8
2004	USC	Pac 10	Semi-finals	23	6	76	32
2006	Washington	Pac 10	Semi-finals	29	5	92	26
2007	USC	Pac 10	Semi-finals	29	5	91	35
1998	Long Beach	Big West	First	36	0	108	8
1999	Long Beach	Big West	Semi-finals	31	4	95	23
2001	Long Beach	Big West	Second	33	1	NA	NA
1998	Nebraska	Big 12	Semi-finals	32	2	99	16
2000	Nebraska	Big 12	First	34	0	102	13
2001	Nebraska	Big 12	Semi-finals	31	2	94	14
2005	Nebraska	Big 12	Second	33	2	101	15
2006	Nebraska	Big 12	First	33	1	101	14
2008	Nebraska	Big 12	Semi-finals	31	3	97	21
1999	Stanford	Pac 10	Second	31	3	95	18
2001	Stanford	Pac 10	First	33	2	101	21
2002	Stanford	Pac 10	Second	32	5	102	27
2004	Stanford	Pac 10	First	30	6	98	35
2006	Stanford	Pac 10	Second	30	4	92	19
2007	Stanford	Pac 10	Second	32	3	101	24
1998	Florida	SEC	Semi-finals	35	3	107	24
2002	Florida	SEC	Semi-finals	34	3	105	17
2003	Florida	SEC	Second	36	2	109	8
2000	Hawaii	WAC	Semi-finals	31	2	95	16
2002	Hawaii	WAC	Semi-finals	34	2	102	12
2003	Hawaii	WAC	Semi-finals	36	2	109	16
2003	Minnesota	Big Ten	Semi-finals	26	11	85	49
2004	Minnesota	Big Ten	Second	33	5	105	34
2004	Washington	Pac 10	Semi-finals	28	3	89	23
2005	Washington	Pac 10	First	32	1	98	10
2007	California	Pac 10	Semi-finals	26	8	87	36
2006	UCLA	Pac 10	Semi-finals	33	4	104	24
1999	Pacific	Big West	Semi-finals	32	3	NA	NA
2000	Wisconsin	Big Ten	Second	33	4	NA	NA
2001	Arizona	Pac 10	Semi-finals	25	5	79	25
2005	Santa Clara	WCC	Semi-finals	27	5	88	30
2005	Tennessee	SEC	Semi-finals	19	12	70	49
2008	Texas	Big 12	Semi-finals	29	4	94	24