They’re wacko in Waco (VB Shocks No. 9 UCLA, Sweet 16 Bound), freakin’ in Fort Collins (CSU upsets sixth-seeded Washington for regional berth), levitating in Lexington (Oregon Halted by Big Blue Wall As UK Advances to Sweet 16), and copacetic in College Station (Aggies are Sweet 16 Bound) .

In Westwood, Seattle, Eugene and Baton Rouge? Not so much. You might say they are ex-parrots. They have ceased to be in the tournament. They’re resting.

In short, another opening weekend in the NCAA Women’s Volleyball Tournament had its share of upsets, euphoria, and letdown. This year’s bracket busters (so far)? Unseeded Baylor, Colorado State, Kentucky, and Texas A&M.

Who will be the next to go? We’re weak on predictions (we’re still shocked that gambling was going on at Rick’s Cafe Americain in Casablanca — screenplay by (among others)the Epstein twins, Julius and Philip — both Penn State graduates).

So we’ll limit ourselves to one not so earth-shattering observation (and a stat joust — more on that below): If Penn State doesn’t bring its “A” game when it plays against Florida next week in Gainesville, it might well end up as an ex-parrot. Florida is very good, and fully capable of knocking off the Nittany Lions. More on that soon.

As to the Stat Joust in the table below, its another lies, damn lies, statistics exercise, which we fully acknowledge is non-predictive, probably irrelevant, perhaps incorrect (as we are not statisticians and do make mistakes — if you find any, please let us know) and selective based mostly on our limited time and the quirks of the NCAA online statistics generator.

But with the next round five days away, statistical battles will have to do. So below is our Stat Joust for the Sweet 16 (and the four ex-parrots).

NCAA Seed	Team	Hit %	NCAA Stat Rank	Blk/Set	NCAA Stat Rank	SA/Set	NCAA Stat Rank
1	Penn State	.392	1	3.23	2	1.42	83
2	Texas	.335	2	3.04	4	1.06	237
3	Florida State	.302	4	2.52	35	1.47	65
4	Stanford	.270	13	2.63	23	1.13	205
5	Illinois	.246	42	2.65	21	1.12	216
6	Washington	.288	5	2.41	50	1.63	26
7	Iowa State	.240	53	2.56	30	1.07	231
8	UCLA	.232	70	2.80	9	1.04	250
9	California	.264	20	2.68	18	0.75	315
10	Nebraska	.254	31	2.43	46	1.17	189
11	Minnesota	.254	30	2.80	11	0.95	282
12	Hawaii	.324	12	2.46	43	1.80	9
13	Michigan	.240	55	1.70	232	1.60	37
14	Oregon	.266	17	2.42	48	1.49	59
15	LSU	.265	19	2.69	17	1.25	146
16	Florida	.288	7	2.32	67	1.35	101
17 (ns)	Baylor	.241	52	2.53	34	1.10	221
18 (ns)	Colorado State	.238	56	2.70	16	0.90	nr
19 (ns)	Kentucky	.281	10	2.37	56	1.06	235
20 (ns)	Texas A&M	.246	40	1.71	228	1.19	179