very wide especially with the transfers and the extra year. #5 L'ville is the class of the ACC who are coming off a NCAA championship game finish and plays in front of big crowds at the Yum! Center. They had a great team last year as I remember watching the Ducks take them to 5 sets at L'ville in the regionals. The deep team still is starting a UCLA transfer Luper as well as reloading through recruiting. They also were tested in preseason having beating current #7 WSU and #15 PSU at the Yum! both in 3 sets and their only loss is to current #3 Stanford also at home in front of 10k fans in 5 sets. ND didn't have a chance.

I've also been watching the #6 Oregon VB team a lot. The 2 senior xfrs they are playing they got from tOSU and Baylor have been excellent and they also were already deep with their roster to including having the National FPOY. I was surprised how the Ducks beat a usually strong UCLA team in 3 sets in LA, but losing a xfr like Luper makes a difference.

Watching what it takes to compete in this current NCAA VB environment especially with NIL money it is going to take a lot to break into becoming a very competitive team. Texas brought many of their top players in as xfrs to win the NC last year to complement their NPOY Logan Eggleston. SO you got to have a core great player that you recruit while continuing to reload. Tall order for ND to get that competitive. At least this is the last year of that extra Covid year.

We also lost to NC State in 3.
There coach was an assistant under Karch Kiraly on women's national team