This may not be the easiest year to pick the Final Four teams, but I thought I'd put myself out on a limb anyway. It will be a hard-fought road to Kansas City this season and though there is a good chance we'll see some new faces in Round 2, I think when the dust has settled, the top teams will still be standing.

The easiest pick is Penn State. I'm not seeing any real challenges along the way for them. That 3-2 loss to Minnesota in the last match of the season wasn't ideal and I suppose there is a chance that could throw them off their game. But I think it more likely wakes them up and motivates them for the playoffs. They've still got one unbroken streak and these girls will be going for four national titles.

The next easiest pick is Stanford. They're in a pretty good spot as well. If they play like they have most of the season, they should have no problem advancing to the Regional Final. I think they'll see USC there. They've beaten the Trojans twice this season and beating them a third time will be difficult. But I think they'll pull it off and earn a trip to the finals.

The last two regions in the bracket are where it gets tough. Read more...

The NCAA brackets were released on Sunday and we now know who'll be facing who on the Road to the Final Four. Three-time champs Penn State have what looks like the easiest road to the Final Four, with the toughest teams to beat being Arizona and LSU.

No. 1 Florida will need to get through Texas or Illinois to make the Final Four while Stanford will likely face USC in the Dayton Regional.

As usual, there were a few surprises in the mix this year. I know the seeding is based on strength of schedule and records among other things, but there are some questionable choices that ended up among the 16 seeded teams.

Most Surprising Seeds:

1. Duke: The Blue Devils have not been ranked all season, yet they pulled a No. 12 seed. A glance at their schedule reveals a 24-6 record for the season. Though they lost four conference matches, they won the ACC title. They have no significant upset wins and they have several losses to ranked teams. They lost to Colorado State, Maryland and Virginia Tech in four, and they lost to Minnesota in three. They lost in five to Florida State and they lost their last match of the season to Wake Forest.

2. Hawaii: Once again the Rainbow Wahine received a lower than deserved seed. Granted their strength of schedule out in the WAC Conference is not so stellar. It couldn't have helped that they dropped that three set match to Utah State in the Conference Finals to lose the automatic bid. But still, a No. 15 seed?

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The last weekend of regular season play did not go as planned for a few of the top teams. There is no worse time for a bad loss than right before the playoffs, but Cal, Hawaii and Penn State will all have to hope to re-callibrate for the first round.

Just as I was jumping on the Cal bandwagon and remarking about how good they looked beating Stanford, they got shaky on me. The Bears lost at home to unranked Arizona State in five sets. All Cal had to do was hold it together for two more matches and they were assured the Pac-10 Title. Now they will share the title with Stanford which is sort of a shame since this was an avoidable loss.

In Cal's defense, Arizona State can be streaky and they snuck up on USC and UCLA last month, beating both teams in four sets. But a team like Cal shouldn't be dropping matches like this so late in the season. Their star hitter, Tarah Murrey, only managed a .176 hitting percentage for the match.

Hawaii seemed to be sleep walking through their WAC Championship match against Utah State. The Rainbow Wahine had been rolling through the competition, but came out with no fire at all for their final match. They lost in an uncharacteristic three sets.

Penn State also lost last week to Minnesota in five sets. It wasn't a terrible match for Penn State. They out-dug and out-hit Minnesota, but the teams were even in just about all the other categories. Not sure which is worse - playing badly and losing a match you should have won or playing well and losing anyway right before the playoffs. Both play tricks on a team's psyche at the exact wrong time. Each of these teams will need to put these losses behind them and start fresh for the first round.

This year's post-season is looking to be more unpredictable than in years past. With more parity than we've seen in recent years, the championship could end up in quite a few places. Which team do you think is playing like a national champ?

Last year's finalists, Penn State and Texas have fallen in the rankings a bit since last season, but they're both still in the discussion about the Final Four. If experience is key in playing well in the championship match, no team has more of that than Penn State.

Though most of their streaks have been broken this year, they are playing well and still have a shot at keeping the consecutive national titles going. If they can pull it off as an underdog this year, it would be an unprecedented four in a row.

Next best experienced team is Stanford whose seniors have been in the finals twice only to lose to Penn State both times. They're hungry for that elusive title. Florida has a long tradition of Final Four appearances but they haven't been there lately and they are this year's top ranked squad. Florida's last Final Four appearance was back in 2003.

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