The biggest upset of the tournament occurred when Purdue swept top ranked Florida in 3 sets, recording their first win over a #1 team in program history.

Duke won in four sets, and advanced to the Elite Eight, which was the first time that an ACC team made it past the Sweet 16.

Penn State downed Oklahoma in 3 sets, as senior All-American Blair Brown had 24 kills.

In the fourth set, Penn State knocked off any chance of an upset, as they separated themselves early from Duke and won 25-17.

[2] Third-seeded Stanford downed Ohio State in four sets, with the help of senior Alix Klineman's 29 kills.

Stanford held a match point at 14–13, but Southern Cal's freshman Falyn Fonoimoana, who was the top recruit in the 2010 class, recorded a kill to tie it up at 14.

[3] Seventh seeded California swept Minnesota in 3 close sets, 26-24, 25-23, 25-23 to advance to the program's fourth straight NCAA Regional Final.

Led by AVCA National Freshman of the Year Deja McClendon, who had 11 kills on 15 errorless attempts, Penn State held Texas to just .131 hitting as a team in the sweep.

Penn State's freshmen had 24 of the team's 54 kills in the match, as Katie Slay and Ariel Scott also made big contributions.

California advanced to the programs first ever final match to face the same team who ended their seasons in the NCAA tournament the previous three years.

[8] Playing each other for the fourth consecutive year in the tournament, Penn State defeated California once again in a sweep by the scores of 25-20, 27-25, 25-20.

[10] In set 1, Penn State held a slim 12-11 lead but kills by McClendon and Brown and a service ace from Alyssa D'Errico made the score 16-12.

2010 National Player of the Year Carli Lloyd gave the Bears another set point at 25-24 with a kill, but Penn State used another crucial block to tie it up at 25.

[11] Penn State seniors Brown, D'Errico, and Arielle Wilson went 24-0 in NCAA play their entire careers, and had a four-year overall record of 142-7.