The national championship on the sand remained elusive yet again, but it was still a terrific weekend for the Florida State athletics department.

We'll get to the beach volleyball team here in a moment, but wanted to start first on the diamond. Both diamonds really.

The Florida State softball and baseball teams have had vastly different seasons so far in 2022, and they likely have vastly different ceilings in the postseason.

But they both are going to make the postseason. And this weekend, at the very least, gave each team a chance to show what those ceilings might look like once the NCAA Tournament begins.

The Florida State softball team is ranked No. 3 in the country and has a real chance to play for a national championship. The goal for the Seminoles this weekend in Raleigh, N.C., was to finish the regular season strong and make sure they cement a Top 8 national seed -- so they would be able to host a Super Regional.

Now, there's a pretty good chance that was already locked up before this weekend. But Sydney Sherrill and the Seminoles made sure they hammered that shut against N.C. State, sweeping the Wolfpack and hitting a gazillion home runs in the three-game series.

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Sherrill, who will go down as one of the best to ever play in garnet and gold, hit four homers over the last two games and seems to be hellbent on finishing her final season as strongly as possible.

As for the baseball team? Well, nothing really has been determined about its postseason fate. As long as the Seminoles don't completely collapse down the stretch, they should be comfortably in the NCAA Tournament for, I believe, the 112th straight year.

But as we've seen this season all too many times, this team is not very good on the road. So avoiding that for as long as possible in the postseason is a pretty darn good idea.

The Seminoles went up to Boston this weekend and won two of three games over a pretty horrible Boston College team. They lost the first game, despite another brilliant effort from Parker Messick, because the FSU offense stayed in Stetson form -- refusing to muster any hits and put any pressure on the BC's starting pitcher.

But after that 3-2 loss, the Seminoles were able to bounce back and win the final two games -- scoring 18 runs in the process. I'm done trying to guess what that means moving forward because I'm done trying to guess what this offense will be. It seems to be a flip of the coin as to whether it will be a competent, tough lineup or one that makes outs in such rapid succession you wonder if they're scared of the bases.

So, I'll concentrate on what the series victory means in the grand scheme.

It means the Seminoles are still very much in play for a top-16 seed in the NCAA Tournament. They were ranked No. 23 in the country after the two wins over TCU last weekend and still should be right around there despite the shutout loss to Stetson in the midweek and the walk-off loss to Boston College on Friday.

Right now, the Seminoles' RPI is 25th in the country. That's not great. But it would be a lot worse if they hadn't won the final two games against the Eagles.

FSU (28-17 overall and 13-11 in the ACC) now has a five-game homestand this week. The 'Noles play a doubleheader on Tuesday against Jacksonville (97th in RPI) and then host Miami (No. 7 RPI) this weekend.

If they can have a good week against that level of competition, then they will remain in contention to host a regional. That's what winning those final two games in Boston accomplished.

If the Seminoles can't knock off the Hurricanes at least twice, they'll almost certainly be on the road for the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament. And as we've seen, the road hasn't exactly been kind to these guys.

But hey, at least they have a shot to host a regional at Howser -- even with as up and down as this season has been.

Now, let's take a quick look around the rest of the campus:

First and foremost, congrats to the men's tennis team. The Seminoles went into Athens, Ga., and knocked off the No. 11 Georgia Bulldogs, one of the nation's premier tennis programs, to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2009. They'll play Tennessee later on this week in Knoxville.

It was a great win for Dwayne Hultquist's crew, and for a program that quite frankly hasn't enjoyed much postseason success in over a decade.

Maybe they'll go on a magical run and get to the Final Four! Heck, maybe they'll win it at all. Odds are against them, of course. FSU was ranked No. 28 in the country coming into this weekend. But hey, crazier things have happened, right? Anyone else catch the Kentucky Derby? So, maybe this is the year the FSU men's tennis team makes some history.

You know, like the Seminoles' beach volleyball team almost did?

Florida State fought out of the losers' bracket this weekend at the NCAA Championships and advanced all the way to the title match against No. 1 USC. But, as it turns out, there's a pretty good reason USC was ranked No. 1.

The Trojans knocked off the Seminoles, 3-1, to win their fourth national championship and keep FSU from winning its first.

I don't know anything about beach volleyball at the college level -- other than USC and UCLA are both juggernauts. But I'm going to assume, as painful as losing another title match was for head coach Brooke Niles, there had to be some real joy in how her team played this weekend.

Because this team actually finished with more losses (11) than any other team in FSU history, albeit that's just six full seasons of results. But they still found a way on the biggest stage to fight into the championship match, knocking off UCLA in the semifinals to get there.

But alas, the season finished with a third national championship loss in six seasons.

Niles' 'Noles once again knocked on the door to that elusive NCAA title. If they keep doing that, you just know they'll get to break through eventually.

Contact senior writer Corey Clark at corey@warchant.com and follow @Corey_Clark on Twitter.

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