Luther recieves First Invitational to NCAA III National Volleyball Tournament
Nov. 9, 2009
For the first time in school history, the Luther College volleyball team will be playing in the 62-Team NCAA III National Tournament. The announcement was made today during the NCAA III National Selection Show that was aired live this morning.
Forty conferences were awarded automatic qualification for the 2009 championships. Three teams were selected from Pool B, which consists of independent institutions and institutions that are members of conferences that do not meet the requirements for automatic qualification. The final 19 berths were reserved for Pool C, which consists of institutions from automatic qualifying conferences that are not the conference champion and any remaining Pool B Teams.
Luther (25-11) received a Pool C berth and will join seven other teams for the Oshkosh Regional that will be hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Nov. 12-14, in the Kolf Sports Center.
Luther, the #7 seed of the regional, will play Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) automatic qualifier #2 College of St. Benedict (26-5) on Thursday at 3:00 p.m. The Luther College sports information office will audio stream this match on the Luther Athletics website at http://sports.luther.edu/video/. If the Norse are victorious, Friday's semifinal round match will also be audio streamed.
The rest of the bracket includes #3 UW-Whitewater (31-6) versus #6 University of St. Thomas (Minn.) (24-7) at 12:30 p.m.; #4 UW-Eau Claire (30-7) versus #5 St. Olaf College (Minn.) (27-4) at 5:30 p.m.; #8 St. Norbert College (Wis.) (24-9) versus #1 UW-Oshkosh (35-2) at 8:00 p.m.
Semifinal round matches in the Oshkosh Regional will be held Friday at 4:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.
The championship contest of the Oshkosh Regional will be held Saturday at 7 p.m.
Six of the eight teams competing in the Oshkosh Regional are ranked nationally by the American Volleyball Coaches Association. UW-Oshkosh is the top-ranked NCAA Division III squad in the country, while UW-Whitewater is ranked seventh, University of St. Thomas ninth, College of St. Benedict 16th, UW-Eau Claire 18th and St. Olaf College 21st.
The winners of the eight Regional sites will advance to the quarterfinals, semifinals and championship match that will be hosted at the Tony DeCarlo Varsity Center on the campus of John Carroll University, University Heights, Ohio Nov. 19-21. The NCAA III National Tournament is a single elimination tournament.
“I am very excited for our team to have this opportunity to play in the national tournament,” commented Iowa Conference Coach of the Year Jane Gibbs. “I am especially excited for our seniors who have taken the program to a new level in the last three years. They have provided the leadership that has allowed us to go from a 15-15 team, to a team that has posted 25 wins and gets its first invite to the national tournament in school history.”
