Alabama State will play Florida in the first round of the NCAA Women’s Volleyball Division I Tournament, tonight at 7 p.m. EST at the O’Connell Center in Gainesville, Fla.
The NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Committee released the championship bracket Sunday night. Sixty-four teams were included in the selection – 32 automatic qualifiers and 32 at-large selections.
This is the second year in Alabama State history that the Hornets have made it to the NCAA Championship, under head coach Penny Lucas-White. The Hornets (20-18) will be hosted by the Gators (25-3) who collected the eighth national seeding. Each team went undefeated in conference play this season with ASU holding an 8-0 record in the Southwestern Athletic Conference and Florida producing an 18-0 record in the Southeastern Conference.
Florida enters the 2014 NCAA Tournament having notched its 24th consecutive 25-win season. The Gators downed No. 3 Texas in Austin to cap of the regular season at 25-3 overall after going an undefeated 18-0 in SEC play to claim the program’s 21st SEC Championship. Florida’s undefeated SEC season was its 13th in school history.
First and second-round matches will be played at 16 campus sites. Teams winning both matches will move on to regional play December 12 and 13. The pre-determined regional sites are Ames, Iowa, Louisville, Kentucky, Minneapolis, Minnesota and Seattle. All regional semifinal games will be shown on ESPN3. Regional final games will air on ESPNU.
The regional winners will advance to the semifinals and final hosted by the Big 12 Conference and the Oklahoma City All Sports Association at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City on December 18 and 20. Both national semifinal games as well as the championship game will be broadcast by ESPN2.
Courtesy: SWAC.org
