No. 6 Athenas Heading to Texas for Tough NCAA Regional
2017 Women's Volleyball Bracket
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The No. 6 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's volleyball team is heading to Southwestern (TX) for the NCAA Division III Regionals. On Monday morning, the NCAA released the field for the 64-team Women's Volleyball Championships and the bracket has the Athenas traveling to Georgetown, Texas for the opening rounds of the tournament.
The Athenas, who have been ranked in the top-ten all season, are making their fifth-straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament and will face UT-Dallas in the First Round on Friday at 4:30 p.m. The contest is a rematch of a meeting on the first weekend of the season between CMS and the Comets. The Athenas won that meeting on Sept. 2 with a 3-0 (25-15, 25-11, 25-18).
The Comets earned their spot in the Tournament by winning the American Southwest Conference (ASC) Championship 3-0 (25-17, 25-22, 25-23) over Mary Hardin-Baylor.
CMS earned their spot in the tournament by claiming the SCIAC Tournament Championship, defeating Cal Lutheran 3-0 (25-19, 25-14, 25-16) over the weekend. Whittier was the only other SCAIC team selected to the tournament. Despite not making the conference tournament, the Poets earned an at-large bid and will join the Athenas in Texas for the Regionals.
Of the eight host sites, the Athenas land in arguably the toughest Regional with four teams ranked in the top six in the country. The three ranked teams joining the No. 6 Athenas are No. 1 Colorado College, No. 2 Southwestern (TX), and No. 5 Trinity (TX). Unranked New Rochelle, Pacific Lutheran, Whittier, and UT-Dallas round out the field for the weekend.
The winner of Friday's CMS vs. UT-Dallas match will take on the winner of Southwestern (TX) vs. Whittier on Saturday.
The Regional Championship match is slated for Sunday afternoon. The winner of the Regional will advance to the Division III Women's Volleyball Championships on Nov. 16-18 in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Check CMSathletics.org later this week for more information on the upcoming NCAA Tournament.