SU draws familiar foe in first round of NCAA volleyball tournament
INDIANAPOLIS - The No. 20 Salisbury University volleyball team will head back to Huntingdon, Pa., for a second time this season as the Sea Gulls were selected as a participant in the Juniata College regional of the 2008 NCAA Division III Volleyball Championship announced Monday by the selection committee.
Salisbury (35-1) began its season in Huntingdon, Pa., and after 36 matches under their belt the Sea Gulls return with a nation best 35-match winning streak in tow. Juniata is one of eight Division III regional sites that begin on November 13 and go until November 15. The eight regional champions will advance to the national championship round that will be held on November 20-22 in Bloomington, Ill., in the Shirk Center hosted by Illinois Wesleyan University.
The Sea Gulls will face The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey in the first round on Thursday, November 13. If the Sea Gulls defeat the Ospreys (29-8), they will square off with the winner of Eastern University (33-1) and Neumann (18-17) on Friday, November 14. Eastern, ranked No. 24 in the nation, is ranked second in the Mid-Atlantic region one spot above Salisbury and has won 16 straight matches. No. 2 Juniata is ranked first in the Mid-Atlantic region.
SU defeated Richard Stockton 3-1 on September 6 on the opening day of the Battlefield Classic hosted by Gettysburg College. Salisbury won the first set of the match 25-22 but was upended in the second set by the same score. The Sea Gulls won the next two sets 25-19 and 25-14 to seal the win. SU also swept Stockton with back-to-back sweeps on September 20 in the Sea Gull Classic. Salisbury is 20-11 all-time against the Ospreys and has won the previous six matches.
This is the second straight NCAA tournament appearance for the Sea Gulls and the fifth in program history. Salisbury lost 3-0 to Christopher Newport University in the first round last year. The Sea Gulls have never made it past the first round in tournament (0-4 overall).
The rest of the Juniata regional features Lebanon Valley College (33-2), Carnegie Mellon University (22-15), D'Youville College (24-10) and host Juniata (29-4). Juniata handed Salisbury its only defeat this season with a 3-0 loss on August 29. The Sea Gulls defeated Neumann 3-1 on October 24 on the opening day of the Sea Hawk Invitational.
The other regional hosts are No. 3 University of La Verne (Calif.), No. 5 Wittenberg (Ohio) University, No. 6 University of St. Thomas (Minn.), No. 7 University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, No. 12 Trinity (Texas) University, Tufts (Mass.) University and Union (N.Y.) College.
2008 NCAA Division III Volleyball Tournament
