Tulane Awaits NCAA Selection Show Tonight at 7 PM CT
Nov 25, 2007 | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 25, 2007
The Tulane Green Wave volleyball team hopes for its first-ever trip to the NCAA Tournament when the field of 64 is announced at 7 p.m. CT on ESPNU. Tulane (28-6) bolstered its NCAA resume with a win at LSU (24-7) on Saturday.
(Note: ESPN.com and subsequently TulaneGreenWave.com had the time listed incorrectly on the respective websites earlier this week).
The Green Wave will need an at-large bid, as Tulsa took the Conference USA automatic berth in the conference tournament on Nov. 18. The Green Wave sit among a pool of at-large candidates.
Tulane's resume includes:
- a 28-6 overall record
- an RPI as high as 32 by the RichKern.com simulation (as of 11/18) a national ranking by the AVCA of 34 (11/18)
- a 1-1 record vs the AVCA national top 50
- an 8-6 record vs teams ranked in their AVCA regions (of 81 total teams; Tulane is ranked as high as first in its region by some projections).
- a 4-0 record vs teams which have automatically qualified for the 2007 NCAA Tournament
- a 5-3 record against teams from last year's tournament
- a 9-1 record in the last 10 matches (11-1 in last 12)
The lone item missing from the Tulane resume entering the weekend was a marquee win. The Green Wave solved that problem Saturday, defeating SEC West Champion LSU on the road.
The Tigers were ranked 29 in the AVCA national rankings and 31 in the simulated RPI.
In what may have been the biggest match in program history, First Team All-Conference USA hitter Sara Radosevic tied a career-high with 34 kills and a season-high with 21 digs and Rachel Lindelow set a career-high with 17 digs. Fellow C-USA First Teamer Bridget Wells posted two of the final three points in the match when Tulane faced match point in game five.
Four players chipped in 16 or more digs, including 2007 C-USA libero of the Year Jenn Miller, and First Team All C-USA player Ksenija Vlaskovic, who added 16 digs and 22 kills.
Tulane, under third year head coach Liz Kritza, the 2007 C-USA co-Coach of the Year, has its fifth 28-win season in program history. The group of players at Tulane have re-written Tulane's record-book, setting school records in assists and kills, and on pace to break season-best marks in assists and kills per game, as well as hitting percentage.
The NCAA Tournament will feature 64 teams in a single-eliminations format. Sixteen host school will be selected for the first and second rounds, each playing host to four other teams on November 29-December 2.
The 16 teams to emerge from the second round will square off in groups of four at the regional sites December 7-8. Those sites are Gainesville, Florida; University Park, Pennsylvania; Stanford, California; and Madison, Wisconsin.
The four regional winners will meet in the final four December 13 and 15 in Sacramento, California.
