Jackets Draw Familiar Foe at NCAA Tourney (11/5/06)
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BILLINGS, MT – Pick your
cliché: The more things change, the more they remain the same.
Deja vu all over again. Whatever it is, the Montana
State-Billings volleyball team must be feeling a bit of it
following Sunday’s NCAA Tournament selection. The Yellowjackets
have been selected to their first-ever NCAA Tournament, where
they will face former conference rival Western New Mexico in the
first round.
The Yellowjackets are 25-4
overall after their conference championship. The Mustangs are
26-6 after losing in the semifinals of the RMAC Tournament,
which they hosted in Silver City, NM. Their first round match
on Thursday is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. CST.
The Yellowjackets swept St.
Mary’s University Saturday night in the championship match of
the Heartland Conference Tournament to become the HLC’s
automatic qualifier to the NCAA Tournament. Sunday night the
NCAA Volleyball Committee announced that MSUB will be the No. 5
seed in the NCAA Southwest Regional, where they will face
fourth-seeded Western New Mexico. The regional tournament will
be hosted by top-seed West Texas A&M, located in Canyon, TX.
“It means a lot for our team
in a lot of ways,” said Yellowjacket coach Pa’ulasi Matavao of
the tournament selection. “Last year, playing in the conference
championship did a lot for our program and our recruiting. This
year will do wonders for us. It’s created a lot of excitement
for the players and their families. I think it’s also created
some buzz in the community. I think it’s the beginning of
something good for MSUB volleyball.”
The Yellowjackets have been
ranked in the top 10 of the region all season. They debuted at
No. 2 in the first regional poll before climbing to the top spot
in early October. Despite winning 19 of their last 20 regular
season matches, the Yellowjackets plummeted from No. 1 to No. 10
in the span of three weeks at the end of the regular season.
With their conference championship, they bounced five spots in
the final ranking and regional seeding.
“I’m pretty happy with the No.
5 seed after dropping to 10 last week,” said Matavao. “We’re
not really concerned with where we are. We’re just going to go
down there and compete with whoever they give us. The girls are
ready.”
The history between
MSU Billings and Western New Mexico dates all the way back to
1991 when the two teams met at a tournament in Phoenix. They
later spent several years as conference opponents in the Pacific
West Conference. Last year both MSUB and WNMU moved from the
PacWest to the Heartland Conference, where the Mustangs defeated
the Yellowjackets in the Heartland Conference Championship match
to earn a trip to the NCAA Tournament.
Following their one season in
the Heartland, Western switched conferences again, this time to
the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. The Mustangs’ departure
from the Heartland made the runner-up Yellowjackets the host of
this year’s Heartland tournament.
The Yellowjackets and Mustangs
have met 29 times in their history with Western holding a 21-8
all-time advantage. Seven of their last 15 meetings have gone
five games with Western winning five of those seven matches.
Last year the Mustangs won two of three meetings with the
Yellowjackets, including the 3-1 victory in the conference
championship match.
“This is the same Western New
Mexico team we played last year other than Stephanie Higgins is
gone,” said Matavao. “They have all their other players back.
We know a lot about them. We battled them for years. It should
be a good match.”
West Texas A&M earned the No.
1 seed by going 30-3 and winning the Lone Star Conference
Tournament. The Lady Buffs enter the NCAA Tourney with a
25-match winning streak during which they only dropped six total
games. WTAMU has won three national titles,
the most recent coming in 1997. The Buffs will meet
Abilene Christian (18-10) in the opening round of the
tournament. The winner of the WTAMU/ACU match faces the winner
of the MSUB/WNMU match in the second round.
The Rocky Mountain Athletic
Conference dominated the tournament selections for the Southwest
Region. Five of the eight teams are from the RMAC with two
coming from the Lone Star and one from the Heartland. The
tournament starts Thursday with four first-round matches. The
semifinal matches will be played Friday evening, and the
championship match will be Saturday. The winner of the regional
advances to the Elite Eight in Pensacola, FL, November 16-18.
NCAA Southwest Region
Seeding
1. West Texas A&M (30-3)
2. Metro State (20-9)
3. Mesa State (17-14)
4. Western New Mexico (26-6)
5. Montana State-Billings (25-4)
6. Nebraska-Kearney (28-7)
7. Fort Lewis (20-9)
8. Abilene Christian (18-10)
NCAA Southwest Region First Round Pairings
#4 Western New Mexico vs. #5 Montana State-Billings
#3 Mesa State vs. #6 Nebraska-Kearney
#2 Metro State vs. #7 Fort Lewis
#1 West Texas A&M vs. #8 Abilene Christian |
