Fresno State Athletics
Volleyball Makes Fourth NCAA Tournament Appearance
12/1/2002 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Dec. 1, 2002
FRESNO, Calif. - The Fresno State volleyball team will make its fourth NCAA Tournament appearance this week when the Bulldogs travel to Santa Barbara, Calif., and open West Regional action against No. 8 seed and sixth-ranked UC Santa Barbara on Friday, Dec. 6, 7:00 p.m.
The NCAA Tournament at UCSB opens with Santa Clara versus California at 5:00 p.m. Santa Clara (24-6), which is out of the West Coast Conference, makes its sixth NCAA showing while the Golden Bears (19-11), out of the Pacific-10, are making their fifth NCAA appearance.
The Bulldogs (23-6) are making their fourth NCAA Tournament showing overall and third under 12th-year head coach Lindy Vivas. The Gauchos (28-2), out of the Big West Conference, are making their 22nd consecutive NCAA appearance.
NCAA Tournament tickets for next week in Santa Barbara, Calif., can be purchased from the UC Santa Barbara ticket office at (805) 893-8272.
Fresno State, which appeared in the NCAA Tournament in 1984, 1991 and 1998, is coming off one of its most successful seasons in school history. Posting its ninth 20-win season and tying for the third-most wins in the program's history, Vivas is directing the Bulldogs to their sixth postseason appearance under her tutelage. This fall she also had five 'Dogs garner all-Western Athletic Conference honors and was named WAC Coach of the Year for the third time overall.
The first- and second-round match-ups are being played at 16 campus sites. The top 16 seeds were seeded nationally and placed within four regions. The teams tabbed as the top seeds were Southern California, Stanford, Nebraska and Northern Iowa. The rest of the seeding is as follows: No. 5 Florida, No. 6 Hawai'i, No. 7 Minnesota, No. 8 UC Santa Barbara, No. 9 Pepperdine, No. 10 Arizona, No. 11 North Carolina, No. 12 Washington State, No. 13 Penn State, No. 14 Wisconsin, No. 15 Ohio State and No. 16 Notre Dame.
Team pairings were determined by geographical proximity, with the exception that teams from the same conference were not paired during the first and second rounds. There were 31 automatic qualifiers and 33 at-large selections.
The Big Ten and Pacific-10 led all conferences with eight selections. The Big 12 placed five while the Big West and the Atlantic Coast conferences had four. The WAC, along with Conference USA and West Coast, had three picks. The Big East, Mountain West and Southeastern conferences each had two.
Only four teams have earned bids to all 22 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championships in Pacific (Calif.), Penn State, Stanford and UC Santa Barbara.
Six teams are making their first trip to the NCAA tournament while two teams return to NCAA postseason play for the first time in a decade (California, 1989 and Northwestern, 1984).
In the 22-year history of the championship, nine schools have won the national title -- all of which are in this year's tournament -- in Stanford (5), Hawai'i (3), Long Beach State (3), UCLA (3), Pacific (2), Nebraska (2), USC (1), Texas (1) and Penn State (1).
