💬 Women's Volleyball seeding/bracket for NCAA tourney:

[TerryP]

 

[Bamabww]

Staff report

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. | The University of Alabama volleyball team will face Samford in the first round of the NCAA Tournament today.

The Crimson Tide (25-7), which is playing in the national championship event for the second year in a row, will play at 3:30 p.m.

Alabama went 13-5 in SEC play and the 25 wins are the most in the program's history. Alabama last made back-to-back trips to the NCAA Tournament in 2006 and '07.

Alabama swept Tennessee, 3-0, to notch its school-record 25th victory last Saturday to close out the regular season. UA went 24-10 in 1995 and matched that record last year. The 49 wins in consecutive seasons is the most in a two-year span since UA reinstated the program in 1989. Krystal Rivers led the SEC with 536 kills, a number that ranks 12th nationally. Sierra Wilson led the SEC and is second nationally in assists with 1,459, just 25 short of the UA single-season record. Kat Hutson was third in the SEC with 422 kills.

Alabama has never won an NCAA Tournament match in four previous tries. The Crimson Tide was eliminated by Oklahoma last year in Stanford, Calif.; by Clemson in 2007 at Clemson; by Stephen F. Austin in 2006 at Austin, Texas; and by Oklahoma in 2005, also at Stanford.

https://alabama.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1711797

 

[Bamabww]

Volleyball tops Samford for first NCAA Tournament win

Staff report

The Alabama volleyball team opened NCAA Tournament play Thursday with an exciting five-set win over Samford, giving the Crimson Tide its first ever NCAA Tournament victory.

"I'm thrilled to have survived that match," Alabama head coach Ed Allen said. "Talking to the team in the locker room after the match, we mentioned that making history is not an easy thing to do. That certainly proved true tonight."

Alabama (26-7) trailed Samford (20-13) 2-1 heading into the fourth set, but the Crimson Tide fought back to edge out the Bulldogs. Samford was hampered by 20 service errors, while Alabama hit a combined .488 in the final two sets to earn the victory.

Junior setter Sierra Wilson set a new single-season school record for assists, earning 40 to give her 1,499 this year, surpassing Brigitte Slack's previous record total of 1,484 from 2005. Kat Hutson led the offense with 23 kills and a .380 hitting percentage while Natalie Murison led the defense with 16 digs.

Samford won the first set, 25-17, before Alabama pulled even by winning the second set, 25-10. The Bulldogs earned a 25-23 victory to set up the Crimson Tide comeback.

Tied at 4-4 in the fourth set, Alabama stormed ahead with a 5-0 run capped by back-to-back Krystal Rivers aces to lead 9-4 as Samford took a timeout. Alabama continued to pull ahead, leading by seven points as Samford took its final timeout with the score at 13-6. Alabama rolled to a double-digit lead at the 20-point mark, 20-10, and would eventually win 25-12 to force a deciding fifth set.

Tied at 2-2 early in the fifth, a Samford service error and back-to-back kills by Brittany Thomas gave the Crimson Tide a 5-2 lead as the Bulldogs took a timeout. Alabama led 8-4 at the mid-set switch and led, 10-5, as Samford took its last timeout. The Crimson Tide continued its strong play, eventually winning 15-8 to complete the five-set victory.

Alabama will play the winner of tonight's match between Florida State (28-2) and Jacksonville (19-14) today at 6 p.m.

https://alabama.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1712191

 

[TerryP]

 

[TerryP]

The broadcast is on ESPN3 tonight.

 

[BamaFan334]

Excellent job ladies. I watched a few of their matches on the SEC network. Glad to see the season came together so well. With definitely be paying more attention in the coming days.