Michigan Receives NCAA Bid, Opens Against Louisville
11/26/2000 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
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INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- The University of Michigan volleyball team received an at-large berth in the NCAA Championship when the 64-team field was announced Sunday (Nov. 26) by the NCAA Volleyball Committee.
The Wolverines (18-13) will face Conference USA Tournament champion Louisville (26-7) in the first round on Thursday (Nov. 30) at 6 p.m. MST at the University of Arizona's McKale Center in Tucson, Ariz. Host Arizona (25-4), the No. 2 seed in the Central Region, will play Alabama A&M (31-2) in the other first-round match, and the two winners will meet Friday (Dec. 1) at 7 p.m. MST for a berth in the regional.
Michigan will be making its second straight NCAA appearance under second-year head coach Mark Rosen, and this is the third time in four years that the Wolverines have made the NCAA field. U-M won five of its last eight matches to finish 18-13 overall and 8-12 in Big Ten Conference action, good for seventh place. The Wolverines went 10-1 in the non-conference portion of their schedule.
U-M played matches against 10 teams selected for the NCAA Tournament and fashioned a 6-9 record vs. those teams, with wins over Sacramento State, South Carolina, Houston, Notre Dame, Ohio State and Michigan State.
Michigan owns a 1-2 series record against Louisville, but the two teams have not met since 1996, when the 25th-ranked Cardinals swept U-M (15-12, 15-13, 15-10) at the Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Classic in Honolulu, Hawaii. The other meetings came in 1986, a three-game Wolverine win at Louisville, and 1990, a sweep for the Cardinals in Mt. Pleasant, Mich. U-M has not played Arizona and Alabama A&M before.
The Wolverines have reached the second round in each of their previous two NCAA appearances. In 1997 Michigan defeated Temple in the first round before falling at Texas A&M in the second round. Last year the Wolverines defeated Fairfield before losing a five-game heartbreaker at Pacific in the second round.
Six Big Ten teams made the 64-team field, tying the Big Ten with the Big 12 and Pacific-10 for top representation. In addition to Michigan, East Region top seed Wisconsin, Minnesota, defending NCAA champion Penn State, Ohio State and Michigan State are headed to the postseason.
NCAA Volleyball Championship Site
Contact: Rich Marion (734) 763-4423
