BYU women’s volleyball (22-6, 15-3 West Coast Conference) will face Arizona State (19-13, 8-12 Pac-12) in the first round of the NCAA tournament Friday at 8 p.m. MDT in Hawaii.
“I’m excited for the girls,” said BYU head coach Shawn Olmstead. “It’s compliment for them and their work.”
BYU teammates celebrate during a home game earlier this season. (Photo courtesy Bella Torgerson/BYU Photo)
The winner of the BYU and ASU game will face the winner of No. 11 Hawaii and Idaho State on Saturday, 10:30 p.m. MDT in the second round of the tournament.
Saturday’s winning team will move on to the region semifinals on Dec. 13 in Los Angeles.
The Arizona State Sun Devils finished ninth in league play while the University of Hawaii Rainbow Wahine (24-4, 14-6 Big Sky) finished tied for first in the league. The Idaho State Bengals (23-11, 14-6 Big Sky) finished third in their conference, receiving an auto-bid after defeating Portland State in the Big Sky tournament.
This will be the second straight season BYU will play in the NCAA tournament. BYU finished the 2012 season in the regional semifinals losing to No. 5 Oregon after winning the first and second rounds at home.
BYU joins San Diego as the only WCC representatives for this year’s tournament. San Diego was automatically added to tournament schedule while BYU received an at-large bid.
San Diego joins Utah, Marquette, Oklahoma and Creighton as BYU’s former opponents to play in this year’s NCAA tournament.
Tickets are on sale on Hawaii’s website, HawaiiAthletics.com.
Matches will be streamed live through NCAA.com. Live stats will be available on the Hawaii volleyball schedule page.