Nov. 27, 2011
2011 NCAA Tournament Bracket
SPRINGFIELD -- The Missouri State volleyball team earned a spot in its seventh NCAA Tournament in the last nine seasons Sunday, parlaying its 22-8 season and No. 42 ranking in the RPI into an at-large selection. The Bears will begin tournament play at 15th-seeded Pepperdine (22-6) on Thursday, Dec. 1, in Malibu, Calif. First serve is scheduled for 9:30 p.m. Central.
The other half of the four-team regional pits California (26-6) against North Carolina (23-8). The winners will play on Dec. 2, and the champion of the four-team sub-regional advances to Honolulu for the third and fourth rounds Dec. 9-11.
The Bears finished second in the Missouri Valley Conference at 15-3 and lost to Wichita State in the semi-finals of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, but built a strong non-conference resume along with finishing two games clear of third place in the MVC and suffering just one loss all season to a team rated worse than 44th in the RPI.
Also in the NCAA Tournament from the MVC is No. 6 overall seed UNI, which will host Niagara in the first round, and Wichita State, which plays Kansas State in Lincoln, Neb.
MSU is 1-9 all-time in the tournament, with appearances in 1982, 1990, 1993, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2010. The Bears lost to Auburn in the first round last season in Lincoln, Neb., and defeated Arkansas in 2006 for its only tournament victory.
Pepperdine is 22-6 overall and won the West Coast Conference regular season championship with a 15-1 league mark, three games ahead of San Diego, who beat the Bears 3-0 to in the second week of the season. The Waves are ranked 18th in the latest AVCA Top 25 Coaches Poll and earned the No. 15 overall seed in the 64-team NCAA field. Pepperdine boasts the WCC Coach of the Year, Player of the Year, Freshman of the Year, and four first-team all-conference performers.
Missouri State is 0-3 all-time against Pepperdine with the last meeting in 1995, 0-1 against Cal-Berkeley with the only matchup in 1983, and 3-1 against North Carolina after beating the Tar Heels 3-1 in Springfield in 2010.
