The NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Committee announced the 64-team field for the 2008 NCAA Tournament today and Long Beach State drew nationally-ranked Pepperdine in a first round matchup in Palo Alto, Calif. Host Stanford, the No. 2 national seed, will face Albany as part of the Fort Collins, Colo., Regional.
Overall, thirty-one conferences were awarded automatic qualification, and the remaining 33 slots were filled with at-large selections to complete the bracket. The top 16 teams were seeded nationally and placed within four regions. The teams tabbed as the top four seeds were No. 1 Pennsylvania State University; No. 2 Stanford University; No. 3 University of Texas at Austin; and No. 4 University of Nebraska, Lincoln.
Long Beach State advances to its 22nd consecutive NCAA Tournament, 23rd overall, after clinching its ninth Big West title with a 13-3 record to secure the conference's automatic qualifier. Along with their league-high ninth conference title, the 49ers also posted their fifth-straight 20-plus win season with an impressive 25-5 mark.
Winning the previous 12 meetings against the Waves, including a 3-1 decision in the 2006 NCAA Tournament, Long Beach State leads the tightly-contested series with a16-15-1 record. Pepperdine (20-7), who finished fourth in the West Coast Conference with an 8-6 mark, advances to the NCAA Tournament as an at-large selection. The 49ers and Waves take to the court Friday at 4:30 p.m., with the winner advancing to the second round to face the winner of the Stanford-Albany match, which is slated for Saturday at 7:00 p.m. Stanford (26-3) posted a 17-1 record to claim its third consecutive Pac-10 championship and Albany (23-8) won its third-straight America East Conference championship title this season.
Long Beach State, who enters this weekend's action winning 11 of the last 12 contests, holds an impressive 47-19 NCAA record and has earned three national championships (1989, 1993, 1998) and two national champion runner-ups (1991, 2001).
Led by Brittney Herzog and Naomi Washington, who sit two-three in the Big West Conference, Long Beach State paces the conference with a .255 hitting percentage. Along with Herzog and Washington, Long Beach State also relies on senior leadership from All-Big West First Team members setter Nicole Vargas and outside hitter Quincy Verdin. The 2008 Big West Freshman of the Year, Caitlin Ledoux, has also made her presence felt as she paces the team with a 3.21 kill average to rank 10th in the conference.
This marks the first time the Big West Conference has not received multiple selections into the NCAA Tournament.