Courtesy: Kory Wallen, FightingSioux.com http://www.korywallen.com/ Senior Megan Langseth and the Fighting Sioux will play either South Dakota or UTPA in Friday's semifinals at the Great West Championship
GRAND
FORKS, N.D. — The
tournament bracket for the upcoming Great West Volleyball Championship was
released by league officials on Monday and the top-seeded Fighting Sioux (20-6,
11-1 GWC) will face the winner of a quarterfinal match between fourth-seeded
South Dakota and fifth-seeded Texas-Pan American.
UND’s first action of the tournament will be
a semifinal match between the Coyotes (12-15, 6-6 GWC) or Broncs (8-16, 5-7 GW) at 5:30 p.m. The two-day event
will take place at Houston Baptist’s Sharp Gym on the Huskies’ campus.
“We are excited to be the No. 1 seed and get
that bye in the opening round,” UND head coach Ashley Hardee said. “Our team
worked hard for that, but we still have more goals in front of us and we will
not under estimate anyone in this tournament.”
By virtue of winning the program’s first
regular season conference title, UND was the lone team to receive a bye in the
seven-team field. The Sioux secured that right on Saturday with a five-set
victory over South Dakota that also clinched the first perfect home record in
school history.
“The two teams we might be matched up with
in the semifinals come into the weekend playing some of their best volleyball
of the season and we are aware of that,” Hardee added. “We witnessed what South
Dakota could do in that thriller here last Saturday and UTPA has really
improved since we saw them earlier in the season.”
The other opening round games scheduled for
Friday are second-seeded Utah Valley (20-9, 10-2 GWC) vs. seventh-seeded Chicago State (0-24, 0-12 GWC) (12:30
p.m. CT). Following that match, third-seeded New Jersey Institute of Technology
(17-10, 7-5 GWC) will face the host Huskies (12-19, 3-9 GWC) at 3 p.m. The Coyotes and Broncs open the tournament
on Friday morning at 10 a.m.
The Sioux defeated both of their potential
semifinal opponents twice during the regular season. UND swept UTPA both at
home (Sept. 19) and on the road (Oct. 8) and swept South Dakota at the
DakotaDome on Oct. 15 before taking down the Coyotes in five sets on Nov. 14.
Courtesy: Kory Wallen, FightingSioux.com
