Spartan Volleyball To Face Utah In NCAA Tournament First Round

Nov. 26, 2006

EAST LANSING, Mich. - .

NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship Site
NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship Bracket
UCLA Athletics Website
Utah Athletics Website
UAB Athletics Website

The Michigan State volleyball team has been selected to the 64-team NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship field for the 11th time in school history. State (19-11, 10-10 Big Ten) received an at-large bid to postseason play and will travel to the campus of UCLA to face unseeded Utah (27-3, 16-0 Mountain West) in the first round on Dec. 1 at 8:30 p.m. ET. UCLA (29-3) received the No. 4 seed and will face UAB (27-9) in first-round play.

"It's a huge accomplishment to be selected to the NCAA Tournament," Spartan head coach Cathy George said. "I think this team has really worked hard throughout the year. We've changed so many things throughout the course of the year, and some of the teams that we lost to last season, we've turned it around with victories. The entire team has really worked hard to put us in this position."

Michigan State enters the 2006 NCAA Tournament after failing to qualify during the 2004 and 2005 seasons. Prior to its two-year hiatus from the national stage, MSU made 10 consecutive appearances in postseason play (1994-2003), including one appearance in the national semifinal (1995) and two appearances in the regional round (1996, 2002). The Spartans have posted impressive wins in tournament play, defeating San Diego State and host Hawaii in the regional semifinal and final rounds in 1995, and defeating Notre Dame, a yearly contender on the national stage, in consecutive seasons (2001-02). The Spartans are 11-10 all-time in the NCAA tournament. No current Spartans have postseason experience, as Jessica Hohl, Katie Johnson, and Miken Trogdon all utilized their redshirt year during the 2003 campaign.

The Spartans have played Utah twice, with the series tied 1-1. The two teams met for the first time during the 1979 season at the UCLA National Invitational Tournament, where Utah claimed a 2-0 victory over MSU with scores of 15-4 and 15-12. The most recent meeting between the two schools was during the 1998 Michigan State Invitational, where MSU swept Utah by scores of 15-2, 15-9, and 16-14 en route to the tournament title. Michigan State has never faced UAB, while UCLA holds a 4-0 record in the all-time series with the Spartans. The 2006 postseason bid marks the second time MSU will travel to the campus of UCLA for first- and second-round play. The Bruins ended the 2000 Spartan postseason run with a 3-2 win in the second round.

For ticket information, contact the UCLA box office at 310-206-5991 or visit the UCLA Web site at uclabruins.com.