Spartans Earn At-Large NCAA Bid; Off to Stanford
11/30/2014 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
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East Lansing, Michigan - - Michigan State has earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, and will play Loyola-Marymount in the first round on Friday, Dec 5 at Stanford. The Spartans are making their fourth straight NCAA Tournament appearance, and bring a five-game winning streak to Palo Alto next weekend. The Spartans finished the regular season with a 18-13 overall record, and were 11-9 in the Big Ten Conference.
"We're thrilled, obviously and excited to continue our season," said head coach Cathy George. "We're looking forward to the challenge ahead, representing Michigan State and the Big Ten Conference in the NCAA Tournament."
Loyola Marymount went 23-7 on the season, and compiled an 11-7 record in the West Coast Conference, falling to No. 12 BYU in the season finale. CSU-Bakersfield, champions of the Western Athletic Conference, will take on the host Cardinal, which earned the overall No. 1 seed in the field with a 29-1 record. The team to emerge from the first and second rounds in Palo Alto will advance to the regional in Ames, Iowa the following weekend.
The 64-team field was unveiled on Sunday evening on ESPN U; the Big Ten sent six teams into the field overall, the second-most of any conference behind leader Pac-12 (10). In addition to its five Big Ten opponents, seven of MSU's 11 non-conference opponents were selected into the field: Duke, North Carolina, Oregon, Oregon State, LIU-Brooklyn, Western Kentucky, and Samford. In the most recent ranking, MSU's strength of schedule ranked 12th in the country.
MSU is making its 17th NCAA Tournament appearance, and earned its fourth consecutive at-large bid to the Championship, the second-longest in school history. MSU made it to the second round in 2011, and advanced to the Sweet 16 in each of the last two seasons. MSU made ten consecutive NCAA Tournament fields from 1994-2003, and is making its seventh appearance in the ten-year tenure of current coach Cathy George.