INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – On Sunday night, eighth-ranked Concordia-St. Paul earned a spot as the fourth seed in the Central Region Tournament as the NCAA released the 2018 NCAA Division II Volleyball Tournament bracket. CSP will face seventh-ranked and fifth-seeded Southwest Minnesota State in the first round.
The Golden Bears, along with the rest of the field, will travel to Kearney, Neb. as Nebraska-Kearney was named the top seed and host of the tournament. CSP traveled to Marshall, Minn. last season en route to claiming the region crown. Concordia's lone previous trip to UNK for the NCAA Central Region Tournament came during the Golden Bears' run to their then-fifth consecutive national title in 2011.
CSP dropped from second in the final region rankings to fourth after being knocked out of the NSIC Tournament by Wayne State in the opening round on Tuesday at Gangelhoff Center. CSP had been ranked #1 in the first two region rankings.
The Golden Bears have made it into the NCAA Tournament field in all 16 seasons under head coach
Brady Starkey and have won 11 Central Region titles during that span. CSP has gone 67-6 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and has collected nine NCAA Division II National Championships, with seven in a row from 2007-14 before claiming the last two.
The tournament field includes four NSIC schools as well as three teams from the MIAA and the automatic qualifier from the GAC. Concordia and SMSU are joined by second-seeded Minnesota Duluth and sixth-seeded Northern State to represent the Northern Sun.
Nebraska-Kearney earned the automatic bid in the MIAA by winning their conference tournament and locking up the top seed in the NCAA regional. Along with UNK, third-seeded Washburn and seventh-seeded Central Missouri make the field from the MIAA. Rounding out the field is Harding as the Lady Bisons won the GAC Tournament title in four sets over Henderson State to claim the automatic bid as the eighth seed. Seven of the eight schools currently rank inside the top-11 in the AVCA Poll with Harding the lone team not in the top-25.
Concordia's meeting with SMSU marks the 64
th meeting all-time between the two schools with CSP holding a 36-26-1 edge in the previous 63 meetings. The Golden Bears are 3-1 all-time in the NCAA Tournament against the Mustangs and lead the season series 2-1 this year.
2018 NCAA Central Region Tournament quarterfinal pairings
Quarterfinals, Thursday, November 15 – Kearney, Neb. (Health & Sports Center)
12:00 p.m. - No. 3 Washburn (29-4) vs. No. 6 Northern State (26-4)
2:30 p.m. - No. 2 Minnesota Duluth (27-5) vs. No. 7 Central Missouri (25-7)
5:00 p.m. - No. 4 Concordia-St. Paul (22-8) vs. No. 5 Southwest Minnesota State (23-8)
7:30 p.m. - No. 1 Nebraska-Kearney (33-2) vs. No. 8 Harding (25-7)
Semifinals, Friday, December 16 - Kearney, Neb. (Health & Sports Center)
5:00 p.m. - UMD/UCM winner vs WU/NSU winner
7:30 p.m. - UNK/HU winner vs CSP/SMSU winner
Championship, Saturday, December 17 - Kearney, Neb. (Health & Sports Center)
6:00 p.m. - Semifinal winners
