Volleyball to Take on Tufts in NCAA Tournament First Round
BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The Bridgewater State University volleyball team is staying in Massachusetts for its 12th appearance in the NCAA Division III tournament.
By Jim Fenton
BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The Bridgewater State University volleyball team is staying in Massachusetts for its 12th appearance in the NCAA Division III tournament.
After traveling to Baltimore, Md., last season to face third-ranked Johns Hopkins University, the Bears will be going just outside of Boston, Mass., to go against another nationally ranked team, Tufts University.
BSU (17-4) and the Jumbos (22-5), ranked 20th in the latest national poll, will meet in one of four games in Medford, Mass., on Thursday night at 7:00 PM.
The four winners will advance to Friday and the last game will take place on Saturday.
The team gathered at the Tinsley Center to watch the selection show before practice.
BSU earned its second straight automatic bid by winning the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament, 3-1, over Framingham State University.
The Bears lost to Johns Hopkins, 3-0, last November in the program's first NCAA game since 2008.
One of the top players for BSU are junior Lily Welch (Hanson, Mass.), who has twice been named the Most Valuable Player of the MASCAC tourney.
Tufts became the first fourth-seeded team to win the New England Small Conference Athletic Conference tournament last Saturday.
The Jumbos upset top-seeded and host Wesleyan University, 3-1, on Friday and stopped second-seeded Colby College, 3-1, on Saturday.
Wesleyan is ranked 17th in the nation while Colby is sixth.
Tufts was 7-3 in the NESCAC during the regular season to finish fourth.
Tufts has played six opponents who were nationally ranked, defeating Wesleyan twice, Colby and sixth-ranked Johns Hopkins, 3-1, while losing to Colby and MIT.
The other three games to be played at Tufts on THursday include top-ranked East Texas Baptist, which is 29-0, against Maine Maritime; Emory will face Springfield College; and Lasell goes against Kean.
The BSU-Tufts winner will advance to play either Lasell or Kean.
BSU enters the tourney on a seven-match winning streak while Tufts has six straight victories.