Miami Volleyball Headed to NCAA Tournament
Nov. 28, 2010
Complete 2010 NCAA Volleyball Tournament Bracket (PDF) 
Coral Gables, Fla. – The University of Miami volleyball team was selected to the Dayton [Ohio] Regional of this year’s 2010 NCAA Tournament, announced Sun., Nov. 28, as part of the NCAA Volleyball Tournament Selection Show on ESPNews. UM opens the tournament with the University of Indiana on Fri., Dec. 3, in Bloomington, Ind.
Miami (23-8) will open this year’s tournament run with a four-team field set to be host by the University of Indiana in Bloomington. The matches will take place at University Gym on the IU campus, but match times for the event have yet to be determined. The winner from the two-day Bloomington site will then travel to Dayton, Ohio for the “Sweet 16” in the Dayton Regional on Dec. 10-11.
Joining the `Canes and Hoosiers in this year’s Bloomington, Ind. matches are the University of Tennessee (No. 11 overall seed) out of the Southeastern Conference, and Alabama A&M as winners of the Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament. The winner of Miami vs. Indiana will meet the winner of Tennessee/Alabama A&M on Sat., Dec. 4.
UM finished the regular season winning five consecutive Atlantic Coast Conference matches to end the year 13-7, finishing in third place in the final league standings. Overall, the Hurricanes concluded the regular season winning seven of their last eight matches. Miami is currently ranked No. 24 in the RPI polls for strength of schedule.
Under the direction of 10th-year head coach Nicole Lantagne Welch, the `Canes will be making their third trip to the NCAA Tournament since bringing back the program in 2001, and their second tournament appearance in as many years. Last season, Miami earned an at-large bid before travelling to the Gainesville [Fla.] Regional where they would meet cross-town opponent FIU.
Thirty-one conferences were awarded automatic qualification in this year’s field, and the remaining 33 slots were filled with at-large selections to complete the bracket. The top 16 teams were seeded nationally and placed within four regions. The teams tabbed as the top four seeds were No. 1 University of Florida; No. 2 University of Nebraska; No. 3 Stanford University; and No. 4 Penn State University.
A total of five teams advanced to this field of 64 from the ACC, including Florida State (vs. Georgia Southern – Dec. 3) in Gainesville, Fla.; Duke (vs. High Point – Dec. 3) in Durham, N.C.; Virginia Tech (vs. Delaware – Dec. 3) in University Park, Pa.; and North Carolina (vs. Ole Miss – Dec. 3) in Berkeley, Calif.
The established bracketing principles of non-conference first- and second-round matchups were followed and team pairings were determined by geographical proximity.
In the 29-year history of the championship, 10 schools have been crowned champion, nine of which are in this year’s bracket, including three-time defending champion Penn State.
Additional past winners making the field are Stanford (1992, `94, `96, `97, 2001, `04), University of Hawai’i, Manoa (1982, `83, `87), Long Beach State (1989, `93, `98), UCLA (1984, `90, `91), Nebraska (1995, 2000, and `06), University of Southern California (1981, 2002, `03), Penn State (1999, 2007, `08, `09), Texas (1988) and Washington (2005).
First- and second-round matches will be played at 16 campus sites.
For ticket information and times for the Daytona [Ohio] Regional with matches played in Bloomington, Ind., please stay tuned to HurricaneSports.com, or log on to www.IUHoosiers.com.
For more information on the University of Miami volleyball team, please log on to www.hurricanesports.com. Once there, you will find up-to-date news, stats and information regarding the Hurricanes volleyball program.
You can keep up-to-date with all UM Athletics via twitter at Twitter.com/HurricaneSports. You can also become a fan of the ‘Canes on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/miamihurricanes.
