, Calif. ­Â— The Pepperdine women’s volleyball team learned tonight that it will meet Long Beach State in the first round of the 2008 NCAA Tournament. The match is Friday (Dec. 5) in Palo Alto, Calif.
The Waves (20-7) will square off with the 49ers (25-5), who won the Big West Conference title, at 4:30 p.m. in Maples Pavilion. Host Stanford (26-3), the #2 national seed and the Pacific-10 Conference champions, will face Albany (23-8) in the second match at 7 p.m. The winners will play on Saturday (Dec. 6) at 7 p.m.
During the NCAA Selection Show on ESPNU, the Waves’ four-team bracket was the final one of the 16 to be announced.
“I was panicking a bit,” Pepperdine Coach Nina Matthies said. “They were down to the last bracket, you’re trying to think about who’s in and who’s not, but they were going through the teams so quickly. I’m just happy that our name was called. Long Beach State always has a great team, very physical, very well-coached. They play very well at home so I’m happy that we’re playing them on a neutral site. But it really didn’t matter to us who we were playing, I’m just happy that we’re in.”
Pepperdine and Long Beach State last met in the first round of the 2006 NCAA Tournament. The 49ers won in four sets in Long Beach. The only other time these two schools have met in the postseason was in the consolation final of the 1977 AIAW Championships, a three-set victory by the Waves.
These four teams are part of the Fort Collins Region. The team that comes out of Palo Alto will play in Fort Collins, Colo., on Dec. 12-13.
Pepperdine is making its 20th NCAA Tournament appearance, its 11th in the last 12 years and its fourth in a row. The Waves have a 14-19 record in the tournament, and their best result was a trip to the Elite Eight in 2002. The Waves reached the Sweet 16 as recently as 2005. Pepperdine lost in the first round in both 2006 and 2007.
The Waves tied for fourth place in the West Coast Conference, and the WCC got five schools into the tournament: San Diego, San Francisco, Saint Mary’s, Santa Clara and Pepperdine.
