Despite failing to defend its Mountain West Conference Tournament title after being knocked out Friday in a loss to Utah, the Colorado State women’s volleyball team earned a top seed in the NCAA Tournament when the bracket was announced Sunday.
The Rams (22-7) gained the No. 14 seed and will play in the University Park (Pa.) Regional. CSU opens against Illinois State (21-11) on Friday in Ann Arbor, Mich. The winner will face Michigan (22-10) or Miami (Ohio) (20-10) on Saturday.
It will be the Rams’ 13th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance.
“I am very surprised that we are nationally seeded,” coach Tom Hilbert said. “Losing three of the last eight put us in a tough position for a seed; it shows that the NCAA obviously has a lot of respect for this program. It speaks to what we were able to accomplish in the middle of the season.”
UNLV (24-5) earned the Mountain West’s automatic berth after topping Utah in five games on Saturday, winning 24-30, 33-31, 30-17, 21-30, 15-12. It will be UNLV’s first trip to the national tournament.
Stanford (27-2) earned the tournament’s top seed. No. 3 Penn State (28-2) is the top-seeded team in the University Park Region.
Orediggers bury J&W. The Colorado Mines women’s basketball team routed Johnson & Wales 85-61 in a nonconference game at Lockridge Arena in Golden.
Blakelee Midyett paced the Orediggers (2-2) with 11 points and Brecca Gaffney added 10 points, five rebounds and three steals. Brooke Durant had 23 points for Johnson & Wales (0-7).
