Nov. 26, 2001
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - The 22nd-ranked Santa Clara University volleyball team will travel to Stanford for the first and second rounds of the 2001 NCAA Championships, marking the fourth straight postseason appearance for the Bronco program.
Santa Clara will open the tournament against San Jose State on Friday, Nov. 30 at 5 p.m., while the third-seeded Cardinal (27-2) and Nevada (17-7) will play after the conclusion of the first match, around 7 p.m. On Saturday, Dec. 1, the winners of both Friday contests will face each other at 7 p.m. All three matches will take place at Stanford's Maples Pavilion. Ticket information will be released soon.
The Broncos, 19-9 overall, earned one of 33 at-large berths after placing second in the West Coast Conference standings. Santa Clara, 2-5 all-time in the NCAA Championships, will be making the program's sixth appearance in the postseason. The Broncos advanced to the second round in 1999 and 2000.
San Jose State is 24-7 on the season and earned an at-large bid after placing second in the Western Athletic Conference Tournament. The Spartans hosted SCU earlier in the season, falling to the Broncos in three games. In fact, Santa Clara has faced 12 of the 64 teams selected by the NCAA and went 5-7 in those matches, although five of those losses went to the top nine teams in the tournament.
Of the 64 teams selected, 13 are from the West Coast with Santa Clara, Stanford and San Jose State as the three Bay Area teams selected. Additionally, West Coast Conference opponents Pepperdine and San Diego were placed in the draw. The top eight seeds are Long Beach State, Nebraska, Stanford, USC, Arizona, Wisconsin, Pepperdine and UCLA.
Additionally, due to the September 11 tragedies and out of concern for the welfare of student-athletes, the NCAA Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet and Management Council recommended adjustments to seeding, site selection and pairings for the 2001 Division I fall championships. The described changes were implemented in order to minimize air travel and mitigate risk, inconvenience and travel delays to the greatest extent possible. Therefore, team pairings were determined by geographical proximity, with the exception that teams from the same conference were not paired during the first round.
The winner of the regional will advance to the regional semifinal to face one of four teams, with date, location and time to be determined: Utah State (18-11), Brigham Young (20-8), Texas Tech (18-13) or Utah (23-6). Regional semifinals and finals will be held December 6-9. The 2001 Final Four will be held December 13 and 15 at Cox Arena and Aztec Bowl, hosted by San Diego State University.