AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Texas volleyball team will host the opening two rounds of the NCAA volleyball tournament Thursday and Friday.
The Longhorns were awarded a No. 3 seed in the 64-team tournament and will open against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in Gregory Gym. UT Arlington and sixth-seeded Southern California will play at 4 p.m. with the winners meeting Friday at 6:30 p.m. for a spot in the Sweet 16.
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The Longhorns finished 13-3 in Southeastern Conference play, a match behind Kentucky for the conference title, and are the back-to-back defending national champions.
“This is always the fun time of year. It’s what we’ve been working toward the past 340 days,” Longhorns head coach Jerritt Elliott said. “Looking at the bracket and all of these teams popping up, there are so many good teams. This might be the strongest field we’ve ever seen. It should be a really good tournament.”
The top seed in Texas’ portion of the bracket is Penn State followed by Creighton at No. 2. Utah is seeded No. 4 with Marquette at No. 5. Florida State is No. 7 and North Carolina rounds out the seeded teams at No. 8. Pittsburgh, Nebraska and Louisville joined the Nittany Lions as top seeds in their respective quadrants.
Texas A&M earned a No. 6 seed in the Nebraska quadrant and will play Colorado State in the first round in Tempe, Arizona. The Arizona State Sun Devils, seeded third, host the first and second round matches.
Texas State earned the Sun Belt Conference’s automatic bid to the tournament and is on the road to start, facing off against seventh-seeded Missouri in the Pittsburgh quadrant. Southern Methodist is the No. 2 seed and will host the Bobcats, along with Wichita State and the Tigers.
Skinner, Singletary named 1st team all-SEC
Madisen Skinner and Marianna Singletary were named to the all-SEC first team to lead the Longhorns on the postseason award lists.
Skinner finished ninth in the SEC with 4.14 kills per set and 4.65 points per set. Singletary was a force at the net, tying for the top set in the SEC with 1.47 blocks per set and 10th in hitting percentage at .356.
Reagan Rutherford was named to the second team and Ayden Ames was tabbed on the all-freshman team.