Louisville Claims Bid to 2004 NCAA Volleyball Tournament

Lena Ustymenko

Louisville earned a berth to the 2004 NCAA Volleyball Tournament, as announced Sunday night on ESPNews. The Cardinals (28-2), who remained undefeated through league action (13-0) to claim the 2004 Conference USA regular season title, will meet Illinois (19-10) on Friday, Dec. 3 at the Hearnes Center in Columbia, Mo. The winner will advance to face either Arkansas or Missouri the following evening.

The NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Committee announced the 64-team field, consisting of 31 conferences’ automatic qualifications and 33 at-large selections. The Big Ten and Big 12 led all conferences with seven teams selected. Two conferences landed six teams including the Big West and Pacific-10. Four teams Pacific, Penn State, Stanford and UC Santa Barbara have earned bids to all 24 championships. Eight teams are making their initial appearances in the tournament: Albany (New York), Iona, Jacksonville, Long Island, Rice, Towson, Wichita State and Yale.

The first- and second-round matches will be played at 16 different campus sites from Dec 2-5. Regionals will be held Dec. 10-11. If the Cardinals advance through the first two rounds, Louisville will host one of the four pre-determined regional sites; Louisville, Ky, Minneapolis, Minn., Seattle, Wash., Green Bay, Wis. The regional winners will advance to the semifinals and championship match hosted by Long Beach State University at Long Beach Arena on Dec. 16 and 18.

Louisville tallied its second undefeated conference season in school history en route to making its 15th NCAA Tournament appearance. Illinois faced U of L last year in the second round of the NCAA tournament in Champaign, Ill. knocking the Cards out of the tourney, 3-0. Louisville advanced to the Sweet 16 in 1996 and 1998.

This is the first year C-USA has only had one team in the NCAA Tournament, but the league has produced 26 NCAA teams in its first ten years.