NJCAA WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL DIVISION II TOURNAMENT
(at Charleston, W. Va., Civic Center, Nov. 15-17)
First round matches (Nov. 15)
No. 16 Mercyhurst North East vs. No. 1 Coffeyville
No. 9 North Dakota SCS vs. No. 8 Northeast
No. 13 Moraine Valley vs. No. 4 South Mountain
No. 12 Carl Sandburg vs. No. 5 Kirkwood
No. 15 Northern Virginia vs. No. 2 Parkland
No. 10 CATAWBA VALLEY vs. No. 7 Grand Rapids, 11 a.m.
No. 14 Oakland vs. No. 3 Johnson County
No. 11 Lake Sumter State vs. No. 6 Lincoln Land
HobbsDailyReport.com
HICKORY – Catawba Valley Community College (CVCC) will be the No. 10 seed in next week’s National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division II women’s volleyball national tournament.
The three-day tournament — scheduled Nov. 15-17 at the Charleston (W. Va.) Civic Center announced seeds and pairings on Tuesday.
CVCC (33-9) opens against No. 7 Grand Rapids Community College (29-6, Region XII/District 7 champion) on Nov. 15 at 11 a.m.
HUDSON
“We kind of figured we would fall somewhere around 9, 10 or 11 (seed),” CVCC head coach Shannon Hudson said in a CVCC press release. “It’ll be fun to play against (Grand Rapids head coach) Chip (Will) first. We’ve played against his teams in several national tournaments. We usually see him in Ohio.
“It’s always great competition. It should be a really good match. We are excited to get to go and face them in the national tournament this year. It’ll be nice.”
It will be the Red Hawks’ first match against the Warriors in a national tournament since 2013-14, when Grand Rapids won a five-set match that gave CVCC its first loss.
Both teams played in the Owens Express Invitational in Perrysburg, Ohio earlier this season.
“We’ve played them in the past, and we did see them this year,” Hudson said of the Warriors. “It’s definitely something that we’re going to dig into and find out a little bit more about. It should be great competition for sure.”
Having played against three of the teams in the national tournament and watching a handful of others play in tournaments CVCC was involved in, Hudson said that could prove to be beneficial next week.
“It helps a ton just having played national championship caliber teams all year long,” she said. “It’s a huge advantage.
“It’s something we started doing five or six years ago in the program. We knew we had to travel around the country a little to face these types of teams and get out of our area.
“It’s definitely an advantage. The girls are going into the tournament knowing that they can compete with these teams.”
The winner of the CVCC-Grand Rapids match will likely have a second-round match with No. 2 seed Parkland College, a three-time national champion that has finished in the top three seven times in 13 trips.
Despite that potential match looming, Hudson is 100 percent focused on her team’s match with Grand Rapids.
“We are definitely going to try to get past that first game first,” she said. “Yeah, we will look ahead as a coaching staff especially and prepare for our next matches, but for the team we’re going to focus on playing our game and doing our best. That’s all we can expect them to do at this point.”
Hudson does not see being a No. 10 seed in a 16-school field as being an underdog.
“We’ve got a really young team this year,” she said. “I think for us it’s just a building block for next season. Do we have a chance to win it this year? Sure. I think any of the top teams do depending on how well you play in any given match, but I think the big advantage for us is we have most of our team coming back next year.
“For them to go and get the experience this year and build on that coming into next fall is a tremendous advantage.”
— Reported by CVCC Sports Information