Oregon volleyball is a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
The Ducks (26-5) are the No. 2 seed in the 64-team field and will host Southeastern Louisiana (28-4) in the first round on Thursday (7 p.m.) at Matthew Knight Arena.
“This is only the second time in program history that we’re a 2 seed in the tournament; I think 2012 was the only other year,” Oregon coach Matt Ulmer said. “Hosting back-to-back years feels really great. It’s something that I hope that this group has raised the standard of the program as, this is going to be what we’re shooting for every year is to always host NCAA playoff games and trying to host as many as we can.
“This group has done an amazing job and I’m really excited for them to be playing their best volleyball this time of year and be able to play at Matthew Knight Arena a little bit longer.”
No. 7 seed Iowa State (20-9) will face Hawaii (23-8) in the other matchup at 4 p.m. Thursday in Eugene, which will serve as a host site for the first two rounds, with the winners playing in the second round at 7 p.m. Friday.
Southeastern Louisiana associate head coach Collin Wilson, who is from Portland, was a volunteer assistant with Oregon’s beach volleyball team in fall 2020. Besides his connection, Ulmer didn’t have much knowledge of the Lions or Iowa State, but UO defeated Hawaii in three sets earlier this season in Honolulu.
“Southeast Louisiana has a great record; their offense and defense hitting numbers are really impressive,” Ulmer said. “They look like a very aggressive serving team. I think we have our work cut out for us and we’re excited that we get to play them here as opposed to going there. If we take care of that, then we’re fortunate enough to game plan for the next one. ...
“Iowa State, I haven’t seen them play much this year but their coach (Christy Johnson-Lynch) is one of the best out there and they’re always good. Hawaii obviously we played earlier this year and we’ve watched them a lot so we know what they’re capable of. It’s a great quad; I think it’s going to be really high competition and I’m excited for our fans to be able to witness it.”
Oregon was 10th in average attendance (3,355) this season, one of 15 teams to average over 3,000.
Wisconsin (26-3) is the top seed in UO’s bracket and will also serve as host in the regional semifinals and finals on Dec. 7 and 9, respectively. Purdue is the No. 3 seed, Kansas is the No. 4 seed, Penn State is No. 5, Marquette is No. 6 and Northern Iowa is No. 8 in the same bracket.
“I think our preseason set us up to have a little taste of what that might be like later on,” senior middle Karson Bacon said. “I feel like with that preparation where we are in the bracket right now is a really good position to be in. I feel like there’s going to be a lot of games that are going to be tough, but I know that we’ve prepared ourselves enough up to this point to handle those challenges.”
The national semifinals and national championship will be played at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida on Dec. 14 and 17, respectively.