SCSU Volleyball Team Clinches First-Ever NCAA Tournament Berth

NEW HAVEN, CT — The historic 2017 season will continue for the Southern Connecticut State University volleyball team, as the Owls learned Monday night that they have earned a berth in the NCAA Tournament field. The Owls were awarded an at-large bid into the field and will play New York Tech in the opening round. This is the first NCAA bid in program history.

The Owls are the No. 5 seed for next week's action, which will be played at the host school and top seed, the University of New Haven. Southern Connecticut enters the NCAA Tournament with a 23-10 mark. NYIT is the No. 4 seed. The action will kick off on either Nov. 30 or Dec. 1.

SCSU secured an at-large spot in the NCAA's with a run to the finals of the Northeast-10 Conference Tournament last week. The NE10 final appearance was also the first in program history, and had the Owls had been eliminated in the semifinals in two of their previous three appearances.

Southern knocked off American International for the second time this year in the quarterfinal round (No. 5 in last week's rankings) and Saint Anselm in the semifinals (No. 6 in last week's rankings) to reach the finals, before dropping a five-set match to New Haven (No. 2 in last week's rankings). All three of those teams were selected for the NCAA field as well.

This will be the second meeting of the year between SCSU and NYIT. The teams played a thrilling five-set match on Sept. 30 at SCSU, with the Owls winning, 3-2. The Bears have an 11-3 edge in the all-time series.

Photo via SCSU Athletics