Top-seeded Sioux to face winner of South Dakota-UTPA in Great West semifinals

Women's Volleyball Ryan Powell, UND Media Relations

Top-seeded Sioux to face winner of South Dakota-UTPA in Great West semifinals

GRAND FORKS, N.D. — The tournament bracket for the upcoming Great West Volleyball Championship was released by league officials on Monday and the top-seeded Fighting Sioux (20-6, 11-1 GWC) will face the winner of a quarterfinal match between fourth-seeded South Dakota and fifth-seeded Texas-Pan American.

UND's first action of the tournament will be a semifinal match between the Coyotes (12-15, 6-6 GWC) or Broncs (8-16, 5-7 GW) at 5:30 p.m. The two-day event will take place at Houston Baptist's Sharp Gym on the Huskies' campus.

“We are excited to be the No. 1 seed and get that bye in the opening round,” UND head coach Ashley Hardee said. “Our team worked hard for that, but we still have more goals in front of us and we will not under estimate anyone in this tournament.”

By virtue of winning the program's first regular season conference title, UND was the lone team to receive a bye in the seven-team field. The Sioux secured that right on Saturday with a five-set victory over South Dakota that also clinched the first perfect home record in school history.

“The two teams we might be matched up with in the semifinals come into the weekend playing some of their best volleyball of the season and we are aware of that,” Hardee added. “We witnessed what South Dakota could do in that thriller here last Saturday and UTPA has really improved since we saw them earlier in the season.”

The other opening round games scheduled for Friday are second-seeded Utah Valley (20-9, 10-2 GWC) vs. seventh-seeded Chicago State (0-24, 0-12 GWC) (12:30 p.m. CT). Following that match, third-seeded New Jersey Institute of Technology  (17-10, 7-5 GWC) will face the host Huskies (12-19, 3-9 GWC) at 3 p.m. The Coyotes and Broncs open the tournament on Friday morning at 10 a.m.

The Sioux defeated both of their potential semifinal opponents twice during the regular season. UND swept UTPA both at home (Sept. 19) and on the road (Oct. 8) and swept South Dakota at the DakotaDome on Oct. 15 before taking down the Coyotes in five sets on Nov. 14.
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