NEW YORK – BIG EAST Volleyball Champion Creighton and runner-up Marquette will both continue their seasons in the 2018 NCAA Volleyball Tournament. The No. 9 national seed Bluejays are making their seventh straight appearance and will host for the third time in program history. Marquette will be dancing for their eighth straight season and have garnered the No. 14 national seed. Creighton (28-4, 18-0 BIG EAST) welcomes South Dakota (21-9) on Friday at 7 p.m. ET, while Marquette (26-6, 15-2) will host High Point (21-9) on Friday at 8 p.m. ET.
Creighton will look to keep their season alive by winning their 21
st straight match of the season. The Bluejays have not lost since dropping a four-setter to No. 3 national seed Illinois on Sept. 15. Over the weekend, Creighton captured its fifth consecutive BIG EAST Volleyball Championship title with a four-set win over Marquette. Last year, the Bluejays defeated Coastal Carolina 3-1 in the NCAA first round. They were upended by Michigan State in the second round in four sets. The winner of the Creighton/South Dakota match-up will meet the winner of Friday's 4:30 p.m. ET match between Saint Mary's (19-9) and Washington (18-12). Saturday's Second Round contest takes place at 8 p.m. ET.
Marquette will host for the first time in program history as a national seed. The Golden Eagles will look to bounce back after a tough 3-1 loss to Creighton in the BIG EAST Final. Three of Marquette’s six losses this season have come at the hands of the Bluejays. In last season’s NCAA Tournament, the Golden Eagles fell 3-0 in the first round to Wisconsin. Cincinnati (25-7) and Illinois State (25-7) will face each other first on Friday at 5:30 p.m. ET at the Al McGuire Center. The winner of each contest will advance to the second round, which will take place on Saturday at 8 p.m. ET.
St. John’s season will also continue with its first-ever bid to the NIVC (National Invitational Volleyball Championship). This is the first time since 2007 that the Red Storm (23-11, 12-6) will participate in the national postseason for volleyball. They made it all the way to the NCAA regional semifinal where they fell to Southern California in five sets. St. John’s defeated LIU and Delaware in the first and second rounds, respectively. In the 2018 NIVC tournament, the Red Storm will take on Charleston (21-11) in the first round on the campus of Georgia Tech in Atlanta. The match is set for Thursday at 4 p.m. ET. The winner of the St. John's/Charleston match will take on either Georgia Tech or South Florida on Friday in Atlanta.
2018 NCAA Volleyball Tournament
Stanford earned the top seed, followed by Minnesota as the second seed. Illinois earned the No. 3 seed, while BYU is the fourth seed. The top 16 teams were seeded nationally and placed within four regions. Per the established bracketing principles, the top 16 seeds were provided the opportunity to host. Additionally, team pairings were determined by geographic proximity, with the exception that teams from the same conference were not paired during the first- and second-rounds.
First- and second-round matches will be played Nov. 29 through Dec. 1 at 16 campus sites. Teams winning both matches will move on to regional play Dec. 7 and 8. Regionals for the NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship will be held at four non-predetermined campus sites, which will be announced after play concludes, on Dec. 1. At each site, four teams will compete in single-elimination regional semifinal competition.
The regional winners will advance to the national semifinals and championship final hosted by Minnesota on Dec. 13 and 15 at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The national semifinal matches will broadcast on ESPN and the championship match will broadcast on ESPN2.
2018 NIVC Tournament
The National Invitational Volleyball Championship will be an annual tournament involving 32 to 40 of the nation's top women's Division I Volleyball teams. All games, including the semifinals and championship, are hosted by participating schools. Every round is single elimination.
Eight teams host Rounds 1 & 2 in 4 to 5 team pods; single matches in Rounds 3-5. The championship game will be webcast. The event offers 32 automatic berths, one to each established conference. The first round will kick off Thursday, Nov. 29, with the event culminating on Tuesday, Dec. 11 with the championship.