Post by Barefoot In Kailua on Nov 28, 2011 4:50:13 GMT -5
[size32]NCAA drops Duck volleyball on an island to face Colorado State in first round of the NCAA tournament[/size][/b]
Oregon will head for Honolulu to face Colorado State to start the NCAA tournament
BY CURTIS ANDERSON
The Register-Guar
The 13th-ranked Oregon volleyball team is headed to Hawaii, but it won’t be a vacation.
The Ducks (21-9) were one of seven Pac-12 teams chosen Sunday for the NCAA tournament, where they’ll face Colorado State (23-5) in a first-round match at the Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu at 7 p.m. PST Thursday. This is Oregon’s fifth postseason appearance in seven years under coach Jim Moore.
The Ducks were hoping for a top-16 seed and to host a first-round match. Instead, they face the longest road trip possible the week before final exams.
“We knew that was a possibility,” Moore said. “It’s going to be tough, but we have to make it work. ... Do we like it? No. But we have a choice. We can figure it out or handle it poorly and be coming home soon.”
The other first-round match in Honolulu pits Northern Colorado (22-8) against the host Rainbow Wahine (29-1) at 9 p.m. Hawaii finished the regular season ranked third in the American Volleyball Coaches Association top 25 poll and is the tournament’s 10th seed.
The two winners will meet Friday with the survivor advancing to the Honolulu Regional on Dec. 9-10.
Despite a Civil War split with Oregon State last week, the Ducks enter the 64-team tournament with plenty of momentum. They were 7-3 over the final 10 matches with wins over four teams ranked in the top five, including then-No. 1 UCLA.
“We’re playing very well,” Moore said. “We’re a team that people don’t want to play.”
Colorado State is no stranger to the postseason.
The Rams won their last five matches to clinch their 13th consecutive Mountain West Conference title and claim their 17th straight trip to tournament. CSU upset second-ranked Nebraska in five sets on Sept. 4 before a conference-record crowd of 6,750 fans en route to its 17th consecutive 20-win season. The Rams also swept Seattle, the only common opponent with Oregon, and Northern Colorado.
“They’re a very good team,” Moore said of Colorado State. “We’ll have to play well to beat them. Our issue is that we don’t start well, so we better learn to do that in a hurry.”
The other Pac-12 teams to earn NCAA berths were top-ranked USC (25-4), No. 4 UCLA (24-6), No. 6 Stanford (21-7), No. 10 California (26-6), No. 11 Washington (23-7) and unranked Arizona (19-12).
Moore was puzzled by the wide disparity between the coaches’ rankings in the AVCA poll, and the selection committee’s seeding, which leans heavily on the RPI.
For instance, only three conference schools were given tournament seeds — No. 7 USC, No. 9 UCLA and No. 11 Stanford — although four were ranked in the top five as recently as Nov. 14.
“When you have four Pac-12 teams ranked in the top five according to the coaches, and you only get three in the top 16 according to the committee, I’m not sure how that works,” he said. “I think it’s very odd.”
The top four NCAA seeds are No. 1 Texas, No. 2 Nebraska, No. 3 Illinois and No. 4 Iowa State.
“We can complain about the RPI,” Moore said. “We know it’s a bad formula, but how you give two of the top four seeds to Big 12 teams, I don’t understand that.”
If the Ducks advance with wins over Colorado State and, most likely, Hawaii, which Moore deemed a “monstrous task,” they could land in the same four-team Honolulu Regional as USC and California.
But at least the Ducks are in, unlike last year’s postseason snub.
“We’re in,” Moore said. “Now we have to play everybody and beat everybody.”
www.registerguard.com/web/updates/27240590-55/colorado-ncaa-state-oregon-moore.html.csp
Oregon will head for Honolulu to face Colorado State to start the NCAA tournament
BY CURTIS ANDERSON
The Register-Guar
The 13th-ranked Oregon volleyball team is headed to Hawaii, but it won’t be a vacation.
The Ducks (21-9) were one of seven Pac-12 teams chosen Sunday for the NCAA tournament, where they’ll face Colorado State (23-5) in a first-round match at the Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu at 7 p.m. PST Thursday. This is Oregon’s fifth postseason appearance in seven years under coach Jim Moore.
The Ducks were hoping for a top-16 seed and to host a first-round match. Instead, they face the longest road trip possible the week before final exams.
“We knew that was a possibility,” Moore said. “It’s going to be tough, but we have to make it work. ... Do we like it? No. But we have a choice. We can figure it out or handle it poorly and be coming home soon.”
The other first-round match in Honolulu pits Northern Colorado (22-8) against the host Rainbow Wahine (29-1) at 9 p.m. Hawaii finished the regular season ranked third in the American Volleyball Coaches Association top 25 poll and is the tournament’s 10th seed.
The two winners will meet Friday with the survivor advancing to the Honolulu Regional on Dec. 9-10.
Despite a Civil War split with Oregon State last week, the Ducks enter the 64-team tournament with plenty of momentum. They were 7-3 over the final 10 matches with wins over four teams ranked in the top five, including then-No. 1 UCLA.
“We’re playing very well,” Moore said. “We’re a team that people don’t want to play.”
Colorado State is no stranger to the postseason.
The Rams won their last five matches to clinch their 13th consecutive Mountain West Conference title and claim their 17th straight trip to tournament. CSU upset second-ranked Nebraska in five sets on Sept. 4 before a conference-record crowd of 6,750 fans en route to its 17th consecutive 20-win season. The Rams also swept Seattle, the only common opponent with Oregon, and Northern Colorado.
“They’re a very good team,” Moore said of Colorado State. “We’ll have to play well to beat them. Our issue is that we don’t start well, so we better learn to do that in a hurry.”
The other Pac-12 teams to earn NCAA berths were top-ranked USC (25-4), No. 4 UCLA (24-6), No. 6 Stanford (21-7), No. 10 California (26-6), No. 11 Washington (23-7) and unranked Arizona (19-12).
Moore was puzzled by the wide disparity between the coaches’ rankings in the AVCA poll, and the selection committee’s seeding, which leans heavily on the RPI.
For instance, only three conference schools were given tournament seeds — No. 7 USC, No. 9 UCLA and No. 11 Stanford — although four were ranked in the top five as recently as Nov. 14.
“When you have four Pac-12 teams ranked in the top five according to the coaches, and you only get three in the top 16 according to the committee, I’m not sure how that works,” he said. “I think it’s very odd.”
The top four NCAA seeds are No. 1 Texas, No. 2 Nebraska, No. 3 Illinois and No. 4 Iowa State.
“We can complain about the RPI,” Moore said. “We know it’s a bad formula, but how you give two of the top four seeds to Big 12 teams, I don’t understand that.”
If the Ducks advance with wins over Colorado State and, most likely, Hawaii, which Moore deemed a “monstrous task,” they could land in the same four-team Honolulu Regional as USC and California.
But at least the Ducks are in, unlike last year’s postseason snub.
“We’re in,” Moore said. “Now we have to play everybody and beat everybody.”
www.registerguard.com/web/updates/27240590-55/colorado-ncaa-state-oregon-moore.html.csp