Bulldogs Ready for Big South Women’s Volleyball Tournament

TOURNAMENT PREVIEW

First Round Matchup:

#6 seed UNC Asheville (12-15, 6-10 BSC) vs.

#3 seed High Point University (20-9, 11-5 BSC)

Location: The Vines Center at Liberty University, Lynchburg, Va.

Time: Friday, Nov. 18, 7 p.m.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – After winning the final slot in the Big South Championship Volleyball Tournament in the last match of the regular season, the #6-seed UNC Asheville Bulldogs will try to carry that momentum into the tournament's opening round when they face the #3-seed High Point Panthers. The match takes place at 7 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 18 in the Vines Center on the campus of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. The winner of the match will face #2-seed Liberty at 7 p.m. on Saturday.

NOTABLES

Last Time Out: The Bulldogs defeated a Winthrop team riding a 6-match winning streak and playing at home with a conference tournament berth at stake. After dropping the first set, UNC Asheville rallied to take the last three sets, led by Cara Guthrie with 17 kills.

When a Tie is a Win: With the victory at Winthrop, the Bulldogs pulled even with the Eagles and the teams finished with identical 6-10 conference records. But because Asheville won both matches between the two teams, the Bulldogs gained the sixth and last conference tournament berth on the strength of the head-to-head tiebreaker.

Bulldogs vs. Panthers: UNC Asheville and High Point split their two matches this season, with each team winning in straight sets at home. The Panthers finished the regular season strong, with home victories over Gardner-Webb and Presbyterian. Sophomore Jordan Hefner had 11 blocks against Gardner-Webb and seven more against Presbyterian and was named Big South Defensive Player of the Week.

The Tournament: Only the top six teams qualify for the Big South Conference Championship Tournament in women's volleyball, which is a single-elimination affair with the two top seeds receiving byes in the first round. On Friday, in addition to the Bulldog/Panther match, the four and five seeds – Campbell and Charleston Southern – will square off. On Saturday, the winner of that match will face top-seeded Radford while the winner between UNC Asheville and High point will take on #2-seed Liberty. The championship match takes place at 4 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 20.

QUOTABLES

"It has been an amazing year for our team. We have improved greatly during the course of this season and this has been a continuous process in which every player has pushed the limits of each other in the gym. This is a tournament where every team has a chance to win and we are no different or outsiders. We are contenders."-Head Coach Frederico Santos

FOR LIVE STREAMING AND MORE TOURNAMENT INFO

Live video streaming of the first two rounds will be provided by the Big South Network. For complete information on the tournament and links to brackets and the live stream, visit the Big South Conference website:

http://bigsouthsports.com/tournaments/?id=3

The championship match takes place at 4 p.m. on Sunday will be carried live on ESPN3:

http://www.espn.com/watchespn/player/_/source/espn3/